Bicycle Tours

From: Chinook, Montana
To: Havre, Montana
Mileage: 28




We made it into Havre (pronounced hay ver) at 9:30 am and only 22 miles. Today is a short day because we are trying to set up our entry into Glacier National Park for a weekday. We might also take another day off in Cut Bank because of a very high westerly wind that are in the forecast for Sunday, but we are getting ahead of ourselves and we try not to do that!

Here is a warning to all fellow cyclists. Route 2 from Harlem to Havre has little (18 inches) to zero shoulder. The traffic is moderate, but when you toss in the wide loads (truckers hauling large farming equipment) and the RVs, it is not very pleasant. The posted speed limit is 70 mph for cars and 60 for trucks. You need to reread the word posted, because we have yet to see one driver pulled over for anything and we have seen one local and one state trooper in all the miles we have ridden so far in Montana. 95 percent of the drivers are thoughtful; it's the 5 percent that keep you on your pedals.

From Glasgow until Havre you ride in a valley that was carved out by the Missouri river (many, many moons ago). The valley is now the home to the Milk River, BNSF railway, Route 2, farmland, ranches, trees, and billions of mosquitoes. The valley is as wide as 5 miles in some areas but boxes in the closer you ride towards Havre. The edges are called the Missouri breaks that you can see in the photo below (we hope).

There is a nice little hill on the west side of Havre, so nice we did it twice! We rode around downtown (down in the valley) Havre, shopped uptown (on the Missouri breaks), and were just plain lazy today (read, napped, computer). If we could just have Route 2 for ourselves, the ride today would have been stellar!

Very tasty Broccoli Salad for lunch (Ingredients: Raw broccoli, Raisins, Sun dried cranberries, Spanish onion, Sunflower seeds, Coleslaw dressing) and it will become a staple when we return home!