Last Saturday I finished a wonderful, two-week loop tour from/to Missoula, with nights in St. Regis, Wallace (ID), Thompson Falls, Cabinet Gorge, Troy, Yaak (2), Rexford, Whitefish, Glacier National Park (2), Bigfork and Seeley Lake. I will update this thread with a photo album in a week or so but I wanted to convey some thoughts while they are fresh in my mind.
While planning the trip I focused on the roads and trails I planned to ride. When actually out there on the road, I quickly realized that the rivers and lakes I casually paid attention to during the planning stages were dominating the days. Rivers of note included the Clark Fork, St. Regis, Kootenai, Bull, Yaak, Flathead and Blackfoot. Major lakes included Koocanusa, Bull, Flathead, Swan, Seeley and Salmon. And countless creek crossings were a daily occurrence.
Some highlights of the trip:
1. The portions of the Olympian and NorPac Trails that I rode--from De Borgia to Lookout Pass—and then the screaming descent down I-90 to Mullan to pick up the Trail of the Coeur D ’Lane to Wallace, ID.
2. Wallace to Thompson Falls via Dobson, King’s (unpaved) and Thompson Passes. Worth the effort.
3. The unadvertised hike/biker sites at Thompson Falls State Park. They are actually day use picnic areas that they put hikers/bikers in. They are the best sites in the place.
4. Blue Slide Rd. to the Trout Creek area. (A must ride over MT 200.)
5. MT 56 through the Cabinet Mountains and my lakeside site at U.S.F.S. campground Dorr Skeels at the head of Bull Lake. Amazing sunset conditions.
6. Yaak River Rd. to Yaak for two nights at U.S.F.S. campground Pete Creek, and then the climb and descent to MT 37. Beautiful every inch of the way and about as far off the grid as you can get without being in the backcountry.
7. The fried chicken at the Frontier Bar in Rexford and splashing around in Lake Koocanusa.
8. The new hiker-biker sites at Whitefish Lake State Park and Wayfarers State Park, complete with tent pads, bike racks, shelters, repair stands, power outlets and bear lockers.
9. The back way via North Fork, Blankenship and Belton Stage Rds. to/from W. Glacier (glad to see there is a bike path from Lake 5 Rd. to W. Glacier) and, of course, the ride up to Logan Pass and back down.
10. Middle Rd. between Columbia Falls and MT 35.
11. The lack of rain. Had an overnight shower in Whitefish and brief drizzle the morning I was preparing to leave Glacier. Other than that, it was bone dry.
Lowlights included:
1. U.S. 93 south of Fortine, with its traffic and sketchy shoulder in many places. A stretch south of Twin Bridges Rd. just outside of Whitefish is in particularly horrible shape.
2. The earlier miles of MT 83 south towards Seeley Lake for the same reason.
3. Trying to ride a portion of an abandoned Milwaukee Road right of way only to find the last mile through a ranch blocked off by a barbed wire fence, forcing me to backtrack to I-90 and adding 8 miles to an already long first day of 76 miles.
4. The heat. Most days reached into the lower 90s with blazing sun.
No bear or moose sightings, but I did see countless whitetails and a few mulies, a half dozen bald eagles, numerous ospreys, a doe elk on the NorPac Trail, a big horn ewe with young ones in Cabinet Gorge, a large, red fox, one fat hoary marmot and what I believe was an ermine.
