Section 1 Rooseville Montana to Polaris MT - D5

06/14 Day 5, Montana  Whitefish, Columbia Falls, Swan River, Ferndale, Holland Lake (98 Miles)

Breakfast was had early at the Pin N Cue bowling alley and bar.  We joined the “regulars” already there; a table of adorable old guys.  The last guy to arrive was a bit infirm.  The others played musical chairs to make sure he had the best one.  Loved it.

Later in Columbia Falls we found a post office and mailed back our passports.  I nabbed a new Tyvek mailer – I lost mine in Sparwood.  Tyvek was the best piece of gear we had.  We used it as a fast wind break under our jerseys instead of putting on a vest.  It is much faster to deal with and folds small in a pocket.  Also works well as a table to eat from.

We had some paved road then endless forest road.  While still on pavement and in a rural development, we met Tom Arnone who advertises lodging and water for all the TD cyclists.  He’d been following the SPOTs and knew we were coming by.  Very nice guy. 

We had our first really tough, sustained climbing of the tour this day.  We climbed 2000ft at the first go and another 1000ft effort later in the day.  Granny efforts and some walking for me as I learn Miss STB is a climbing hoss.  All day we followed the Swan Valley and the Swan mountain range over our left shoulder.  The views were Stunning.

We were caught by the S Africans right at dark (dark here was about 9:30) but I was bonking and we lost them when I stopped to eat.  We were unsure how to find the NF campground and knew we would never make Holland Lake Lodge before they closed.    

Temperatures dipped sharply as it got dark.  This was the coldest we’d been so far, even in all the previous snow and rain.  At 10:15 we finally get to the turn off to the lodge and the NF campground.  At the campground, we woke the park host to show us where the bathrooms were after riding a complete circle and not finding them ourselves.  We want the bathrooms (concrete pit toilets) as a backup bivy if the weather gets bad and also to stash our food since we were still in bear country. 

Wikipedia:

“Hypothermia - If exposed to cold and the internal mechanisms are unable to replenish the heat that is being lost, a drop in core temperature occurs. As body temperature decreases, characteristic symptoms occur such as shivering and mental confusion. “

I was definitely hypothermic by the time we arrived at the NF campground.  I was shivering terribly.  STB and I huddled in the toilet building to try and get some food in before setting up the bivys.  I was with it enough to get my food off of the bike and store it in the toilet but not enough to change clothes into something dry and warm.  I set up my bivy under a picnic table and crawled in with my bike clothes on.  I slept some then just shivered the rest of the night.  Even worse was crawling out of that bivy in the morning.  Only the thought of Holland Lake Lodge just a mile down the road got me going.

HLL was lovely and warm.  Christian took such great care of us – coffee, breakfast and food to go.  We took the opportunity to dry out our sleeping bags on the lodge floor and review maps for the day.

My brother Joe did a very good job of stalking us here and calling the lodge.  Very unexpected and got a good laugh for the day.