Climbing down the time zone ladder (GMT -07). Rain, rain please go away.
The day began with moderate rain as with road upstream along the Clark Fork River on the alternate route. At 10 miles we encountered an unexpected obstacle - road construction that prevented further progress on the paved road. Soooo … we took the detour - a very muddy road that after 5 miles returned us to the paved route about a half mile from the bridge that crossed the Clark Fork to return to state route 200 five miles inside Montana. We rode much of the day in rain but that didn’t diminish the beauty of our surroundings. In fact, as you can see from the pictures, the clouds that partially obscured the surrounding mountains were quite spectacular.
We saw more Osprey this day than I ever seen before. There were hundreds of nesting platforms and almost every one of them had a nest with more than one nearly mature chick. They became almost common place and we failed to photograph any of the Osprey. Len's spectacular photo of the humming bird at least partially compensates for the absence of Osprey. We'll do better tomorrow. Speaking of photos, don't miss the full set for each day now publicly available on Picasa at https://photos.app.goo.gl/ygsYaYy4vSJs2KXAA. We're updating the photos every day we have internet access.
Our favorite section along the Bull River had minimal car and truck traffic and provided the opportunity to reflect on the reason for undertaking a journey like ours. The Bull River Valley offered a stark contrast to the showers we received along the more heavily traveled routes. Particularly memorable was an RV pulling a large SUV AND a boat. Despite the spray, the humor of the situation could not escape us, and we both laughed as the enterprising vacationer passed us (recall the Griswold family's cross country trip starring Chevy Chase in the National Lampoon's Vacation).
A water stop at the Half Way House provided local color. We were definitely out of place in our riding togs. The sign at the door announced that there would be smoking inside. No smoke free environment for these tough folks. After filling our water bottles at the bar - the locals must have thought we were nuts, we soldiered on without rain for a change.
The day ended as it began, with rain as we rode into Libby. There we were greeted by a surly desk clerk at our hotel and a group of very friendly motorcyclists. Needing a Laundromat and being told the closet one was five miles away (back to the rain - no way), Len went across the street to another hotel were he pleaded with the very accommodating desk clerk to let us use the guest laundry even though we weren’t staying there. Guess we should have chosen the Venture Inn. While Len watched the laundry, Jim found a NAPA auto parts store and purchased degreaser and rags for the bike chains. Next was a visit to the local super market for breakfast stuff and some PayDay bars for the next day’s ride. We finished the day with a dinner visit to the Antlers Diner, a “family” restaurant specializing in everything except beer or wine, something we really wanted to have.
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