Photo album from my two-week trip during the second half of last month:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/105349...57709619080636
Here is the planned route:
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/29428535?beta=false
I ended up altering it south of Whitefish. There was a big morning storm, complete with hail. Some of the roads south of Columbia Falls are unpaved and can get messy when even slightly wet, so I stuck to U.S. 93 and MT 35 to rejoin what I had planned. There were also a few other minor deviations from the planned route.
Overnights were:
1. About 7 miles east of St Regis, MT
2. About 9 miles east of Avery, ID
3. Wallace, ID
4. Thompson Falls, MT (Got a motel room for a couple of reasons.)
5. Noxon, MT (Nice city park along the Clark Fork.)
6. Bad Medicine Campground along Bull Lake off of MT 56
7. About 3 miles west of Troy, MT
8 & 9. Pete Creek Campground near Yaak, MT
10. Rexford, MT
11. Whitefish Lake S.P.
12. Wayfayers S.P. in Bigfork, MT
13. Seeley Lake, MT (Motel so I could get an early start on the last day.)
Highlights included: Getting to ride two sections of I-90 westbound that were closed to motor vehicles; the 16 mile (15 unpaved), 3,200'+ climb up Gold Pass out of St. Regis then the incredibly scenic (and nicely paved) descent down to and then along the St. Joe River towards Avery; the former Milwaukee Road ROW from Avery then the Route of the Hiawatha Trail; the herd of elk on Blue Slide Rd. west of Thompson Falls; the Ross Creek Cedars; seeing a bear and a youg-ish bull elk near Yaak; Porcupine Pass on the way to Rexford and my reward of some really great fried chicken there; and the two Montana state parks with special hiker/biker sites with all the trimmings.
Lowlights included: Climbing a couple of miles of the steep part of Thompson Pass without realizing I was in the middle chainring; U.S. 93 between Fortine and Whitefish and missing some turns along the way that would have allowed me to explore some alternatives to that death trap of a highway; some of MT 83 between Bigfork and Seeley Lake.
I had done much of this route in 2017 (The Gold Pass/St. Joe/Avery/Hiawatha sections were new to me. I also overnighted in a couple of new places.) This time the weather was much different. Cooler days and even cooler nights. Some mornings were in the 40s when I hit the road. There were three days with noticeable periods of rain, but nothing biblical, although I did have to pull over twice while descending Gold Pass, once to take cover from a brief period of hail. As you can see from the photos, conditions were often overcast or foggy. 2017 was warm to hot and humid. I don't believe I used my rain gear once. The day I arrived back in Missoula it was 91 degrees by 1 p.m. All things considered, I'll take the cooler temps any day.
Now starting to think about my Pennsylvania tour that I try to take every September. Maybe from Pittsburgh home to Philly again.