65 miles

Today I woke up at 7:00 am, which felt much too late. The sky was threatening to rain all day, but somehow we dodged it all the way up the west side of Koocanusa Lake.

The road was hilly but there were basically zero cars, so I was able to really sink into the trees. I spotted a type of evergreen I’d never seen before, or at least couldn’t name. I looked it up later. Turns out it’s a larch. I love the little needle bunches. 

There was a place along the highway where a lot of young trees were crowding their needly branches over the guardrail, and they reminded me of how fans cheering on marathon runners might stretch out their hands from behind a barricade. I high fived a few of them, and thanked them for their support. 

We saw lots of deer, and more bald eagles.

The ride into Eureka was absolutely breathtaking. With panoramic mountains and stormy skies all around us, the light was incredibly intense and dramatic. We only got rained on (hard) for about 2 miles. A lady driving past us pulled up next to us and asked if we had somewhere to go, and I told her gratefully that we did.

We are staying behind the visitor center here in town. It’s just a large grassy park with a few shade trees. There is another Northern Tier cyclist camping here, headed east like we are. His name is Bryant.