Bicycle Tours

From: Kalispell, Montana
To: Condon, Montana
Today: 62 miles - 1002 miles total



Not much to report about today. There are 3 basic routes from Kalispell to Missoula, Rte 93 which has a lot of traffic, not much scenery but wide shoulders. Rte 35, which goes down the east side Flathead lake, which has NO shoulders lots of traffic and you get a lake side ride (in other words, take your car). Rte 83, which is the road we are on, takes you through miles and miles of timber, follows Swan Lake, and is pretty popular traffic wise. With a shoulder of only about eight to ten inches, the riding took a lot of road concentration....there was to many vehicles passing SeeMore today! Since it is Sunday (we think), you get all the people returning home or starting their vacation. They are towing campers or boats or skidos or motor bikes or horse trailers or..... it would be a great ride, but it's not when the traffic is passing. Tomorrow being Monday (we think), we've been warned that the logging trucks will be on our road in full force. We have 80 plus miles more before Missoula.

The highlight of the day was spending a lazy afternoon at the Swan Lake state picnic area (see photo below). For 3 bucks we got a shaded table, with a view of the sparkling clean lake. We had a picnic, because that is what you do at a picnic area. We went into the water (just knee deep...it was cold!), and we took naps on the shore and enjoyed the noise of children behaving like they are on summer break.

We are here in Condon living large at the nice little hotel. I was the one to call it quits today, concentrating on a 8 inch patch of black top all day, can be tiring.