Up and Over the Rockies... On a Bike: Day 4: Libby, MT to Eureka, MT

Miles: 72
Elevation gain: 5285 feet
Average speed: 13.7 mph

I am tired this afternoon, so you're going to have to forgive any typos or awkward sentences.

Dad and I left the hotel by 7:30 this morning. We're following the Adventure Cycle Northern Tier route right now, and the map had us going onto a road which parallels Highway 37 for the first 15 miles of the day. We could not find the road. It was a very slow start. We road back and forth across Libby, following their instructions, and eventually just gave up and took 37 out of town. We stayed on 37 the entire day, and for the most part it was a great road. There was a wide shoulder and almost no traffic. Our map said the road can get busy, but apparently not on Tuesdays in June. The shoulder did get really rough for a few miles near the Libby Dam, and then a few other times throughout the many, many miles we road, but even then it wasn't too bad. I just get nervous when there's gravel and potholes on the downhill stretches. I have this fear of hitting something wrong at 20+ mph and going flying. Uphill, not so much. Especially today. You don't fall over at 7mph, unless it's from exhaustion.

We had water views all day today. Lake Koocanusa is enormous. It stretches from Montana into Canada, and it was our companion. The only problem was we kept going down near the lake, which of course meant we had to go back up! By about 50 miles Dad and I were starting to get more than a bit tired. We knew the town of Rexford was coming up, so we held off on our 3rd or 4th snack of the day for just a few more miles. Unfortunately, Rexford has a population of 105, and we couldn't find anything. We scarfed down some trail mix and gel packs and prepared for our final 10 miles. We were moving extra slow at this point. There was sun, a bit more climbing, and our bodies were tired after 4 days of riding, which left me with an awful headache all day. Luckily Jim met us just as we were coming down the final hill, and revived us with chocolate milk. It may seem silly to think that we needed all these snacks for 10 more miles, but once you bonk on your bike each pedal stroke becomes more and more difficult. We're burning an enormous amount of calories right now, and our bodies are demanding a certain level of sustenance. In other words, we eat a lot.

We lost our shoulder the last 4-5 miles of the day, and had more traffic in that stretch than the rest of the day combined. Dad and I had to get off the road twice for logging trucks. It was not pleasant.

When we came over that last hill our view changed from forest to farm land, and we saw storm clouds on the horizon. Between the clouds, and the fact that Eureka no longer has facilities at their city park, we opted for another hotel. Maybe we'll use all the camping gear we lugged along this trip!

Tomorrow we leave the Northern Tier route and head north to Canada on the Great Parks Tobacco Alternative route.