Day 1 – Rooseville (Canadian border) to Tuchuck Campground, Montana

42 miles, 5 hrs riding, 7 hours with breaks.

Today started out on pavement so it was a nice warmup with the loaded bikes on easy roads. It turned out to be a fairly hot day as we got a late start, but the rolling hills gave us a nice breeze now and then. As the day went on we moved on to dirt and gravel roads, with nearly 3,000 feet of climbing through the mountains. I wasn’t feeling ready for the climb in that heat, and actually laid down to cool off at the top of the pass near the end of the day. Dave was patient over and over, waiting for me and giving encouragement. He said he felt it too, though he was obviously stronger than I. We had a quiet spot at the nearly empty campground, though in the evening other cyclists on the route came to say hi. They started in Canada and would be finishing the next day or two.

That night I was nervous about bears because the book said the area is so remote that they often relocate unruly bears there from other parts of the state. We hung our food and settled in for the night with the bear spray in the tent at the ready.

Some time near 2 am we heard some rustling nearby. Dave got out to check it out but didn’t see anything. I went back to sleep but I guess Dave couldn’t knowing something was messing around the campsite. At about 3 am there was more rustling, a sort of digging sound and some thumping. Again, Dave gets the spray and his headlamp and looks around. At 3:30 he heard it again and said, “Hey bear!” to announce his presence. Again he looked, again he could see nothing. Then at nearly 5 am he heard it again, and as he popped out of the tent, ready with the pepper spray he paused. “What is it?” I said. “It’s a deer,” he said, and I had to have a look. Yep, it was a dang deer giving us a fright all night. It wasn’t afraid of us, and later that morning I had to throw a couple rocks at it because it kept coming nearer and seemed aggressive or something. Menacing deer! Argh!

Photos by Rich Snowberg. Click to see full size.