Road Finds

Yesterday we continued to descend through the mountains and covered the first 20 miles to West Glacier fairly easily. It was chilly and the descent made the temperature seem even lower. Since West Glacier is at the western entrance to Glacier National Park I had hoped that it would be very touristy and might offer a fudge shop. We did not find a fudge shop but there was a coffee shop and we indulged in large portions of French toast (Mike) and pancakes (me).

For the first time in many days we left Highway 2. Mike was amazed that there were turns to make, we haven't been off the highway in a while. The route took us onto some quiet backroads with spectacular scenery. We've really been enjoying seeing mountains after the plains of North Dakota and eastern Montana. At a break in Columbia Falls we found a large train in a park and climbed around on that for a while. Finally we continued on to Whitefish, which was our final stop for the day. The mom of one of Mike's high school friends lives in the town and had offered us a place to stay even though she was away at the time. We stopped by a bike shop and an outdoors shop for a little business, then continued to the grocery store. Excited by the prospect of an oven and a fridge we bought some frozen pizza and unfrozen beer. Throw in a little bit of Netflix and our evening was complete. Thank you for hosting us, Doreen!

This morning we ate oatmeal out of ceramic bowls with spoons like civilized people and collected our various belongings from around the house. It was chilly again, it's getting to be a theme... I keep telling myself that it will warm up once we're out of the mountains but I'm not sure that's true. Today's riding had very few services so we set off well stocked with snacks and water. At a break I turned my Babybel cheese wax wrapper into a sculpture of a small dinosaur complete with defensive spikes. See photo for details. We found a Nordic lodge that offered sodas and cookies, amongst other things, and we sat on their swinging bench in the sunshine.

Later in the day Mike found a beanbag on the road so we played catch with that for precisely two throws. The second throw was bad and the beanbag returned to the pavement. We have found a number of non-trash items on the road including rags, beers, straps, and someone's purse. Today Mike found a wallet in a ziplock bag. It belonged to a Canadian and seemed to be a recent loss for a Canadian, judging from the dates on the credit cards. It had a business card in it so Mike gave the gentleman a call. The wallet had been dropped about a week earlier and though the credit cards were all canceled at this point it still had some value since there was a pile of cash and a couple of IDs. We've got the address to mail it to and will take care of it on Tuesday since Monday is holiday and the post offices will be closed. Until then, it will come on a fascinating journey through western Montana. It might even make it into Idaho.

The last town of the day was EUREKA! We bought entirely too many snacks at the grocery store in anticipation of tomorrow's riding which has a fat lot of nothing in terms of services. Tonight's campground required a lot of effort to get to but was worth it. We ended up walking our bikes down a steep gravel hill that was marked as a road but really looked like more of a creek bed. Then we had a lot of riding along gravel roads trying to find the actual campground. We found it eventually and the views are incredible. There is a small winding river with spawning salmon, a lush meadow, and steep mountains in the background. We watched osprey catch salmon as we ate our own dinner of pesto pasta. I think we'll take a little time tomorrow morning to further enjoy our surroundings here.

I'm counting down the days until we have another rest day. Two to go!

Montana selfie near Glacier National Park

Lots of grass around here

View of the Middle Fork River

The water here was extremely clear

Self-timer photo after a dusty gravel stretch

Hanging out on a train in Columbia Falls

Train guts

Olde-timey train in a park

This is how we roll when we have an oven

Cheese wax dinosaur

Flower dog at the Nordic Lodge

View at the Tobacco River Campground

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