7-23-10 Day 48: Kalispell, Montana to Libby, Montana: 88 miles in 6:23 hours all on Rt. 2 West.
Another just stellar ride in the mountains. Now there were little things that kind of dampened the mood just smidge, but overall this was an amazing day on the bike.
Tell you what, it rained like heck yesterday, especially later in the afternoon. There were thunder storms and 60 mph gusts that downed trees and knocked out the electrical. It was something to watch as I sat in a Wendy’s waiting for my Chicken something sandwich. I had to wait a bit for the rain to die down before I left. Otherwise I’d of gotten soaked in like a minute. And it pretty much stormed all through the night. But the trusty Weather Channel guaranteed that today was going to be great out here in Western Montana. So I went to beddie bye with visions of great weather to ride in for Friday.
Got up at my now customary 5 AM, readied my gear, slammed 2 yogurts and 2 bananas – which is now my tried and true pre-ride food – and got out the door and on the bike at 6:15 AM. I just LOVE starting early and finishing early. That 8:30 AM starts stuff is for the birds. It just puts you too far into the afternoon and into the toughest heat of the day. Today’s expected high was forecast at 88 degrees, so I wanted to be off the bike no later than 2 PM. Out here the temp just continues to climb up to about 5-6 PM where the hottest part of the day is.
So got rolling into a really cool morning – 46 degrees – with a very large blanket of cloud cover still looming over Kalispell and stretching off to the west, the remnants of the front that came through yesterday. So I had long sleeved Underarmor, long sleeved jersey and my leg warmers on. There seemed to be a slight breeze out of …..you guessed it – the west! But no real hassle for riding. Rode out of Kalispell and then on to the west on Rt 2. Now the bummer was that the berm just deteriorated from this 6-foot wide behemoth to a real nothing, in a matter of like 5 miles. And that was it. It was just this token little berm of like 1 foot wide. Now this isn’t too bad early in the morning as there is little traffic on the road with me, but later….I was kind of bumming there because I just didn’t know how long this would last. Could be like just a mile or two, or could be like the whole way to Libby.
I was riding in this valley surrounded by foothills, very reminiscent of or the ride on Rt 36 out of Boulder, CO up to Lyons. And then I started slowly climbing up these little stair step climbs – until I just started climbing with no relief, and I eventually dropped into the easiest gear in the middle cookie. This was definitely a pass, as I was climbing out of one drainage system and up to what I hoped was a drainage divide. Now this pup was may harder than the Marias Pass I had climbed out by Glacier National Park. Yup, this guy was longer by far. But no little cookie. I topped out on what was indeed a divide, and then I was in fog, actually the thick cloud blanket that I’d seen from Kalispell. And I rode in the fog, on a shit berm for nearly 15 miles. There were spots where the sun broke through, and there were other spots where it was just totally fogged in.
I did have the occasional log truck and gravel truck pass me, but they ALWAYS went well to their left to give me room on the thin ribbon of berm. The rest of the traffic was just as courteous. I was still a bit wigged about the fog and the lack of good berm. But at least people could see me and were giving me some space. Rode along the top of that divide for a long way, and then slowly began to descend down to another river valley – the Kootenai River Valley. This is where I started to run into a string of mountain lakes, McGregor Lake and the Lower, Middle and Upper Thompson Lakes. Some sections of this string of lakes area were ever so slightly illuminated by the sun through breaks in the low cloudbank, and then other sections were just totally fogged out. When I’d go though the sun areas I could see these wonderful mountains on both sides of me. In the fog, hell all I could see was about a third of the way up the sides of the mountains. But this was just awesome terrain.
Round about the Thompson Lakes area I got a great section of berm that took me all the way to this little, damned near nothing of a place called Happy’s Inn. Now that was my bail point if the day really sucked today, 49 miles west of Kalispell. But no way Hose’. I was bound and determined that with yesterday being an off day, I was going to do the 80-some miles to Libbly. So I stopped at one of two places in Happy’s Inn, the gas station/diner. Got a cold Pepsi and 2 muffins down my stomach in 10 min and back on the bike for the final push to Libbly. From Happy’s Inn I was doing a nice pace along the river, riding ever so slightly downstream at like 13-15 mph. Felt great.
Entered Kootenai National Forest and that’s when the thick blanket of low cloud cover finally broke. And when it did I was just treated to some unbelievable riding down in the river valley surrounded by the Salish Mountain Range. It was just spectacular with the sun out, shining down on the mountains with blue sky and cotton ball clouds up high. Ended up pulling off my long sleeved jersey as the temp was really starting to rise once the cloud cover had broken. I had to do another small pass as I rode northwest towards Libby and away from the Kootenai River, but this was no where near as hard as the fist pass of the day. And at that climb that’s where I lost my good berm again. Back to a little nothing of a berm the rest of the way. But the truck traffic had really died off by then, so again, not as bad as it could have been.
Once I topped out and descended I was on a pretty flat section of road that really resembled just a state or local road – but with these amazing mountains on both sides of me. It was just crazy beautiful to ride along this section. I was making much better time than I had figured on, because on this section there were points where I was jamming away at 15-18 mph. Yup, good to be alive! I rolled into Libby at about 1 PM, just before the heat really got going. Got a place a block away from a Subway. First things first – sink wash both tops and both bottoms and leg warmers. They were all pretty sticky by the time I got finished. Just set them outside of my efficiency door in the grass to air dry in the 88-degree sunshine. Then I just sat on a picnic table basking in the hot sun with shorts and no shirt with a big water bottle of ice water. Once I was hydrated beyond belief, I moseyed down to Subway for my 2 footlongs. Let’s see……ride 88, do wash, eat at Subway and it’s all done by 2 PM! That’s what I call a good day. Got a couple of Fosters Oil Cans for later at the local grocery and I’m set.
Tomorrow the temp is supposed to climb up to 94, so again, I’m going to shoot for a 6 AM start and hopefully shoot for the city of Sandpoint, Idaho. Yup, I’m just 32 miles from the Idaho border. I just cannot tell you how long Montana is. When I entered the state on Rt 2 the mileage sign read round about 670 miles! So I’ve ridden through 640 miles of Montana and I’m still freaking here. The panhandle of Idaho is very short, roughly a day and a half of riding if the weather is good, and then I’m in Spokane, Washington. I’m hoping to make Spokane by Sunday afternoon. You know, I can kind of smell the barn at the end of this ride now.
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