Tri- City Bike Club
Montana Summer Tour 2003

Saturday, July 26, 2003

Drove the car from Pasco to Trout Creek, MT, thru Spokane and then to Kingston on I-90. At Kingston we left I-90 and traveled over Thompson pass to Thompson Falls and then to Trout Creek.

We ate lunch with the Norquests near Kingston at a place called Fat Alberts. The food was really good but we ate outside because the inside smelled so bad of cigarette smoke. The temperature was above 90 degrees except on the top of Thompson pass. Tonight we ate spaghetti that was prepared by Kathleen Norquest. She and Mary Kay cooked it in the kitchen of our room. Everyone had enough to eat and we sat around and talked after supper.

Sunday, July 27, 2003
70 mile Ride
Total distance climbed - 1,990 feet

Because the ladies were determined not to be riding the bicycles during the hottest portion of the day, they decided that we should all get started at 5:30 AM. The only problem was that no restaurant was going to be open until 7:00 AM. Therefore, they arranged for a restaurant in Noxon, MT to open at 6:30 AM. Therefore, everyone rushed to get up before dawn to ride to Noxon, which is 15 miles north of Trout Creek. The only problem was that it was so dark at 5:30 AM when the planned start was to occur that I could not see the pressure gage on a bike pump so that I could put air into Mary Kay's bicycle tires. Ed Norquest had to hold a flashlight so I could see the tire pressure gage.

We waited until 5:45 AM and then got started to Noxon. Everyone who had flashing rear red lights turned them on because it was still so dark that the flashing red light was the only thing that showed a bicycle was on the road. The first thing I noticed was that my computer was not working correctly. It took me several miles to realize that I had a wire that was not making a good contact. Cadence was working fine but recording mileage was hit and miss. We reached the restaurant at the appointed hour and placed our order.

Then we waited and waited and waited and waited some more. The cook did one order at a time. She did not cook eggs and hash browns for several people at one time but would complete the order for one person before starting the order for the next person. It took more than an hour to feed 10 bicycle riders and one other restaurant customer. In addition the restaurant was not heated and I became chilled to the bone before I, the last person served, received my food. By the time I received my food, I was quite angry.

We got our bicycles and starting on the rest of the days ride. The first thing I noticed was that my computer was working even worse than it had earlier. I kept playing with the wires where it appeared to have the bad connection for several miles. At times the computer would tell me I was going 85 miles per hour and then it would tell me I was stopped when I was really going between 10 and 20 miles per hour. Finally, after several miles and much frustration, the computer actually began to work correctly. At the end of the day I found out that the computer had not recorded 3 miles that we had traveled.

The scenery was great. Typical rocky mountain views with lakes, hills, and forests. Mary Kay was awesome, she road 70 miles, climbed almost 2000 feet and averaged 12.8 miles per hour. I was very proud of her.

Monday, July 28, 2003
68 mile Ride
Total distance climbed - 3,090 feet

We bicycled from Libby, MT to Eureka, MT. We traveled over rollers along side the reservoir behind the Libby dam. As a result we climbed 3090 feet. We again started early. We ate breakfast at 6:00 AM when the restaurant in the motel opened and were riding by 7:00 AM. The problem was that the rear tire on Mary Kay's bicycle developed a wow (It had a bulge to the right followed by a bulge to the left) that caused the tire to thump on each revolution. After looking at the tire and trying to eliminate the wow by reducing the tire pressure, I decided to just let it go and change it after we reached Eureka or when the tire failed, whichever occurred first. The time we took checking the tire, caused Mary Kay and moved from the front to the back of the group. We stayed at the back for the rest of the day. It was great when we caught up with the Sag Wagon for food and cold water.

Mary Kay was tired from her great ride the day before and we had many more hills. We traveled through an area of mountains and trees with the Libby dam reservoir in the valley below. The only real problem was that when we arrived in Eureka at 3:00 PM the temperature on the road was 110 degrees.

We all (10 of us) climbed into the sag van and went to downtown Eureka where we had our evening meal. We will again go to bed very early.

Tuesday, July 29, 2003
55 mile Ride
Total distance climbed - 1,995 feet

We bicycled from Eureka, MT to Whitefish, Mt. We again ate breakfast at 6:00 AM. Mary Kay was very tired and so we traveled quite slowly, especially when going uphill. We also faced a head wind so for a large portion of the day I rode in front of Mary Kay acting as a windbreak. By the end of the day I was tired. The first and last portion of the ride was up and down numerous hills. The middle portion of the ride was quite flat. Where Mary Kay averaged 12.8 miles per hour the first day of the trip, she only averaged 10.8 miles per hour today.

The road had good shoulders leaving Eureka but the further south we got the shoulders on the road got narrower until we came to some road where a very thin layer of asphalt had been applied to the road. The problem was that they did not include the narrow shoulder and there was a 1 to 2 inch bump that intruded onto the shoulder in places between the proper road and the shoulder. It was very difficult to ride on the shoulder and dangerous to ride on the road.

Wednesday, July 30, 2003

Today is a rest day and we are resting. We did not eat breakfast until 9:00 AM. We ate in downtown Whitefish and then spent an hour walking from one store to another. When we came out of the restaurant the air was very smoky. Whitefish is surrounded in every direction by wildfires. The worst of these wildfires are in Glacier National Park. Finally we sat at a table outside a coffee shop and talked for an hour after which we went back to the motel. We then when shopping again and I do not enjoy shopping. We are going to eat supper at 5:00 PM at a pizza place in downtown Whitefish. Since we only have 45 miles to ride tomorrow, we should not have to start as early as we have the past three days. Mary Kay just told me that everyone wants to start at 6:00 AM again. These people are nuts.

Thursday, July 31, 2003
50 mile Ride
Total distance climbed - 1,565 feet

We got up late to start. Instead of starting at 6:00 AM we started at 6:15AM. The air was very smoking and the sun was bright red.

The Norquest's got lost after about 2 miles (they missed a turn) and did not have their radio turned on. I tried to reach them but with their radio turned off it was a waste of time so I road back to the last place that I had seen them which was the intersection of Hwy 40 and Whitefish stage road. Since there are wildfires burning all around Whitefish, the area was very smoky and the Norquest's were going into the worst of the smoke. I tried the radio again and this time Ed answered and said that they did not think the ride was long enough so they were riding some extra miles (about 5 extra miles). To get back to Hwy 40 I also got to ride an extra 5 miles. They were on the way back to the corner where I was waiting. The three of us formed a pace line that charged down the Whitefish Stage Rd at an estimated speed of 20 miles per hour. Ed and I did all of the pulling and we came upon Mary Kay at Oregon Street.

We proceeded to wander around Kalispell until we came to a coffee shop that served breakfast. We ate a very leisurely breakfast and then followed the instructions to get to Somers without traveling on Hwy 93. This ride was very nice. There was very little traffic, a very few small hills and except for a short distance that was not paved, nice riding. We saw several birds. Just after Somers we had our only stop of the day with the Sag wagon.

The rest of the day was spent going up and down hills. The four of us stopped several times to rest, eat ice cream, or just to look at the scenery. When we arrived at the Bed and Breakfast, we ate a snack and went to the edge of the lake. I put on my swimming suit and swam around the lake for a few minutes. We showered and made sure everyone had a place to sleep. Later we ate hamburgers and several salads on the lake edge. Tomorrow we are eating breakfast at 7:30 AM instead of 6:00 AM.

Friday, August 01, 2003
49 mile Ride
Total distance climbed - 1,795 feet

The first climb right out of Elmo was 500 feet. We had two more major climbs that were close together. The first was 580 feet and the second was 210 feet. A large portion of the ride was fairly level and we traveled at 16 to 20 miles per hour. We started last but after a long period on the flat highway we had passed everyone else and were the lead group when we reached the first sag wagon stop. Due to the ladies (Mary Kay and Kathleen) need to use a tree, we were the last ones to leave this sag wagon stop.

We did not rush since we only had 49 miles to ride and we were traveling at this high rate of speed. We stopped to look at birds, to eat ice cream, to have espressos, etc. Ed and I spend most of the time in the lead because we had a light head wind most of the day. However, when we reached the last two climbs I kept checking the temperature gage on my computer. During those two climbs the temperature ranged from 103 to 110 degrees. The sun was hot and the reflection off the pavement increased the road temperature. In the shade the temperature was only 83 degrees. It was a great relief when we reached the 5-mile downhill run into Plains and our motel.

Saturday, August 02, 2003
48 mile Ride
Total distance climbed - 885 feet

This was an easy day because we only climbed 885 feet and the only real climbs occurred just before we reached Thompson Falls, MT. Mary Kay was not feeling well and we had a little head wind so I spent most of the day breaking the wind for her.

After we arrived in Trout Creek, we loaded the car and headed back home. We went over Thompson Pass again and found out why we had to walk part of the way up the pass in 2000. The last couple of miles up the pass is on a 9% grade. We stopped in Ritzville, WA and ate a very late lunch or an early supper. We got back home about 6:00 PM. All in all it was a wonderful tour

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Last modified 08/28/03