Day 4: Whitefish to Bigfork - 52.5 miles

This must be the most idyllic place to work on a journal--seated by a lovely lake with the sun descending slowly across the water. But that is where we ended ...let's go back to where we started.

An unforseen consequence of so much cycling on unsealed roads is that the dust gets up our noses and dries them out like nothing else. I'm therefore breathing through my mouth while sleeping, and putting up quite a roar it seems as I snore my way through the night. At least that is what I suspect since when I woke in the morning Sean had deserted our room and was sleeping on the sofa. He was very diplomatic, mentioning a noisey neighbor, but I wonder ...

We had decided to have pancakes for breakfast but when we got to the recommended restaurant there was a queue to go in so we went to a second choice which happened to be back across the street from the hostel. I was surprised that they didn't have any pancakes so I settled for French Toast while Sean had his first experience of American bacon. He was kind enough to ask if I would be offended by the smell but as an ex-carnivore it doesn't worry me, except when it is accompanied by a bad smell of grease.

During breakfast we pored over our map checking out the day's route. A fellow came over and sat down and asked if we needed any help. Americans are so friendly and helpful. Sean commented that Kiwis wouldn't do that, they would instead laugh at you for getting lost. While I thought that was perhaps a bit harsh, there is a lot to like about Americans.

The noisey fellow from the hostel was also having breakfast and he stopped by for a chat. He was from Virginia and had been in Whitefish for a week long Yoga camp. He was so taken with the place that he was going that morning to try and buy a house. There was a plethora of new age types in town, along with masseurs. For a town of 4,368 they must have the highest percentage of masseurs on the planet. While I enjoy a good massage, the cost in $USD is a bit much ($50-80/h). In Cambodia and Thailand it is only $2-3/h so I often indulge myself when working up there.

After breakfast we visited the local health food shop and bought some more energy bars. It was huge with a fantastic selection. Another plus for Whitefish!

As we headed over to the park to get the photos of the bears in yesterday's entry, a fellow opened his door and almost knocked me off my bike. Brought back (bad) memories of 2 years ago when this happened in Vermont and I broke my collarbone. Fortunately it was only 2 days from completing my coast-to-coast trip so I managed to finish, but it would not have been possible to do this trip with a broken collar bone!

We departed Whitefish heading east. Sean and I agreed that it was a most salubrious town and it would be a very pleasant place to live.The road took us up over a hill right away and this made me think of the comment in our guide book "Today's rid provides a break from the wild, densely forested and unforgivingly hilly mountains of northwest Montana." Compared to the last 3 days it was a lot easier, and there were many flat sections, but there were stilll enough hills to blow out a few cobwebs.

One feature of rural America is the number of wrecked vehicles parked on farm lots. As we cycled through lovely forested sections many of them served as caches for the pride of the American auto industry. I've often wanted to ask the owners if they had planned on fixing them one day and never got around to it or whether they just viewed them as attractive front garden ornaments. At least the car below was put in a nice setting with edging around it showing it was planned. As an entrance to an auto wrecker it did grab our attention.

 

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We arrived in Columbia Falls and stopped at the Shay railway park so Sean could check his glucose. The park was built around a 1904 locomotive which was used in the timber industry. It was taken to the site in 1964 to mark the centennial of Montana's founding, and restored by local enthusiasts. There was a history of the locomotive and photos from the newspaper of those involved with the project.

I climbed on board and found it interesting how few controls were required to drive the locomotive. And to think that these were the space shuttles of their day! What was very unusual was the way in which the locomotive had vertical pisons (shown in the photo below). Most trains had horizontal pistons. With a top speed of 12 mph (same as ours on a lot of roads!) it enjoyed a long working life and made a suitable centre piece for the park.

 

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The route on the map from Columbia Falls south was complicated and we tried to take an alternative but the bridge was out so we needed to back track. We crossed the Flathead River which is shown in the photo below. A very impressive body of water, it was quite fast flowing. The mountain backdrop made it especially attractive.

 

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We stopped by the river and had a break and an energy bar. There was a fellow fishing who chatted to us. He had only caught a 'cut-throat' but had to return it since it was an endangered fish in the Flathead river. I commented that they sounded more like bandits than fish but Sean surmised that it was a type of trout. The fellow said that they make good eating so I enquired how he would know that given that they are endangered. He said that you can catch them elsewhere so that ishow he knows. Good story anyway.

The road took us south through farming country. There were many twists and turns but it was lovely, in spite of the strong headwind. It's strange, but when one is cycling there is a stong wind which often seems to disappear when stopped. I commented on this to Sean who pointed out a windmill turning near by to confirm that I wasn't imagining things. Whew.

There were some lovely old farms in the area such as the one shown below. The farms were very well cared for and there was a general air of prosperity to the region. We only saw a few cattle which surprised me as I had always thought of Montana as a cattle state, but lots of wheat and hay.

 

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Some of the places were very ostentatious and an example is shown below. Their garage was the size of a very large NZ house. Like many they were flying the American flag and although Sean commented about the flag-flying rednecks, I admire the American patriotism.

 

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It was very picturesque to have the golden fields with the mountains in the background. I can think of few more beautiful places to have a farm than this, but then I haven't been here in winter!

 

 

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As we headed south the valley flattened out and the riding was not difficult (except for the headwind). Most of the roads were paved and we made good time. We missed a turn and came to an unsealed section that had uncompacted gravel. It was very difficult going and my heart rate got up to 152 beats/min. I've been wearing a heart monitor connected to my odo and it is quite fascinating to gauge the amount of work I'm doing by watching my pulse rate increase. In NZ when I'm cycling with Lis I have trouble getting into my training zone of 135-155 bpm; here I'm there a lot of the time. When I hit 150 I decide to slow down--the spirit is willing but I don't want to push the old ticker too far.

 

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A woman flagged us down and asked if we were tourists. She was a keen cyclist and gave us some advice which we weren't going to take but were too polite to say so. She was taking her 4 year old son out for his first day without training wheels. When we turned down our planned road I was embarassed to see her unloading the kid so I told her we had decided to stop at the Mennonite church for lunch.

We parked our bikes at the church and enjoyed some baked beans and corn. They were getting the church creche ready for school and there was the sound of active cleaning inside, with lots of chairs being washed outside. Sue kindly filled my waterbottle and tole me that her husband would love to do a trip like ours. He was out climbing that day.

It seems that this part of the USA most definitely has a lot more active people that I've seen elsewhere. While you still see obesity, it is far less common and there are many healthy, outdoors types. A good place to live.

After lunch we ended up on foothills road and, as its name implies, it was no longer flat. There were many short grades and we even enjoyed some long descents which were really fun. The guide book warned of heavy traffic but it was not bad at all.

Crossing the Swan River we turned west to the town of Bigfork which is at the mouth of the river where it enters Flathead Lake. This is the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi and it is quite impressive. It was a great downhill run to the lake (which means a bad uphill slog tomorrow) and we crossed the river to eventually find the town. While the photo below doesn't do it justice, the place was very cutsey wootsey and tourist oriented.

 

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There were restaurants, trendy gallaries galore and people selling capuccino's and other fancy drinks. After buying lemonades we strolled around town and enjoyed window shopping. However, since we looked like something the cat brought home, we didn't visit any of the more upmarket shops.

We eventually headed out of town and up to the main highway where we found a supermarket to stock our larder. We have 3 days to the next major town. It was then off to find a campsite and we ended up at the State Park just south of town. They kindly gave us one of the kayaker's sites which was right at the water's edge (see below) -- hence my comment about a great place to write my journal.

 

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We were quite hungry and so headed out to the main road where I had noticed a hamburger restaurant. Fortunately they had vegetarian burgers otherwise it would have been a hard slog into town. We each had 2 hamburgers as we were famished. Returning to our campsite we bedded down for the night to the sound of waves lapping on the shore.

What a great place...

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On to the next day ...

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