Whitefish to clearing near Whitetail Creek

I'm sitting on a bridge of a rarely used primitive road - of which I've been the only vehicle on it for at least the last 5 hours (since I got on the road), overlooking a Whitetail Creak and it's flood plane (and my drinking water) with my phone propped up against my can of bear spray.  The sums up the second half of my day quite well.  Also, a skunk tried to walk up to me while I was proofreading this. I said "Go away Skunk!" and it did. I'm going to say that was a positive skunk encounter. Also, a turtle just appeared on the bridge, rather close to me. That's a sneaky-ass turtle. I'm going to stop updating on these sneaky animals or I'll never be done writing this.

The first half was very different than right now.  Jenny and Tim woke up with me and Jenny cooked me a nice breakfast, and then I took off about 8:45 on what felt like a very standard bike tour. For whatever reason, today may have been the day with the most pavement all trip. The first 40 miles were flat, fast, and included a town 10 miles out and 40 miles out (after a 2-mile detour.)  While my bike is not meant for road, it's still the lightest bike  I've ever toured on and very aero for a touring bike, so I was able to pound out those miles really easily. It felt like old times. :)

I ate lunch in a nice diner in Big Fork, which sits on the biggest freshwater lake this side of the Mississippi. It's called Flatfish lake? Apparently smaller than The Salt Lake, or it'd just be the biggest lake over here. Side note, how many non-fresh water lakes are there in the US?

I ended up doing 77 miles today, with 6:44 on bike and being on the road for about 10 hours, finding a camp spot around 6:44pm.

I wasn't sure where I was going to stay tonight, but I knew that I had a 2,000 foot, 6 mile dirt climb coming - so I decided that a 2 mile dirt detour into Big Fork was worth it. An hour and a half break with diner food set me up for that climb better than 30 minutes on the roadside with a bagel. There will be time for that kind of crap later. Also, the town was cute. I like cute little touristy towns.

The second half of the day was all dirt and remote, and beautiful. Well, both halves were beautiful.  I met a couple riding up the hill on standard touring bikes instead of my bike packing setup.

Slang lesson: People with that setup, and what I usually tour with, are often called "baggers."  People with my current setup are referred to as "bike packers." Both setups are pretty sweet.

The road was much smoother than the dirt I was dealing with a few days ago,  but still not great and it got very muddy later. My bike ate it up, but I'm glad I wasn't on theirs.

Nerd Moment: I'm running 29x2.35 tubeless tires. On the roughest roads I was running 20 PSI, today I ran 35 almost all day on pavement and on the dirt. I only dropped my front pressure near the the end when the dirt got rougher and I wanted to give my hands a break.

I made a wrong turn near the end of the day, but a local in a truck stopped me within a mile, told me I'd made a wrong turn, and then gave me a cold beer.  He says he meets and helps a lot of divide riders. That beer tasted reaaaaallly good.

After the free beer my plan was to ride on this muddy  road until I found a place to camp, knowing that a primitive campground was 10 miles away if didn't find anything (that would have made for over an 80 mile day).

I had trouble, the first few miles there were streams but no clearings,  and then lots of clearings but no good water sources (some stagnant ponds, but I was feeling good enough to be picky.)  Eventually I found the river that I'm sitting on now, and a good clearing just down the road from it. Close enough to walk back and forth. Score!  So now I'm camped... somewhere...

I've been yelling "Hey Bear" every 20 minutes or so. Solo camping in Grizzly wilderness is kind of weird. Without human conversation they could easily just stroll on by.  Also, putting everything I have that smells into my Lopsak (smell proof) and Ursak (bear proof) bags is annoying. It takes a lot of friggin time.  I will be glad to be out of bear country in a few weeks. Also, having bear spray within arms reach at all times is also annoying.

Tomorrow I have less than 50 miles to Holland Lake, where I hear they have a sweet lodge with food. I don't have any big climbs either, so tomorrow will feel like a rest day. :)