June 30, Day 5

Big Fork, MT to Cedar Creek Campground - 35 Miles, Avg Speed - 7.2mph

This day had a 6 mile stiff climb, so in anticipation, we were up at 5:30am, and knocking on the local café door at 6:10am for a BIG breakfast! Luckily just after we ordered, we remembered we had left the turkey sandwiches in the refrigerator in the room. Dirtbaby unhooked the panniers fast and zipped back to the motel.




Nobody there, so she had to pick up the phone and call the duty manager to beg him to open up the room again. When he appeared looking bleary eyed and in his shorts, she realized she had woken him up. Even more so after he tried to open up the wrong room! Turkey sandwiches retrieved, Dirtbaby returned to Numb Stuff and both ate a hearty US breakfast of eggs over easy, sausage and the rest to set us up for the day.

On the road at 7:10am, a quick blast down the Swan River bike trail and we rejoined the route . There was a nice 6-7 mile warm up ride before the steep climb which we used to compose cycling songs. The climb, when it came was not so bad, we had rest stops every 2miles or so which helped. The first 4 miles were the hardest, the last 2 miles leveled off a little. Just after the top, we passed what looked to Dirtbaby like a human arm bone but Numb Stuff convinced her it was really an arty looking branch. Whatever, neither of us was prepared to go back to look!

Turkey sandwiches for lunch, shared with a few ants and then another up and down 21 miles to Cedar Creek, through beautiful Douglas Fir, Western Larch and cottonwood trees. Arrived at campsite between 1:30 and 2pm. The pit toilets are in a pitiful state. You worry that you might fall through the floorboards down to the pit below if you venture in! Besides that, the camp runs by the Swan River, which is glacier cold but great for standing in to cool off and numb your cycling legs!


As we have a lot of time, we do laundry, filter water, put up tents, check the maps and realize that Richmond Peak is only 2 days away (gulp) and wait for our support team to join us.



The support team joined us around 6pm and quickly throw together a bar, quesadillas, smoked mussels, and provided cozzy chairs. Jiggleless made a camp fire using only her flint tool – life is good!