Another cold night, but dry. We sleep in a little until 7:00am because the campground offers free coffee starting at 8am. After a cold cereal it's back on the road.

First, we back track a little then we follow the Bikecentennial Route South. It's a little longer than the main road but keeps us off the narrow busy highway. We ride through beautiful rolling ranch country, golden fields and many lots covered in pine and aspen. Everywhere are house developments going in, urban sprawl also here. Not too long before this will be shoulder to shoulder subdivisions. 

We stop at the gas station where Patrick had his first ever taste of Mountain Dew in '89 or '90.

Our plan is to have breakfast here, but the cafe has been turned into a casino. The next town of Creston doesn't even have a gas station or cafe anymore, so we eat the apple turn overs we bought in Columbia Falls. We see a lot of deer today. Dead and alive.

At one point we see a nice buck crumpled in the ditch, his rack broken. A little further lays a spike from an antler on the shoulder, the marrow inside still red. Patrick takes it for a souvenir. As we reach the outskirts of Big Fork, we stop at a gas station for a warm cup of coffee and decide to take the 83 bypass road that avoids the town completely and puts us on the road to the Swan River Valley. It's probably a few kilometers longer, but it avoids the town and a possible downhill/climb to and away from Flathead Lake. The road is shoulder less though and Montana drivers do not like to slow down, especially for cyclists. We ride a full foot inside of the line to "claim" our space and make it hard for them to pass with oncoming traffic. This works most of the time, but not always.... you only have to count the little white crosses by the side of the road to get a sense of Montana drivers' skills.

Swan Lake is beautiful, but too many people want to have a house on its shores, there are cabins and jetties everywhere. At the service station we fill up our water bag and buy a coke and chips for tonight. Another 12 miles and we turn to State Forest campground indicated on our map. There isn't much, except for two outhouses that we never check out and one picnic table. It is just starting to sprinkle, we pitch our tent and before we know it the rain has started.

All day today the sky was overcast, this is a rain that will last the rest of the afternoon and most of the night. We drink our coke and eat the chips in the vestibule, change out of our riding clothes and huddle beneath the sleeping bag to stay warm. Fortunately we have plenty of reading material. We found the sequel to Leon Uris' "Trinity" in hardback at the Columbia Falls Campground, exchanged two books for it! We each have to brave the rain to go to the "la tree" (bathroom) and grab the food bag inside the vestibule to make a ham and cheese sandwich for dinner. Neither of us want to cook.

This last stretch since Alaska has been a wet trip.

Heart

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