Today we rode from Libby toward Whitefish, Montana. The forecast was for light rain in the morning followed by heavy rain and thunderstorms after noon, so we set out early to get most of the ride in before the weather turned foul. We succeeded, with a very nice ride up the Kootenai River before we turned north onto a paved and well maintained Forest Service road along Lake Kookanusa. At the north end of the lake the skies turned much more threatening so we had lunch (above) and took the van into Whitefish. Tomorrow we are scheduled to ride the crowning glory of the trip, the Going to the Sun road in Glacier National Park. With all the rain today and 2″ more predicted overnight there is widespread flooding in the park. Several areas have been evacuated and the road is closed because of fallen rocks and the risk of more. Tomorrow we will ad lib two other rides in non-flooded areas.

Our guides, Mike and Will, have done an excellent job throughout and are handling the complications with aplomb.

The riders consist of me, naturally; Joe, a former bike racer and retired fluid dynamics scientist at NASA; John, the youngest, who rides so he can do triathlons; Rick, who rode coast-to-coast back in ’08; and David, the only other West Coast resident. We all get along well. No one can keep up with Joe when he sets his mind to riding fast.