We reach Montana

Day 7
Sand Point, ID, to Thompson Falls, MT
88 miles

Every day, the scenery gets better. Today we peddled along Lake Pend Oreille (pon du RAY), ringed with mountains, for many miles. It's a large, lovely lake that, we learned, is more than 1000 feet deep in places. Geologists believe that it's all that remains of a gigantic lake that formed perhaps 12,000 years ago as the last of the glaciers melted. In a sudden, immense catastrophe, the lake burst its borders and flooded the entire region, reshaping the geography of the entire Pacific Northwest. Planetary scientists have studied evidence of this event to see if something similar might have happened on the planet Mars to scour its surface.

Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho.

Yesterday we took the mandatory photo of the "Entering Idaho" sign. Today we shot pictures in from of "Entering Montana."

In one side of the state...

...And out the other!

Montana is a beautiful state, but its drivers are another matter. Several of us were nearly brushed by malicious pickup drivers attempting to intimidate visiting bicyclists.

I have received a flood of email, and for that I thank you all. I hope you understand that I have extremely limited access to the Internet, so it will be a while before I can reply. This message is being transmitted by telephone line from the rear booth of Minnie's Montana Cafe in Thompson Falls. And to those who wondered why I didn't send any messages after my sad note of two days ago, there are two reasons. 1) I was exhausted when I reached Sand Point and could not summon the energy to write anything. 2) Evil persons of my acquaintance knew a place that sold excellent microbrewed beer.

Comments

[John Fleckner]

Thanks for the great narrative. What a gift to have a real rider and real writer (and appreciater of microbrew) on the job. My goal is the Transam in the summer of 08 -- I missed it in '76 so this will be the second chance. In the meanwhile your stories keep up the dream. And thanks for the very sensitive way you dealt with death on the road. John (also Washington DC).

[Mark Ballock]

Hi Bill;
Glad to hear your still safe on this ride. I hope that when the ride is finished you will write some articles enriching the minds of drivers in America; about the beauty of riding at a slow pace on a bicycle, and experiencing the wonders that drivers never see. Send the articles to all the small town publications along your route, and highway patrol offices as well.

Ride Long and Ride Safe

Mark Ballock