Day 12 Scenic Montana

I forgot to mention a cute little event 2 days ago. Pam and I had stopped by the road to rest and enjoy a scenic view. A Monarch butterfly landed on my shoulder. That in itself was pretty cool. What happened next was almost, well, touching. I didn't want to move for fear of scaring it away. I could see out of the corner of my eye that it was walking up my neck. Then it happened. I felt it give me a butterfly kiss on my cheek as it flew off. A butterfly kiss from a butterfly. Now that has to be a good omen.
Fast forward to today. Thursday June 30. We said adios to Two Rivers RV Park at 7. Our destination is Libby, MT. The route profile promised a fair amount of climbing. Nothing serious. A few steep sections of a mile or two. As it turned out one of the steepest sections was leaving the park! Go figure. Lucky us.
The first stretch was a single road about 35 miles long. Gay said it was one of his all time favorite sections of road. I have to hand it to him. At the end of the day, the Montana scenery was very good to us. I just saw a photo from Sandy's FB page that was breathtaking. I'll have to post a few soon too.
It was 35 miles of up and down. Nothing steep on either direction. Just plenty of it.
At the end of that stretch, there was a rest area. A place to sit in the shade and a bathroom. Oh yeah. Water was good too.
Justi down the road we saw a place to get a cold drink! Actually it was the trailhead for Kootenay Falls. We stopped and decided we needed some exercise. The 0.1 mile hike ended closer to 1.0 down and up. The falls were spectacular. The color of the water is glacier blue. We made it back to the stand and got those cold soft drinks. Ahh...
The next 15 miles were to be slightly uphill according to the map. With tailwinds like we had I'll ride uphill any time! We flew.
Pulled into Libby by 2. Would've been sooner without the hike. Found a cheap municipal park between a hotel that sold great showers for $5 and a grocery store with a dining area. Entree and 2 sides for $6!
Tomorrow may be epic. 70 hilly miles. We have options if that seems too long. We will depart earlier than normal in the morning. We already stocked up on food and drinks. Sadly, no time for coffee. Ugh. We are fast approaching Whitefish. That would be day after tomorrow. Want to make the bike shop for some ticking noises. Annoyances for now. Can get worse if ignored.
It's 73 now and expected to go down to 54 by morning. Lights out. Long day up.
Thanks for reading.
Cheers!
KPW

Today:
4:11 hours
12.0 avg
50.52 miles
33.1 max