Friday, August 16, 2013

The area between East Glacier and Browning was stunningly beautiful.  First of all, there was always the backdrop of the mountains of Glacier National Park.  The rolling grasslands were drier than the other side of the mountain, but still green and somewhat lush for this time of the year. A buffalo herd surprised me as I struggled up one of the hills.  And the road was great.  Early morning and almost chilly.   A great way to start the day.

Stark contrast with the riding on the other side of the mountains.  No shade ( except provided by the small bill of my bicyle helmet).  And that also meant that what I had come to rely upon for bathroom breaks (bushes and trees) no longer were an option.  That may have been the hardest adjustment.

A had a hawk staring me down and chattering in my direction from a fence post along the road.

Easier riding, because I spent a great deal of the day coming down in elevation. It was still a hard day since I ended up going  72 miles.  But I had some good motivation.  My son came up to visit me in Shelby last night, and that was certainly a treat.

Mosquitoes came out last night and continued the barrage this morning.  Up to this point, mosquitoes haven't been an issue.

Today I took it easy after two long distance days.  Am currentlly in Chester MT at the local library, catching some respite from the heat and catching up here.

Small birds and mosquitoes make up the animal theme for today.  Every time I stopped, the mosquitoes swarmed and poked, making each stop a little shorter than planned.  Chester doesn't seem so bad for mosquitoes.  We will see tonight.

I thought I would write a little about bike/ car etiquette and interaction.  For those non cyclists, I want to put down some thoughts about why cyclists ride in the road where they do.

For safety reasons,  I have always been told to ride out into the lane at least 1/3 out from the shoulder.     Cars have a tendency to slow down and pass in the other lane when we take up that much room.  The people in the car might lose 15 - 20 seconds of time, but it makes for a much safer environment.  If the driver decides to cut it really close to the cyclist, the room that we have between us and the shoulder can be used to get out of the way and still be safe.

If cyclists hug the right side of the road,  drivers tend to not slow down and many of them zoom right next to us, leaving little margin for error.  That also gives us no wiggle room to the right.

Sometimes there is a great shoulder to ride on, but we don't use it. Why not?  There is a lot of "stuff" on the shoulder.  Glass, chunks of tire, wire, broken headlights, broken tie-downs, cans, and anything that might fall off of a car.  If I were to pick up all of the lug nuts I find on the shoulder, I could start a store called "Lug Nut Heaven" and make a pretty good go of it.  There is lots of "stuff" that is not good to run over with bike tires.

Today, I rode 10 miles with the entire shoulder cut out as a rumble strip.  I also spent a good deal of time on a road today that had recently been resurfaced.  That is great if one is riding on the road part of the surface.  The gravel and rocks have been pushed down into the new layering of asphalt. Easy and fun to ride on.  However, the gravel and rocks on the shoulder are still sitting on top of the new layering of asphalt.  Which means that it is like riding on a gravel road.  Not such a good thing for tires or low rolling resitance.

Just my little piece of explanation for where cyclists ride on the road.  Thanks for your patience.

Til next time.    Tomorrow, Havre