DAY ONE 6/17/00 41.6 Miles 3980 ft
Roosville-Tuchuck
After two years of dreaming and planning for the Great Divide Mountain Bike Ride and very little sleep Friday night (too much excitement), the kickoff day finally arrived. 

Hank, our son, drove us to the Canadian border at the Port of Roosville.  He entertained us with  Beach Boys CDs and trivia for the road trip along scenic Lake Koocanusa.  After he sent us on our way, we hummed Little Deuce Coupe for the first twenty miles of rolling hills through the Tobacco Valley. It was a good place for the Kootenai Indians to grow their tobacco, but now the primary industry is timber, Christmas trees, and ranching.

Weather today was as good as it gets.  about 75 and mostly sunny. The second twenty miles were gravel and up, up, up.  After three hours of non-stop climbing we topped out on Whitefish Divide (5400ft.) This area is in the middle of some heavy duty grizzly country. We saw bear grass flowers, and bear scat, but no bears. Maybe it's because Rita sang the Yogi Bear song all the way.  Cresting the pass we thought we could coast to the campground some 5 miles away.  Au contraire.  Someone forgot to tell us that a bridge had washed out.  An hour later and a somewhat dicey and very cold stream crossing we made it into Tuchuck campground. By the time we got camp set up and all the usual chores done it was 11:30pm.  Beautiful area though. Plus we had a pet deer in our camp all night. 

DAY TWO 6/18/00 30.1 Miles 2000 ft
Tuchuck-Red Meadow Lake
Thirty miles of forest service roads today.  The first half was gentle downhill and the second half was the other kind (up) with the last six miles having us wish they made lower gears for these machines.  The effort was well worth it, though, as our destination, Red Meadow Lake, proved to be spectacular. 

 We have had intermittent showers most of the evening. If we have to break camp and ride in the rain tomorrow we should get a better handle as to whether we are really cut out for this lifestyle.

DAY THREE 6/19/00 43.3 Miles 1320 ft
Red Meadow Lake-Columbia Falls
We had 10 wonderful hours of sleep last night, woke up to ice on the pumpkin. After a couple hours of beautiful sunshine downhill, we really got to test our rain skills. Intermittent (Rita said unrelenting) showers most of the day.  Surprisingly, it was doable.  The lower we got the warmer it was.  Whitefish Library had a very convenient canopy to sit under to have our lunch of pb&j on tortillas while we sat out the latest installment of Montana Weather.  Ten miles later, we were parked at a campground in Columbia Falls complete with (and this is no joke) Hot Showers.  Tonight it's time to do laundry and restock with groceries.

Tomorrow we head south towards Big Fork and the Swan River Valley with more serious climbing by the end of the day.  We follow along the west side of the Bob Marshal Wilderness the next few days and dogleg east to Lincoln, Montana to give our regards to our old friend, Unabomber Ted Kaczynski.

So far, we've traveled 115 miles and climbed 7300 ft. so far.  Only 2355 miles and Lord only knows how much climbing to go.  Having a great time. Thanks for riding along.

DAY FOUR 6/20/00 36.75 miles
Columbia Falls-Swan Lake
We got a late start as we had a lot of extra chores to do in town - stocked up on groceries, purchased 25 cents worth of unleaded gas for our stove, went to the post office  and made phone calls. We met a 60 year old gentleman who was riding solo from Anacortes, WA to Maine. See, we are not the only crazy ones! 

Columbia Falls to the west side of Swan Lake was mostly a ride through the country side. Pristine farm lands, like everywhere else, are being subdivided and developed. New home construction appears to be one of the primary industries. The average income in Montana is $22,000, but the state is actively recruiting high tech industries to aid the struggling economy. While Montana still has plenty of wide open spaces, these lands are diminishing.

We stealth camped at the base of a big climb in the Flathead National Forest. When stealth camping, we always try to leave no trace. More later. 

DAY FIVE 6/21/00 34.5 miles 
Swan Lake-Cedar Creek
Started the day with a 6 mile climb. At 3 miles per hour, how long does it take us to get to the top? Now, add four 3- min. rest and enjoy the scenery breaks. Our pace is slow, but nobody is whining yet. After a long cold downhill, the book said the rest of the ride was rolling hills, but failed to mention that the last one was another 1000 feet during the hottest part of the day. Much of today's ride was through clear cuts in the Flathead NF, so we could see the spectacular Swan Mountains & Bob Marshall Wilderness across the valley. This forest contains some of the tallest, straightest, old growth western larch - the kind of trees they like to use for electrical poles. The small black bear we happened upon as we rounded a corner skedaddled when Rita yelled "hey bear". Ken was still fumbling with his bear spray. We found the perfect campsite at noisy Cedar Creek We quit early enough to wash clothes and use our camp shower. Mosquitoes are our friends.

DAY SIX 6/22/00 31 miles 1540 ft
Cedar Creek-Holland Lake
We woke up to rain pattering on the tent. We opted to stay in until it quit. This was a good move; it turned into a downpour for about an hour then God was good to us. Even though we got a late start we only had a short 31 miles with no long climbs to Holland Lake. 

Many of the forest service/logging roads have been gated and are closed to motor vehicle use. The sign on the gate says the closure helps to reduce erosion, maintain water quality, improve wildlife habitat , and reduce road maintenance costs. By the looks of the gun shots through the signs, some of the local people are not happy about this roadless area policy. We've read in the newspapers that public forums are being held so that people can air their differences. 

Wild flowers that we think we can identify: bear grass, Indian paintbrush, lupine, daisies, bluebells, and we think some kind of penstamen. We stayed at the campground at Holland Lake ,but there is also a lodge, complete with restaurant, canoes to paddle, and horse back rides into the Bob Marshall Wilderness. The mosquitoes won the war; they even like deet!

DAY SEVEN 6/23/00 35 miles 3000 ft
Holland Lake-Seeley Lake
We got an early start today in preparation for the big climb and most technical part of the ride so far. When it was all said and done we didn't think the climb was so hard and the downhill wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't been grown over with Christmas trees. 

We ate our first "meal out" at Seeley Lake. After 6 days of noodles, salad & a burger never tasted so good. The town was bustling; people came from miles around for the pike fishing contest. It seems they want to eliminate the pike population so the indigenous fish can prosper.