One thing I have learned is they don’t call it Big Sky Country for nothing. From one horizon of flat plains, to another of Buttes, to another of the Rockies sometimes over a hundred miles in the distance, the sky seems to envelop us as we ride. We have traveled from 50 miles south of Great Falls, Montana up the east side of the Rockies to Glacier National Park then through it to the west side ending today at Olney, Montana. Overall, we have pedaled 2834 miles and have 588 to reach Seattle, our final destination. The past four days we have experienced as much diversity in biking conditions, scenery and temperatures as during any four day segment during the rest of the trip. We had 25-30 mile an hour winds head on and to our back. Trust me, we love wind to our back, and one day we actually manufactured it.:) We have had steady cross winds and gusts that caused us to ride leaning into the wind sideways much like this motorcycle had to do that passed us in our car.

We had one segment of road for about 35 miles of 50 coming into Great Falls, that was the most dangerous road we have been on. I had to jump over a guard rail once and get off my bike a couple times due to big trucks barreling down the highway. Let’s just say, they drive fast in Montana on two lane roads and pass at will. We don’t expect anything like this the rest of the way along the route. While I was surviving on the bike ride, Lisa was taking some really cool pictures of the Great Falls in Great Falls, Montana. I can’t seem to load them right now, so I will add them later. She is adventurous and does really well taking in sights even with all the take down and set up required with the travel trailers. I am so proud of her.
We also entered and left the Blackfoot Indian Reservation with some recently modified sculpture.

We learned to our surprise that the eastern side of the Rockies in Montana from near Dupuyer to East Glacier has the highest population and largest Grizzlies in the US. We were told by a highway engineer whom we met along the road, Jay Emanuel, that he observed four in the past week while rehabbing a 6 mile stretch of road we biked. Laura at the Cache in the thriving metropolis of Dupuyer, population 50, saw two in town this past week.

We were assured by the locals that they would not bother us on bikes. Jay told us that if one did decide to attack, our bikes would not help us get away since they can run faster than a horse. With all that we were still hoping to see one. So far, we have not had a glimpse.

Not only has the wind been blowing on the eastern side of the Rockies, as it always does, so summer has not yet arrived. It was in the mid-40’s this morning in Glacier National Park with snow all over the peaks. “Going to the Sun Highway” has not yet opened due to heavy rains and snow in the past two weeks. That is not a misprint friends. It is June 30th here in NW Montana just like in Atlanta, Georgia. Suffice it to say my southern wife will not allow me to consider moving to NW Montana even if I was nuts enough to contemplate it. Despite the cool temperatures, we had a delightful ride on Route 2 along the southern end of Glacier National Park this morning as the sun did shine. We managed to cover 87 miles today ending in Olney. I have to say this was one of my most satisfying day trips on this cross-country ride so far. It was a picturesque day, brisk and invigorating yet sunny, with stunning backdrop in Glacier National Park no matter where we looked. We were descending for the most part. However, there are still ups….always ups it seems. Here is one shot along the way.

We had a yummy mid- morning snack consisting of scrambled eggs, bacon and melted cheddar cheese over a croissant at West Glacier and an enjoyable visit in the delightful little town of Whitefish next to Big Mountain Ski Resort. While taking a break in Whitefish, I sat on a bench outside a pizza shop just enjoying people passing by and munching on dark chocolate covered almonds and cashews, my favorite bike ride mix, while Craig and Alan ventured into the local bike shop. Craig can’t pass up going in a bike shop. We learned two interesting tidbits during this 15 minutes. Craig and Alan met a guy working in the shop who noticed the bike shirt Alan was wearing which he had bought in Syracuse, NY. Coincidentally and as improbable as it sounds, this young man used to work in the Syracuse, NY bike shop. He took a picture of Alan and texted it to his friends in NY. (The NY guys know the story of our ride, because they wanted a picture of Craig and Alan when we get to Seattle.) The other observation I made sitting there was that there are more younger people (20’s-30’s) in Whitefish, than we have seen on our road trip across the Northern Tier. We have met a lot of the older generation in our travels, but not so much the younger generation. One of the reasons is that we have steered clear of major cities. Another obvious one is that we bike during working hours and timing is everything. Whitefish, though, seemed a hip little town.

Before signing off for today, I want to share a little of what I have been reading on this journey. I have delved into two books during my travels, besides the Bible which is a constant companion: Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose, and The Great Bicycle Experiment-The Army’s historic black bicycle corps by Kay Moore. Finding time to read is a challenge with all we are doing, but I love to read. Undaunted Courage is the story of Merriwether Lewis, William Clark and the expedition Thomas Jefferson commissioned to find an all-water route across the western two-thirds of the continent, and to discover and describe what Jefferson had bought from Napolean (The Louisiana Purchase). Since Lewis and Clark’s journey took them through South Dakota, Montana (Great Falls) and into Idaho and Washington, the states we are traversing, I decided to read it while journeying. There are so many interesting tidbits so far that give me insight into this land when it was primarily Indians and diverse and abundant wildlife. I will share a couple so far. The Great Falls pictures that Lisa took were first discovered by Lewis and Clark. Further, we have seen prairie dogs on our ride. Yes…we saw them this week poking their heads up out of their holes along the plains of Montana wanting to catch a glimpse of Avery and the Christopher Boys and their big boy biker britches. Lewis identified and described the prairie dog the first time in his journals: “On September 7,….., the captains (Lewis and Clark) took a stroll. To their astonishment, they found themselves in the middle of an extensive village of small mammals that lived in tunnels in the ground. Here, there, and everywhere around them, the little mammals would pop up, sit up on their hind legs and chatter. The captains brought some men to the site and tried to dig to the bottom of one of the tunnels, but after digging 6 feet and running a pole down the rest they discovered they were not halfway to the animal’s bed. They had five barrels of water fetched to the site and poured into a tunnel, which forced one animal out. He was killed and brought back to the keelboat so that a proper description could be written. The voyagers informed the captains that these animals were “Petite Chien, or prairie dogs. The animal was new to science; the captains gave the prairie dog his first description.” Regarding the Great Bicycle Experiment, I learned that the Army experimented with using bicycles to replace horses for the calvary in 1896-97. The Buffalo Corps, a regiment of African-American soldiers, was the team selected to test them. I was fascinated to read how they trained extensively, carried 59 pounds of gear and rations on their bikes along with a 10 pound rifle, learned to shoot from a bicycle and learned how to cross a river with it. They took three test runs with the longest route being over a thousand miles from Montana to St. Louis, traversing a similar route that we took in Southeastern Montana, including a stop at Little Big Horn some 21 years to the day after Custer’s Last Stand. Of course, bicycles never replaced horses, but they have been used for other purposes by our military.

Today, we are taking a rest break and going back to Glacier Park to do some sightseeing. Hopefully, I will be able to update with another post tonight before we continue our journey tomorrow.