Racing the Scenic Route Through Montana

Jim & Mel seeing me and my bike off from Missoula

My day off in Missoula was just what I needed. A really bike friendly city in the middle of Montana - the state with the most aggressive drivers so far, I lost count of the number of times i was overtaken too close with cars coming the other way or on blind bends and even found cars overtaking into me! Jim & Mel treated me like family and it was great to share some time with them.


I'd been racing since RAGBRAI to make sure I'd be in Vancouver for the 31st August, but now, my kind friend Ed decided to fly out to Vancouver on the 25th, 6 days early. The direct route would be about 680 miles, but the scenic one would be 860, in 9 days to arrive on the 26th I'd get to find out if I really could do 100 miles a day. So again after promising myself that i wouldn't race, off I was racing to Vancouver...

Montana is absolutely full of lakes and my scenic route took me past loads of them. Each had a few jetties and stunning houses baked in sunlight, it's hard to imagine these same lakes being frozen over and covered in snow in winter.

Day 1 out of Missoula I followed old Indian trails up clearwater creek to Swan Lake - Home of the best breakfast sandwich in Montana - accompanied by the friendly chatter of Joe and Jocelyn at the Trading Post that doubled as a campground with showers (a real luxury). Although this is bear country, I was told not to worry as they're all up in the mountains picking ripe berries, whether this was true or just a ruse to get me to buy huckleberries rather than pick my own, but it worked and they were worth it.

The ride up to swan lake

The next day would take me back north and west, finishing very close to Canada, in fact I could have swum there up the lake. The roads are narrow with little or no shoulder and aggressive Montana drivers make it difficult to focus on anything other than the road - they seem fine with cyclists on the road so long as the cyclist doesn't get in their way or make them slow down - in this way vehicles will overtake face on into you, overtake round blind bends and then complain that there's no room when a car's coming the other way.

Whitefish lake even had a beach, and the water was not too cold - better than Hampstead Heath Lido

A quick dip in Whitefish lake before heading up to Eureka and lucking out with a $5 camp spot in the town park paid for at the town hall / fire / police / ambulance station

Home Sweet Home in Eureka Riverside Park

Riding 45 miles alongside Kaicanusa lake

Lake country has been created by a number of dams - the biggest created Lake Koocanusa over 100 miles long spanning the USA and Canada. I got to wind my way alongside it for 45 miles of up and downs clinging to the valley's side before dropping down into Libby for lunch. The lake was only created 40 years ago and flooded several old towns and an old railway that had been used to transport gold and other minerals in the gold rush era when all these towns had been bustling outposts, now they remain solely as the names of coves or creeks along the lake.

Montana Part 1 - Big Mountain Passes and Ghost Towns

Back over the continental divide into Montana,
14 miles later!

1st time over the continental divide into Idaho

High lake in Idaho in the slanting morning light

Southern Montana & Idah are split by the Continental divide, where if you were to take a pee, it would head of on one side to the Atlantic and the other to the Pacific. After a night in Montana I quickly found myself climbing again, over a pass and into Idaho for all of about 15 miles - probably less than an hour and then another pass back over the continental divide, my first attack on the pacific was not exactly successful. My brief stay in Idah was eventful though, I saw a Jackal (or Cayote) run in front of me, almost collided with a truck and took a pee. Pretty much the only other activity available to me would have been swimming or fishing in a lake.


Back over the continental divide it felt like I was going backwards but a long downhill soon cheered me up, my North America Atlas suggested a smooth downhill all day, but failed to mention another 6,900 ft pass intothe old wild west, an old gold mining valley complete with ghost towns, wrecked river beds from dredging and stories of vigilantes, heros and villains - An early sheriff and his gang had been hijacking anybody with a horde of gold and murdering them, the miners eventually got sick of this and ganged together as vigilantes to hang the sheriff, his cronies and maybe a few others as well. Maybe the attitude to law and order out here is best illustrated by 2 young boys under 10 who, facinated by my bike, asked their Mum "but where does he keep his gun?" Downhill into Virginia City the road dropped 8% for about 6 miles, I hit 50.0mph fully loaded up, then immediately hit the brakes - exhilarating but scary all the same.

Even in the ghost town i managed to find a bar...

Montana: Dry prairie and big mountains

I rode with, or rather in the same area as, Richard & Peter
for a couple of days, they`d both lost cycling partners and
paired up along the way

After finding my own way to Yellowstone, I`d only seen 4 other long distance tourers (3 in south Dakota, 1 in Wyoming), I hit the Adventure Cycling Association routes in Montana and was suddenly inundated with cyclists at almost every turn - on a single day into Missoula I probably saw 15 - too many to keep my promise to stop and talk to everybody. It was awesome to swap stories though - one guy, Seth, had been riding coast -to-coast for 18 months, was on his 3rd bike (2 got stolen) and was in no hurry to finish. thers had stories of the people they`d lost or met along the way - A crazy young guy who ran out of money and was stealing his way across America (fortunately I didn`t meet him), partners who picked up injuries had to leave pushing two guys into riding together. It seems I`ve been pretty lucky and am also flying compared to others that do somewhere between 30 and 70 miles a day.

The deluge of cyclists also had a polarising effect on towns:

One of 2 big passes into a raging headwind in my hardest day
since the heat and humidity of Wisconsin & Illinois

At Twin Bridges I found a free cyclist`s shelter had been added to the rest area by the river, complete with soft grass, common room, shower and toilet - heaven! Unfortunately I arrived just after the county fair and rodeo had finished, but everybody in the local bar was super friendly and maybe a little drunk, after a couple of hours in their company maybe so was I. However, at Jackson Hot Springs, after an 86 mile ride into dry head winds over 2 big mountain passes that batterred the hell out of me, the local hotel insited on $30 to simply pitch a tent and would not shift, clearly cyclists had become part of the economy here. It took 3 litres of water and another burger to see me right again - only in America could your body get so used to burgers that it begins to crave them when tired, dehydrated and hungry.

Since Iowa, I`d been hammering the miles to make sure I could ride all the way up to Vancouver to see my friends there on time, as a result I hadn`t had a rest day in 2 weeks, I felt good but didn`t want to overly abuse my body. On a freezing morning, a last push over the beautiful forested slopes of Chief Joseph Pass took me over the continental divide and gave me the the luxury of a 90 mile fast (30mph plus for 8 miles chasing trucks around sweeping bends) then gentle descent brought me into Missoula and 139 miles at an average of 17mph bought me the day off I`d been craving for. Jim and Mel were kind enough to put me up for 2 days, allowing me to rest up and catch up with life, which I`d kind of ignored for a couple of weeks.

Over the divide for the last time, just before a 90 mile, 4,000ft descent into Missoula

Finally I`d left the Sturgis bikers behind, but now I had to decide how to get to Vancouver.