Friday, July 13, 2018

Day 6: The all-surface tour

(title wordplay robbed from a fellow tourist --- it was just too good to pass up)

The amount of pleasure available from road riding is inversely proportional to the size and instability of the aggregate composing the  road surface. Today we got a sample of the lower end of the spectrum, like a rainbow without the violet end which would be that just paved well compacted road - we got none of that.

For some miles we had a strip of old but still smooth shoulder which had escaped the chip seal "improvement" that the car lane had. We had a smooth right tire track within the car lane and a road with few enough cars to be able to use it. We had the usual old chip seal of various roughnesses. We had four miles of gravel/dirt road with continuous washboarding - nevertheless a worth-while trade off for 20 miles of paved backroad before and after it. But the one that stuck in the craw was several miles of loose chip gravel that was in the process of being laid down today, with a 15 minute stoplight/flagman to be endured on the shadeless road, with corresponding backup of vehicular traffic, before one had could even start to wade into it. You can't win them all, and everyone in the group traversed it safely which is what counts.

Heading east out of Sand Point in the morning, you can see the right side of the car lane has smoother pavement:


The lights are visible in broad daylight but even more so in the morning shade:

This movie shows how the group negotiates a stop at the first break of the day:




Another out of service bridge dedicated to pedestrians and bikes:




The view across Lake Pend Orielle

Rachel pulls the group on State Highway 200


Ideal riding conditions:


Steve, Paul and Rachel:

The sparkling river just blows one away
 
Jenny tools along

Into the dirt section... grrrrrr. Riding faster and out of the saddle can help smooth out the bumps, at the cost of getting tired:




Paul demonstrated splendid bike handling on this dirt descent:


This will have to do for the "Welcome to Montana" sign since there wan't one on that dirt road.

Returning to bike after using nearby large object to answer the call of nature: privacy and a bike rack - rocks are great aren't they?


Clark River right before reaching our lodgings on the left bank:


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