Day 68 Superior to Thompson Falls 7/16/14

STATS
Location: Montana
Miles: 71.59
Calories: 5,087
Top Speed: 29.7
Average speed: 10.7
Elevation: 2,755

We lucked out as there was a Durango restaurant across the street from the motel. We got packed up and walked over to have breakfast. I got to tell you, this may have been the best breakfast of the whole trip. While not on the menu I ordered a veggie omelet which came with hash browns and they REALLY made my morning by offering me a gluten-free roll instead of toast. The omelet must have been 3 eggs and had mushroom, green peppers, olives, and jalapeño’s (as requested). There must have been 2 cups of veggies in it! I couldn’t eat it all so I took half of it with me. Jodee had an ice chest in the car so I put in “on ice”.

We started the day riding on the freeway. There was a wide shoulder so we could be stay clear of the semi-trucks. We were able to exit the freeway after 13 miles when we entered the town of St. Regis. We found Jodee sitting in this huge chair. She looked like comedian Lilly Tomlin’s “Edith Ann” (I’m dating myself here).

Today we continued to follow the Clark Fork river for most the day and entered into a very interesting geological area dating 1.5 billion years.

This is an area that is also rich in Native American history.

We passed a very large boulder that shows the height of the water levels in the spring.

Around noon we saw Jodee parked at a Hot Springs Resort. We met her and decided to stop for lunch a bit further down the road along the Clark Fork River. After we ate we continued on our way enjoying the beautiful rock cliffs. Along the route I spotted a mountain goat skull. It had been there for a while so it was clean and bleached by the sun.Lisa spotted an elk skull and picked it up as well, it was not so clean and sun bleached.

After we passed the small town of Plains the winds hit. We then had 15 miles of head winds, uggh! Can we every catch a break with the wind?

It was a long day, Jodee met us on the road to see if we needed water and Lisa decided she needed a lift so Jodee loaded her up and they went to the campground. It was hot but rode the rest of the way into Thompson Falls with my mountain goat skull mounted on my rear bike rack.
The campground was a few miles past Thompson Falls, at first I thought I had missed it but I finally arrived.  After a cold GF beer and a shower I retrieved my breakfast from the ice chest,  heated it up and it made a delicious dinner.
Tents pitched, we dove in as soon as the mosquitoes arrived.

…I’ll keep you posted.