RAA II

Day 6

Libby, MT to Whitefish, MT

50 miles / 3,700 feet of elevation / shortened day due to mechanicals and necessary bike shop stop

Today’s shortened route took us up and over a beautiful mountain course bounded by a lake to our left (for the entire day!) and a mountain wall to our right. We traversed over gently rolling and sometimes fairly steep hills with long rollouts afterwards. We had fantastic road conditions and very few, perhaps 12, cars / trucks passed us during this entire day’s ride. Near perfect day in the saddle with beautiful scenery all around us.

From time to time the tranquility of today’s ride, in sharp contrast to yesterday’s “white knuckler,” was integrated by one of us pointing off the road to deer and wild turkeys. Some of both allowed us to get quite close before they bounded or flocked away from us.

Later in the day we visited a local bike shop in Whitefish, MT, Great Northern Cycle & Ski, where we were treated with great service and smiles all around. Great Northern service center fixed Joe’s derailer issues, tuned my cassette shifting and gave Bob’s bike a thorough onceover.

We dropped our bikes off at 1:00 p.m. and went for lunch at Piggyback BBQ. When you find yourself in Whitefish, a delightful, vibrant town with a strong tourist market, and if you are a barbeque fan, you must go to Piggyback BBQ. We each had different barbeque plates and all were excellent. Today’s late lunch was too much and too good, so we decided to skip dinner!

All in all, a near perfect riding day on day 6.

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