After breaking camp I made it to the town of Trout Creek. Not much there, but there were a couple of casino/saloons – both closed, since it was too early in the morning. There was also a cafe, though, where I had breakfast.
Today had more good scenery along the Clark Fork, but I hadn’t seen any other cyclists today. That is probably because I’m not on any “official” Adventure Cycling or other route. I will probably see more after I get to Missoula.
There’s an Indian Reservation ahead with not many services, meaning that today’s ride would have been either 50 or 90 miles. I decided on the shorter option by stopping in Plains. The RV park is not exciting, but gets the job done, and has hot showers (no showers yesterday…). I could have gone about six miles further to Paradise, but I would have had to camp in the city park, and I’m not sure what the food situation is there.
It was about 81 degrees when I stopped riding, but someone told me it is now 90 (at 5 PM). Could be a warm night, as it doesn’t get dark around here until 10:30 PM.
Looks like a 75 mile day to Missoula tomorrow, if I take the scenic route, but the disadvantage is that there’s nowhere to stop short of it if I’m tired. If I really wanted a shorter day, I could take the Regis cutoff to get to the interstate, and use I-90 to get to Missoula in two days (legal in rural areas of most western states, since there are often no alternate routes to the interstates in certain places) . So it looks like I’ll stick with the first option.
BikingBrian 