June 10 - Gramps and Granny Ride Adventure Cycling's Great Divide

It's All About The Weather

A Day in Seeley Lake 

We had hoped to get back on the Adventure Cycling route today, riding our Surly Long Haul Truckers out onto the Forest Roads for a night of camping out.  But the weather is still cold and wet, and the forecast is not good.  If we were twenty years younger, then maybe camping out under these conditions would be acceptable.  But we are in our mid-sixties and we enjoy the comforts of a warm hotel room when it's cold and wet.  So we opt to spend the day in Seeley Lake.

This town is a long strip along Highway 83.  There isn't really a "downtown."  We head out walking down the strip to The Chicken Coop for breakfast.  It is Sunday morning, and we walk by the local church and hear the choir practicing for Sunday service.  The restaurant is full of local people enjoying a good big breakfast.  On the way back, we stop by the farmer's market to look around.  We buy some yummy cinnamon rolls (one of our basic food groups on this trip) and also some Amish cheese for snacks along the way.

We spend the rest of the day resting and exploring the little shops here in this small town.  It is obvious that the town depends on tourism, and the tourist season is being delayed by the cold weather.  The feel of this town is different from Big Fork, which was very trendy.  This town is much more down home, and it feels like it caters more to local hunting, fishing, hiking and camping.  We like the feel of it.  Like many of the businesses out here, there are carved wooden statues at the entrance of some of the shops we walk by.

We spend time watching the weather channel and hoping for some improvement.  We have a little more of our camp food for lunch and dinner, followed by ice cream of course.  It's never too cold for ice cream.  Then we pack up all of our gear, planning on an early departure on Sunday.  We will be back on route, out in the woods.  We may even be glad for that expensive, heavy bear spray we are carrying with us!!

June 9 - Gramps and Granny Ride Adventure Cycling's Great Divide

A Side-Trip to Holland Lake

Condon to Seeley Lake MT

Mileage 38.03
We enjoy the good hearty breakfast Bud prepares for us, and enjoy seeing the photography gallery he has.  He and his wife give photography workshops there, and their students leave some of their work there to display.  A very interesting place and person.  And a beautiful location, as you can see from this picture we took before breakfast.

It takes us a while to get on the road.  CC has warned Kitty about misplacing things, and this morning we both learn how frustrating this can be.  Kitty can't find her bike computer and wastes time looking everywhere for it before she finally finds it buried in the bed covers.  Then CC can't find his gloves.  He took them off when he discovered that the garlic oil we have brought along for camp meals has leaked.  He got the oil cleaned up, but now his gloves have disappeared.  Again, we both spend time looking before we finally give up and CC gets out his fingerless gloves for today's ride.

We enjoy the scenery along Route 83, and the traffic is still not too bad.  We come to the entrance to Holland Lake and decide to go on in, hoping to have lunch at the Resort there.  It is Saturday, so we figure they should be open.  It is a long 4 miles in on a dirt road with a hill, and it seems to get colder as we head in.  But the pay-off is the beauty of the lake.  As we pull up to the resort, three friendly dogs come out to meet us, but they seem to be the only living creatures there.  Another car pulls up just as we are finding that the door to the restaurant is locked.  We are all disappointed to miss lunch.  But we have the good fortune to meet Mary Lynn, who puts her arms around us and invites us to bow our heads in prayer as she asks for the blessing of safe travel for us.  The blessing, the beauty - a trip well worth it even if we do leave with empty bellies!

Back on the highway, we are eager to get to Seeley Lake, our destination for the night.  The weather seems to be getting worse, colder and the clouds closing in.  We have our rain jackets on to deal with the occasional sprinkles that we are riding through.  We actually get sleeted on for about 15 seconds, and are very happy when it stops.

 We have a room for the night at the Seeley Lake Motor Lodge, and it is a real relief to finally arrive there.  The rooms are clean, the people are friendly.  We find a safe place to leave our Surly Long Haul Truckers, and unload everything into our room.  We decide to use the microwave in the room to cook dinner.  We have been hauling around too much food, thinking we would be doing more camping out, but the weather has been cold and wet.  So we lighten our load and fill our bellies with camp food, and then head out for ice cream just down the road.  Cold and wet outside, warm and comfy inside.

June 8 - Gramps and Granny Ride Adventure Cycling's Great Divide

The Senior Alternate Route

 Ferndale to Condon MT

Mileage - 41.25
We wake up hungry and enticed by the smells of coffee and good home-cooking coming from the kitchen.  Megan's breakfast is tasty and hearty - a soufle with roasted red pepper sauce, a fruit and coconut smoothy, and a pineapple coffee cake.  Breakfast is served at 8:30, and we take our time and chat with the other guests, Bea and Clain, who are from Canada.  We have already decided to bypass the regular Great Divide route today, which would take us up towards Richmond Peak.  Instead we will head to Condon along route 83.  Megan is kind enough to suggest a B&B there, and even calls to make sure we have a room.  What service!

When we finally get our bikes loaded, it is late morning again.  We don't seem to be able to get an early start, but we are enjoying our mornings.  Route 83 proves to be a pretty nice alternative to the Forest Roads we chose not to follow.  There is traffic, but it isn't too bad. 

There is weather all around us, so we spend a lot of the day watching the skies.  It is raining or snowing all around us, and we figure it is just a matter of time before we get soaked.  We stop at the Trading Post in Swan Lake, hoping for a cinnamon roll and coffee, and have to settle for just coffee.  Things seem pretty dead around here.  The late snows and wet weather are delaying tourist season, and it has an impact on the local economy.

Along the way, we meet a couple of young bicyclists  who are on their way from Buffalo NY to Alaska!!!  What an adventure.  We chat across the road for a while, and exchange URLs for our blogs.  Hope things are going well for you, Emmalee and Joe!

We're not sure exactly where The Standing Rock B&B is in Condon.  Rain is threatening when CC suggests pulling over to call.  Thank goodness we do.  We thought we had about 6 miles to go, and we are only a little over a mile away.  Bud tells us that the only place to get food between here and there is a little place called the Mission Mountain Mercantile just up the road.  It is just starting to rain when we get to the store, but then the skies open up and it pours down.  What a good break for us!

The turkey and provolone sandwich, chips and chocolate milk make a great dinner, which we enjoy on the deck outside the Merc.  George strikes up a conversation with Butch, who has lived in the area for a long time, has been a logger, and has some suggestions for the Forest Service.  We also get a warm welcome from Jost from Holland, who met his wife when he was biking in this area and got lost.  The Merc seems to be the center of social and economic activity for Condon MT.

The rain finally lets up, and we head down the road to The Standing Rock B&B, where Bud is waiting to show us where to leave our bikes, and then to our room for the night.  Nice and comfortable.  Out of the weather, warm and dry.

June 7 - Gramps and Granny Ride Adventure Cycling's Great Divide

On The Road At Last

Whitefish to Ferndale MT 

Mileage - 53.78
We finally get on the road on Thursday, June 7. Of course, we don't get started quite as early as planned, but we are happy to see beautiful weather. We are sorry that we missed the first part of the Adventure Cycling route from Roosville on the Canadian border, but are happy to be following their route now. We head out of Whitefish on side roads, through the countryside. Most of the roads are paved back roads with very little traffic, with a few gravel roads thrown in to keep it interesting. The views are breath-taking, as you can see from this picture.

 We stop for our lunch of peanut butter and jelly burritos at a city park in Columbia Falls.  We are finding Montana to be filled with friendly people, so we aren't surprised when a woman stops to chat and asks us where we are headed.  When we tell her New Mexico, she cheers us on by telling us about a horse named "Believe You Can" who had just won the Kentucky Oaks.  It was the first time a horse ridden by a woman had won that race.  Kitty remember this, and "Believe You Can" becomes part of her mantra when the riding gets tough.  
The afternoon riding goes well.  We are both very happy to be started on our journey, and the riding is great.  The road surfaces make for easy riding, there is very little traffic, and the scenery continues to be inspiring.  There are a few rollers, but the riding is relatively easy.  A great way to get started!  Even so, we are ready to arrive at our night's destination.  We find Candlewycke Inn B&B easily and are welcomed by Megan.  We drop off our gear, ask for the nearest place to get a good dinner, and ride over to Rosa's Pizza. This is a family-owned business with great pizza and excellent service.  We sit outside and fill our empty stomachs.  It is so nice to eat lots of good food when you know you've already worked it off!

On the way back to the B&B, we ride through Big Fork, a little tourist town that is filled with trendy little shops.  Then we ride along the Swan River Trail.  What a beautiful way to end the day!  CC soaks in a hot bath to soothe his aching knee while Kitty looks at the Great Divide book to get familiar with what is coming up tomorrow.  We fall asleep in our very comfortable bed, tired but happy that our adventure has finally begun, and what a fine beginning it is!!!  

June 6 - Gramps and Granny Ride Adventure Cycling's Great Divide

Whitefish MT 

Man These Bikes Are Heavy 

We had a great afternoon in Whitefish on Wednesday, June 6.  We picked up our Surly Long Haul Truckers from Glacier Cyclery and began to get reacquainted with them.  Kitty felt really awkward on her bike, as she usually does when she hasn't been on it for a while.  CC lowered the seat, which helped a lot.  Both bikes were in great shape, thanks to the careful maintenance and packing that Anne at Twin Sisters in Silver City had done, and the careful unpacking and double checking that Glacier Cyclery in Whitefish did.  We did a lot of walking in the rain in Whitefish, and of course found a place with great food.  Just down the street from the Super 8 is a little local restaurant called The Shak.  We had been told to go for their barbecued brisket and pulled pork and to stay away from their fried chicken.  We ended up getting a little of everything, and it was ALL fantastic.  We chatted for a bit with Sherry.  She and her husband are the owners, cooks, servers, and dish washers.  They've come up from New Orleans and brought their good cajun cooking with them.  On the weekends they have special cajun entres.  If you are ever in Whitefish and want really good home cajun cooking at a reasonable price, check it out.

We spent the afternoon loading up our bikes.  We couldn't believe how much weight we have, and yet we really didn't see anything we are willing to part with at this point.  So we packed it all carefully, then walked downtown to enjoy the town.  Whitefish is a touristy little place that looks like it has been invaded by people from California.  We walked by one of the little espresso places and saw three bikes parked out in front, so of course we had to go in.  Three young people (when you are in your 60's everyone looks young) from Seattle were enjoying a meal in a warm, dry place.  They were doing the Northern tier Adventure Cycling route, and had come down through Eureka, where it had been snowing.  They were laying off a day because of the weather.

Kitty had been silly enough to go on this walk with sandals and no socks.  She stopped in one of the trendy little shops and bought a pair of wool socks for $20.  Those of you who know Kitty will realize how cold her feet must have been to spend that much on a pair of socks!  In spite of the cold, we found a great place to find ice cream for dinner.  Then we went ot a grocery store to buy more food.  Go figure!  We already had too much, but we HAD to have peanut butter and jelly.

One more night in Whitefish, with a promise to ourselves to get an early start the next day.

June 5 - Gramps and Granny Decide to Ride Adventure Cycling's Great Divide

Is it a Road Too Far?

Socked in by Weather in Whitefish

The Silver City Kitty (Kitty) and Corre Caminos (CC) first started talking about riding Adventure Cycling's Great Divide Mountain Bike Route over six months ago.  Our plans went through several iterations, but we finally decided to ride as much of the route as possible, given our time limitations, going from North to South.

We really want to do this, but there are times we ask ourselves, "Is this a bridge too far?  Are we really capable of doing this?"  Well, we won't know until we try. 

We trained and we planned.  We promised ourselves and each other to be flexible, given that we both are in our mid-60's, CC has knee problems and Kitty has only been riding a little over a year.  We carefully packed the necessities a little over a week ago, and loaded them into a friend's car.  Then we spent four days on the road, helping a friend move from Silver City New Mexico to Montana.  We finally arrived in Whitefish last night, to flash flood warnings, thunderstorms, and rain, snow and ice.  So much for well-laid plans.

We are both eager to get on our bikes.  It feels like the prologue to the trip is taking too long, and we want to get started on the first chapter.  Unfortunately, the 7-day weather forecast on the Weather Channel in our Super 8 motel room is filled with pictures of clouds and rain.  We think there was one picture that showed a little sun peaking through a cloud, but that was a few days out.

Thank goodness we talked about the need to be flexible.

We just finished a yummy breakfast at the Buffalo Cafe in Whitefish.  CC is returning our rental car at the airport while Kitty is at the Whitefish library, where she is about to be asked to relinquish the computer because my one hour limit is up.  Thus the terse entry. 

Our plans for today are to pick up our bikes, sort through and repack our stuff, and see if there is any way we can reduce the weight.  It looks like there may be a short window of lighter rain tomorrow morning, so we are going to head south to Bigfork.  We talked to the Forest Service yesterday and they said Whitefish Divide still isn't open, and they are supposed to get another 6 to 10 inches of snow today.  So we will start our journey south from Whitefish instead of from Roosville.  Maybe someday we'll start in Banff and do the part of the trail from Roosville to Whitefish.

Our plan, then, is to ride south on the road to Bigfork.  There is a state park there - and we may camp out.  If the weather is bad, we will see if there is a room we can stay at.  From there we will head out to Seeley Lake, again on the road.  Given the weather, we are pretty certain Richmond Pass is snow-covered.  Perhaps the silver lining to all this bad weather is that we won't be spending time in bear country right now.  And we will bypass the beautiful but infamous Richmond Pass.

This is beautiful country, even with the gray, rainy weather.  People have been friendly and helpful.  And we are still getting along well together.  Now if we can only get some better weather, we'll be all set. 

As silly as it seems given the weather we have right now, one of our big concerns is wildfires.  We drove up past the Whitewater-Baldy fire soon after we left Silver City.  The huge plume of smoke looked like a mushroom cloud.  We had talked doing this trip South to North - and that would not have been possible given the fires.  We also hear reports of fires in Colorado.  Given that the snow pack in the Rocky Mountains was lighter than usual this year, this may be a bad year for wildfires.  It is certainly starting out that way. 

Time to sign off for now.  So long from Kitty and CC.  We'll post another entry as soon as we get access to a computer.