Cross Cont / inental

Made it to Missoula! Glacier Nat Park was spectacular, and yes, I saw some bears. The closest one was standing about 20' away as I pedaled by on my way up to Logan Pass. I might have stopped (at a safe distance) to take a photo but I was in a hurry to complete the climb before 11 am when bikes aren't allowed on that part of the road. Why not? Probably because there's only a semi-crumbling knee-high rock wall between the white line and a million-foot drop off (approximately). There was hardly any traffic as I sped up the windy road at 5-6 mph. It was so quiet and so beautiful, I was amazed that there would be a road there at all. Logan Pass was my favorite mountain climb yet - it was so nice, I did it twice. Once across the continental divide in each direction, that is.

Maybe next time I go to Glacier I'll get around on a motorcycle. A really quiet, biodiesel motorcycle. Or maybe I'll just have to bring my bike again.

So people keep asking me what I'm eating. I'll tell you the same thing I told the guy on the Going-to-the-Sun road who yelled over to me 'How do you do it?' My response: 'a whole lotta peanut butter!' That having been said, a few days ago I started dreaming about hamburgers. I haven't even wanted red meat in many years, but the idea of a hamburger persisted night and day. Yesterday the image of a burger stayed with me during the entire ~50 mile haul before lunch, so I decided to go for it. I stopped at the only restaurant for about 30 miles in either direction. It was a nice, clean little cafe and I got precisely the meal I'd visualized. Yet somehow it was so much better than I had imagined. Kind of like this bike trip... it has all the ingredients I'd pictured, but somehow the reality is even more amazing than I'd hoped.

Okay, that's the first and last meat-bicycle analogy you'll hear from me. ~1236 miles and counting...

Back on route in Whitefish

Well, after two weeks I'm at 865 miles and counting, but there'll be no counting today. I'm finding it refreshing to meander around Whitefish, MT on foot.

The adventure cycling maps I've been following are worthwhile for their information on campgrounds, libraries and so forth, but the best part about them is that they point out all the non-highway byways. I love the mostly quiet back roads, even with their rolling hills, unexpected gravel patches, and the occasional ferocious dog. The maps are great, but it seems the real adventure comes when deviating from them.

In the spirit of getting off the main route, the native Montanan I've been riding with for the past 10 days or so decided we should take a side trip up to 'the Yaak' in the extreme northwestern part of the state. We were surprised to find so many (any, really) folks up that way,but the 'highway' ended at the Dirty Shame Saloon in the 'settlement' of Yaak. (The 'Shame' as the locals call it, is by no means dirty any more and is currently run by an Episcopalian chaplain from Philadelphia - go figure.) Past Yaak, the road gradually narrows and heads up, up, and up pretty much forever. It was incredible to be in such a pretty spot so far from everywhere.

I'm off on my own to Glacier National Park tomorrow. Can't wait to explore.

From Kim in Kettle Falls

It's hard to know where to start. The whole trip has been a bit, well, crazy in the 'am-I-really-doing-this?' sense, and the last few days even more so. Everything's beautiful. I love the valleys and mountains from the western Washington side, and the mountains were somewhat grueling on the way up (I have too much gear!) and breathtaking on the way down. I've come to admire the sparsely populated hills and valleys of eastern WA as well, especially in the quiet, early morning light.

There's already too much to say. The strangest, and best, thing that happened so far is that a guy named George came up to me and another cyclist I'd just met as we were standing outside a bike shop in Winthrop, and he started giving us alternate route information and offering his place to stay. He even said he wouldn't be around, but we could go inside and eat whatever was in the fridge. The other cyclist and I didn't quite know what to think, but we ended up taking George up on his offer (not the food part, though) - and what an amazing place! It was near the middle of nowhere, looked hand-built, and was both energy efficient and cozy. We spent the night under the stars on the back patio with George's cat.

The route George suggested avoided a couple of mountain passes and took us along barely traveled roads, through small (I mean small) towns and hidden valleys. One of these roads had a 4-mile stretch of very coarse, very loose gravel we had to trudge over pushing our bikes. There were fields, but hardly any houses or cars or anything on that road. About halfway through, we stumbled across a lemonade stand! Two kids were selling drinks at the end of their driveway. Was it a mirage??? Good thing there were two of us to experience it. Even if it was a dream, the cold iced tea was just what I needed.

Spent last night in Canada. That's all for now. ~435 miles and counting!