Having eaten at least the mass of my bike, if not myself, for breakfast it was time for all of our group to start packing up. We said our goodbyes and pedaled off down the access road for a short stretch on the highway – it was still nasty, but only lasted quarter of an hour. Enter Megan’s excellent selection of back roads. Mostly on gravel for the rest of the day, traffic was at worst light – but usually non-existent.

Turning off the wonderfully named Farm to Market Road we headed, gradually climbing, towards Tally Lake. With the day warming, and smoke free, a cool lake appealed. Unfortunately the only easy access was through a campground and day access involved a fee.

There may have been trees surrounding the gravel.

Perhaps even more trees.

Away from the lake, the gradient reared a little as we got further into the Flathead National Forest.

Turning onto Star Meadow Road the road was suddenly and unexpectedly smoothly sealed – another deserted road, it existence seeming well out of place, we took it as a fantastic roadies’ road. It was a very nice interlude.

Star Meadow? I’ll assert so. Once again, the hay bales were beginning to congregate.

Leaving the grassland behind, our route kept us heading west with some gentle valley floor gradient before climbing through old burn zones.

Occasionally there were even trees that were not pines. Either way, they were useful for hiding from the beating sun.

The pass was just over 1500 metres high and gave way to a beautiful and sustained descent. Losing all the elevation gained that day, we crossed yet another railroad and found Wolf Creek at the bottom of the valley. Time for a pleasant mid-afternoon rest and water top-up. Also, there were huckleberries! Bushes and bushes of them; even better, there were no bears. Or wolves.

Now into the Kootenai National Forest, we had to choose between a longer, sealed and generally flat route to the campground on the Kootenai River – or a more direct path, that just happened to have a six hundred metre unsealed climb in it. It was warm, but there was plenty of daylight left – we chose the backcountry option. The two hour climb was steeper than earlier in the day, but manageable. In fact, slowly spinning up the hill being shaded by big trees as their shadows lengthened was thoroughly enjoyable.

My new bike may be a bit more of a poser than my previous one.

Climbing done for the day, we had ourselves twenty kilometres of downhill gravel bliss to whoop and holler down. All the noise was in part calling to alert any bears in the neighbourhood to the presence of two people have a grand time speeding down hills on loaded bikes. I finally added some sort of substance to my bear call.

A short section on the highway took us alongside Lake Koocanusa and to the top of Libby Dam.

Having dropped from the highway all the way down to the bottom of the dam, a brief trail led downstream to an expansive campground. Choosing a site next to the river, it was time for a dip, to cook dinner and collapse after a most-excellent day through big, deserted country.