Today we continued across the plains. You can see so far and not much happens. We passed through a small towns, that were not that interesting.

We are following highway 2 and alongside this is a railway. We have had a few hoots and waves from the drivers. The trains are pretty long. Well very long. Sometimes they have two engines at the front and one at the back. I am not sure if the one at the back does anything. If somebody knows I would be grateful if they could tell me.

Tonight we are camped in the park at Chester, there are signs in the toilet warning us when the sprinklers will come on, so I guess they welcome campers.

We are camping tonight with two other cyclists, one which we met earlier in Republic about a week ago and another that we met in Glacier National Park and who we camped with last night as well.

It is a nice evening and it has cooled of nicely which is good.

3 August 2011

Today we woke early at 5am to ride up to Logan Pass. We got there without any fines and in good time. The ride was good and not as bad as we thought it would be it is the highest point on the whole trip.

A few people made the joke that its all downhill from here! We met another touring cyclist at the top he was carry a guitar with him, which he had found.

At the top we went on a walk in the snow in crocs not the best snow wear my feet got very cold. We saw a few mountain goats and a marmot or two. The snow was pretty deep and there were a few skiers and snow boarders which we saw. The walk was to the hidden lake overlook. There were quite a few people there and at the Logan Pass visitors Centre it was rammed. It was pretty crazy walking in the snow and the road was amazing too great views and not too steep.

We headed down the other side of the mountain and stayed at the campground in St Mary it was pretty dusty but the toilets were good and new. There were three other cyclists and a hiker at the hiker/biker part of the campsite it was good chatting with them, none of them had seen a bear in the park.

After cooking dinner and waiting till dusk about 10pm we headed to an astronomy talk, it was good and the stars were excellent, but I felt the talk was a bit to in depth for people who know nothing about the stars. We found out about the talk because at the top of Logan Pass we looked at the sun, this was pretty good you could lots of stuff I have now forgotten the name of.

4 August 2011

We headed out of the park towards Browning and there started heading east on highway 2. After Browning it started to get very flat and plain like. A bit like the fens but bigger! This is why montana is called big sky country.

The day was pretty much cycling we saw a few other people and we are now staying at an RV park in Cut Bank, (where the Rockies meet the plains).

The RV park is pretty good and has showers so it was good to have a wash. We are camping with one of the cyclists who we camped with yesterday.

I think the plains could become quite relentless, I hope not boring. A lot of people we met have either got a train or said it was very dull.

Today we had an early start which was slightly but very nicely delayed by bumping into our warmshowers hosts and having a second breakfast and a lot of coffee.

Then I brought some bike gloves as I had lost mine somewhere along the way. Then we headed into Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park World Heritage Site. This was a nice ride until we got pulled over and fined for riding on the road. It is closed to bikes between 11am and 4pm we thought the ban was further along the road, but there was a sign though.

So we paid up and sat on a beach for a while, there were a lot of flies here.

At 4pm we left the beach and headed onto Avalanche were we got a space on the hiker biker site. There are two more bikers and two more hikers here as well.

The campsite is pretty basic and we seem to be miles from the toilets and waterpoint but it was only $5 so its okay.

We are just cooking dinner now before getting an early night as tomorrow we are riding the Going to the sun road, completed in 1932. The road has time restrictions on it as well.

Today was fairly uneventful apart from the following two things that happened.

We had a good breakfast prepared by our host, the bacon was excellent.

And after lunch we saw the warmshowers people we stayed with in Lake Stevens again, they kindly gave us so more water. They were helping their son move house and decided to take a road trip to Glacier National Park afterwards. It was good to see them again. We all wished each other well on our travels and headed on to Whitefish.

We headed to the state park campsite which at first was full. But there was some space on the hiker biker area but this was $15 per person which is a little steep we though. Then there was a site that became free and was $23 all in so we went for that.

The campsite is fairly nice but there is a gravel enclosure for pitching tents which made that interesting.

As we are sitting down to cook dinner another factor has become apparent there is a freight train track which seems to have fairly regular trains on which goes over the campsite.

We sat and talked with some other cyclists there are quite a few staying here and put our stuff in the bear proof storage thing before going to bed.

Today we left our hosts after a good breakfast with good coffee. So far the coffee in america has been very good and there is lots of it everybody seems to drink it!

We rode out of the town with our host and started riding on a very nice quiet road, we got pasted by very few cars.

We stopped at Libby dam for a little bit this was created about 70 years ago and Rexford was moved as it was going to get flooded.

It was very hot today and there were a few more hills than we were expecting, but it was a good ride along the lake but at some points it got a little too hot.

Whilst having lunch we got attacked by flies, and lots of them. They just kept coming.

After lunch we continued on to our warm shower host in Rexford. We had a BBQ which was good and we heard a lot of stories about what he had done.

This morning we went to see the Ross Creek Ciders. These were not quite as big as I was expecting but still they were pretty big.

We cycled on to Libby stopping at a very well maintained rest area with lots of shelters tables and grass, it would have made a great camping spot.

We are warmshowing again in Libby and our hosts recommended stopping off at Kootenia falls and swing bridge these were both very good with the swing bridge swinging a lot when we went on it.

We cycled on to our hosts and had a lovely dinner kindly prepared. The salad was good it is something that is very hard to carry around and it doesn’t keep well!

After dinner we headed to the Rodeo this was the first Rodeo I have ever been to it it was very interesting and entertaining. Lots happened fairly quickly so it was hard to tell at first what was going on but there was bull riding, cow catching and amongst other things a children’s boot race, one boot is left in the middle and you have to find it and run back to the start.

There where a lot of Rodeo rules so it was hard to tell a good bull rider from a bad one but it was a good night. So far america is treating us well.

27.7.11

I didn’t write anything yesterday as there was no phone signal at the campsite and it wasn’t a very exciting. We left the bike hostel and said goodbye to the cyclist we met the day before going a similar way to us.

We met another cyclist going the other direction and we stopped for a little chat. He said that there were too Canadians a bit further ahead of us.

We carried on cycling it was still a little hill but it has flattened out a lot and after Ione we followed a river. We carried on until we got to a campground. This was on the river bank and more focused for RVs than tents but we found a grassy spot. At $16 it was pretty expensive but it was not the end of the world. Whilst we were paying the lady told us that we were in bear country and that we should keep all our food in the toilet. We did this.

The next day 28.7.11

Today we entered Idaho the potato state. This was the flatest day we have had so far we were on some nice roads that were very quiet. We had a bit of a long stretch on some gravel top road that was not very nice, but apart from that it was a good days ride.

We met with the Canadian cyclists that the other ride we met yesterday met up with and headed into Sandpoint. After that we went on to our warm showers hosts that live in an amazing house with great views. It is very comfortable and it was good talking with them.

The day after the 29.7.11 there still hasn’t been much phone signal or wifi around so this post just keeps getting bigger and bigger!

Today we carried on along the route it was fairly flat as we were following a lake then a river. We met up with the Canadian cyclists again a couple of time on the road.

We stop and got some food and water, headed off again. We went off the route a little so that we can have a look at some big cedar trees tomorrow. Our first camping stop was abandoned due to not enough flat ground we found another spot, which seems to be okay. We think that you are allowed to camp anywhere in a National Forest. I have seen quite a few VW beetles in the states, but very few land cruisers.

After breakfast and saying goodbye to our hosts we headed off up Sherman Pass. Yet another climb this one seemed to go on for a long while.

It was fairly cloudy and then it started to rain.

We got to the top of the pass, and after a spot of lunch the rain really came down. It rained so much it stung a bit. The waterproofs did there best but they just aren’t that waterproof when the rain is so intense.

We got stopped for a long while at some road works and then had to cycle in a convoy. It was still raining. We made it to the bottom of the hill and the crossing of the Columbia River the second largest in the USA.

We head through Kettle Falls and on to Colville in the rain. We got some supplies in Wallmart, this one seemed nicer and emptier than the first one we went to. As we left the store the weather started to brighten up, it turned into a nice evening.

After this we headed through town to a free bike hostel. It is the top level of a farm house. It is very nicely furnished, and very good. I cannot believe it is free. It is nice to sit down and relax.

We awoke to the sound of sprinklers at 7am. They had the lawn pretty much covered so I just managed to close my tent door before too much rain got in! Then we had to play dodge the sprinklers whilst we unloaded our tents and took them down and moved them to another lawn with no sprinklers to dry off.

After breakfast we headed to the IGA for some lunch and water.

We head on past the post office where I bought some stamps and sent a few bits home that I no longer wanted to carry around. A t-shirt and shorts and some leaflets.

As we left the post office a man came up to us and asked us if we preferred roller top panniers or flip over panniers we have both. In the end we decided that flip over were better and easier to use etc.

He told us a bit about his bike touring etc and about a band that tour on bikes and have the audience peddle them to generate the power. They were called the Ginger Ninjas. He also offered and gave us some useful advice about Cliffs camera lens and possible solutions to getting a new one.

After this we headed of fairly late the climb started pretty much straight away. The rain a little later.

We carried on to Wauconda where we had lunch in a general store and had a good chat with a group of 5 recumbent cyclists. They were very friendly and were riding park of the northern tier route. Hopefully we will be able to stay with them later on in the trip, as they possible live on the route we going to take.

After this and drinking a lot of bottomless coffee we headed out into the rain up to the peak and then down into republic by this time it was pretty rainy so the decent was not that fast, but it was still fun. We stopped a lot for the loo due to all the coffee.

In Republic we found our warmshowers hosts house and had a shower a lovely dinner and learnt a lot about gold mining that still happens in the area and also generally a bit more about the general area.

Its raining outside still its nice to be indoors.

Today despite the rain was a good day we met a lot of lovely friendly people who I don’t think we would have ever met if we were not travelling by bike. I think there is something about a bike with loads of stuff on it that makes people want to talk to you.

Sorry the pictures today aren’t to good it was raining so I didn’t get my camera out much.

So after coffee and granola we left the comfortable house and head off into the heat. Stopping a little down the road at the washwork to check our emails before heading off again.

There was a lot of climbing, we past a parking area for cross country skying.

The downhill was pretty nice and long. Whilst going down I thought it probable made up for the up hill but later on I thought it might be nicer if it was a little longer.

We stopped in a town park which also doubles up as a campsite. A lot of people we driving up and using the 50 cent shower. I am not really sure why maybe it was a really good shower.

We visited a massive wallmart in the next town. It was big and the food was cheap. It wasn’t very nice in there, although it wasn’t too bad really.

We carried on riding and ended up in Tonasket. We rode out of the town but did not find anywhere suitable riding back into the town, Cliff asked a lady watering some plants if she knew of anywhere to camp. She said that cyclists had be camping behind the information centre. So this is where we are for the night. It is pretty pleasant.

So far the mobile phone signal in america has been pretty bad, luckily there is free wifi all over the place.