July 4th in Havre

It's the morning of July 5th. We are in Havre, MT. Now, I will journey back in time a bit... We left Whitefish in our classic casual style on the 30th and biked into Glacier National Park around 2or 3ish. Most of the road on the West Side of Logan pass are closed to bicyclists from 11 to 4 because of the narrowness of the road. So we considered our options and decided to chill in Apgar - which is just 3 or so miles into the Park until 4. We put our feet in some very cold glacier water of Lake MacDonald and saw Don and Jaimie taking naps. Who are Don and Jamie? Well, they are 2 guys we met in Whitefish. Don is doing the whole Northern Tier route and Jamie was joinng him until East Glacier (just south of the route). They were planning to bike to the Avalanche campground once the roads opened at 4 and then to bike Logan Pass the next day. We were pretty sure we were not going to do the Logal Pass bike -it's grade on our elevation map was steeper than anything we had yet done and Washington and Rainy pass were hard enough on Cormac's knees that we thought better than to test them again on Logan. So we thought about hitching a ride up the pass than camping in St. Mary at the bottom, but we ended up biking to Avalanche and sharing a hiker/biker lot with Don, Jamie and another guy, Phil, and then took the tram up the pass the next morning. Ok. I feel like we cheated a little bit taking the tram up that pass, but it was a very very very narrow road and a 15 mile climb or so and the view from the tram was something stunning so it all worked out in the end. We then biked DOWN the pass (ah, lovely downhills:)) and headed for Cut Bank, MT. Our route actually takes us into Canada but I don't have my passport with me and Cormac's expired so we had to seek an alternate. 89 S was the road we were going to take out of the park to Browning, MT where it met up with Rt. 2, which is the road we are on for much of MT. Unfortunately, 89 is NOT a bicycling-friendly road. Not at all. It is quite narrow, with NO shoulder and lots of RV traffic - tourists coming to and from Glacier Ntl Park. Being as good as we are now at realizing that we have to expect plans to change all the time, we pulled over on the side of the road and commenced to seek a ride. A tow truck pulled over and offered us a ride to Browning - about 25 miles. The driver, who's name might have been Louie, was a Blackfeet and told us stories about how the moutains around the Blackfeet Reservation we were driving through were named. We were in the Plains of Montana now, across the Continental Divide.

He dropped us off at a gas station near Browning. Shortly after we realized that my right pannier was still in the back of his truck and Cormac - being the amazingly personable person he is, chats up a pickup truck of folks at the gas station who know where Louie works and they commence trying to catch up to him. Success! Cormac arrives back with my right pannier! We then bike to Cut Bank, running into a few West bound bikers along the way. These fellows tell of us the many winds at our back to come. They recommend setting up a sail on the back of our bikes and just riding with the wind.

Our ride to Cut Bank, however, brings none of these much anticipated tail winds. Nope. Nor does our bike the next day from Cut Bank to Chester, MT. Ok, first Cut Bank. We arrive pretty late - around 9pm but the sun is still shining - i love these late night sunsets - and decide to pay for a pretty pricey campsite - $20! - but it comes with a shower and they have a cheap laundry on site so cormac does a load right away, and a rec room with a TV and magazines and a coffee maker. It was like living in luxury:) We leave Cut Bank, hoping for those tail winds. Unfortunately, the locals have been telling us that the weather is cooky this year and the storms are causing the winds to blow in all kinds of directions. Yep, they are. We had hoped to get to Joplin, a small town with a park for camping but after 2 flats and lots of head wind and some rain, we are really beat as we arrive in Chester. A biker heading West who we crossed paths with talked up the MX motel and it's restuarant as there is a guy there, Sean, with a really long - maybe 3 feet - who is all into bicyclists. So cormac, leading the way doesn't even pause at the sign for a campsite and heads straigh to the Motel. It was a rough day and we are both feeling frustrated and tired. You know what? Biking 21 days in a row gets tiring!!:) ha, who'd have thunk it? But the sun, a little bit of tail wind, longish stretches of downhill and a new decision on our part to take more breaks that are just sit on the side of the road and read or write or nap breaks, helps us to get to Havre, MT smiling and thankful for another day on our bikes.

We stayed at the Northern Fair and campground in Havre, on a nice piece of grass for $10 with a shower included. Ross and Ruth are a retired couple we meet from Ontario who are headed to Alberta in their van to visit their son. They like the states, so they take the longer route through MT. (Ross - this Ross, after I said my brothers name is Ross, was surprised, saying Ross' are a special breed). We chatted a while and set up tent then went over to the 'Irish Pub' across the way for a brew. As we look at the next legs of our route, heading into Malta and Glagsow, the waitress warns us of the Mosquitos in her hometown - Malta. We had heard of this 100 mile or so stretch of really nasty mosquitos from a few people. I am forgetting now who said this - oh, I think it was Sean in Chester - but a fellow was telling us he saw a white horse turn black from being covered with the bugs. The waitress was telling us that when her kids were little and then went to visit her parents in Malta for the first time they got all bitten so badly that their eyes were swollen nearly shut. Ok, I hate mosquitos. They love me. I was not looking forward to this buggy bike. One biker we ran into said authorities would not allow him to camp in Malta because the bugs were so bad. Ugh.

Well, we have an appointment to get tune ups on our bikes on Saturday, the 4th. So we head over to the shop in the morning planning to head out in the early afternoon for a shortish 40 mile day. Well, we are walking around Havre on teh 4th and it is dead. Man, this is the biggest town we have hit in a longtime - over 9,000 people - and everything is closed and there's no one on the street. Strange. There is a parade that passes by. I think Cormac and I make up 80% of the people watching intentionally - the others are those driving east on teh same road the parade is marching west on. 4 horses, a few old cars, a dozen 'democrats' holding a banner, i think that about made up the parade. We walk some more and see a sign for Amtrack train station. Hmmmm. Thinking of the mosquitos to come and of the wind out of the East that the weather forecast his saying will be with us for a while, and also of this one town head that people say is pretty rough, Cormac and I decide to check out what the train schedule and fares are...
And so we are getting on a 1:15 train to Minot, ND. Yes, we are skipping several miles but you know what, this is our honeymoon and we are excited to miss the mosquitos and have some extra time to visit friends in Chicago, hopefully. So we are pretty excited about this. Also we have heard endlessly great things about the nice people of North Dakota. We actually met our first North Dakotan couple in Pepin Park in Havre yesterday and nice they were. They are driving from Petersburg, ND to Glacier Park to do some hiking. They are not going to be home, but their kids will be - college age - and the give us their contact info and invite us to call them if we want a shower and/or a place to stay when we pass through their neighborhood. Amazing.

Another amazingly nice couple offered us a place to stay last night too. Martin and April. Martin is the mechanic who worked on our bikes and we just got to talking and Cormac and I were going to stay in Pepin Park but so as to not have to stay out in a park on the 4th of July they offer to let us camp in their yard. We take them up on the offer and are still chilling with them this morning, about to get some brunch before Cormac and I head out on the train. It's so exciting to think of all the people we have met who we just would never have known if we had not taken this journey. And a journey it is....