Whitefish - Holland Lake
Every day I will upload a photo, my stats and write a few sentences from my last year’s Great Divide ride. I started in Whitefish, MT and rode to Salida, CO and then I looped back to Denver from where I flew home.
It was a bit complicated to get to Whitefish. I flew to Spokane, WA (via Denver) and later transferred to an AMTRAK train onto Whitefish. I arrived at 8:00am the next day. I was a bit tired after traveling throughout the night. So, I decided to spent the day in Whitefish. I booked into Chalet Motel. Later, I picked up my bike from Glacier Cyclery, where I UPS-ed it, bought some food, organized my stuff and headed out early the next day, July 12th.
The first day ride was uneventful. I started out at 7:15am and did 45 miles in the first three hours. Mostly pavement and hard-pack dirt through the Flathead valley communities. It was a beautiful, sunny day. I was amazed how picturesque this part of Montana looked like. True big sky country!!! After crossing Highway 209, near Bigfork, the road started to go up and up. Loved it. In late afternoon, on the FR 9591, a young bear crossed my path, about 150 feet ahead of me, near a flat section before making a hard left turn towards the highway 83 and Holland Lake where I stayed overnight. Camping at the Holland Lake was expensive (IIRC, $14.00) and the grounds were swamped by mosquitoes… But I didn’t care, I was happy to cover 115 miles…
Start: Chalet Motel, Whitefish, MT
End: Holland Lake, MT
Distance: 115.23 miles
Elevation: +6,070 ft
Time: 9′50″25″
Avg: 11.7 mph
Total: 115.2 miles
Riding/Total days: 1/1
