Day 18: Flat Montana Plains

It is I, Brian, King of the Flat Tires, here with today’s trip! Before you ask, yes…I had another flat today…but we will get to that. 

Today we woke up super early (6:00, which in our defense feels early for us) threw all of our gear together, and went downstairs to eat a nice continental breakfast that we tried not to fall asleep during before heading out to our day of biking. With our wonderful support car we have had the luxury of driving to where we should have stayed last night which was most of the way up the mountain in a campground surrounding Glacier National Park. It was an hour drive or so and we all took a solid nap on the way. Julia has this magical ability to fall asleep anywhere and she was out within five minutes of us on the road, and while Dustin and I don’t have that ability, we got a good rest in too. When we got to the campsite we were even more glad to have stayed in a hotel last night. The place was practically begging for bears to come sniffing around and I think Dustin’s paranoia of bears may be slowly infecting the rest of us. 

We ditched the panniers again today and from the campsite onwards, we had a nice and easy 8 mile uphill before we got to the top of the pass. While we weren’t able to see much of Glacier (big sad) the views of these mountains at the pass and beyond were absolutely spectacular and definitely made up for it. 

What was even better than the views though was the massive downhills that we got to do today!! Let me tell you there is no better feeling than biking down a mountain with a tailwind. I think the best comparison I can make is to sitting in the front car of a roller coaster but it’s even better than that. What made it even better was the fact that this was our last mountain for the majority of the trip! No more 3000 ft elevation gains in one day! Now we are in the Great Plains and they do not exagerate when there is nothing for miles and miles. I’m adding a bunch of pictures below to try to give a good sense of just how far you can see. 

Now the part everyone has been waiting for, todays flat tire. I don’t know if this is simply bad luck, if I’ve been cursed, or if the Biking Gods have said “yes this man right here, plague him with as many flat tires as possible, just for fun.” 58 miles I spent in the saddle today! No problems! Then one tiny little nail has the audacity to jam itself in my back tire (the harder one to fix, by the way) and boom 8 miles from the finish I have my fourth flat. I was less than pleased. To add insult to injury, the first tube that I tried to replace it with was defective and we had to start the process all over again. By an hour into repairs Dustin had resorted to drinking one of our last beers to rally the mood. Finally I get the tire back on and we are set to continue for the day but I’m seriously considering replacing my tires with tank treads the next bike shop we come across. 

The rest of the day was pretty relaxed. We are camping at an RV park (highly recommend, unusually nice compared to other campgrounds) tonight and had dinner with Julia’s parents where we looked up the best rated potato chip flavors (BBQ being #1 is just…wrong and I will have no disagreement about this). After that we showered up and just relaxed for the night. Fingers crossed for no flats tomorrow but if you feel so inclined mention my tires in your prayers because they desperately need all the help they can get. 

Photo Dump:

“Julia why are you on the ground?”

“It’s warm!”