"Entry for Thursday, 31 July 1997

Montana Highway Patrolman Dean Walston.

Last Modified on 9/23/97 at 17:19:58

Day's Narrative: At breakfast this morning the waitress said there was only one store between Libby and Kalispell, Happy's Inn. It is 89 miles (143km) from Libby to Kalispell. I anticipated a long, dull ride, albeit through scenery that is beyond gorgeous.

[Connie] I had an engineer friend that worked for Boeing and then McDonald-Douglas, both at the time when they were not doing so well in the late '60's. He finally joined the Navy and used his GI benefits to get his teacher's certificate in Math, mostly so he would have a very portable profession. His goal was to move to Montana, where he could hunt and fish as much as he liked. It worked. He got a job in Missoula, and loved it.

[Ray] It was cold. The temperature was 45 deg. F (7 deg. C) starting out. There was an unrelenting, steady climb out of Libby -- about 1800 ft. before it was over about 50 miles away. These unrelenting climbs are not difficult. It's just that there's no way to rest except by stopping.

About 40 miles outside of Libby I came upon bridge construction. The short detour was gravel so I walked the bike. On the other side of the construction was Montana Highway Patrolman, Dean Walston (see photo). We chatted about the ride and he remarked that I still had lots of Montana to ride through after the mountains. I asked about road conditions and he told me about 10 miles of construction on Highway 2 just up the road, and about a 5200 foot pass after Kalispell. This was good information. In general, there's no better source of road information than the police.

After I had a Power Bar snack, I left Patrolman Walston and went a short distance ahead to Happy's Inn. Just as I was dismounting a man came up to me and asked if I wanted a ride in his pickup past the construction. I replied Yes! His name was Bob and he worked as a flagger on the construction site. Actually, he was on his way to work and wasn't able to give me a lift through the entire site. Practically all of the 10 miles was gravel and packed dirt. After he let me out I rode ahead with difficulty until I got to the next flagger.

While I was waiting there with a long line of traffic the flagger found me a ride in a truck for the remainder of the construction. This was a family, father, mother, son and daughter, taking the daughter to the airport so she could go back to school in Arizona. They said they live 16 miles south of highway 2, and have no phone and no electricity, except for a water generator. We chatted while we waited for the traffic to come through from the other direction. When we started to move again, the son (about 16) and I rode in back with with the daughter's luggage and my bike. I asked the son how he liked living so remotely. He said that last winter they had 11 feet of snow and were unable to get to town all winter, but it was "Pretty much fun." He said he learned how to track animals last winter.

The family let me out after we reached pavement again. Within 15 minutes, about 12:30, Connie caught up with me and I ate some fruit and filled up water bottles, anticipating no stores until 40 miles later at Kalispell.

[Connie] I had worried about how Ray was getting through this snarl of gravel, mud and dust. The flagger lady at the beginning of the mess had said he had gone past her, so I knew he was somewhere. it occurred to me that maybe he had gotten a ride. Just after getting out of the construction, we met up, true sag wagon style. I dispensed a banana, 2 nectarines, and ice water. It was better than nothing, but not much.

[Ray] About 1:00 pm I came upon the McGregor Lake Resort Cafe & Bar and was able to get a burger and fries for lunch.

I got into Kalispell about 4:00 pm and found Connie at the Super 8 Motel.

[Connie] We've found Super 8's to be very nice, reasonable and, most importantly, they have AT&T access. This one has a very heavy locked outer access door which requires a key and 2 hands to get in. So much for disability access. I propped it open with the bar that carries the bikes on the back of the truck and unloaded. The Super 8 in Libby had no door -- gone from the hinges, making life much easier.The price for getting a nice, clean, functional, modern, well-priced room seems to be fighting the battle of hauling stuff through doors and down halls, even though we have the end rooms.

[Ray] Tomorrow we will only go a little over 20 miles to Coram where we'll stay at the Evergreen Motel. We just made reservations. This is Glacier National Park country and we want to explore a little. In addition, this splits up the trip over Marias Pass to Browning into two days. Then on Saturday I'll go over the 5,200 ft (1585m) Marias Pass and then on into Browning, MT -- about 75 miles (120 km). At Browning we will be out of the mountains and in the Great Plains. We estimate it will take an additional 6 or 7 days from Browning to get to the North Dakota state line. Montana is a BIG state.

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© Ray & Connie Poore, 1997