Day 15: I have to start paying more attention to my maps!

I left Whitefish around 07:30 after a great nights sleep and a good breakfast (4 waffles, 2 eggs, yoghurt with fresh fruit, a bagel with peanut butter, a muffin and 3 cups of coffee). I was taking secondary roads from Whitefish to Columbia Falls to avoid traffic on Hwy 2. The route was sort of convoluted so I decided to check either google map or maps.me to check where I was- alas, I had left my phone plugged in, in the hotel room. I had only gone about 2 miles so I turned around and rode back to the hotel… I took another detour to ride along the Flathead River. The road had no traffic and was beautiful- until it turned into a dirt road. After about 5 bumpy miles it turned back into a beautiful quiet country road. Then I turned onto Hwy 2 coming in to West Glacier- which was packed with RV traffic and had about a 6″ – 12″ shoulder. Sigh, I’m coming back with Janet in the spring when it will be more enjoyable. I stopped for lunch (chicken sandwhich, fries and many, many Sprites) at a little cafe somewhere and got to talking with a guy and his girlfriend. At one point he said “I’m going in (we were all eating outside), let me refill your water.” When he came back out he said “you know, I have a friend who is really good with things like this and if you talk to him he can help you get over this thing and drive cars like a normal person.” I told him I appreciated the offer but didn’t think I was quite ready for that big of a change… Sheesh. Then I pedaled another 12 miles to Essex where I was supposed to spend the night in an RV park campground. It was mostly uphill into a very stiff wind so I was glad when I saw the sign for Essex. I checked my campground reservation- which Janet laboriously made for me- to see where exactly it was and realized it wasn’t in Essex at all and I had passed it 8+ miles earlier!  Well, I wasn’t going back so I just pushed on (uphill, into the stiff wind) to see if I could find a vacancy in another campground. I passed 2  campgrounds but they were both full so I rode for about another 20 miles (uphill, into a stiff wind) until I found a no star (and no tv, no telephone, no AC and no internet) motel with a vacancy in Snowslip, MT. Oh well, it will make for a shorter ride tomorrow over the continental divide and I’m sure I’ll sleep fine. Daily mileage: 71, trip mileage: 791

The road I chose out of Whitefish was very nice until the pavement ended:

 

Some scenery shots from the day:

Notice how narrow the shoulder is in the photo below:

The Flathead River- I wanted to fish it sooo badly: