Days 13-15: Flathead Valley, Smoke on the Water, Helena
Day 13
We began the day at the Arnone's, and Tom showed me around his motorcycle and bike shop, which was very cool.
Tom has built his own bicycle frames, including one for a tandem bike on which he and his son won a prize in a national championship race.
We rode to the touristy town of Bigfork, MT, which sits on the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi. It was HUGE!
On the way, we found...
Wild cherries! ...mmm...
We camped at Wayfarers State Park, which had excellent hiker/biker sites that included a fix-it stand. We shared our site with two other parties of bicycle tourists: an Italian man who has previously toured in Africa, Asia, and South America; and a retired couple from Vancouver. There was also a nice man who was living as a hobo (in the homo bono sense) there, staying in the campground for cheap and working as a window washer in town for the summer.
While we were there, we literally went to town, buying tons of fresh vegetables to binge on (is it still a binge if it's with vegetables?) and cooked them into a delicious dinner.
Day 14
The next day we biked along the edge of the Mission Mountains, which included a 6-mile constant climb, followed by 6 miles of downhill. We did the first 6 in about 2 hours and the next 6 in under 30 minutes.
We camped on the edge of a forest service road next to some impressive western redcedars.
Day 15
We got fancier with our breakfasts and switched from instant oatmeal packets every day to raw oat/grain mix with powdered milk and huckleberry jam we picked up at a jam store in Bigfork. Did we mention we like berries?
That morning, we came to a high point on our route where we had cell service. We checked on the wildfire status in the area (as we have been doing regularly to monitor the status of the many wildfires burning in western Montana) to make sure our route was still open and safe. We were already aware of a few detours we would have to take over the next few days due to fires. Talking on the phone with some of the ranger districts in the area, we learned that even on the detour routes, while safe from fires, the smoke situation was terrible in some places including Seely Lake (with an air quality rating of "hazardous" - the worst rating possible, two steps worse than "unhealthy"). There was no detour around it. We began looking for places to stay indoors that night, when it occured to us to try to find a ride to the other side of the smoky section.
We left the route and began riding on the main highway, where we pulled off at the Swann Valley Forest Service Information Office to get... information. The wonderful lady working there showed us maps, recommended places to stay, gave us dust masks, and even called the general store down the road to see if they had any delivery trucks heading south toward Helena that might could give us a ride. There were not any, but she have us a sheet of poster board and markers to make the best hitchhiking sign we could think of...
"NEED RIDE TO HELENA"
We put the sign on one bike trailer and headed down the road where we soon found the Swann Valley Centre general store. We talked to a few nice people between the forest service office and the store, but nobody who could give us a ride. It was looking more like we would need to find a place to stay in the area then see what happened next.
We stopped at the general store for lunch and parked the bikes in a way that displayed our sign near the door. Over lunch, it occurred to us to pray for a ride to Helena. Minutes later, we met a man on his way home to Helena with his two small dogs and one large pottery kiln who offered us a ride in his truck.
We took it! The man's name was Rick, a Vietnam veteran married with grown children who is semi-retired but still does pottery and carpentry for work.
Driving on the highway was an adrenaline rush at first, seeing the world go by at 70 mph instead of the 10-15 mph we have gotten used to. During our roughly 100-mile trip, we got to know each other a bit more, and Rick offered us a place to stay that night in a spare bedroom in his house
We took it! We helped Rick unload his pottery kiln, took him out to pizza in Helena, got a brief driving tour of Helena (and learned about Montana's surprising political and cultural similarities to the state of Georgia, which has an interesting history behind it), watched an episode of the British Father Brown TV series (based on G.K. Chesterton short stories), and enjoyed each other's company.
The next morning, we thanked our wonderful host and headed out to eat breakfast and run errands in downtown Helena. The pastries at Park Avenue Bakery were delicious. After a good morning (and early afternoon) downtown, we are heading out for a shorter day of riding out of Helena toward Lava Mountain (where, thankfully, there are no more fires in sight).
We began the day at the Arnone's, and Tom showed me around his motorcycle and bike shop, which was very cool.
Tom has built his own bicycle frames, including one for a tandem bike on which he and his son won a prize in a national championship race.
We rode to the touristy town of Bigfork, MT, which sits on the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi. It was HUGE!
On the way, we found...
Wild cherries! ...mmm...
We camped at Wayfarers State Park, which had excellent hiker/biker sites that included a fix-it stand. We shared our site with two other parties of bicycle tourists: an Italian man who has previously toured in Africa, Asia, and South America; and a retired couple from Vancouver. There was also a nice man who was living as a hobo (in the homo bono sense) there, staying in the campground for cheap and working as a window washer in town for the summer.
While we were there, we literally went to town, buying tons of fresh vegetables to binge on (is it still a binge if it's with vegetables?) and cooked them into a delicious dinner.
Day 14
The next day we biked along the edge of the Mission Mountains, which included a 6-mile constant climb, followed by 6 miles of downhill. We did the first 6 in about 2 hours and the next 6 in under 30 minutes.
We camped on the edge of a forest service road next to some impressive western redcedars.
Day 15
We got fancier with our breakfasts and switched from instant oatmeal packets every day to raw oat/grain mix with powdered milk and huckleberry jam we picked up at a jam store in Bigfork. Did we mention we like berries?
That morning, we came to a high point on our route where we had cell service. We checked on the wildfire status in the area (as we have been doing regularly to monitor the status of the many wildfires burning in western Montana) to make sure our route was still open and safe. We were already aware of a few detours we would have to take over the next few days due to fires. Talking on the phone with some of the ranger districts in the area, we learned that even on the detour routes, while safe from fires, the smoke situation was terrible in some places including Seely Lake (with an air quality rating of "hazardous" - the worst rating possible, two steps worse than "unhealthy"). There was no detour around it. We began looking for places to stay indoors that night, when it occured to us to try to find a ride to the other side of the smoky section.
We left the route and began riding on the main highway, where we pulled off at the Swann Valley Forest Service Information Office to get... information. The wonderful lady working there showed us maps, recommended places to stay, gave us dust masks, and even called the general store down the road to see if they had any delivery trucks heading south toward Helena that might could give us a ride. There were not any, but she have us a sheet of poster board and markers to make the best hitchhiking sign we could think of...
"NEED RIDE TO HELENA"
We put the sign on one bike trailer and headed down the road where we soon found the Swann Valley Centre general store. We talked to a few nice people between the forest service office and the store, but nobody who could give us a ride. It was looking more like we would need to find a place to stay in the area then see what happened next.
We stopped at the general store for lunch and parked the bikes in a way that displayed our sign near the door. Over lunch, it occurred to us to pray for a ride to Helena. Minutes later, we met a man on his way home to Helena with his two small dogs and one large pottery kiln who offered us a ride in his truck.
We took it! The man's name was Rick, a Vietnam veteran married with grown children who is semi-retired but still does pottery and carpentry for work.
Driving on the highway was an adrenaline rush at first, seeing the world go by at 70 mph instead of the 10-15 mph we have gotten used to. During our roughly 100-mile trip, we got to know each other a bit more, and Rick offered us a place to stay that night in a spare bedroom in his house
We took it! We helped Rick unload his pottery kiln, took him out to pizza in Helena, got a brief driving tour of Helena (and learned about Montana's surprising political and cultural similarities to the state of Georgia, which has an interesting history behind it), watched an episode of the British Father Brown TV series (based on G.K. Chesterton short stories), and enjoyed each other's company.
The next morning, we thanked our wonderful host and headed out to eat breakfast and run errands in downtown Helena. The pastries at Park Avenue Bakery were delicious. After a good morning (and early afternoon) downtown, we are heading out for a shorter day of riding out of Helena toward Lava Mountain (where, thankfully, there are no more fires in sight).
In your diary reports is it possible to mention how many miles you covered each day?
ReplyDeleteHi, Steven! We've been doing between 25 and 50 depending on terrain and time. We're following the mileage as laid out in McCoy's Cycling the Great Divide guide book more or less- it's an excellent resource.
DeleteHi Katelyn and Jonathan. It is fun reading your blog, the same trip through different eyes. You are now well ahead of us, we only just arrived in Helena after riding all the way. You made a good call, it was very smoky in Seeley Lake and riding on the main road was unpleasant. After reading your blog we will have to try the Park Avenue Bakery for breakfast! Have fun and hopefully we will cross paths again someday! Our blog is www.AandKTravels.blogspot.com.au. Happy riding! Ariane and Kirsten
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