Day #63 (7/8/24) – Bike Across America

Slept well last night, except for the occasional train running through town in the middle of the night. I started biking at 6:15. It was 55 degrees and I just wore shorts and a T shirt.

I biked down the frontage road to I-90 for 10 miles. Then I deviated from the Komoot route. Komoot wanted me to bike up into the hills to avoid riding on the interstate. See this picture of what the hills looked like to the right of the interstate.

The Komoot route would have been 20 miles of gravel and a 1,800 foot climb. I decided to stay on the frontage road for seven miles, then bike eight miles on the interstate. It was a much better idea.

I picked back up the Komoot route after the eight miles on the interstate. I knew that the rest of the Komoot route was off of the interstate, and I assumed that meant it would be on frontage roads. That was a bad assumption.

I should have known that there was going to be an issue with the Komoot route when I saw the “Dead End” road sign, not once but twice. The road I was on was a nice paved road. I figured that I could always turn around and come back if the road stopped. But Komoot has a record of being right – it just might not be smooth.

The paved road turned to gravel. The gravel turned to dirt, and then I came to the point where Komoot wanted me to take a right hand turn. Except, there was barb wire fence blocking the path. I could see the “path” that I was supposed to take on the other side of the fence. So, I went a little farther down the road that was steadily getting worse. I found an opening in the fence. So, I pushed my bike on top of a burm next to a set of railroad tracks to see if I could get across the tracks to the road on the other side. But there was a fence in the way. I biked on the burm back to the path.

There was a fence there too, but there was also a gap underneath the fence that I could fit through. So, I crawled under the fence and then dragged my bike under the fence behind me.

So, I’m thinking to myself, “at what point do I go back and look for another route?” It just seemed like I was solving a puzzle, one step at a time. And I guess that retreating didn’t make sense, yet.

So, I’m on this path over the train tracks and the road on the other side turns out to be the service road for the train tracks.

Possibly the worst “road” I’ve ridden on this trip. The rocks were huge. There were railroad spikes, parts of railroad ties, and other debris scattered along the road. There was a frontage road off to my right, but I couldn’t get to it because of a fence and the drop off from the railroad bed. Komoot had me on the service road for a mile. I started biking and stayed focused on missing any debris that could slice one of my tires.

I kept on thinking, at least there’s not a train.

You will need to zoom in on that last picture to see the lights from the train. But from where I was standing, I could hear it. Here’s a closeup.

FYI, freight trains are loud!! I just stood there as it went by, then continued biking down the service road. Eventually, I came to the path that allowed me to get onto the frontage road. Asphalt under my tires never felt so good!

At the next intersection, I checked the Komoot route in detail, and saw that it put me on the railroad service road for several additional miles. I happened to be at an on-ramp to the interstate, so I biked down the interstate one more exit to avoid the railroad service road.

From that exit, I was able to bike on the frontage roads, bike trails and bike lanes the rest of the way to Missoula.

I got to Missoula at 10:30. I called a dentist to see about getting my crown repaired. I was on hold so long that I decided to just bike over to their office and talk to them. I was able to get in to see the dentist tomorrow morning.

Then I had a nice lunch at a local diner, and headed over to check in to my hotel. I’m looking forward to a rest day tomorrow and having some time to check out the city.

For the day, I biked 53 miles and climbed 1,100 feet.