Massive Montana

I'm over the border. Hurrah! And I'm now having a little bit of a rest in Montana after the first hundred miles or so. But I have something nuts like six hundred plus to do in this state. Anyway so far it's been fun and with a few tales to tell.

So getting over the border was a laugh. I got to stand in a line of cars up to the checkpoint while people stared at me like I was a nutter. Then the customs official tried to get me to sign a visa waiver form until I pointed out to him what I had handed him inside my passport was a six month visa. He said he thought it was just part of a British passport!

That said you could easily sneak past border patrol round there in the mountains. I don't think it will be the same when I get to Mexico.

So straight over the border and into Eureka for some food. Nice little town, and good grub at jax cafe. I also posted home my Canada map (one of six maps I'm carrying) which felt satisfying, even if it is the smallest map. So err yeah mum, look out for that.

So after faffing round at the border and posting stuff I still had only done twenty miles and had thirty miles to go to get out of Montana farm lands and back into them mountains. And thirty sweaty miles later I arrived at Tuchuck campground on the other side of Whitefish divide.

Within minutes of arriving I met a friendly Californian fellow divide rider who said he was riding with another Brit. Anyway to cut a long story short I have spent the last couple of days riding with two really cool guys Chris and Rick.  Rick is a thirty five year plus navy seal vet and raising funds for vets families, and I will post the link to his charity when I get it. Both he and Chris live in San Diego, with Chris calling himself a Briti-can as he is now an American citizen which means when riding we can chat about all things British so he can reminisce, and then decide that surprise surprise no he is better off living in southern California!

I took a photo I will put on here, of a tree by the river in the campsite, which may not look much, but Rick explained it was bound by the kootenai Indians to give it the knobbly appearance, and effectively was a church. Which I thought was kind of cool.

I also took a photo of the guys bikes. My god they are traveling light compared to me (and I have met people with way more weight than I). They just utilise these really cool frame bags. No big panniers, no trailers. I guess it's like the second world war, the yanks have all the cool kit!

First stop after the campsite was polebridge. Go if you ever get the chance go there. It's an old mercantile store and restaurant. And my god not only does it look cool with its charming looks and resident porch chipmunk community but they do amazing sticky buns, huckleberry bear claws, and the prime rib I had for dinner followed by huckleberry pie were just immense. Honestly a fantastic place.

After we had dinner though the one weird moment was when I was approached by some guy who claimed to be from Colorado with a real strange manner who had been staring the whole time we ate. I'm not sure whether he wanted to fight me or F#!@ me. Anyway call it serendipity that this was the one time in my life I had a navy seal with me haha!

Polebridge is also on the edge of glacier national park so we took a detour through the park, which had some really nice back roads. I'm also going to claim I saw a wolf. Well Rick saw a big pure black wolf. I saw something flicker through far away bushes, but hey, I saw a wolf right.

Oh and this gets me onto my favorite subject bears. We saw plenty of bear scat on the trail and also wolf prints. But Chris and Rick had five bear encounters in seven days in Canada, unbelievable! But of course none while I was riding with them.

Anyway glacier park has what's claimed to be one of the most beautiful roads in the world. The going to the sun highway. So I rode that too... For like a mile and a half, till we took a photo turned round back to the bottom, had a milkshake, then high tailed it down the highway to reach Whitefish, actually having to come backwards down the divide route. A good 65 mile day Chris tells me.

Today I will be checking out Whitefish, and from what I saw having dinner with Chris last night, it's a cool enough place and essentially ski town USA. I will update. Keep the peace people and love to you all from Montana.