We woke up today to a low overcast and 50 degree weather. Everyone bundled up with rain jackets and some with tights for a chilly morning ride. The route took us further up the valley formed by the Clark Fork River. The valley was lovely, shrouded in clouds with occasional sun breaks peaking through.
By the time we’d done 30 miles, the sun was overcoming the morning cloudiness and it started to warm up in earnest. There weren’t many towns on the way, and we relied on our excellent support vehicles for water.
Halfway through what was to be a 100-mile day, we broke for lunch and steeled ourselves for the more difficult second half of the day. From our bucolic lightly traveled highway, we joined up with Hwy 93, the route to Flathead Lake and Glacier National Park. Remember, that this is the Monday of the 4th of July weekend, and everyone and their kids, boats, RV’s and trailers were traveling down this road to Missoula and the freeway.
For much of the way, it was a two-lane road with almost no shoulder. I was doing a balancing act on a small strip of pavement between the fog line (the white stripe on the side of the road) and the gravel shoulder. Some drivers seemed to take pleasure in coming as close to us as possible. At times, a truck or large RV would be coming in both directions. We take our directions in this instance from Star Wars - “Let the Wookie Win!” A few times, I employed this direction and bailed off the road to safety.
Finally, the road widened, although the traffic didn’t lessen. At about mile 80 we came up to the pass we’d have to cross to get to Missoula . It was a long gradual climb, although I must admit, I stopped to check my tires and brakes because I was sure something must be wrong, for me to be going so slowly. There wasn’t anything, and near the top of the pass, we came to 4 lane road, and got a tailwind, so we sped up the rest of the hill.
A nice long downhill to I-90 followed and I did my usually fast descent. The more you weigh, the faster you go, and I’m very fast downhill! The ride into Missoula from there was an easy 10 miles on the flat ending up on the river trail into the University of Montana campus. We wandered a bit before finding the dorm where we're staying, and 101 miles was under our tires. The temperatures only got up into the high 70’s and it turned out to be a perfect day for riding.
My friend Steven Tande was there to greet us, with Fido, his cute female Dachshund. It’s always nice to see friends. Steven is a shirt tail relative as well. Shelley and her friend Lauren were next to arrive all the way from Seattle. Tomorrow is a rest day and then another century (100 mile day.)