Arrived In West Glacier

We have had some very productive days and camped at beautiful and secluded campgrounds that unfortunately had no service. Tonight, however, we are in West Glacier Montana where we splurged on our first motel stay of the trip and so with an outlet to power up and wifi I can finally post an update. 

We were able to pass through Idaho and make it to Montana all in one day. Idaho was gorgeous and we enjoyed a sundae in a cute town called Hope. We decided to push on and beat a storm to a campground right over the border in Montana after a long day.

The weather held during the next day so we pushed pass Libby to a quiet campground on Lake Koocanusa. As there was a bar on site, we made good on the drinks we had accumulated (we made it a rule that we earned a drink for each 500 miles, each state we made it to, and each new map- so we had 4 from the previous day). We slept with well after that and slept in a little to let the rain lighten the next morning. We the biked along Lake Koocanusa to Eureka. There we had some great breakfast for lunch and milkshakes. Feeling refueled we followed our map through these beautiful rural roads to a campground past Fortine. It felt great to be off the highway and the beaten path. It is really amazing to have our route to follow that takes us on roads we would never find if we were to devise our own path.

Today it was raining hard when we set out- unfortunately back on the highway. But the clouds broke and by the time we hit Whitefish it was only drizzling. We stopped to replace our chains and grab some lunch. We planned to have a short day and only travel 10 miles further to Columbia Falls, but the hostel we planned on staying in was closed. Since it was no longer raining we decided to push about 20 miles on to West Glacier. Well, we got about 4 miles before angry clouds rolled in and the skies opened up on us. Luckily it only lasted about 45 minutes, and we were able to enjoy the back roads (including some miles of dirt roads) to West Glacier. The clouds dissipated enough for us to oogle the incredible view as we arrived in town. Now, as I said earlier, we are weathering some more bad weather from our motel room. At this point it feels like we are living in the lap of luxery!

Tomorrow we will travel the 11 miles to the Lake  McDonald Campground in the park and rest/explore the remainder of the day.

Before I sign off, I just wanted to thank everyone for all the encouraging comments. On my phone I can't respond in an efficient manner to them individually, but we are receiving them and appreciate the kind words and assorted poems.

Best,

Casey