Week 4 Overview & Highlights

Route Overview: Sunday July 5th we took a detour to REI, Walmart, and Dickey’s BBQ Pit, which were all conveniently located near each other. We left Kalispell by way of quiet side roads and paved trails into Columbia Falls where we followed US 2 all the way into Browning. From there we took 89 and 44 to Valier (Sadly, we opted not to take Molly’s Nipple Rd). We rode a long way on dirt farm rds to Choteau. Took Mt 221 to Dutton, then the frontage rd, then 20 more miles of gravel rd to our WS hosts, north of Great Falls. We could definitely have made a few better choices in roads. 

Highlights: In Columbia Falls we picked up US 2, it was still in the city so there were two lanes each direction and a wide shoulder for us. A motorcycle loudly zoomed by us, as we looked up and focused we saw the rider and the bike each spinning and sliding down the road. Our first instinct was to ride up fast and help, but some drivers pulled over and were closer. We looked back and saw that a new wave of traffic was approaching so we moved out into the lanes and started waving our left hands up and down to get them to stop so the person could be cared for and the street cleared. Luckily that worked. Once off the street the guy kept trying to walk over to his bike. Robert got him to sit down and he did a little 1st aid check, He had a lot of road rash. Luckily the police and EMTs got there very quickly. 

Hwy 2 has great shoulders in parts and is sketchy in parts. For the most part, drivers have been great about slowing down or moving over. Even the ones that buzz us give us our legal 3 feet (but it is nice if you slow just a little). 

We didn’t do “Going to the Sun road” because of the traffic, curves, and the big climb. Bliss has been a little worried about her knee, she actually considered not riding through Glacier park at all. But we rode to Devil Creek campground, and we are so glad we did. Looking at the Flathead river down below, seeing the jagged Rockies’ peaks ahead of us, it was truly magical. Leaving East Glacier Village, we stopped on the big bridge over the Two Medicine River. We looked back to say goodbye to the Rockies, and looked ahead to the prairies. We have to try to appreciate the beauty of the current places we are riding, and not compare it all to beauty we have been through the last couple of weeks.  

We stopped in several small Montana towns. Browning with 5 stray dogs following us to the grocery store, and a disabled man asking if I could give him a ride home; Choteau, where we stayed at a cute B&B; Valier, where we camped among a red ant colony and listened all night to a seagull rookery. 

We take several rest stops throughout the day’s ride, usually in the shade of a tree. That has been difficult the last couple of days, since there aren’t very many trees around. We have rested behind an historical marker, a grain silo, and a broken down pickup truck. We even had to put the tarp up between the bikes for just a little shade. 

We have ridden many miles of this portion of the trip on unpaved farm roads. Some parts are fine, but a lot of it has loose, thick gravel. It is so much harder on the body. We might have to adjust the rest of the trip to take paved roads whenever we can. On the gravel roads going to Choteau we had to walk our bikes up two steep hills. Two different guys stopped at the tops of the hills to make jokes about the easy climb. Bliss tried to trade everything we had, including Robert, with the first guy for his Suburban (it wasn’t even a nice suburban). He asked where the bargain in that trade was for him. The second guy told us that he lived right on the way we were going, and he drove off… aren’t you going to invite us for food, water, or to rest?

Another solid week of riding with a couple of rest days (finally!).  We stayed with Jim & Michele, (Warm Showers) in their home gym.  Super comfy!  We then headed into Great Falls to wait out the heat a few days.  We’ve done a bit of sightseeing and LOTS of resting.  Pretty much everyone has told us to skip eastern Montana if possible so we are looking at options.