Day 10: Seeley Lake to Bigfork, Mont.

We awoke this morning in Seeley Lake to heavy fogs and temperatures in the early 40s. It was our first time anywhere near this temperature in the morning, and definitely our first fog of the trip. We got started after waiting around for the front desk to open for coffee, and headed north on highway 83. Thankfully, the road was much quieter, with better shoulders than our last few miles on it yesterday. We both donned our warm layers, mine for the first time of the trip. Thankfully we had a little bit of climbing for the first 20 miles, and the fog wore off just a few miles after we left town.

Stopped for a second breakfast (our first was comprised of snacks we’d gathered from a hardware store) at the Hungry Bear, just south of Condon. As you can imagine, there was a lot of bear paraphernalia. Riding was beautiful, cool, and sunny all the way up 83 today. There were views of the Swan Mountains to our right, and the Mission Mountains to our left, with a series of lakes and rivers to our left as well. This was probably some of our most scenic riding of the trip so far. Aside from a few RVs and motorhomes passing too close, it was an excellent road. Google Maps had said we’d have only about 900 feet of climbing with nearly 2000 of descending, though the lived experience (and my dad’s bike computer’s altimeter) told a different story. Nevertheless, we must have had a net downhill, as we had one of our faster days, and arrived in Bigfork before 2:30pm Mountain Time. (Note: for editorial integrity, I’ll leave yesterday’s post, but please note that it is “Bigfork” not “Big Fork”).

Tonight we’ll explore the town, which just hosted a large rodeo this past weekend. Tomorrow, we’ll head up to camp by Lake McDonald in Glacier NP. It’s likely we’ll be without service again, but hopefully back to updating on Wednesday evening after we cross Logan Pass and the Continental Divide. If no service again then, the next day we’ll be in Canada near Cardston, Alberta. Hopefully we have service before then, otherwise you’ll be getting stats for the next few days in metric.

By the numbers:
Miles traveled: 74
Extra liters of water carried: 3
Unique forest entities traveled through: 3 (Lolo, Flathead NFs, and Swan State Forest)
Unidentified, possibly extraterrestrial birds spotted: 2
Total feet climbed: 1700? 900? Depends on your source.
Huckleberry-flavored products in Swan Lake: what seemed like thousands
Low temp: 39F

 This ice cream warning is not accurate.

 Posing in front of the Mission Mountains to our West.

 “The Hungry Bear” where we enjoyed another breakfast

Waiting out a hail storm last night in Seeley Lake.

In front of Swan Lake. “The longest lake without a dam.” I have not confirmed this.

Typical scenery for the day, a little later after things warmed up.

 Taking a stretch break down forest road.