Day 9, Tuesday, July 8
Beyond Hope, ID to Libby, MT
Daily Mileage: 75.11 miles
Total Mileage: 706.4 miles
Daily Time on Bike: 5:39 hours
Average Speed: 13.2 mph
Maximum Speed: 36.8 mph
Since we arrived so late last night, no one was around to take our money for the campsite. We were hoping to avoid getting caught on our way out so we could save a little cash, but the lady was at our camp ready to collect as soon as we unzipped the tent door. We didn’t get on the bikes until around 10AM, partly due to the late night and partly, we told ourselves, because of the “faulty” alarm clock. Somewhere along the route yesterday we picked up a USA Today and decided to read some of it as a leisurely way to begin the day. It became, however, something we could use to shoo away the deer that wandered uncomfortably close to our campsite this morning.
It took us a while to reach Clark Falls where we stopped for a breakfast of yogurt and honeycombs. While we were sitting at the picnic table eating, these two bikers doing a trip from Wisconsin to Spokane came up and talked to us for quite a long while. When they finally left, and we were ready to hit the road again, I looked down to discover that my back tire was flat because the patch leaked. We were already mad at ourselves for not having done much riding this morning and now another delay in our departure from Idaho. Finally, we made it to the state line and were all too happy to leave the state, but even more excited because it meant we were entering a new state on our trip—Montana.
We took Highway 200 to Highway 56, where we stopped for lunch, only two hours after breakfast. We met a couple who were tandem biking from Baltimore to Seattle for the past ten weeks, and incredibly excited as they approached the Pacific Coast (as we would truly understand ourselves when we were within striking distance of the Atlantic). After a hearty lunch, we started up Highway 56, with fifty-seven miles to our day’s destination in Libby. Just as we were beginning to enjoy how much nicer the roads were in Montana than Idaho it began to rain. David hoped for a hard rain in order to wash his clothes, but fortunately, or I guess unfortunately, it was just a light shower.
Our campsite tonight is in Libby, MT at the Firemen’s Park next to a huge grocery store (where we loaded up on anything that looked tasty). For only $2, we thought it was a great deal to camp at the park; however, after only a few minutes of lying on the ground we discovered what it feels like to sleep on what was essentially a gravel driveway. We only packed sleep sacks for the trip, no sleeping bag or sleeping pad, so we could feel every single rock jabbing us throughout the night.
Daily Mileage: 75.11 miles
Total Mileage: 706.4 miles
Daily Time on Bike: 5:39 hours
Average Speed: 13.2 mph
Maximum Speed: 36.8 mph
Since we arrived so late last night, no one was around to take our money for the campsite. We were hoping to avoid getting caught on our way out so we could save a little cash, but the lady was at our camp ready to collect as soon as we unzipped the tent door. We didn’t get on the bikes until around 10AM, partly due to the late night and partly, we told ourselves, because of the “faulty” alarm clock. Somewhere along the route yesterday we picked up a USA Today and decided to read some of it as a leisurely way to begin the day. It became, however, something we could use to shoo away the deer that wandered uncomfortably close to our campsite this morning.
It took us a while to reach Clark Falls where we stopped for a breakfast of yogurt and honeycombs. While we were sitting at the picnic table eating, these two bikers doing a trip from Wisconsin to Spokane came up and talked to us for quite a long while. When they finally left, and we were ready to hit the road again, I looked down to discover that my back tire was flat because the patch leaked. We were already mad at ourselves for not having done much riding this morning and now another delay in our departure from Idaho. Finally, we made it to the state line and were all too happy to leave the state, but even more excited because it meant we were entering a new state on our trip—Montana.
We took Highway 200 to Highway 56, where we stopped for lunch, only two hours after breakfast. We met a couple who were tandem biking from Baltimore to Seattle for the past ten weeks, and incredibly excited as they approached the Pacific Coast (as we would truly understand ourselves when we were within striking distance of the Atlantic). After a hearty lunch, we started up Highway 56, with fifty-seven miles to our day’s destination in Libby. Just as we were beginning to enjoy how much nicer the roads were in Montana than Idaho it began to rain. David hoped for a hard rain in order to wash his clothes, but fortunately, or I guess unfortunately, it was just a light shower.
Our campsite tonight is in Libby, MT at the Firemen’s Park next to a huge grocery store (where we loaded up on anything that looked tasty). For only $2, we thought it was a great deal to camp at the park; however, after only a few minutes of lying on the ground we discovered what it feels like to sleep on what was essentially a gravel driveway. We only packed sleep sacks for the trip, no sleeping bag or sleeping pad, so we could feel every single rock jabbing us throughout the night.
