June 10 from Whitefish, Montana

Since our last posting from Clark Fork, we entered Montana, advented only by a change in road condition; no sign unfortunately. Instead we found a real estate office with a "Welcome to Montana" sign, which we posed in front of in the pouring rain after just realizing that Sarah had her 3rd flat tire of the trip. Needless to say, we did not make it to the campground at Bull Lake that day, and instead stopped at the Bighorn Lodge, where the owner Dave Nye had been abandoned by all his other visitors due to the weather, so we had the run of the whole lodge. We even got to use the kitchen to make dinner with the food we had packed!

On Sunday we had a beautiful and fast ride up Route 56 and down Route 2. We passed the Kootenai Falls and rode through Libby up to the Libby Dam. 7 miles further up Lake Koocanusa, we reached another lovely US Forest Service campground, which we had completely to ourselves as usual. That night Disco Panda and Chaos Panda made excellent fish in lemon & caper sauce while Liz worked on a fire, an easier task than on previous nights because the rain held off until bed time.

Monday was really tough because the terrain was rolling aimlessly along the very unpleasant, creepy Lake Koocanusa, which is actually a dammed reservoir. It was cold and wet and Sarah got her 4th flat tire. Mid-afternoon we stopped in Eureka, a very nice town. We had to continue on from there even though we were all exhausted. The ride to Dickey Lake was beautiful, we especially liked cycling past an elk farm near Fortine, but it was a real challenge with a strong headwind. Yesterday's riding time was almost 6 hours! Then to top it all off, we spent the evening hiding from rain inside the tent. No s'mores on rainy nights either.

Just when we thought it couldn't get any worse... this morning we had SNOW. Well, when we woke up at 6 a.m. there was some clear sky, then there were clouds, then it started hailing and raining, and then along came a bona fide snow storm. We already had the tent down, so we figured we would try to cycle a bit. We made it 5 miles before taking refuge in the tiny Stryker post office where Heather made us tea and made some calls to figure out who in town was next taking his truck down to Whitefish, where we need to meet Mom and Dad this afternoon. It turned out that her cousin Larry and his dog Nugget were happy to take us on their way down, so we strapped the bikes on the back of the pickup and climbed in the cab and made our best mileage ever down to Whitefish!!! Next stop, the laundromat, so that maybe we can conceal our dirtiness from Mom and Dad when they get here. Our last shower was on Saturday, so it is probably hopeless.

Wish us luck with the weather! We miss you all and send you our best.

-The Pandas