Day 13. Koocanusa Marina & RV Park to North Dickey Lake Campground, 65 miles

It was hard to leave the campground this morning! Maybe it was the tequila; maybe it was trying vainly to dry my tent in the cool early morning from the brief light rain I’d woken to around 11:30; maybe it was emailing with Andrew as I tore myself away from the wifi. (Tech mystery: why can’t I text Andrew over wifi?) Also the sunrise was lovely. In all cases, I didn’t get out of there until just after 8.

I continued north up Lake Koocanusa for the first half of the day, with lots of long but not terribly steep climbs and some pleasant downhills—the sort you can enjoy while taking in the scenery.

I took a break in the late morning when the sun came out to dry my tent and eat some snacks at the entrance to Peck Gulch Recreation site.

While I was sunning myself and my things, the camp hosts came up the road headed out to town; they were kind folks from Bellingham, WA who shared at some length intel about the “gnarly” ride I had ahead of me, including a detailed recounting of each climb, descent, and re-climb I’d be experiencing today. ”And then there’s a nice long downhill to Sutton Creek, but you know how that goes…”

One of the hills they referred to as Climbers Hill, which I assumed referred to, well, how one got up it. I didn’t realize until I was cresting it and wondering about the cars parked on the side of the road and the voices I heard from nowhere that they meant rock climbers. OHHHHH. Apparently you can just climb on it? Which seems weird because the debris littering the bottoms of the rock walls and all the tiny stones everywhere are clear evidence of the mountain’s constant active erosion toward a non-mountainous state. They are always shedding. When the road was quiet enough I could sometimes hear rocks pinging down the hillside below me, though fortunately not above me. I could also hear this odd noise the guardrails (guardrails: they’re back!) sometimes made. Maybe wind? Maybe contraction and expansion of metal?

In the afternoon I reached the Lake Koocanusa Bridge, which, like Libby Dam, was brought to you by the US Army Corps of Engineers. I didn’t get a shot of the bridge because I was whizzing downhill toward it, but I spent some time on it just marveling.

And then, sadly, I turned southeast (told you there was a lot of going around) away from the lake and into a headwind. At Eureka, the first real town since Libby, I stumbled happily on a Subway and got myself a perennial tour favorite, a veggie sub stuffed with every vegetable they have. Greens!

I fought the headwind as I made my way to camp, arriving on the later end, nearly 7. Looking at the day’s ride I realized why it had been so slow: 4000 feet of climbing. I’m back around 3000 feet now (haven’t been below 2000 for several days) as I approach Glacier and my last real climb until the east.

I set up camp overlooking Lake Dickey and crawled into my tent to escape the chilly wind and get cozy. And by that I mean fall asleep immediately.