60 miles
Our route today was south on Route 93 to Whitefish. The first 30 miles were Ok because there was a shoulder but the traffic was heavy even early in the morning. This route goes to the Canadian border down to Kalispell.
Ed and my room at the Riverstone Lodge
Leaving Eureka around 7 :30 a.m.
A lake along the route
About the 30 mile mark things got worse. The road had a lot of bumps and the shoulder got very narrow down to about 1 foot. Cars and trucks are allowed to go 70 miles per hour down this road. Also there were many loaded trucks carrying logs and gas. They raced by without moving over.
I stopped at about mile 42 where Tim had the lunch stop. By then my nerves were frayed. Other riders started pulling in and commenting about how bad the road conditions were. I stayed at the lunch stop about 15 minutes, a short time because I wanted to get the ride over by getting to Whitefish safely.
About 10 miles before Whitefish the road got very bad with no shoulder, hills, and constant traffic.
When I saw the "Welcome to Whitefish" sign I was relieved.
First I went to check out a bike shop in town. Then headed to the church we would be staying at and noted others in the group also had been stressed out too.
I am thankful that we had good weather as I would not want to be riding this stretch of road with that added hazard. It was by far the scariest road I have ridden on. There were so many roadside memorials along the route that I lost count.
I saw dozens of these along Route 93
I was glad to see this sign after riding 60 miles on Route 93
I recall the ride was harrowing; however, I don't recall anything specific -- must have blocked out the day's events.
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