A friend and I went for a little bike ride from Renton to Seattle. He said it was going to be about 35 miles. Ended up being 56 miles. We rode out to Mercer Island then around to downtown on the edge of Lake Washington. Very scenic

It was a holiday monday so there was little car traffic and tons of people out enjoying the great weather

Some dufus ran a boat into the ground near a park. Close enough to walk to shore. What a shame

Here we are at the end of our stay in Big Sky Country and this is my impression of Northwest MT. Trees, plenty of trees. Mosquitoes, plenty of those in June and July. They taper off in August. Fires, lots of fires. Tons of smoke too.

Flathead County seems to be a popular tourist destination as well as a popular place to work from home. Somewhere between 30,000 and 100,000 people moved here to sit at home during the pandemic. House prices are through the roof! Traffic sucks! Glacier N.P. is packed solid with tourists

There is some mountain biking around Kalispell so that’s fun. The forest roads are usually private roads and they don’t go anywhere except private timber land so that’s a bummer if you want to UTV or dirt bike. There are bears in the woods so riding a Mtn bike alone out there is not the best plan. Ditto for hiking alone

Bring a boat. There are a lot of lakes around here and you can put a boat on most of them. If you like to fish, all the better

Fog. The end of August this year has been foggy in the mornings. I like foggy mornings 🙂

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It has been five weeks or so since we’ve seen this:

Our typical view is more like this:

I’ve been riding my bike in the Pig Farm Trail Area and it’s beginning to look a lot like it always looks

There are miles and miles of very nice trails in the area. Some are so seldom used they are overgrown with brush and grass. Probably bears on those trails – Oh My!

Trees are going to be exploding on Thursday. Chance of flying bark

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There are oodles of gates around here. I suspect about 90% of the dirt roads are blocked by a gate. I took a ride up to the lookout tower and gated-out about a half mile short of the tower. Then I went in search of Lost Lake, gated-out miles from the water

The ride up the road was nice. Trees, rocks, bear prints. The usual

NF 511 is nice and smooth at the bottom and gets steeped, looser, and rockier as you climb it. I ended up airing down to 10 psi to take the rough out of the road. It’s doable in a Subaru wagon if you know how to drive. The dirt road to the gate is about ten miles. There are many trees overhanging the road so expect to get some pinstripes along the way

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I rode the Great Northern from Kalispell to Somers. It’s largely along the side of Hwy 93 until close to Somers then it becomes a nice tree-lined path. Somers has a museum dedicated to the RR and the lumber mill that started the town

While I was riding around Kalispell one day I came across a piece of Americana from the 1950’s

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There are approximately 45 forest fires burning upwind of my summer camp spot. The sky is a thick grey haze that blocks out the sun. déjà vu. I suppose it’s time to just accept this is summer in the American west and get use to it

Lake Koocanusa which straddles the Canadian/ US border north of Libby MT. Koo-Can-USA. Maybe there is a pattern here. Don’t know any Koo though

I got the boys a bug tent. Since there are a lot of mosquitos and I don’t want them getting eaten while they are out sleeping in the shade

I guess pealing out is the Montana state sport. I have not seen a single stretch of rural pavement that does not have burn-out marks on it. Keeps tire dealers in business

Lotta wind this year. Downed out-houses and trees dot the landscape. Took a walk around the neighborhood and talked with the local excavator. Been here his whole life. Anyway I learned that the forest around here is mostly private and what’s been going on with it. Seems it was all Rail-Road land/ Logging company land and they sold it to a big real estate company back east because the trees are all to young to harvest. The real estate company has been selling it off to retirees to build their dream homes. Which is good for the excavator company guy. He moves a lot of dirt and trees

Flowers gotta grow

I rode my bike from Kila to north Kalispell partly on the old railroad grade. About ten miles of paved trail running next to Hwy 2 West of Kalispell. It’s a little rough and I had a headwind both ways but not a bad way to spend the day.

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I took a ride from our camp spot over the hills (the back way) to Marion, MT. Traversed a dozen miles of logging roads with ankle-deep silt on them. I did not expect to be riding in deep silt this far north and in the mountains. I thought silt was a desert thing. Apparently not

I hit some pave near Little Bitterroot Lake and followed it around as much of the lake as I could. Most of the lake-shore is private so no access to the unwashed masses. I did find three access points for regular-folk courtesy of the State. Thanks Montana

I spotted a couple of old log trucks in a person’s front yard. One looks to be from the 1940’s and the other from the 1950’s. Time was those trucks were state of the art and had that new-car smell. A 2020 F-150 could out-pull either of these trucks and maybe both combined. We live in amazing times!

On the way home I swung through a private air-park and started up a conversation with a guy in a three-wheel golf cart. Times are changing here too

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Red fish, Whitefish

I spent another day touring the back roads and checking out the local color. The weather forecasts around here are not very accurate and the temperature predictions are off by about 5-10 degrees each day

The last time I passed this way I caught a pix of a different eagle in Libby (https://askmikemoore.com/2018/07/14/flathead-lake-to-yaak-river-campground-mt/)

Spotted this old ranch on a trip near Thompson Lakes. None of the buildings have windows anymore and it’s still a delightful meadow for cows and about a million deer. Every time I go out I see deer and bunnies, oh my!

We’re going to need a bigger boat

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Spent the morning riding the Husky ADV 450 on some nearby logging roads. Since all the mines and cutting operations are closed for the 4th of July it was a good time to ride without a bunch of haul-trucks hogging the roadway.

I was not able to loop the logging roads into anything so it was an out & back day. It’s nice to be riding in the forest again. Green and humid with just a hint of mud puddle left by the last rain. Enjoyed several nice views of McGregor Lake and spent some time checking out the lake-side villas

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