Start: 6:15am

Finish: 12:10pm

Saddle time: 4:35

Ascent:  1,652 feet

Descent:  1,292 feet

Miles: 56.7

Total Miles: 735

Highlight:  Riding on a country road parallel to highway 93 for about 5-15 miles out of town. Quiet roads with large ranches.

Lowlight: Riding the last 5 miles on highway 93 into Whitefish, narrow, lots of fast moving traffic and poor road conditions

Cyclemeter:  Follow this link to see the data I’m collecting with the cyclemeter app. You can see gps information, speed, elevation, distance, cadence and heart rate. Better viewed on a computer where it’s easier to play around with the graphs.

Over the past few days I managed to accumulate too much food in my bags include a camp dinner I didn’t need consisting of canned chili and cooked rice. I had this for breakfast today partly to lighten my load but also to fuel me up for the day so I can get to Whitefish by noon without a food stop.  I got up at 5:30am which to my body is still 4:30am since I’ve only been in Montana a few days, had my breakfast feast and was on the road at 6:15am, not bad. Sunrise here is actually around 5:50am but the sun sits below the mountains until about 6:30am so 6:15am is still low light.

The route out took me into Eureka for the first time.  Yesterday I rode about a mile down the road to a supermarket for supplies and lunch, still not in the main downtown area which is really just a handful of buildings. They have some kind of historical village which would have been cool to checkout but it was too hot and too far away the past couple days.

Todays ride will take me on and off highway 93 all the way into Whitefish.  The first part was on a country road that winded through the area with many of short hills and turns.  I saw lots of deer. The environment looked very deer friendly.  The area was all pine forest but the ground was all covered with grass.  I found that combination interesting, not something we see back home.

Not surprising, this is Trump country.  I passed a number of properties decorated with Trump paraphernalia like a house would be decorated for Christmas or Halloween.  Lots of 2020 election signs.  Remember stories about Japanese soldier after WW2 in the south pacific who thought the war was still ongoing? Yes, that’s what’s happening here.   But remember how I said their internet connections out here aren’t all that great so maybe they just don’t know, or more likely they just watch too much Fox News.

Another thing that has been bothering me is the Montana highways.  These are two lane roads with speed limits of 70mph, oh wait, it drops to 65 at night!  It’s insane, just not safe. These roads would be 45-55 back home. I know you think I’m looking at this from the perspective of a cyclist but it’s not safe for drivers either.  With the open landscape it’s difficult to judge speed and distance with oncoming traffic, hence the roadside crosses that tend to accumulate around intersections. Montana has one of the highest accident death rates in the country per capita.  They want think they live in this lightly populated big sky country with open plains and open roads.  Mostly bullshit.  Yes, lightly populated but there are few roads that go anywhere here so everyone is on the same roads.  They are not lightly traveled.  

I recall talking to a Montana state trooper years ago who said the speed limits had been set by politicians not the highway or police departments. Enough ranting about Montana.  There’s other stuff I could add but I’m not being a good traveler.  The reason for traveling is to see different things from back home and not judge, just observer but the highways are a safety issue.

After the country road I joined 93 for a while then jumped off again on another parallel country road.  This area seemed like ranches for rich people.  Nice entryways and wood fences that are new or well taken care of.  Fields were full of grasses being harvested and horses from time to time.  There were large swaths of some kind of crop with a yellow flower.  Maybe Canola? Very colorful and contrasted nicely with the green grass and pine trees on the mountains in the distance.

The last five miles into Whitefish was a little scary.  The road was narrow, windy and what little shoulder it had was in poor condition. And of course the stupid 70 mph speed limit. Whitefish is a tourist town, a quick hop from Glacier National Park so thankful a good number of the drivers were from out of state and driving at fairly sane speeds, but still scary.

Made it to my motel around noon, the Downtowner.  Got the key and was directed around the other side of the building which looks like an alleyway.  Yes, that was the entrance to my $300 room, in an alley.  The room was fine, for $70/night.  I can’t complain too much.  It was clean, the bed was very comfortable and this is the Glacier area but they could put a little of that windfall back into the rooms.  For example, the room had a fridge but no coffee maker or hot water kettle.  Morning coffee may be a problem.  

The location was great, right in downtown so I walked around a bit, had lunch and ice cream.  The main drag has all the shops with some overflow onto side streets.  It’s touristy but no outlet malls or anything like that.  Had a good “Thai pizza” for dinner (chicken, peanut sauce, red peppers, mandarin oranges, and cilantro) which was really good. Grabbed it as takeout along with a couple beers since I didn’t feel like sitting in another restaurant.

Tomorrow should be an even shorter day than today but I’m still ready for bed by about 9:30.  I am glad I took a rest day, riding today did feel better.  So it is looking like I will require a rest day a week but we will see what my days are like when I get out of the mountains later this week.  Really looking forward to getting away from the Glacier area crowds,  the heat and the mountains. Time for a change.