Where in the Hell is Piapot?

Last night, we ended up camping in a tiny, almost ghost town called Piapot, pronounced pie-o-pot. The only business in town is the saloon.


We had a beer and the owner made us their mixed drink specialty called The Paralyzer that included vodka, khalua, milk, and coke. It sounds pretty gross but was surprisingly good.


We met Pearl, a real life cowgirl who makes her living 'riding herd'. I've never met anyone who wears spurs!


Sam seemed to like hanging out with some Harleys.


We camped in an open field by what used to be the library and ate dinner on the library steps. Lionel, the town drunk, came by to chat and gave us a bunch of food and ten dollars. He told us that a house in town had just sold for $18,000 and the taxes were $120/ year on it.

Piapot used to be a happening town but is now falling into disrepair. No wonder houses are this cheap!


There is an ice hockey rink, a curling rink, a veterans' lodge, and an Elks lodge, all of which are seemingly abandoned.

Some people came by and showed us the almost invisible path to the overgrown town cenotaph that we would have never seen if they hadn't shown it to us.


Pretty ironic.

Today, we battled a stiff headwind all morning. It eased off and gave us some showers for a while but it has now cleared up. It was a long 70 miles. Tomorrow, we continue east.
-- Post From My iPhone

Location:11 Ave NW,Swift Current,Canada

Saskatchewan is not flat!

I crossed into Saskatchewan yesterday.


I've been riding with Henri, the québécois cyclist I camped with in The Hat.


He's pretty young and a former bike racer but seems okay with slowing down so I can keep up. It's great for me because I'm pushing my usual pace and am becoming a stronger cyclist. It's also nice splitting the cost of campgrounds and having someone to talk to.

I don't know how long we will continue riding together. I would like to get off of the Trans Canada and go south and either continue riding in Canada or drop back down to the states. The wind needs to cooperate which it doesn't seem to want to do. Tomorrow, there is a south wind forecast that I am unwilling to fight just to head south so I'll continue on the TransCanada for another day. There is a road the heads southeast out of Moose Jaw that I might take.

I thought the plains would be flat but in actuality, there are lots of rolling hills.


It's very pretty but tougher riding than I anticipated.


The wind sometimes cooperates and comes from the prevailing westerly direction but a good chunk of the time it comes from the south or east giving a strong side or headwind that is really exhausting to pedal in all day.



-- Post From My iPhone

Location:Swift Current, SK,Canada

Rollin' on the Northern Plains

I'm still heading east through Canada.


The fantastic tailwind I had a few days ago has shifted into a moderate headwind due to some stupid low that has come in over the mountains to the west. It's been annoying but didn't get really bad until the last stretch coming into Medicine Hat, or 'The Hat', as the locals call it.

The prairie continues to be really pretty.


They grow a lot of canola around here which is currently blooming.


About two minutes after I pulled into camp, another cyclist pulled in so we decided to share a campsite. Henri is from Quebec and is riding home from Vancouver, BC.

I met two other cyclists today outside of Bow Island. Helen and Erika are on their first tour and are riding across Canada. We had a good chat by the side of the road. It's really rare to see women riding so it was great to meet these two.


I guess they grow a lot of pinto beans in Bow Island. They must be really proud of the fact since they have one of these statues on both ends of town.


Tomorrow I cross into Saskatchewan and at some point will start heading south into North Dakota.


-- Post From My iPhone

Location:Medicine Hat, AB, Canada

Blowin' in the Wind

I took a much needed rest day in Waterton Park and hung out by the lake and did some sightseeing. I even took an afternoon nap in my cozy little tent despite the ominous sign near my campsite.


Like I said in my last post. Herbivores are out to get us!

This morning I continued north east out of the park. They have these neat salamander tunnels under the road to try to keep the little critters from getting run over.








I stopped several times to admire the Rockies as they receded in the distance.


What has amazed me is how incredibly green the prairie is. I asked about it and was told that they've had lots of rain. Usually, the grasses turn brown by the end of June. I feel so fortunate because I was kinda dreading riding hundreds of miles through hot, brown terrain and instead, I get this fantastically lush and beautiful place.

I stopped in a convenience store and ran into a guy in a grungy Qiagen t-shirt. (Qiagen is a biotech company whose products I used almost daily back in my lab rat days.) This guy was a grad student at Baylor for a while but quit to move here and raise water buffalos for milk that they use to make mozzarella cheese... Really!

There is an amazing tailwind straight out of the west. On the flats, I'm cruising in my highest at around 20 mph. I was contemplating the route I had planned for the day, heading south east back to Montana. The wind is so strong, though, that parts of the planned route would be absolutely brutal since I would have to turn into the wind for several stretches. So, I'll follow the wind and stay in Canada for a while and cut back south later down the road.


-- Post From My iPhone

Location:Alberta, Canada, Eh?

Going to the Sun followed by Watery Waterton

I made the climb over Logan Pass on the Going to the Sun road yesterday afternoon. It got pretty relentless in the last 2500 feet but the spectacular scenery made up for it. There was very little traffic heading up so I had the road to myself a good part of the time.


You can see the road on the left side of the photo.



I finally made the pass around 9 pm.


There was some pretty torn up road in sections due to road construction especially on the downhill side of the pass. The good part was that they completely closed the road at nine so I had the whole downhill stretch to myself.

I saw about 5 or 6 big horn sheep rams at the top of the pass just hanging out on the road. They walked over to check me out and one of them came so close, he brushed my leg! Then, he started smelling and nibbling at one of my rear panniers! I quietly told him to move along and eventually he did. The whole time, I was thinking about those nature shows we've all seen with big horns ramming heads. "Sam", I said. "If this guy tries anything, we'll so lose!!" (Yes, sometimes I talk to my bike. He has yet to respond...)

Other people worry about bears when traveling in the wilderness. I worry about herbivores! I've now had close encounters with elk, deer, cows, horses, bison, pronghorn antelope, marmots, deer mice, moose, big horn sheep, and domestic sheep, in fact, the closest I've ever come to a major accident on the bike was a near head on collision with a herd of sheep in Scotland that just stood in the middle of the road watching me hurling towards them at 40 mph trying desperately to stop before I hit them. I literally stopped maybe a foot away from the stupid things.



I rest my case!

A nice long downhill at dusk got me to camp on the east side of the park. Yesterday, after breakfast and a nice chat with Jamie, a high school english teacher from Wisconsin, I headed for Waterton National Park across the border in Alberta.


I fought a brisk headwind for a good chunk of the hilly 55 mile ride. Then, a thunderstorm hit that passed after about 20 minutes and it got sunny but still windy. The second thunderstorm hit during the last 15 miles and this one just blasted me with a driving headwind and torrential cold rain. The last five miles into Waterton town were just crazy with a few sections that were so bad, I thought I would get blown over. I finally crawled into town with feet so cold, I couldn't feel them anymore. I got a motel room and defrosted in a hot shower for a good 20 minutes. Ahhh!

Location:Waterton National Park, Alberta, Canada

Bad Sam! Bad!!

I guess, this trip is all about mechanical problems. I deal with one problem and here comes another one.

I got up before dawn this morning so I could be on the road at first light to ride the Going to the Sun Road across Glacier National Park.





There is a time restriction for cyclists on the road. We have to reach Logan Pass, the crest of the Continental Divide, a 3500 ft climb, by 11AM from Lake MacDonald. We can also ride the section after 4 PM. So, I set off nice and early and got a good 15 miles up the 30 mile road to the pass.



My new dérailleur needed some adjustment so I played with the barrel adjustment as I rode along. It's been a long time since I had to adjust gears like this so, of course, I made things much worse. Pretty soon, I was riding around in circles in a pull out trying to get my gears to work. All of a sudden, the chain locked up, I almost immediately stopped and since both feet were still clipped in my pedals, I tipped over. So embarrassing! Luckily, no one saw me crash. I caught my new expensive riding tights on my fender and ripped a hole in them but my spendy camera and lens in my handlebar bag survived just fine.

It's a funny coincidence that the last time I had a tip over crash on tour was about 100 miles from here on the road to Waterton National Park right across the border in Canada during my Rocky Mountain tour in '97. I still have a hefty scar where Sam dug his front chain ring into my calf.

Anyway, dejected, I headed into Avalanche campground figuring that I needed to find a ride back to the bike shop in Whitefish to get my gears adjusted and my chain that was partially broken from my 'crash', fixed.

In the hiker biker campsite I met Stefan and Jessica, two Swiss cyclists riding from Jasper Park in Canada to Yellowstone.


It turns out that Stefan is quite the bike mechanic and he fixed Sam right up, chain, gears and all. Sam is now happily shifting smoothly again. Thanks Stefan!

I left my gear in the campground and rode down the lake 6 miles to Lake MacDonald Lodge to hang out by the lake until 4 when I'll head back up to the campground, load up my gear, and haul over the pass.


Sam behaved just fine on the ride down. Hopefully, he'll mend his ways and cause no more problems.

Of course, now my tent zipper is starting to fail... Sigh!
-- Post From My iPhone

Location:Glacier National Park

Keeping Sam Happy

I got into Kalispell this morning and found a bike shop to give Sam the bike the once over since I won't see another shop until North Dakota. I bought a ridiculously expensive new rear tire; a German- made Schwalbe super duper Kevlar, ceramic, kryptonite, depleted uranium belted, lead-lined, pixie dust filled magic tire that will never get a flat. Or so they say... The thing rides a bit like a tank tread, or more precisely, a panzer tread, and could probably be used as body armor in a pinch. Take that, nasty re-tread wires!!!!!


Sam has been a bit crotchety during shifting and I was told that I needed a new rear dérailleur (the thing that shifts the chain over the rear gears) but would have to get one at a bike shop in Whitefish. So, off I went to Whitefish and got a new dérailleur.


My last dérailleur was one of the few original components on Sam and had over 30,000 miles on it. I hope this one lasts as long! It better, considering it cost $120!

So, maintaining a touring bike can be expensive but I've learned the hard way that I gotta treat Sam to top-of-the-line parts otherwise he gets upset and a testy Sam is never a good thing. Tomorrow, it's off to Glacier park.
-- Post From My iPhone

Location:Whitefish, Montana

Odd Things

Riding a bike at an average speed of 10-15 mph allows me to see lots of odd things. Here is a random sampling.

There was a great bike path heading into Kalispell, Montana until, well, I guess they ran out of money!?


I think Sandpoint, Idaho is encouraging excess bean consumption in their cyclists...


It's important to watch for drunk and staggering trucks along the Clark Fork river. Is that a rum bottle?


Does the Jesus Bike have to stop for inspection? (Some of my students named my bike Jesus Bike after other students were surprised that I had biked to Alaska since they though that Alaska is an island near Hawaii. Really.)


So, non-shower users don't take their shoes off and keep their keys?


After school detention to the left?


-- Post From My iPhone

Hot Days

It's been pretty dang hot these last several days. I've been struggling with eating and drinking enough water. I don't have much of an appetite and drinking water that is roughly the temperature of bath water is tough. I was really pooped yesterday so I cut the day short and camped by a pretty lake. I drank lots of water, read, and napped. Today, I was good to go and rode an easy 65 miles on a really pretty road.


I even had a brisk tailwind that increased my average speed by a good 4 mph. The flag was flapping exactly the direction I was going!


There was some road construction today with some really torn up road for a few miles. It brought back fond memories of the Top of the World Highway near Chicken in the Yukon.


I met some local Native Americans who told me that there was a pow wow going on this weekend at the end of Flathead Lake and that I should go see it. I spent several hours there today. First, I ate some Navajo frybread, which is the same thing as lángos in Hungarian cooking.


Then, I went to the arena where they had the dance competitions. There was a drum circle.


And, there were dancers. My favorite was the men's fancy dance.


Today, I head into Glacier National Park on a, hopefully, cooler day.
-- Post From My iPhone

Location:Kalispell, Montana

Welcome to Montana

I crossed the Idaho panhandle and am now in Montana. I rode past Lake Pend Oreille, which was carved out my the Missoula floods.


The last ice damn that held Lake Missoula was right there about 10,000 or so years ago though there were many other older ice dams. The ice dam burst sending a monster flood down eastern Washington through what is now known as the scablands and down the Columbia gorge. The great soil in the Willamette valley was deposited during these floods.


-- Post From My iPhone

Location:Trout Creek, MT

Back on the road...

Well, I'm back on the road again after several days back home taking care of some family stuff. I flew into Spokane yesterday and took the bus out to North Division Bike Shop where I had left my bike.


As I was packing up, I talked to several employees about which direction to go as I headed out of town. I also met Michael, the owner who asked where I was staying that night. I said I wasn't sure so he invited me to stay with him and his wife. He drew me a map to find my way across town and off I went. I got to the house in a lovely neighborhood and met Eileen, Michael's wife.

I had a great time getting to Eileen and Michael.


Eileen is a retired teacher and is very involved in bicycling programs in the city. Michael does lots of volunteer projects with the Rotary Club. He is an avid photographer and showed me some of his photo collection along with some of his old Hasselblad cameras. If you thought I was a bicycling fanatic, you haven't met these two. They have four or five bikes in the living room alone and the house is decorated with all sorts of bike themed stuff.

The next morning, the three of us rode across town.


I got great directions on side roads to take all the way to Sandpoint, Idaho. Thanks for the hospitality Michael and Eileen! It was great to meet you.

The road to Sandpoint has been great. Climbing over a small pass, I was surrounded by the fragrance of blooming mock orange.


I crossed the border into Idaho.


Currently, I'm in Sanpoint and will cross into Montana later today.
-- Post From My iPhone

Location:Priest River Idaho