If you feel so inclined. Please write your congressman and/or senator
and express the need for a better health care system in this country.
Especially for people who've given something up for it.
Back in the saddle. Craig, CO to Steamboat Springs, CO 42 miles. No problem. Taking US-40. No comment.
I'm done with Montana for now. She hurt me pretty bad towards the end. Its time to move on to Wyoming. I don't feel like riding anymore. Some folks offered me a ride and for the first time I'm taking it. Will be picking my tour up again in the near future but right now I am simply another petrochemical passenger.
The folks that picked me up are lovely. A retired english teacher and her husband. Its remarkable to be able to talk politics and religion with such level headed folks. They are some of the best people I've met on the road to date.
I'm off on 287 south to see the Lewis and Clark Caverns state park. 22 miles west of Three Forks on US-2 actually. See you all in pictures!
102 miles. What the crap was I thinking? I did it but I think I'm stuck taking another rest day. I've decided I have way too much food with me. I don't need more than two days food at any given time. On my other route, the one I'm not doing anymore I would need two weeks worth of food. But now I don't.
I'll keep carrying it but for now, just know how pissed about it I am.
Yesterday was hell, today has been awesome. I've meet at least one 'Prophet of Helena' who has explained to me exactly why Helena is the best town in the world. I'm inclined to agree, except...I see no evidence of a symphony orchestra nor do I see an opera. Two major requirements for homesteading. That and everyone here seems to be married. Not that its necessarily a bad thing if you're married but you can't expect the young single guys to flock to a town full of married folk.
On the other side it has a pretty sweet bakery called the Park Avenue Bakery. The breads and other vittles to be had there are top notch, on par with Germany in my opinion (home of the best bread I've ever had).
I'm about to have a bit of a look around the Blackfeet River Brewery and drink what I can see. Hopefully I will be sober enough to ride the 68 miles I want to do today and not spend another 50 bucks on a hotel room. Two bike shops, one gear shop and two breweries. I think this place has its priorities in the right place. More on Helena later. Right now its time to drink some beer!
102 miles. No problem. At least that's what I keep telling myself. Yesterday was hilly and hard. Today should be better. Choteau is nice and I highly suggest staying the ultra cheap city park campground should you have a chance.
Good times. Helena, here I come!
I will miss the Glacier area immensely. For some reason I feel this incredible melancholy coming over me as I ride further away. I may stay the night in the park again. I have already made it to Saint Mary and I find that I have more ride in me if I wanted. I am thinking of Kalispell, MT and all of the amazing people that I have met there. What a great little town. I lift my fork full of strawberry-rhubarb pie to you my dear friends. I am sitting at the Park Cafe in Saint Mary. Their pies taste as close to Mom's pies. They're here all the time and Mom only makes them every once in a while. I really think I could live in Montana for a minute but not for the rest of my life.
It looks a lot like the pacific northwest actually. The weather is so much more extreme though. Although today its pretty mellow and yesterday was down right chilly.
I think I need to find a place to nap for a couple of hours or so and then I guess I'll ride down to Browning in order to keep things rolling along. This will probably post just before I get there. I'll most likely motel it when I get there because there do not appear to be any campgrounds in that area.
Still in glacier. What an amazing place. Leaving the west today and crossing the divide. Will be in st mary tonight.
I'm I Kalispell,MT. Rode 96.34 miles to get here. Someone immediately offered me food and beer and someone else immediately offered me shelter. I love this town.
So glacier fills up their camp sites so I'm most likely going to be stuck in some nasty hotel for a day or so in kalispell. Or maybe even 2 days. I guess I have to take my time but I have mail waiting there so I have be there by friday,,, or show up real early...
We'll see. Feeling better now. Its amazing what hydration will do for ya!
Oh Montana why are you so hot! And I don't mean like 'hubba hubba' I mean like 'damn its hot out here!'
Any way I crossed over to Montana today from idaho traveling through many many scary black tunnels including the 8000+ ft (not meters as I was previously told) one and lived to tell about it. I'm kind of beat at the moment. Its hot and I waiting out the heat under an awning on the road to MT200.
I'm changing my rout again. The route is rubbish and is taking me too many places I don't want to go, including some pretty nasty roads. Which have all been fine but who wants to have their but kicked by their saddle for 15 miles? That ain't me.
From St. Regis, MT I am taking MT135 to MT200.
East on MT200 to Local 382 to MT28.
Mt28 to Elmo and FEDERAL 93 North
FED93 to Kalispell where I will get lost I'm sure.
Kalispell to FED 2 east or north or whatever into West Glacier.
Tah dah!
Looks like two days ride so I'm lucky enough to make it for the annoying weekend crowd!
Yah!
From taft I will follow I90 frontage roads to ST Regis, MT. Then take 135 to 200 east to 212 to federal 93 to state 35 north to local 206 north to federal 2 to the going to the sun road.
Moscow, ID,
This place is awesome. It has an awesome bike shop, called Paradise Creek. The owner TJ helped me out with my cleat adjustment and some other minor stuff. Which is good because I woke up this morning with terrible pain in my back, hip and knee. I think my IT band has finally atrophied on me. I've spent the day stretching and enjoying the immense hospitality. My new friend Johnathan has offered to put me up for another night. He's one of the most awesome dudes in town and works for the most awesome gear shop in town called Hyperspud! For some reason I thought there would be more potato references in Idaho but I guess there are more in Washington than here now anyway. At the very least, the locals are awesome. Went to the local co-op to buy some dehydrated foods. I'm over the pressure cooker. It weighs too much and I will be sending it home tomorrow when the Post Office opens. spent some time at a little place called Sisters Brew writing letters and such. A lazy sunday to be sure. I am lightening my load by only carrying what I'll need from now on. I am about to climb in to the rockies.
NOTE: I AM CHANGING MY ROUTE SLIGHTLY.
I am taking dirt forest service road 301 to Avery and then dirt county road 456 to Pearson and then the Haiwatha trail through the St Paul Pass Tunnel and will end up in Taft, Montana.
I will post more on where to from Taft tomorrow when I have a better map in front of me.
AAA maps are good as long as you don't want to leave the pavement.
Having an awesome trip and I hope you enjoy reading about it!
It occurs to me that I haven't made good time today. That is acceptable to me. It also occurs to me that I have been whinning a bit too much lately. I stayed in a lovely hotel last night. Let me be absolutely clear about this, I am in love with this trip! I am having so mych fun but it seems that I have to get my body accustomed to these things again.
On another note. Desitin is not your friend for saddle ailments. It has cod liver oil in it! Disgusting! I picked up some aveeno shortly after and haven't used it yet but I will post details (although not the gory details later).
Gear note: Scwalbe Marathon Plus tires are the best! I pulled no less than seven large thorns from my front tire yesterday. They were huge! Like thumb tacks but no flat! Love them!
Stopped to ship some things around so I don't have to carry them. I figure if they go ahead of me by a day or so, I will work less hard.
Having a great day and I hope this finds you well!
Made it to the tri-cities area today and spent the day trying to find a good nutrition alternative for water a.k.a. some sort of gatorade like thing that will supply my needs. Bought a crappy handlebar bag so I don't have to get into my panniers at every stop.
Spent $10 sorting out a simple derrailleur issue and a bunch of cash on dinner and beer. Now I'm going to sleep in a motel! The BLi Hi Hotel to be sure. This will be the best night of sleep ever! My knees are much better but the left one is giving me a bit of a problem.
Oh and if you care about the drink mix, I opted for one called Ultima Replenisher in both orange and lemon lime. It tastes like crap. Well that was my first impression. It seems to be growing on me. I will post more info soon.
Ok so after a little research and a slight cleat adjustment I feel much better on the bike. My body is still pretty weak but at least my knee doesn't hurt. Turned North from WA-14 today. Headed for tri-cities area.
I had a pretty hard day yesterday. Lots of climbs and a lot of technically hard riding over gravel and sand. I could have avoided it and I think I will next time. This morning my left knee hurts like it did at the end of the day so I will be trying to take it easy today. Perhaps I will stay in a proper campground this evening and have a lazy day. It sucks when your body decides to give up. I've just taken 800mg of motrin and will be relaxing for about 40 minutes.
On a lighter note! On my way into camp last night I startled a yearling buck with velvet still on his antlers. I stayed on a bit of federal land last night called Whitcomb Island. Deer everywhere. Very exciting. I was close enough to an older buck to smell him and man did he smell something fierce!
Its on the map but its not there! I was hoping to get water there but now I must cross into Oregon and waste a bunch of time and then hae to climb like crazy for about seven miles. Just for water. While I'm here I might as well get some coffee and charge my phone. Wasco, OR. Really just a truck stop and a power outlet to me.
85 miles. Campground was $20 at a minimum. What's up with that. I'm tired. It was a long day and tomorrow will likely be just as long. my body is pissed at me, my bike is too heavy.
My chain broke today. Well actually it wasn't the chain it was that crappy SRAM gold link. Fixed that. All is well, I am at peace cooking dinner on the banks of the mighty Columbia river. Waiting for dark so I can pitch my tent guerilla style.
Amtrak manhandled my bike and caused a bunch of minor damage to it. I will be spending the day truing my wheels and grocery shopping.
Made a good day of drinking at a pretty hip northwestern bar last night. Delicious food and a chair on the sidewalk is all the excuse I needed to drink myself silly before a friend gave me a ride to my parents.
So, while there will be minimal miles ridden today, I will be getting maximum Mom time which is sorely needed.
Hot Amtrak Tip of the Day:
Buy the insurance.
I don't know why it hates me but it does. I've posted two amazing posts to this blog but where are they? Where could they be? Why would my g1 do this to me just as I get ready to be on the road. Why? Why?!
At any rate. I'm sitting at my parents newish house in a suburb of a suburb of Portland, Oregon its quiet here and oh so far from people that I know (obviously besides my parents). Its a nice place to hide out before a big adventure. Really though what I want to do is drink myself into a stupor. My bicycle didn't make it to PDX on time so I have to wait until tomorrow at some point to figure all that out. My phones been freaking out and erasing messages and people don't seem to read what I'm writing anyway. Well there is that one kid in Japan who looks me up every now and again. Thanks Google Analytics for making me neurotic.
Anyway, I've decided to leave monday. I'm going to attempt 100 miles on my first day because I'm feeling impatient. Its probably a bad idea, but I'm feeling the need to get some space between myself and the rest of society at the moment.
Hopefully I'll be meeting up with my childhood chum K tonight and being reckless as hell in the mean streets of the 'couve. If you know where that is, you're laughing your ass of right now.
More later. Be well and never stop.
Yesterday was ok. Today was straight drama. I've ridden the train quite a few times and I've never once experienced the drama. Amtrak Chicago, you get a ef minus for your ability to be flexible at all.
I could go on about it but I wouldn't want to waste the bandwidth. For the next six weeks or so, I will be posting primarily from my mobile phone. As such, I will waste less time on photos and more time writing, which is what I love to do. Please read with with relish and delight.
I am currently on the Empire Builder from Chicago to Portland, OR. One of the most lovely things about taking the train is the quiet and the speed of it. Its slow but it leaves behind the noise and bustle of faster modes in favor of scenic routes and some of the oldest byways in the country. You also get to meet some the most interesting people. That can be an adventure in and of itself.
I'm having a minor concern about my front wheel. Its a bit out of true and started making a bit of noise when I put a load on it. I sincerely hope I don't need a new wheel before this is over. On the other hand, my Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires are performing perfectly.
Addendum: To everyone that helped me out the door recently, thank you and I love you more than I can say with simple words on the screen.
Hot tip: if you want to ship your bike, be at the station an hour early. Just do it. Save yourself the headache. I was forced to ship my bike a day later than today because I was two minutes late. So I will be in Portland for a whole day without my ride. That's a hard spot to be in one of the bikiest cities in the US.
Its done. I'm moved into storage. Packing comes in the AM and so does shopping for food. So tired. Can't wait for the High Life.
