Polson, Montana - Plains, Montana (2 days) 61 miles

The woman in the office at the motel we stayed at in Polson told us about another rail trail we could take. It started about a mile from our motel and went 13 miles to a town called Ronan. A very nice paved trail and the scenery continues to get even more spectacular. We got so close to the Mission Range between Ronan and St. Ignatius, where we stayed last night, that we could almost reach out and touch them. Stopped at another nice little bakery and cafe in Ronan for more breakfast, since we had only had cereal and orange juice at the motel. From there it was back on the road again (no more rail trail) for a straight, level shot to St.Ignatious, about 15 miles. There we had a reservation at one of the two motels in town. At first sight, it appeared to be an unimpressive old, and I assumed run-down motel. Well, it WAS unimpressive from the outside, and it was old, but the owners had bought it five years ago and had the rooms totally redone. They said it had been "trashed", and was a mess. Judging from our room, they did a great job. Very nice and homey, and of course everything was new and clean. Unfortunately, they said business has been slow so far his year, although rhey were booked up for 4th of July weekend. The little town itself wasn't bad either. They had quite a large grocery store, hardware store, and "Malt Shop". Of course we had to go to the malt shop and have a malt. A young woman we had met in the grocery store joined us for a malt. She was riding solo from St. Mary (where we had camped with Margit) to Hamilton, which is about 40 miles or so south of Missoula.

This morning we loaded our bicycles and bags in our motel host's pickup truck, and he drove us 10 miles over a big hill and a little more, to help us make it here to Plains. We found out however, that a confusing mileage marker on our map made it appear that the ride to Plains was seven miles longer than it was, so we possibly didn't need the ride, but I'm glad we got it anyway, because I got pretty tired today. I can't figure my body out. I sometimes get more tired on relatively short and/or easy days than on longer or more difficult ones beccause of hills or wind. Strange. We had another beautiful ride through the mountains and along the Flathead, and then the Clark Fork river. They are both running very high - two to three times their normal flow rate for this time of year. Some of the trees and bushes that are normally away from the banks a bit are now standing in the water, and in some cases way out in the river!

Our motel tonight is another old one that has been fixed up very cute by the owners. These kind of motels in the east were usually marginal and definitely forgettable. Not so here in Montana! We have three more days and nights in Montana and then on the 4th of July we'll be in Sandpoint, Idaho. That should be a good plaee to spend the 4th.

Tomorrow we will be in Thompson Falls.

Riding on.......
Carol & Bill

On the rail trail from Polson to Ronan