Day 15 - Joplin to Harlem 93.8 miles

"It's like cycling on the moon, but everything is covered in wheat." - Owen Jones. That more or less summed up this morning. We imagined that we were in something akin to the Truman Show, and we were cycling along a treadmill as the scenery did not change. Faint mountains in the distance lingered static for hours as we rode towards them. The road was straight for 40 miles, with rolling hills. We were surrounded by wheat fields, barley, peas and lentils. A couple birds of prey broke the boredom.

We stopped for lunch in Havre, and ran into a tourer we had leapfrogged the other day. We rode with him for a while in the afternoon. His name was Renee (I am not 100% on the spelling), he was a German teacher on a gap year cycling alone. He was faster than us and soon pulled away. We would pass him later where he waited by the roadside to say goodbye as he was stopping early.

We rode on, with Jakes' music on to break the monotony. We dropped down along Milk River, and the scenery became marginally less boring, but emphasis on marginally. By 1830 we made the campground, free of charge outside the town hall, and with a swimming baths next door that allowed us to use their showers.

We are sat here now chatting to an inquisitive young man named Robin, 8 years old, who is local to the area and very curious about our camping stuff and how we say things differently in the UK. He also had many suggestions for road games to keep entertained.

The mosquitoes are getting overbearing so I think it is time to retreat to the bar.

Day 14 - Browning to Joplin 111.5 miles

We were eager to get away early this morning with the prospect of a predominantly downhill morning ahead of us. Last night we watched the sunset over the Rockies and today we saw them fully illuminated by the morning Sun and said our goodbyes. It feels like the end of the first stage of our journey.

We set out, cheekily tearing it through the roadworks rather than wait half an hour for an escort. A few hair raising moments with the local dogs and we were out of the town and making way quickly down Route 2. For most of the morning we were travelling around the 20mph mark and made it to lunch at Shelby already with 60 miles on the clock! En route we stopped for a cheeky drive-thru McDonalds to keep us going.

The roads today have been the straightest we have encountered, as we expected, and it has been more a challenge to combat the boredom and keep ourselves entertained. Playing games such as getting the passing lorries to sound their horns at us kept us amused, and we even got a couple of freight trains (often a mile long) and an Amtrak (their passenger trains) to give us a couple of blasts!
We also saw some osprey, antelope and bison along the road.

After lunch it became less downhill, more flat with some steep undulating stretches to keep us occupied, but still straight as an arrow. Tomorrows road goes more or less straight for 40 miles, and often you can see traffic at the far end that takes a long while to actually pass.

Still feeling strong at Chester, we pushed on a little further to Joplin and the next campsite on route. We are pitched in the Joplin town park, which is free, sheltered and has all the amenities we could need! And there is a bar two blocks down, so I will end this one here...

Day 13 - West Glacier to Browning 71.6 miles

We said our goodbyes to Jamie and Siobhan in the morning, as they had to go early to work. Kindly, Jamie let us stay to cook our breakfast after she had left, and we set out at 0820. Feeling energised with rested legs and a comfortable night indoors we ate away at the miles doing 35 miles up the pass before lunch.

At lunch we met a Scottish man going the same way, but setting out earlier than ourselves and covering upwards of 90 miles per day. We spoke for a short while, as he rushed his lunch to get on the road again. We decided it was worth covering a few less miles per day if we could sit and enjoy our food at the cafe! We ordered a second course...

The pass was gradual and not as high as Sherman, so we were feeling relatively fresh when we topped out at 1500. This pass also marked the continental divide and it was strange to have the river flowing in our direction after so long riding against the course of the rivers.

Despite being promised by a local at lunch it was "all downhill to Browning" it turned out to just sort of plateau out, and we barely lost 300ft on the pass for over 15 miles. Then we dropped fast into Browning, breaking 45mph!

Browning seems almost third world in some ways. It is in the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. Dogs roam free, chasing us occasionally through the town. Roadworks made navigating difficult and we had to be escorted through the worksite by a vehicle, which was a nightmare to keep up with in the headwind. The campsite is good though, with spectacular views out to the Rockies.

Things get very flat and the roads very straight from here on out.

For now see pictures at facebook.com/RollingEagleCyclingExpedition

Day 12 - REST DAY Columbia Falls to West Glacier 18 miles

Today was another rest day for us so we enjoyed a good lie in and I tried my hand at something more ambitious than the usual porridge with raisins: pancakes with bacon and maple syrup cooked on the gas stove. It worked out better than you'd expect although the gargantuan portion defeated Jake and Owen!

We resupplied, went to the library to do some admin on their computers before setting off to West Glacier. While at the library I decided to try making a Warm Showers profile. It is a website dedicated to cycle tourers where people can offer bed/ floor/ camping spaces to passing tourers. I sent a few enquiries to a couple of people in West Glacier in the hopes of a response.

On we went and halfway to Glacier I checked and we had a reply and a place to stay for the night! We carried on through some stunning scenery, with towering peaks around, and a river valley below. In West Glacier the buildings took on a more alpine feel. It also started raining again.

We found our hosts house, on a residential community for people working for the national park. Her name is Jamie and she works in Glacier as a Park Ranger, doing talks and guiding groups in the park. We got chatting with her and Siobhan her housemate about the local area, their work and the state of Montana, as well as her very interesting and entertaining recounting of her various travels.

She treated us to a cup of tea and a curry dinner, the best way to make us Brits happy! We then ventured out as the rain subsided to eat desert by the lake. This was stunning, with the larger mountains towering up on the other side of the lake, wreathed in cloud and looming over the surrounding area. On the other side a wildfire is being battled by over 600 local firefighters.

The evening passed quickly as we spoke and enjoyed pumpkin pie with ice cream. We rode back through the forest in the dark. Tomorrow we are set for an early start. The larger pass through the mountains, Logan Pass, is closed currently due to the fire, so it looks as though we will have to take a more Southern route. We only hope the views will still be good.

Day 11 - Fortine to Columbia Falls 50 miles

None of us wanted to get out of the tent when the alarm went off in the morning, with the rain thundering down outside, so we slept in an extra half hour. After breakfast we set out on route 93, a rather busy two lane road with not much hard shoulder. The road conditions were very poor, particularly on the edges, and at a number of times we were glad for the sturdy steel frames of our Dawes Galaxy bikes. Later the traffic became very heavy and the drivers were not as switched on as they have been so far, making for a stressful morning.

It was a gradual uphill most of the day, and certainly faster going than yesterday, with more towns and settlements to look at as we passed. We leapfrogged a couple of other cycle tourers carrying a lot more kit than we are, which made us wonder what they could need with an extra three panniers
(two on the front and a large one on top of the rear rack).

We stopped for lunch at Whitefish, the first large town in 100 miles of cycling. By the riverside we had a run in with a family of ducks. They were not phased by humans at all and the ducklings were clambering over and around our feet looking for food. They would nip at us occasionally if we put our fingers too close. It was one of our more unusual and enjoyable lunch breaks!

10 miles on and we made it to Columbia falls where we are stopping for a rest day tomorrow before tackling the main pass through the Rockies on Tuesday. A barbeque and beer tonight presents a welcome change from the usual spaghetti we have been living off!

Day 10 - Libby Dam to Fortine 67.5 miles

Today was a stark contrast to the morale lows of yesterday, despite the long stretches of road with no amenities and the plentiful and steep hills.

We set out north from Libby Dam around Lake Kukanusa. The lake side road climbed up and over a many spurs and down into re-entrants where creeks would flow into the Lake. The Lake itself was actually a large reservoir. We stopped at the dam for a water resupply after using the river water last evening. This would be the only opportunity to get water before Eureka in 55 miles. The Dam reminded us of something out of Goldeneye.

We have seen a number of eagles swooping down and picking fish out of the river this morning, with perfect precision. Other than the eagles we have seen groups of deer crossing the road, seeming unbothered by us on our bikes.

The last few days I have been having a few pains in my knee from an old running injury, however I am glad to say that with a saddle adjustment and cleat adjustments on my shoes, today has been relatively painless despite being the third hilliest day so far.

We kept a steady rate through the day and the mileage crept up. A lunch on the go meant we pushed through the area of no services without trouble, reaching Eureka by 3pm.

We took the Old Tobacco Road to Fortine from Eureka making it there by 5 after a couple larger hills than we were expecting.

At Fortine we are staying at a Saloon Bar who put us up in a field on the side, next to posts where the tie the horses to. Today has been raining on and off, and the main downpour came through as we got the tent up. It makes a difference from the heat of the last week; It barely crept above 20C today. We are getting well into the mountains now.

At the Saloon, with Elvis and various Country and Western tracks playing in the background, we have been sat speaking to the regulars, one of which we had a run in with on the way into town, where he hailed us from his Jeep. One local, Roy Don Maile, a US Marine for 30 years and 3 months leaving as a Master Gunnery Sergeant. He spoke of his time in a foxhole in Guantanamo during the time of Castro, as well as Vietnam, Okinawa and Tunisia. He offered us a warm shower but we are pushing on tomorrow towards West Glacier.

Day 9 - Heron to Libby Dam 76.3 miles

Yesterday we rode in three states, Washington, Idaho and Montana, and two time zones. The jump forward an hour between Idaho and Montana hit us this morning, and we didn't get away until 0940.

We set out up route 56 through a stunning valley system, very alpine and craggy. We are truly out in the sticks now, passing areas named "Wilderness" with high towering peaks and dense evergreen forest. Yesterday the high screes falling into the lake below was reminiscent of the Wasdale screes, and there are some towns here with Cumbrian names.

People have been fantastic so far, but we had our first unpleasant run in today, with someone launching a full litre bottle from a car window in our direction. Luckily he couldn't aim. A little riled, the scenery soon calmed us back down.

It was 50 miles to the next town, Libby, and the eatery in between us and there where we planned to pick up lunch was not open until 2pm, so we had to push on. We wound up the valleys past rivers and lakes to reach Libby by 2:30pm very much in need of a good meal. A local diner would suffice.

We had a 2/3lb double stacked burger each, which we struggled to finish. We also tried a local
'home comfort food" according to the waitress, called biscuits and gravy. Expecting a soggy plate of digestives with  Bisto, we were pleasantly surprised with the real thing, a sort of bready dumpling with a thick sauce.

We stocked up on food as the next 70 miles have no services. From here we followed route 37 out to Libby Dam, taking a 40 minute detour up Fraser River when we took a wrong turn at the bridge. We were tiring by this point and back on track we pulled in at the next campground, a national recreation area with no water/ amenities, but with good access to the river. We got the tent up, took a dip in the river which according to a local was around 50 degrees F, whatever that means. Still full from the burgers, we are having a quick brew by the river, with some music. We plan to take advantage of our remote location and see the stars tonight.