Day 24 – Glasgow, MT to Malta, MT

 Miles 72

Total Miles 1,279

 

I FINISHED IT!! My cross continent goal has been finished.  Basically in three separate trips and 4,248 +/- a few  miles I have gone from Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.  I do have to say that Malta, Montana is an unlikely place to have this cross-continent ride come to an end in.

 

Just a little note on yesterday’s mention about how towns were named along here.  The railroad had them named by Stop #. So Glasgow was stop #45, so a person that worked for the railroad named them by spinning the globe and stopping it with the finger.

 

Today’s ride was nice.  I tried not to rush it and enjoy.  It was along Highway 2 all day, so I did have traffic noise to deal with.  I got up at 6:00  so that I could get an early start due to the heat that was supposed to come today.  The high was forecast at 95 and it was supposed to be there by noon.  There weren’t any things to stop and see on the way and very little in the form of towns that had snacks for sale, etc., so I just rode and stopped for a few brakes.  I was finished riding at 12:30 and Brandon hadn’t left Glasgow yet, so just went into DQ and got an iced drink and enjoyed the air conditioning.  It did make it to 95 by noon, so it was nice to have a place inside.

Getting closer!!

Malta is just around the corner.

 

Brandon came about an hour later and I just took a shower in the RV. We had our celebratory lunch together at DQ (there was not much else around) and then we took off toward home.  We made it to this great little town of Lewistown.  It looked like a great place to visit later.

 

Overall thoughts of the trip. I am glad we started in the Olympic National Park.  That place was beautiful to see and some great riding.  It was great to have a riding companion for part of the trip.  It would have been very lonely to ride all that by myself and it was a great chance to get to know Tim better.  It has been a great blessing and opportunity for me to have Brandon along.  He did a great job of driving, setting up and tearing down camp, but most of all, just getting to know him better and spend that time with him (and Dolly). Montana passed Glacier is rather a boring place to ride. 😊 It seems with an RV, you do not meet as many people as we normally do when we ride self-contained. That is a bit of a drawback, but camping with the RV and riding a little lighter is sure nice. I am happy that I went all the way across.  Even though there was places that were more beautiful, I was able to meet the people and get a feel for areas all across America. We are blessed to be able to live here.

 

I am grateful for Carey, my sweetheart for always allowing me and encouraging me to go.  Even when I am out there, she won’t let me quit until I have finished. I talk with her nearly every day and she just encourages me on. I am grateful for all the good people in the world.  By all means, there are many more good people that not.  Grateful to our Father in Heaven that created this beautiful place for us to live and gave us the chance to be here.  Until next time….

Day 23 – Wolf Point, MT to Glasgow, MT

 Miles 57

Total Miles 1,207

 

This was a wonderful day of riding.  The first 26 miles was just on this quiet road through farming country and all that way, only 5 cars and 1 school bus passed me.  There was no wind most of the day and what wind there was, was at my bake.  It was nice.  It was what keeps you biking another time.

 

The rest of the day was again on Highway 2. It did seem like a little less traffic today.  I was done biking and in Glasgow at 12:30, but Brandon was working and didn’t get here until a little after 3.  I just went to a burger joint and got something to eat and then went to the museum in town.  They did have quite a nice museum.  Mostly about the Indians that settled here and the cattle ranching and farming that ended up moving in. I did ask the ladies in the museum how Glasgow got its name.  She said that many little towns along this area just spun the world globe and stopped it with a finger and wherever it was stopped was the name of the town and this place got Glasgow, Scotland. They are the Scotties at their school and there is a lot of plaid around.  Kind of fun.

 

I would have liked to travel a little further today, but there is just nothing in between here and Malta, where my ride will come to an end tomorrow. I have about 70 miles to do tomorrow and just want to enjoy it.

That quiet country road.

This was the only view of the Missouri River that I will get on this trip.

The following are just pictures of what I saw all day. 🙂

Day 21 & 22 – Havre, MT to Malta, MT

 Miles 89 & 6

Total Miles 1,150

 

It was another high mile day.  I did do it smart in that I took my time and had cities about every 20 miles that I told myself if I was too tired, we would just stop there. I drank 3 bottles of water, a 20 oz Coke and a chocolate milk during the ride.

 

The wind was blowing hard from the north all day.  Weather said the winds were sustained at 16 to 19 mph.  I think they probably helped as much as they hurt.  At times I was praising them and at times cursing.  I am glad I was traveling east.  I ran into one cyclist that was heading west and I think he was having quite a time.

 

Not much to say as far as scenery.  It was not very interesting.  I’m just riding right now to get this done.  Had enough riding, scenery isn’t too good and it is getting hot.  That doesn’t sound too good does it?

 

It is Sunday and I am taking the day off.  We did make some decisions today.  Because of the heat, I need to start first thing in the morning and I don’t want to ride into the sun, so we made the decision to head to Wolf Point and ride these last miles to the West.  We drove the 120 miles to get here and that is what I will do in the morning.

 

Went to church at a small branch of the LDS church in Malta.  It was attended by about 25 people. They were so kind and interested in what I was doing and it felt good to be amongst them. Some of the people drive 150 miles to attend.  That is dedication.

Called the Rose Church.  All closed up and very remotely located.  It would be nice to know the history.

This is the Milk River which will eventually empty in the Missouri.  Kenneth Turner a neighbor was baptized in this river as a boy. He is passed now, but was a great man.

Day 20 – Shelby, MT to Havre MT

 Miles 106

Total Miles 1,055

 

Yes, it turned out to be a century day.  We had planned to stay in Hingham, but I got there first and waited for Brandon to get there.  I probably waited 30 minutes or so and by that time and the wind direction, I thought I would be able to make another 35 miles.  The wind didn’t stay with me for long and it took nearly 3 hours to do that last 35 miles.  I was beat.  I felt there would be more to do for Brandon in Havre was one of the reasons I thought I would do more and the other was I thought if the next day turned out well, I could shave a day off the trip.  I guess that is yet to be seen.

 

Not a lot to report as far as scenery.  It is pretty HO HUM. There are plenty of these small towns you go through with no apparent services like , Ethridge, Dunkirk, Galata, Lothair and on and on.  It’s just pasture, dry land wheat and peas and sagebrush and hills.  It did get pretty warm (85 or so), which is one reason I am feeling like that last mileage took it out of me.

 

I am tired of rumble strips.  I know they must save lives, but for a cyclist, they are a pain in the neck. Even for a cyclist, if there is space to ride on the right, we like them for safety as well.  Today, the space on the right side of the strip was covered in gravel and non-existent, so you had to ride on the left side, which puts you more in traffic.  It was also hard to see the strips with the road cover and you would hit the strips with the bike and it would just shake the daylight out of you. Aaaagh. Many roads do have plenty of space on the right side, but today was just bad.

 

We are in Havre, MT.  It is a pretty large city.  About the size of Burley. We didn’t feel like cooking so went to a restaurant nearby and had shrimp, baked potato and salad.  It was just what I needed. Need to get to bed.  If possible, I want to ride 89 miles tomorrow. I’m not feeling like I can do it right now.

I wish I knew what was growing here. I see quite a bit of it.

Looking back on Shelby.

This helicopter was spraying the railroad siding.

Day 19 – East Glacier, MT to Shelby, MT

 Miles 72

Total Miles 949

 

Well, we are definitely out of the National Parks and mountains.  The terrain has quickly changed from mountains and lush covered forests to the plains.  We have been reading that the Blackfeet Indian would leave the mountains and go to these plains to hunt Buffalo. In fact at the location in the picture that follows, this is the northern most place that Lewis and Clark reached on their journey west.  It was the Blackfeet Indians that worried them the most when they were on this location.

 

Hard to see, but this is the Lewis & Clark monument in the distance.

Today was the first day riding alone and it went without any problems.  Just rode on Highway 2 all day long, so there weren’t any roads to be missed by inattention.  There was rain in the forecast today and I thought that I might outrun it, but no such luck.  I did have to ride a couple hours with the rain coming down and the spray from passing vehicles keeping my glasses a mess. 😎

This is Steve Epp.  He was packing the cross trying to spread a message about Christ. Appreciated his friendliness and he said a little prayer over me to keep me safe and that I might stay close to Christ myself.

Following a main route apparently.  I saw and heard many trains today.

The new view.

Leaving the Glacier National Park mountains behind.

 

The winds were blowing all day long. Initially they were against me, but as the road changed direction, they really helped.  I am thinking that they helped more than hindered. I averaged 13.7 mph which is at least a 2 mph improvement over the past. The last 20 miles, I was moving at 18 mph, which really felt great.

 

We are camped in Shelby, MT. Not much here but lots of trains and trucks. We are at an RV park on a hill and the wind has been going all day. Hoping tomorrow it is blowing in the right direction.

Day 18 – West Glacier, MT to East Glacier, MT

 Miles 57

Total Miles 877

 

We didn’t get up quite so early this morning and it was quite a mild morning to get going.  We stayed on Highway 2 for the entire day.  It was a beautiful ride, but the road was very busy and at times had very little shoulder.  It seemed that we had to watch traffic quite a bit.

 

We crossed over the continental divide today. The divide was on Marias Pass and was at 5,236 feet.  This particular location was used by the Indians when Lewis and Clark came through and it is the lowest place that the continental divide is at in Montana. It seemed we still did plenty of climbing. All in all it was better than yesterday’s climbs in that it was not up and down all day long.  I would rather just climb and get the climb done, but, you know.  You have to take what comes. 😌 We did climb about 3,200 feet today. 🚴 🏔

 

We had a hard time finding a place to stay tonight.  Yesterday, I called the place that I had researched and a recorded message said they were not going to be open in 2021. I couldn’t find any other place, so I was calling a motel to get a reservation there and found out they also had an unadvertised RV place.  The place is pretty remote, but it has all the hookups, so we are ok. Internet is terrible (hence can’t post today). That is one thing I am learning is to call a local business and ask if RV sites are available.  Many times you find ones that are not advertised.

 

We took Tim to the train station tonight.  It was so nice to have him along for this portion of the trip.  We seem to travel pretty well together and I’m going miss him.  He is riding the Amtrak back to Tacoma and it was fun to wait for his train and send him off tonight. I would like to take a trip on Amtrak someday. Tomorrow will be different riding alone.  I hope it works out ok.

Thanks to Tim for joining me on this ride.  It was wonderful to be with him and have his company.

Tim loading his bike on Amtrak.  Pretty slick way to take a bike! 

 

After getting over the continental divide, the landscape has changed again.  There are a few pine and fir trees, but it looks like there is going to be so much more grass and rangeland.  I am excited to see it tomorrow.

Day 17 – Libby, MT to Eureka, MT by bike to West Glacier, MT by RV

 Miles 72

Total Miles 820

 

First and explanation on the title.  We have previously ridden Eureka to West Glacier, so in the interest of time, Tim and I decided to skip that part of the ride.  It is beautiful country that you pass through on it, but the road is very busy and I was excited to get a day ahead.  So the trail is not broken on getting across the US. Just using more trips than this one.

 

We took off early this morning, again. We did it because of the mileage we had to cover today and it was supposed to get pretty warm.  The entire ride was quite free of vehicles today.  It was nice.  We rode 15 beginning miles east of Libby on a quiet road that we were passed by one vehicle the entire time.  We then rode on the eastern side of Lake Koocanusa for 50 miles.  The road had many climbs and descents as it followed the lake and dropped as creeks emptied into the lake and climbed back up the side of the lake again and again. We ended up climbing like 3,200 ft all together.  It was a nice ride and very pretty.  We lucked out as the wind was at our back this afternoon. It did get hot.  We finished riding our miles about 2:30 and by that time it was 90 degrees. I ran out of water as well. When we got to Eureka, the first place I headed was for the service station to get a Gatorade. 😋 I did hit 40 mph going down one of the hills today.  Wind was just right to get it done.

This is Libby Dam that backs up the Koocanusa Lake.  This lake extends to the north for 93 miles, even back into Canada.

Lake Koocanusa that we rode beside most of the day.

 

We are in West Glacier tonight and the campground is packed.  This RV park has to have over 100 spots and they charged us $125 for the space for one night.  I guess that is what you can do when so many people are RVing.  This is the place that many take the “Going to the Sun Road” up through Glacier National Park, but we are going to go to the south and miss the park completely.  Again, we have ridden through the park on another trip and the pass to get through is still closed because of snow.

Day 16 – Bull River Campground, MT to Libby, MT

 Miles 54.7

Total Miles 748.3

 

I am having a hard time writing new stuff and experiences.  It really is much the same day to day.  We did get up early today, 6:00.  That is early by my recent standards.  Connection to the internet wasn’t too good for Brandon to work so we got up early to get him on the road to Libby so that he could be there by 8:30 when he had meetings to attend on Zoom. Because of getting on the road by 7, it was quite a cool morning.  One thing that was great to see was the morning mist coming off the Bull River in the cold morning.

 

Also by getting an early start, we arrived at our destination at 12:30. I went to eat at a great burger joint and had a mushroom Swiss burger and then went with Tim to get a drink and spent a few hours talking trips, both past and in the future.  It had been a pretty lazy afternoon.

 

Libby seems like a pretty neat little town. I guess this area was a vermiculite mining area which contained asbestos and this area was polluted pretty badly by it. We’ve enjoyed our small stay here, however.

 

We wanted to ride a little further today, but there is no where to stay down the road, so we have a big day tomorrow. We will need to do 70 miles and are going to get another early start at it, so better get ready for bed.  Good night 😴

I took this picture to show you what I see most of the day.

Day 15 – Sandpoint, ID to Bull River Campground, MT

 Miles 47.6

Total Miles 693.6

 

I was planning on attending church at Sandpoint, which the building was just adjacent to the fair grounds, but in thinking that I wanted to stay closer to Tim, decided to just watch the Zoom meeting of my home ward along the way.  As we past the church on our way out, no one was there 15 minutes before it was to start, so maybe they aren’t meeting yet.

 

A good ride today.  The wind was with us for a few hours in the morning,  it turned against us after that.  We were lucky in that much of the riding was in trees which seem to block much of the wind, so all in all a good day.  We did stop in Clark Fork about 11:00 and I joined our home LDS ward for church on Zoom.  Tim went and had lunch at a café and I just ate my sandwich during church. 😊 We took of after that and had about 25 miles left to the campground.  It did seem the wind slowed us down quite a bit after lunch.

 

Beautiful sights.  The mountain look great all around us covered in green pine trees and blue skies. There seems to be pasture grass being harvested and pastured to cattle.

There is actually a turtle on that log.  Kind of cool.

Temperatures have been good today.  It has been mostly in the lower 80’s. We are dry camping tonight without any hookups.  We’ll just have to rad our books.

The Clark River

Day 13 & 14 – Cusick, WA to Sandpoint, ID

 Miles 59

Total Miles 646

 

It was a nice ride today.  We didn’t have too many hills and the wind seemed to be in our favor.  We did end up riding most of the day on pretty busy roads that had a nice shoulder most of the time.  I got a little tired of the noise that accompanies those busy roads. This particular road was traveled by us 9 years ago as well.  We rode the Selkirk Loop back then and followed these roads nearly exactly. 

 

We were able to stop by a McDonald’s in Newport, WA, which was nice to have just a plain Big Mac and fries.  On that same Selkirk trip 9 years ago, Kaitlin received her mission call there as we were passing through.  We called Carey, my wife, on FaceTime and she showed the pages without reading them.  That was a fun memory.

 

We are camped at the fair grounds in Sandpoint.  These are the nicest fair grounds camping we have had so far.  They are having a Simmental beef cow show here this weekend. We are planning on watching a little of that in the morning.

Saturday. Listened to trains roll through last night.  Seems like these camping places are many times by the train tracks.  It’s soothing but annoying. 😊 We did go watch those kids show their cattle.  That was fun.  They had some beautiful animals. I spent the day catching up on some work for the office, did laundry, oiled the chain on the bike, ate at some good places and just took it easy.  Not too much to report.

 

We did make some changes to the route today.  We have another stretch in the future that we both have already ridden, which is along a pretty busy road, so we are thinking we may skip it and make up a day.  Not for sure if we will do!but may, just to get back a little bit quicker.

 

Planning on going to the movies tonight. Did go to Cruella tonight. Great movie. 

 

Hoping all is well with you all!

Hopefully I saved this little bugger from the road.

Day 12 – Colville, WA to Cusick, WA

 Miles 69.4

Total Miles 587

 

I think it just happens more times than not.  We started riding today and it was a pretty good climb, again.  In fact, it was side roads which tend to have steeper grades than the highways have.  We ended up climbing about 2,000 feet today, which is better than it has been, but with the mileage we did, I’m tired.

 

I think the big mountains are done. We will have hills to come but the hours long climbs should be finished for this ride.  We climbed throughout the day and had a great downhill about halfway through our miles and then just rode along the Pend Oreille River.  It was a beautiful ride. The 30 miles along the river was met with a bit of a headwind, but I can’t complain.

 

At the place we are camping are all these poles out in the river.  Back in history, they would float the logs down the river and these poles would hold them for processing at a mill that used to be in this area.  There still are a lot of logs that are harvested from this area.  We were passed by dozens of trucks hauling them in both directions today.  Along the trip, we have seen a couple mills making boards as well as plywood.  I would imagine right now they are trying to run as fast as they can with the price as high as it is.

 

We just cooked our own meal tonight.  We had stroganoff, beans and salad.  We were hungry and it hit the spot.

Day 11 - Republic, WA to Colville, WA

 Miles 54.4

Total Miles 517.6

It was a cold night and cold this morning.  There was a pretty thick fog first thing this morning, but it burned off pretty quickly.  We started climbing as soon as we took off this morning.  We knew it was coming and we have had plenty of climbing training, so we just settled in and climbed.  It took about 3 hours when we went over the top of Sherman Pass at 5,575 feet. Number 4 of 4 summits we have climbed in the last 4 days. It’s not like the climbing is over, but no more mountains to this high in the

See those 4 summits. That was our last 4 days. Each line is 1,000 ft.

Not a lot to write about. After climbing, we had the best downhill ride we have had over the last 4 days. The road dropped 4,000 ft to where we are now and we didn’t have headwinds to hinder the drop.  It lasted for about 15 miles and was fun to ride.  There was some logging going on by the side of the road that they were stopping traffic while the trees were cut down and then the stopped cutting for a bit and let the traffic through.  It was a massive machine doing the cutting.  Kind of like an excavator with a rotary blade on the end.  I wish I could have gotten a picture.

We passed over the Columbia river today and are in Colville, WA.  We are staying at some fair grounds here. The crazy thing about where we are staying is, 9 years ago, I went on a ride with Tim and Nancy on the Selkirk loop with Kaitlin, my daughter.  We stayed at this same campground we are in tonight.  It feels weird to be back here again. I wish I had more to write, but there was just not much of interest that happened today.

The Columbia and the bridge we crossed over on.

Brandon with our dinner of pizza tonight.

Tim and me on the top!!

Day 10 - Riverside, WA to Republic, WA

 Miles 60.5

Total Miles 463.2

We had a little warmer night last night.  We actually had to crank up the AC for the first time on the trip.  Also, this morning was the first time that we started riding without or jackets on.

It was another day of climbing.  Today we crossed pass 3 of 4, Wauconda Pass, at 4,310 feet.  We did start out at 1,000 feet, but the climbing seemed to go on and on today.  Probably because the climb took place in 3 different climbs rather than all at once.  We also ran into a lot of construction today.  The first was in the first few miles this morning and they wouldn’t let us ride out bikes through.  They were re-laying asphalt and made us put our bikes in the pilot pickup and hauled us and the bikes 2 miles down the road. That was a first in all my riding. The others actual made riding better throughout the day.  They would stop traffic and used a pilot car, so when we got to the other end, there were large stretches at a time that there was no traffic on the road and the traffic would come all together.  That was nice.

Saw a deer get hit by a pickup today.  That was rather disturbing to see.  The pickup passed me up and a bit further up the road the deer ran out. Felt bad for the poor thing.

Nothing much more to report.  We are in Republic, WA which is at a higher elevation (2,500) than we were last night. Actually have Pine Trees on the hills again.

Saw a lot of these today. I always wonder who lived there and what their life may have been like. 

The hills we encountered today.