PowerCycle

06/14 Getting closer to Canada. 2 more days and I’ll be in. Pretty happy about that. Since I didn’t ride coast to coast its about the best milestone I’m going to get until I hit Alaska. I’ve been checking into what I can and can’t bring into the country with me. Only 2 days supply of food allowed. No problem there. My longest knife is 4 inches so that should be OK. The ($45) bear spray I’m not 100% sure about but I think they’ll let me bring that in. I threw out a smaller thing of pepper spray I had. The Halt! is going to get tossed (even though I almost had to use it on a dog today for the first time in a long time).

Long day today. Rode 71 miles. My butt has been sore for a couple days which is about the only thing that forced me to stop. You would think after this long the Brooks saddle I’m using would be broken in.

Wasn’t too crazy about the place I stayed last night. There was no AC so it was too warm to sleep comfortably. There were only 8 TV channels, none of which were Comedy Central so I couldn’t watch The Daily Show or The Colbert Report. There was no microwave in the room or a store nearby so I had to ride 22 miles for breakfast. Ended up eating at the Swan Lake Trading Post. Very good food and the owners there are really nice. Talked to one of them, Joe, for a while. Of course just yesterday he had to chase two black bears off the property. And of course I didn’t see any.

The first part of the day was spent riding through pretty thick forest. It opened up after that and I rode next to Swan Lake for a while and then hit the town of Flathead Lake where I stopped for my usual Snickers Blizzard. At this point its pretty much guaranteed that if your town has a Subway or a Dairy Queen I’ll be stopping. After that it was into a huge valley for some easy riding all the way to Columbia Falls. I ended up putting on my rain pants toward the end of the ride but so far it hasn’t done anything more than sprinkle.

Staying at the Columbia Falls RV Resort and CG ($18). On top of the high price they also have pay showers? Who does that? I haven’t had to pay extra for a shower once on my trip. Rode into town for some dinner. I must have worked up an appetite because I ate like a pig. Scarfed down some meatloaf, 2 potatoes, salad, coleslaw, huge chunk of bread, 2 pints of Moose Drool beer (first time–liked it) and apple/blueberry pie with ice cream. Almost popped my tires when I got back on the bike.

Haven’t seen any other riders for the last 2 days. I’ve been checking in on the teacher from Weston who is riding (the easy way ) from California to Virginia and then back down to Florida. Sounds like he’s had a rough couple weeks but he seems determined so hopefully he’ll keep trekking along.

GPX Track