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.

Popular posts from this blog

Day 1 “They’re baaaack.” That’s right, the same guys that spearheaded the RAA I (“Ride Across America I”) three years ago, Bob McCullough, Joe Geivett and Carl Forsberg are headed out on RAA II, this time the Northern Route across America. As you may recall, in August 2018 this group rode from San Diego, California to St. Augustine, Florida over 27 days, with a rest day in Austin, Texas. RAA I was about 3,055 miles. RAA II (who’s idea was this anyway, Bob?) is from Anacortes, Washington to Bar Harbor, Maine, our route is 4,251 miles. One never has an appreciation for how much wider America is on its Northern border than its Southern border – until you map a bicycle route. Due to scheduling considerations (the “vocation” as opposed to the “avocation”), we will ride from Anacortes to Minneapolis, Minnesota this year and pick back up in Minneapolis and ride to Bar Harbor this time next year. (We hope to get a spectacular “New England Fall.”) The first leg of RAA

Day 3 Omak to Colville Another very big day: 116 miles and a 9,000-foot gain in elevation with most of this gain in the elevation occurring in miles 80-90 towards the end of the day (just when you thought the day couldn't get any tougher, oh yeah, “Here’s a huge, steep climb to end the day!”) Road Conditions: We went from 3-foot shoulders with a “rumble strip” to 18 inch shoulders with no rumble strip to no shoulders! And we have included here photos of some of the machinery going up the mountain passes right next to us – not for the faint of heart! Today’s weather: We had it all today, a little rain in the morning out of Omak and then the day progressed to about 88° from Noon on, going into Colville. Air quality from the fires was 151. Oh, and we had near 15 mph headwinds for some of the mountain ascents and descents. Some of these headwinds pushed us sideways while descending at near and above 40 mph. Today’s story is about the ride, it was a very tough d

Day 2 Ross Dam Overlook to Okanogan Pre day-2 discussion; Bob email to Joe and I: “Surprise, our total elevation gain is over 8,000 feet, our estimated elevation gain was 1,600 feet off! 2,500 feet in 10 miles between miles 70-80. Super steep! Oh, and FYI, Wednesday is close to 9,000 elevation gain, not the 7,000 we had charted …” Joe’s response, “Good to know Bob.” 105 miles; over 8,000 feet of elevation gain! Tough, tough day in the saddle; this was one of the top 20 hardest centuries we have ridden and among the top 10 most beautiful. Stunning vistas, truly a magnificent highway (Hwy. 20; which closes for about 4-5 months a year due to 20(+) foot snowfalls! We encountered some smoke from long away forest fires and we saw tremendous damage from recent forest fires in the Okanogan National Forest. Very sad, this forest will not likely come back in our lifetime. We had beautiful, well-maintained roads, with little shoulder but for the most part very courteous drivers.