Day 17 Ronan to Mountain View Mennonite Church miles 54.7

The road from Ronan to Polson has a sweet 12 mile separated bike path. I passed through the town of Pablo the seat of government for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes. They had a beautifully designed pedestrian/bicycle bridge (should have taken a picture) across the highway that connects most of the town to the Salish Kootenai College.

When I got to the edge of Polson I had to decide which side of Flathead lake I wanted to ride my bike on. Both sides are not all that bicycle friendly. The East side was a little more scenic, more direct, no shoulder but a little less traffic so I chose it. It was a little bit of a hair raising ride but with beautiful views of the lake. I stopped on a rock beach and a few more rocks wanted to jump in my bag, only one made it.

I had messaged a Warm Showers host in the morning about possibly hosting me tonight but she was having a busy week and said she couldn’t accommodate me but that there was a Mennonite Church down the street from her that allowed people bike touring to camp in their picnic pavilion, there was a spigot and a porta potty all for free! It was a little weird when I arrived and there was no one around to touch base with but I set up in the shelter and when someone would drive by on the road I would wave and no one came around asking what I was doing there. I was very happy to be under a roof when the sky finally broke open and dumped rain. I hadn’t set up my tent, just laid down a ground cloth, my sleeping pad and my sleeping bag. Luckily the rain didn’t blow sideways enough to get the middle of the shelter floor wet where my sleeping nest was set up.

The sunset lit up the house across the street and made it glow. It also created a red rainbow!

I realized when I was planning my route for tomorrow that I would be going by the town of Hungry Horse, MT where my other University of Montana nephew was staying for his wildland firefighting job. I could see him if I got up at 4:00 am and rode 20 miles to catch him before he shipped out to fight fires in Arizona.