Date: Wednesday, 10 August 2016
Time on Bike: 1:32:23
Total Travel Time: 1:46:14
Miles Covered Today: 23.74
Total Trip Miles: 1,689.5
Average Speed: 15.4!!!!!, Maximum Speed: 31.0
From: Stryker, MT
To: Eureka, MT
(Uploaded on 22 Aug 2016)
Woke up to cloudy skies and a forecast for rain for at least the morning hours… doesn't look good.
What to do?
Bunny went to the adjacent gas station/Subway that is also the hotel office to get her free cup of coffee. No free breakfast, at least free coffee! So she is explaining to the lady behind the Subway counter that I am biking cross country. A guy sitting at a nearby table mentioned that he is also biking cross country east to west with two other people. Bunny knows that no one is going east to west it seems!!
Bunny asked if by chance she saw them biking as the storm set in yesterday evening. Yes, that was them. They waited the worst part of the weather out in Fortline, MT (about 12 miles east) and then they biked to the same hotel that we were staying in.
Before leaving with her coffee, Bunny made sure he planned to be there for another 5 to 10 minutes as she wanted to tell me about this “chance” meeting and knew I would want to meet/talk to him.
Upon hearing that other cyclists were at the same hotel traveling west, I grabbed my Adventure Cycling Association maps and made a beeline to his table in Subway.
I recognized him immediately as the guy that I met when I got off the shuttle bus at Apgar Visitor Center the previous day, Carl. He likewise figured it might be me as I had told him I was going to meet my wife.
Small world!!
So, Carl was traveling with two other women. They started their adventure in Bar Harbor, ME some 3 months ago!!! He was trying to get a handle on what they were going to do with the weather today, just as I was. The forecast looked bad for the afternoon as well. They had a deadline to get to Anacortes, WA and had only one rest/break day to spare. Their dilemma was does this need to be that day, or should they head out and hold onto that day for another reason?
Obviously, I could not make that decision for them. But I kinda invited myself to bike with them when they did head out!!!! I was tired of traveling solo and had such a great day with George a week or so ago. I was anxious to travel with someone again.
Soon Jenn & Rachael came in for their morning coffee and we talked about our trips. Jenn had been planning this cross country bike trip since 2011. Yes, 5 years in the planning! She put out the word that she was looking for travel partners and it would be her route that they would be following. Not exactly the Northern Tier route, but they had been already seen great locations. They had originally started with 9 cyclists and were now down to these 3!
When they found out about Woz, they remembered we had boarded the same shuttle bus they were on early last Sunday morning at Glacier National Park. Really, I mean who would forget Woz???
We compared travel speeds and daily mileage goals to make sure at least those were compatible. I gave them an out and said let me know later in the day as it looked like they too would sit out the bad weather.
I looked at weather again in the early afternoon. Still looked like rain, but the skys were clearer.
I decided that if I was in fact leaving from the hotel in Eureka tomorrow morning with these guys, I still needed to get from Stryker to Eureka, and I needed to do it today. I had Bunny & Woz run me that 24 miles up HW 93 and I would make the dash for the hotel where they had returned to!
The skies looked threatening, but I felt I could beat the weather today. I had a very strong tailwind and made good use of it! Little traffic at 3 PM.
There were a few bodies of water I cycled by. This one is Dickey Lake.
I saw numerous Osprey nested along the road. They made a lot of noise as I cycled by, but never swooped down on me.
Things look different on a cloudy, overcast day. Will not be any great pics today...
I had wondered why this was called Tobacco Plains along with the Tobacco River. A sign on the road answered my question!
And just before getting to Eureka, HW 93 opened up and I had nice, wide shoulders! Finally!!
I officially arrived into Eureka on bike. Today was the Farmer's Market… missed it!
More importantly, I noticed a few massage therapists as I hit town. Bunny called both and both returned her call. She set up something (with Woz in attendance!!) for tomorrow morning at 9 AM. Hopefully will help her back issues.
I rolled into the hotel parking lot in a bit more than 1.5 hours!
With that great tailwind, I averaged 15.4 MPH. That was my fastest (and shortest!!!!) day so far!
One important point I learned in my conversation with Carl earlier in the day was that I had completely missed the severity of the climbs we plan to bike the last week in Washington State. There were four summits to be climbed in four days. In terms of vertical feet, it was even more than Logan Pass. HOLY CRAP! I had been sooooo focused on Logan Pass, I had not even paid any attention to these big boys in Washington state!
I went to bed knowing the rest of my trip would be very different. I would be biking with three other experienced cyclists and, at the least, there would be safety in numbers! But I was hoping for more than that.
A few more pictures from a cloudy day...
