RAA II

  Day 11   Grass Range to Jordan, MT   101 miles / about 3,300 feet of elevation (for those wondering, 7,268 calories burned this day)   We started day 11 at a highway intersection outside of Grass Range, Hwy. 200.   Hwy. 200 promised to be a less traveled highway and it delivered on the promise.   We saw few cars / trucks today and those that we did encounter had the nicest, most accommodating drivers we have seen.   If Idaho has the worst drivers we have met, Montana has the best drivers so far.   Thank you Montana drivers! My bike is fixed and running perfectly.   Here is a photo of what the derailleur should look like when fixed to the bike frame, not sitting in my hands like yesterday’s photos! Today was very cold, wet, raining (biting rain at times) but we had great roads to ride on so we hunkered down and finished the 101 miles in near record time for us.   I think we were driven to get out of the extreme cold.   ...

  Day 10   Stanford to Lewistown, MT 95 miles (completed only 30 after “serious mechanical”) / wind – 25 mph gusts; side and tail winds   Today’s ride was jinxed from the start.   First we had a “game day reroute” due to sun issues (directly in the driver’s eyes) and no shoulder.   We rerouted and drove about 30 minutes away to a less traveled highway.   We knew we would have high cross and tail winds (but clear skies!) but the new highway registered far fewer cars and trucks so we were game. At about 1,000 feet into day 10, while I was changing into lower gears, my derailleur jumped the track and got caught in my rear spokes and disintegrated.   Joe was right behind me and yelled out, “Your derailleur just exploded and shredded your frame.”   Thankfully the bike’s frame was not shredded but the derailleur had ripped completely off the frame!     Not too undaunted, we stopped and I switched to the “back-up bike,” my 10 year...

  Day 9   Shelby to Brady, MT 100 miles / 3,500 feet of elevation   When we left just outside of Shelby this morning it was 42° along with a stiff breeze – we were freezing as we rolled out on day 9.   We were however treated to a wide open “access road” next to the highway, with very few cars / trucks for the first 2.5 hours of our ride.   We saw more Turkeys across the wheat fields and simply enjoyed the rolling landscape all around us. After about 2.5 hours on the roads next to the highway, we had to go up onto the highway shoulder, but today we had a 4’ shoulder and concrete highway.  This highway riding, even though the cars / trucks around us were going 70(+) mph, we felt like we were riding on a track!  Our speed (with a slight tailwind) were between 22-24 mph!  This pace assisted with a short, just less than 100 mile day and allowed us to undertake some late day bike maintenance.   Before ending our day though, we travel...

Day 8   East Glacier to Shelby, MT   85 miles / 2,800 feet of elevation   Montana is the “new Texas” from RAA I, we are in Montana for 5-6 days out of 18.   Growing up in Alaska, my “lower 48” geography is a bit off, I truly had no idea Montana was this large of a state!   However, happy to be in Montana; the roads and shoulders are good, the drivers courteous and share the road willingly.   We have had some trouble with hotel accommodations as the state is not well populated and some towns don’t have hotels for us, so we end up shuttling at the end of the day and beginning of our days.   This shuttling is a very slight inconvenience for the beautiful surroundings we are cycling in. We enjoyed wide open roads with good cycling all day long.  Montana’s “Big Sky” was a treat throughout the day. Again, we tried to show you this aspect of Montana in some of our photos but our photos just don’t seem to do the real thing justice – at times w...

  Day 7   Whitefish, MT to Summit of “Going-to-the-Sun Road (Glacier National Park)” 80(+) miles / 5,000(+) feet of elevation gain; many 6-8 grade climbs, few 16 grade (real, real steep!)   [Think of those yellow truck warning signs at the top of a hill with a black truck pictured descending with a warning for a 6% grade!   Some of these climbs were almost three times that grade – this truly was the “going to the sun” road!] Glacier National Park, MT, just outside of Whitefish, MT, was commissioned in 1910 or so and this road was built in the 1930’s.  This road is still considered one of the engineering feats in our nation’s history!  For those of you who enjoy the outdoors or viewing the overwhelming vastness of huge, panoramic vistas, this place is a must see on your bucket list.  It is hard to describe the majesty of mountain views and riding your bicycle among those peaks which were etched millions of years ago by glacial movement.  Yo...

  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...

  Day 5   Priest River, ID to Libby, MT (new state crossing)   102 miles; 3,258 feet of elevation / had to portage two times   Today’s first 25 miles of cycling began with some traffic and narrow shoulders.  From there the traffic and shoulders go progressively worse.  After some “white knuckle” riding we decided to portage (twice) to appease some of the Idaho drivers.  (After a quick vote, Idaho drivers get the “worst etiquette / least favorite state to ride in.”)  We don’t want to bash all Idaho drivers, perhaps the 10 or 11 that let us know of their displeasure with cyclists were just having a bad day?  To be clear, we are riding on several marked bicycle routes across America.  We are riding the Northern route, legitimate “Route 10,” which is one of about seven different routes which begin on the coast and literally go across America from there.  And, we drove this route last October (thinking the pandemic would be o...