Day 1061 miles!!!! Rode til 645pm!!! Out in the wilderness, for sure!!!

The day started riding through huge homes on large lots with gorgeous views! Makes ya think Montana is a warmer Alaska alternative!

We are off the book recommendation because of our uhaul day, but we almost got a day ahead! We are just five miles short of a day ahead! Kinda… We will try to realign with the book tomorrow. 

Lots of elevation in the afternoon after the easy rural morning. But most importantly we passed the Coloradan group today! You know, the ones who aren’t carrying anything cuz they have a sag wagon? Somehow that felt so bitchin!! But we did stop at the pass up and talked a while, they’re really nice. 

Our day continued farther than originally planned, but we are guerrilla camping on a side road that is soooooooo quiet! Very tired after a long day, 8:30-6:45 is a huge day!

There is a duck pond just below us that Chris and Dave bathed in at the end of the day. It is still very warm here, very easy sleeping! 

No campfire, but good laughs around the cook stove and a good quiet sleep. 

Day 11

An early start and 45m planned. 

At some point in the day, I caught up with Richard from Netherlands, we ride together for a while. He got time off from his employer easily, selling cooling systems to large companies to cool their huge data centers. A nice guy, a bike setup similar to mine, with panniers. He is riding faster and solo, so we probably won’t see him again. He was most impressed, as were we, with the Canada portion, but commented on how little scenery we’ve seen since the smoke started in Eureka. 

Swimming/bathing in Holland Lake at the end of the day was great, but kinda cold!

Heartbroken that Lodge wouldn’t serve us due to a dozen women there at yoga camp! When we walked in to check, they had all manner of poster boards filled with stuff about using your inner chakras to strengthen your relationships and all that kinda thing. Various sessions scheduled throughout the day and evening. You know, so you can get closer to your feeeeeeeelings…. We just wanted dinner and a beer! Grunt grunt…

We did have a cold beer out on their lawn overlooking a very peaceful Holland Lake… We ran into two of the Colorado group there as well. 

At our quiet campsite and this huge gang with three vehicles, a trailer, and a boat rolled in next to us… Dave made friends with them and asked them to be quiet after 10pm which they pretty much did. Eventually…

Earlier, Richard came over, talked about his biking in Turkey which sounded fantastic! I have heard the same many times, and that the people are especially nice! Maybe for my next trek…

Talked with a just retired Montana Trooper staying at the lodge with his wife who has lots of the same post-job transition issues and thoughts as me… Largely those summarized as no longer being responsible for important stuff larger than you? People used to me/him to make decisions about important stuff, we had to make snap decisions with the available information, or on solely our instincts and experience; suddenly now pretty much nobody asks you about anything important… Maybe that’s part of it at least. Anyway, a real nice guy and just like me, he’s trying to adjust to his life’s new pace as gracefully as possible. 

Walked over to the lodge after our boiled camp dinner, had a cookie and a beer!

Our route is closed tomorrow due to fire, so will take highway 25m to Seeley Lake. 😄😟

Day 12

Woke up to smoke and warm, can barely see across the lake. 

Ate breakfast at the lodge, a great view on Holland Lake. I think they are trying to serve an upscale clientele and see us as ragamuffins, they’re not very nice to us at all… Even though it’s very rustic, the rate for a cabin is $245/n but includes three fabulous meals!

The GDMBR trail to Seeley Lake is closed for fire, we will take a short 22m ride down the highway, see if there are any further closures, then reconfigure our day accordingly. 

Everyone sore but doing ok. 

Saw a large black bear cross the road just behind me, first bear sighting of the trip!

Stopped in Seeley Lake town for a nice sandwich and a beer and ice cream and bought some more provisions, then back out onto the trail for the rest of the afternoon! Smoke is much heavier, it is very discouraging to not only miss seeing everything around us but to know that the smoke might be getting worse the farther south we go. Lots of FF’s from all over the country in town… 

Headed back to the GD trail from Seeley, also known as the blue line as it shows up on Gaia which is our gps mapping took along the way. Pretty cool, as long as you download the maps in advance, GPS will work on the iPhone even without cell service, which has been very sparse so far…

Speaking of cell service, for all the trips I’ve taken in the Backroads of Asia, cell service has been better there than in the U.S., at least so far. 

Finally out of Seeley about 330pm, rode about 10m mostly uphill to cottonwood lake and found a guerrilla campsite. Had a great meal of package navy bean soup with rice added, and huckleberry kettle corn we got yesterday at Holland Lake lodge. So yummy!

During our camp din prep, and getting water from the lake, it started to rain!! We’re hoping it takes down the smoke a bit overnight, and stops in the morning before we start on the bikes again!

Ps: I have learned about guy/staking my tent fly better so I don’t get soaked in the rain! Thank you, Dave and Chris!!!

Day 13

Woke up to a light drizzle, ready for camp coffee (my premix of instant coffee, sugar, and dried milk) and super duper pasty oatmeal as usual! I add a generous handful of trail mix to mine to add some sweet crunchiness and varied texture…

Had a very pleasant ride into Ovando, a very small cyclist friendly town. Stopped in at the stray bullet Café, just ordered a Ruger sandwich which is their version of a Reuben! It’s going to be so damn good!

Have Wi-Fi so going to quickly post the last few days, please excuse any errors or incomplete sentences, you’ll get the idea…

Overall, a fantastic trip so far, except for the continuous smoke! Rumor has it will lessen once we get through Montana…. There is so much to see and we can’t see it! Such is the unpredictability and beauty of this glorious life…