The cell phone service at the State Park was not adequate, so I decided to leave a little early this morning and stop by the Whitefish community library and use their Wi-Fi before I hit the road. Since I was the only user sitting outside the front door on a bench, the Wi-Fi was lightning fast. Thanks to Erin’s visit yesterday, having the password already was the key to Operation Blog Upload!

Whitefish is having a fancy art festival this weekend and they had numerous booths in place this morning around the train museum. Whitefish seems to have an old western theme mixed with modern industrial style architecture lining the street. The mix of these two for this ski town seems to work and I hope to one day return in the winter.

A large majority of the ride today was on pavement and this made for a little faster riding. Luckily, the roads used on the route were nice country roads allowing me to get a glimpse of some amazing ranches and homes in the area. Everything seems so grand out here in Big Sky country, impressive to say the least.

The only challenge today would be about an eight mile climb on the western side of Swan Lake. On the way back to the gravel and to the climb, I saw the most unique fence post and I also came across a very cool sign in someone’s yard showing the distances to Banff and Antelope Wells.

I also stopped at a cafe that was as packed as a clown car, I mean it is Saturday morning. Too busy for me to enjoy and I decided to sneak into the bathroom and fill my water bottles and I enjoyed my own tortilla outside. This is where I met Tracy and Firefly.

Tracy is a Retired Marine and they are doing this trail in sections. She completed the New Mexico section in May and is now working on completing this section of the trail. She also is staying at our campsite and is an absolute joy to hangout with and talk to about the adventure!

I soon made it off the pavement and during the climb and on the descent I met other riders from the Netherlands, England and France along with others from the United States. So far, the Dutch have had the most foreign riders and every one of them now know about my buddy Folker! I think of Folker daily on the trail and I am so excited about our future adventures together.

Today at the campsite I did some laundry and Erin is probably happy my gear has been cleaned. I could truly smell myself the last couple days. Unfortunately, tomorrow they head home and I will continue on down the trail with a clean smell. I will miss them and think of them like I do everyday as I ride up and down these mountains. Without Erin, none of this is possible and I am truly grateful for all she does for our family.