The Ring of Fire
Greetings all! Finally seem to be getting away from forest fire alley
for the time being. Left Bigfork several days ago seeing the smoke
get thicker as I went south.
Kudos to owner of Brookies Cookies in Bigfork for the great chai and
positive attitude!
Ride out of Bigfork was absolutely stunning.
Rolled into Holland Lake that evening to find out that passage into
Seeley Lake was blocked because the #1 growing fire in the nation was
burning southwest of town. Linked up with Bryan and Roland from
Washington and layed over a day in Holland Lake.
Thanks much to the USFS Site hosts, The McCleery's, for their
attention to our situation, wonderful hospitality, and dinner!
Bryan, Roland, and I headed out yesterday early and luckily chanced
our way through the National Guard cordon point and into Seeley Lake
for food resupply. I parted ways with them, as they took the road and
I took the trail. Judging by tracks, they got back on route in Ovando
and summited Huckleberry Pass ahead of me.
I arrived in Lincoln a few hours ago and plan to do a monster three
pass day bid into Helena tomorrow.
Otherwise all is good, I'm heathy, bike is making noise but nothing
other than pivot bearings, and the smoke isn't so bad here. Having
some electronics issues. Tried to charge my tunes player with the
solar panel on layover day and, as I had suspected, it was actually
TAKING power from it. Yes, my MP3 player was powering the sun! I
mailed that POS solar panel back home today, nothing like a pound plus
boat anchor to carry up another 175000 feet of climbing. Anyway, will
reply to more emails when I get to my PDA charger in Butte...which I
am going to start packing with me...but battery power is limited to
posting and jounalizing now.
Until next time!
Mileage to date: 582.39
