With a short day on the cards, it was a leisurely start to the day. But perhaps we just slept in and enjoyed taking time in the beautiful setting. A slight climb took us up to 1700 m and from there it was pretty much all downhill to Whitefish – where we planned to rest, eat and resupply before carrying on to the bike retreat. Whizzing down the lush gravel – what great fun; fun which was interrupted by a wasp taking exception and stinging Megan on the ear. Ow.
Within a couple of hours the metal road and easy descent was over and we joined the seal around Whitefish Lake. Also out of the wilderness, we couldn’t actually get down to the lake due all the private property graced with the most ostentatious houses we’d see all trip. Contenting ourselves with views across the lake to the hills behind, and knowing the general direction of the bike retreat, we wondered where along those hills we would be going – I may have also been watching the busy railroad a bit too. Looking at the map now, I see we weren’t too far from the ski resort for which Whitefish is known now – explains the houses a bit, if the lake views weren’t enough.
The road around the lake turned out to be a roadies’ favourite, we were passed by many as slowly the density of buildings increased. A bridge over a large rail yard put us right in town. Amazing crepes were found and devoured, a hardware store provided rope for hanging food out of reach of bears and much food was bought at the grocery store. Eventually we rolled out of town, it was warm, it started raining and we realised neither of us had eaten enough and were actually quite tired. We returned to refuel and rest out of the rain. Salubrious.
Keeping our break to less than an hour, off we went again. Always keen to take back roads, we had a few hills to get over. So nothing was thought as we climbed steeply in the heat up a residential road. Only when a big gate barred us from more big lots and houses did we have to accept that we may have not quite followed the right route. Not wanting to go all the way down, a small cut-through was spotted on the map even further up the hill. Not knowing if it connected, we took a chance and ground our way further up under the beating sun. It connected, just.
Stopping for more food we cruised down a smooth private road, didn’t really find the trail proper crossing the road, ducked around another gate and found the trailhead. I wasn’t keen on pushing through singletrack when we were tired, hot, heavily loaded and didn’t know how technical it was. What an error – the highway was awful and Megan soon found a side road to put us back where we should have been, on singletrack.
Should have gone down here… Now we’ll likely never know what it’s like – but if the rest of the trail is any indication…
The singletrack was so much fun! It was also a big relief to be away from the traffic and in the trees. Both of us were thrilled to be tackling small pinch climbs on smooth trail and flowing down through the lovely curves; generally having a ball on loaded bikes and quality trail.
Honestly, I was having fun! One of the highlights of all the riding. I’ll just say it’s my concentrating face.
Eventually, we saw this welcome sign – we were close.
Checking-in, it was definitely time for ice cream. We made it to this special little part of the Montana wilderness (admittedly, you can drive there – but we biked in on singletrack, so it felt like backcountry). Set with longer distance trail connecting it, the retreat has a lodge, numerous tent sites, other facilities, its own little network of singletrack, a pump track and a whole lot of bike-themed things.
After the rush of getting to Fernie to start the ride, adapting to life bikepacking again and the heat – a day’s rest was well in order. Much time was spent eating and socialising with friends of Megan’s that had driven down from Alberta & BC. Avoiding wasps every time we ate was also a recurring past-time. Our bikes devoid of luggage there was a bit of fun to be had on the retreat’s trails – but mostly it was eating and resting on Sunday.
