Day 8 - Thompson Falls to Missoula.

Day 8 - Thompson Falls to Missoula.

Today was indeed a new day. A good day, in fact. A Long day but a good day.

I slept out in the tent outside in the schoolyard last night as opposed to in the halls of the school. It meant more work, but ultimately it was much more privacy and I just appreciated the alone time after yesterday.

The train came through last night and blew its horn all the way through town. You don’t really realize how large a “small town” is until the train at 2:30 a.m. blows its horn the whole way through town. Suddenly small towns are much larger.

This morning was cold but did not have the sharp cold edge some of the other days have had. Riding the 1 mile down to the ELKS club for breakfast, my achilles made its protest known that I would not be able to survive the day as status quo. A good old fashionied hot egg and toast breakfast sent us on our way out of the ELKS.

Coming out I lowered my seat 1/8” of an inch and that held my achilles at bay. It hurts and still has a swollen knot in it, but it won’t end my ride and let me continue my day. I am always amazed at the sensitivity of the body to such small adjustments.

Riding stronlgy I felt off to a good start. This was an especially welcomed feeling after yesterday. Starting near teh rear, but riding strong I got to visit with some of the slower riders as I started out. I happened to be about 7o yards behind Bill Harm, when a deer came out of the forest and he sppokked it. It was all to fast to photograph, but I can still see her, spook, recoil, then run and bound across the road. It was a really beautiful moment as we rode down this river valley.



Riding further I was making good time and had hopes of catching the leaders, when I cam across Tom, with a flat. I stopped to help with the flat and then we were on the road again.



Tom and I rode on most of the way for the afternoon. We rode along the lazy river as the mountains parted and divided around every mile and curve. Taking pictures and just cruising. At the first water stop we were informed there had been some “smuckng” of bicyclist up ahead in the S curves and we were advised to keep tight in the corners to avoid such “Smucking”. Smucking was never described in detail as to what it was, but from the context of the warning we got the gist that we best not invite a “smucking.”

We were perplexed by this Roadside pullout waterfall. Is it an art piece, or a source of fresh water of what?



Riding on we managed to avoid any “smucking” but when I stopped to take a picture with the longhorns that seem to upset them a bit. Maybe it was me in my bright colors jumping across the ditch to get int he picture but i was hoping that they wouldn’t come over and
“smuck” me.



The mountains continued to morgh, grow and change as we rode to the midday checkpoint. Some hills would fade away, while other snow capped gagged peaks would come into view. I personally found Idaho to be prettier. The sky and colors here in Montana seemed washed out unlikie the vibrancy of Idaho.

At the midday checkpoint just as Tom and I were puling out, Rodney showed up with his bike. They had maanged to get him into Missoula, get the parts and get him back for a half day. WE were so glad to see Rodney back. I was happy he joined Tom and I for the early afternoon miles.

As a group, I found myself in the lead a lot. Often in group riding like that, there is a stronger rider who becomes the leader and moves to the front and “pulls” the group. In addition to riding and being strong, as a puller, i am trying to maintain a consistent achievable pace, I have to be conscious of how well my guys are adjust the pace accordingly. I also am picking the line and watching and pointing out all the road debris and obstacles and trying to find the smoothest and easiest section of riding. So while my eyes are searching the road and planning out path, my ears are listening to the pedals and people’s breathing, and through touch I am feeling out the pace and how easy it is. After while, sorting and editing all this sensory information becomes very mentally draining. Ideally there would be a couple of leaders in a group that were both comparable pullers and could relieve each other.

Doing it solo for 30 miles was really fatiguing. When we got to the final water stop I was ready to change groups and maybe hookup with slightly stronger riders that could pull me.

jsut as we got to the water stop some folks saw a black bear just a few yards off the road. That was the talk of the rest stop for a while. I then had to go pee so I went over to the weeds where Greg the leader for the Tandem was and as we are standing there doing our thing, we see the bear about 50 yards away and accross a little wash, rolling and frolicking in the grass. He look cute and fuzzy from 50 yards. I tried to hobble backand get my camera and then return for a picture but by then he had moved on. So with all the wildlife today, they will just have to be mental pictures.

Just as we started to head out of the water stop, Scott pointed out I had a front end flat. my first. But after 30 minutes of goofing off at the water stop, now I had anohter 10 minutes of tire repair. But we got it sorted out and Scott, Alison and I started teh 8 mile uphill climb.

I was glad to be with stronger riders and hav Scott pulling. As we started up, the road soon became a slow lane for trucks with a passing lane for cars and less than 12” of shoulder for us bikes. This soon became the hardest and most stressfull part of the ride. As Scott was pulling and picking our course, I was in the tail, calling out traffic. Pretty soon I fell into StageManager mode and it was like caling out cues. Callling out “cars back, our lane, moved over, (cars would pass us) clear.” However sometimes it sounded more like this...
“Truck and cars back, truck our lane, nowhere to go, going be close...hang on... (truck passes) ... not clear, 2nd truck... he’s over... clear” After all of this Alison, who is in the staging industry, and I discussed how it was like calling cues and some of the most tense part of the ride.

We got to the top and I asked if anybody remembered what Montana looked like. Scott said he thought it looked like a 4” wide white line. Alison thought it looked like the back of Scott’s jersey and I had just watched it go go by as constant traffic in my 1” helmet mirror. We had a laugh at that. I was glad to have come up it with such strong and comparable riders.

The joy was that over the hill we got a great downhill. Scott took off rocketing down. I was cooking trying to keep up. I topped out at 50.9 MPH coming down. I wound up capturing the top speed award for that. Finally at the bottom all of us were tired and had hot feet, so we stopped ont he finally manicured lawn of the Mobile home sales park. It was a great rest. 6 miles more and we were int he dorm for our second rest night.

All in all it was a good day. It was my first Century ride and longest ride ever. It was also my fastest speed. I was tired but I felt pretty good all in all. A bunch on uf went instantly for double scoop ice cream and then over to the cafeteria for dinner.