Prelude: besides my fellow tourists' blogs I referenced in my Day 5 post, another source of info for the insatiably curious is the official PACTour photo album:
WRT Clark Fork, I guess in Montana they don't like to waste words so they label the state's major western drainage "Clark Fork River." The usage of "fork" when applied to rivers usually has an "of", such as "East fork of the French Broad River," that lovely stream flowing into Rosman, NC. Where the state road signs are obfuscatory one always has Google. And so I learned its the Clark Fork of the Columbia River.
After looking at it from different angles most of the day I have developed myopic thinking: I propose that this majestic river be simply called The Columbia River. But I guess that title is already claimed by the Canadians for some fork up north, darn them! Without further ado, I present to you pictures of the Clark Fork River in ascending order!
Upstream from that point the river emerges from a gorge where the road dare not intrude, so we went over a 25 mile long hill instead, which I guess is a short cut. On the far side of the ridge we met the river on the upper end of the gorge in downtown Missoula. A small rapids provides recreational opportunities for a Saturday afternoon:
Missoula has done a fantastic job with their riverfront where we spent some afternoon recovery time:
Back to the start of the day: the chip sealing of the road mentioned in my last post was obstructing the exit from the River Ridge Lodge where we stayed so the crew suggested we take the pedestrian path to bypass the road surface. No problem after the all-surface tour the previous day:
Here the group can be seen (in the middle of the photo) on the far side of the pond and in its reflection:
Here are the highlights of the river valley scenery. While riding you see something really pretty so you whip out the camera from the back pocket and try to capture it while riding:
A cool side-of-road attraction, maybe for watering horses?
After writing yesterday that I don't take pictures of the busy roads, I decided to try to get a couple today. It was about 90 degrees and the pavement was sticky in places.
The big thing in these parts is huckleberry ice cream. Today's PACTour lunch included huckleberry shakes from the restaurant right next to were we set up the benches.
A fine vintage indeed:
Today's unintended art is a slo-mo video Paul took while preparing for a shot of the mountains.
Bravo on completing a full week of extended cycling and still having the energy to blog so we can share in the adventure. Had I been riding with you, my daily reports would have been far less extensive and entertaining.
ReplyDeleteMy favorites = you drinking that milkshake and Paul’s slow mo video. Bahahaha.
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