Day6

(This is cool if you like lots of data! It may take a few seconds to load but you can hit play and time compress our ride)

As you can see we got a chance to do a little climbing today! The first hill is Lookout Pass the second is the Camelhump.

DAILY REPORT: David, John, James and Skip. Sunny and the start temp was in the 60's and by the late afternoon the temps were in the high 80's. No real winds to speak of. I know we sound like a broken record; but just another GREAT biking day.

We started out the morning with a nice continental breakfast followed by an interview by Kevin for the local Kellogg newspaper. We took a few pictures and our required pre ride shot for the day. This morning we also had Jennifer with us who is the manager for the Baymont Inn.

So initially we had planned to take the bike path down to Rt4 and then head

up over the pass thru Burke and around down to Plains, MT. The idea being that we would be able to stay away from I90. As we traveled down the bike path we met several other bikes who informed us that there was also a dirt road that would allow us to take an easier grade up over look out pass (4000+ ft) But it wasn't until we got to Wallace and we just happened to meet one of the gentlemen who was very familiar with the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes and was a board member of the Northern Pacific Railway. He strongly cautioned us from taking Rt4 because of very poor road conditions in the pass. In fact he had mentioned that it was only a couple of weeks ago that snow was no longer on the road! After some discussions we opted to take the Northern Pacific Railway (dirt road and then railway converted to hardpack & gravel.)

This trail was not marked quite as well the nice paved Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes we had to ask several people as we went thru Mullen to make sure we were heading the right direction. I must admit I had not planning on biking dirt trails/roads on this trip. Luckly we had changed out our tires to Gatorskins and Armadillo tires which are constructed w/ kevlar belts. The tires are pretty tough! Over the 12 miles, we put them through some rough roads to by pass the Look out pass on I 90. Once we reached the other side we decided it would be safer and more time effective to take I 90. We were in Montana!!. We gave Skip our SAG support a call and arranged to meet him at exit 16 for lunch.

The boys did

remarkably well biking along I90. There were a number of freeze/thaw cracks and still a lot of winter road cinders on the shoulder. We did a quick safety brief about spacing of bikes, vehicles, road debris and then were off. It is pretty wild zipping along at 30 mph along the interstate dodging blown out tires! I was very proud of how the twins handled their bikes safely. We covered 16 miles in just over 30 mins....we were zipping along.

After lunch we still had another 40 miles to the our hotel at Quinn Hot Springs Resort. It was getting a lot hotter so we took the interstate for another 5 miles to get us to some secondary roads that would get us to Discovery. The road we got off on was named the Camel's Hump. It looked nice enough had we only known. It was about 5 miles into the ride that we started climbing and climbing and climbing....we were committed by that point and followed it thru to the city of St Regis. With in the first mile we saw a young bull moose off to the right feeding. That was pretty cool.

We took a short break and then it was hwy 135 and 25 miles to our lodging for the evening. We weren't exactly sure where the hotel was but figured we would find it sooner then later. It was all down hill (thank fully) and we arrived about 6 pm.

Skip had checked in so we were all set for the evening. The boys quickly donned their swim suits and were in the hot springs rejuvenating their tired/sore muscles. This was a great place for a recovery day and it was definitely needed.

We also wanted to thank everyone who has been sending us mails (riding4hope@yahoo.com, facebook, & twitter.) Your words of encouragement are very much appreciated.

Since the 4th of July is our rest day and most likely won't be a post......thanks for joining us.....ride safely!!

YOU DON'T SAY:

John - Through out the day while we were talking with locals about the bike route were taking "How many hills are there? Are they big? Are they really big? I am would like to avoid all hills if possible."

Skip - "The best part of taking Camelhump Road was seeing that moose."

David - "Nope, the best part of taking Camelhump Road was that 1,000 foot climb!"

James - "John you were the Navigator today and now you are telling us we didn't have to take Camelhump Road? Are you kidding me?!"

DID I REALLY DO THAT?:

James is looking at the kiosk along the trail head and is reading the map. "How can you even read this map let alone know where you are going?"

PHOTOS OF THE DAY
The city of Kellogg was putting the finishing touches on their veterans memorial for the 4th of July. James checking out the memorial.	Riding on the Northern Pacific Railway. Compact dirt road w/ a max 4% grade. Just had to be careful of all the small stones/rocks on the trail.
John, James, & David standing over Look out pass some 4000 ft.	Cycling along I90 in Montana
Antique shop with some interesting lawn displays. Now that's a BIG chicken!	John taking a cat nap during our lunch break.

Day 06 (Fri 7/3/09)

Montana - Big Sky Country

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