Day 2 - Three Hour Layover — Wheely Adventurous

Sunday June 20

Red Meadow Lake to Big Fork, MT

After a night of persistent rain, we both awoke to some tent seepage and very wet gear. But it was beautiful with missed hovering over the mountains around us and little patches of blue attempting to break through in the sky. The three of us packed up our gear and rolled out together to a glorious long dissent into the town of whitefish. We had planned for a stop of about an hour but rolling into whitefish Irena was feeling A little sick so we decided to take some extra time and focus on hydrating and eating. Sarah was depleted from the previous day so she wasn’t feeling 100% either. Our epic stop of three hours proved to be a good investment because we were energized and felt great for the rest of the ride. We rolled through farmlands that but it up against the Flathead mountain range. It was beautiful and fun riding. We decided to go to miles off route to take advantage of a campground on flat head lake. We were ecstatic to see that they had not only water and trash but also a shower room and a place to wash dishes and… wait for it… a charging station and bike rack! We ended up camping in a spot next to a group of four who is also riding the divide. The night was not peaceful and quiet however as a drunk fellow came home, presumably from a bar, at 2:50am to his tent near us and proceeded to yell and talk to himself for about an hour. Humans… One of the downsides of campgrounds!

Some things we noticed on our ride yesterday that are small but will note them anyway. The terrain reminded both of us of BC or the Tiger Mountain and Snoqualmie Valley area. Much green, thick forest, and fertile valleys. It appears that mailbox baseball is a favorite past time in this area because two or three out of every four mailboxes we rode by was reinforced either with rebar or plywood or an elaborate structure completely enveloping it to armor it. Still no bear sightings! Lots of deer though.

Mileage: 76

Feet climbed: 2743

Cumulative mileage: 148