One last 90 mile push before a well earned rest day! We were up late last night taking a road trip to Malta, MT to track down the nearest Dairy Queen for a night time snack run, so we agreed on departing a little bit later than the previous day. 

We left around 7:30am after eating a nutritious breakfast of fry bread and maple butter (Thanks, Dodson!)  and pushed the mileage into Malta, MT in a double pace line. It felt like we were flying after yesterday's painful 13mph into the headwind. We held good pace until right before our first long rest break when the wind picked up again. Yuck! The wind stayed with us for the rest of the day AGAIN. 

At our first rest stop we see our sag vehicle pulled into some random driveway on the side of the road and a table set up with our favorite fueling snacks in some farmers tractor shed! Curt Spurzem had made friends with Farmer Jerry who generously let us borrow the shade of his shed for our snack break. I never really appreciated the luxury of shade until riding hundreds of miles in Eastern Montana. 

Speaking of hundreds of miles, we have been on highway 2 (known as the "high line") for the most time we have spent on one single road. In the past few days I have watched as mile marker 300, 400, AND 500 have sailed by! I do not doubt we will see mile marker 600 shortly as well. 

My parents showed up this afternoon! They are on support for this week - it was great to sprint up to them on the side of the road for a short meet & greet before finishing up the ride into Glasgow, Montana for REST DAY!!!!!! 

When we were about 23 miles out of Glasgow, we all were feeling a bit antsy from being in the exact same pace line for the past 300 miles or so. Reid then decided to hold a personal time trial for himself and race himself all the way into Glasgow. We gave him the challenge to do it in 1hr 10min into the headwind. As driven and competitive as Reid is, he accepted the challenge and took off listening to 2009 pop hits. Moments later, Oliver decided he was going to race Reid so he took off after him. Later we learned that Oliver drafted off of Reid, riding inches from his rear tire, for almost 45 minutes before Reid even noticed Oliver was there. Classic Wade. 

Once in Glasgow for the night we were pleasantly surprised with the privilege of staying at a hotel. A real hotel with showers and beds and TV's and little coffee makers and beds and did I mention beds? 

For dinner we went to the Glasgow VFW where the mayor of Glasgow graciously hosted a small sloppy joe potluck for us. We met with several veterans and exchanged introductions and stories over dinner. It has been a great experience meeting with different veterans along the way. It's a whole new level of meaningful when these people give genuine thanks to us. 

Now... REST DAY!!!!!!!!!!!

112 miles
Departure time: 6:08am
Arrival time: 5:43pm 
11.5 hour day
100*F on the road
Headwind from hell (not kidding.. we could hold anything above 15mph) 
Rattlesnakes everywhere 

xoxo,
JT 

Today’s riding from Cardston, Canada to Cutback, Montana was a different style of riding than what we’ve been used to in the Cascades and the Rockies. We’re officially out of mountainous country and into endless plains of …. of….. nothing? 

I describe todays riding as different, but oh man was it fun. The flock (almost) effortlessly held a pace of 25mph and over for miles and miles and miles. This high paced riding over rolling hills in Eastern Montana gave me such a rush - the team dynamic amongst the flock was unreal. At one point Webster, my pace line buddy, looked at me and we both had giddy grins spreading from ear to ear. Moments like that remind why I love the sport of cycling so darn much. We flying across the US!!!!

Right after we crossed the border back into the United States we turned the corner to be greeted by Jamie’s favorite sign; the “hill” sign that depicts a truck going down a steep slope. We all looked at each other in confusion wondering how the heck a hill can exist in the middle of flat flat flat nowhere. Then it happened. We dove down this hill where we all gained speed very quickly… so quickly that we all maxed out our speedometers absolutely flying at an arguably uncontrollable speed. I hit a max speed of 51.6mph - a personal record! 

At lunch, 3 farmers working and living in the colony we were near stopped by to check out our lunch stop, These guys were so friendly and interested in what we were doing. The interest was mutual as they had such interesting stories and information on what it’s like to live in the colony. They go to school through 8th grade and then they spend the rest of their lives working for the colony’s self sustaining lifestyle. We took a photo with them (significant for colony members as they’re typically not allowed to be photographed) and then hopped back on our bikes to finish up the days ride. 

A few miles out of Cutback we were greeted with a firetruck from the early 1900’s, a few harley riders, and a herd of cop cars to escort us into Cutbank. Riding into towns with escorts is such exhilarating VIP treatment! Cutbank has been so incredibly welcoming - we’ve met so many fascinating people. 

xoxo,
JT

sidenote: Regina Noch (Reid's mom) showed up to one of our rest stops in a baby blue 1964 Ford Fairline..... Spontaneous dream car purchase?!

We have had a very warm welcome into Canada. Although we were a team of of 8 worn out riders rolling into Lee Creek Campground, we were quickly re-energized upon discovering the Wifi and its password. As a result, both Jade and Webby were able to post sweet pictures, and I have no doubt that the Instagram world is very grateful. After some showers (in which you had to push the button every few seconds to keep the water running), we were greeted by some very nice Canadians who were grilling burgers and hot dogs for our dinner. Mayor Maggie and Mr. Dave Smith both addressed the team. Mr. Smith provided us with a lot of interesting information on Canadian involvement in World War II and the country’s recent peace-keeping efforts. After that, we chowed down on our burgers and hot dogs. Gabby and Webby went out on a limb and tried, and enjoyed, some ketchup flavored potato chips… I also tried them and I can’t say that I enjoyed them quite as much. Mayor Maggie then gave each rider his or her own pin and water bottle with the Cardston town logo. We each also received a mini Canadian flag! Later, in a hilarious 20 minute escapade, Jamie attempted to back up the van and the trailer in a way that would allow us to drop the trailer for the night. He finally did it, but the van emerged from the adventure without a front license plate… Thankfully, front license plates are not a requirement for trips to Dairy Queen! Sorry to rush out, but seriously, I need to stop writing this and go get in a sleeping bag because I am getting eaten alive by mosquitos.


Talk to y’all soon,
Mary Elmore

After a harried border crossing, we quickly learned that Alberta has three things:

1) an appalling amount of flies - so many that when climbing hills I looked down and my arm was covered with over 30 small black flies. Gross

2) an interesting system for road maintenance…. or a lack of a system. There are so many little holes and cracks everywhere that my forearms were throbbing at the bottom of each hill. My butt wasn’t a huge fan either. 

3) number 3 trumps all of the above - the views! Oh mylanta! Riding through Alberta was absolutely incredible. The sharp rigid mountains surrounding us were absolutely incredible. Trying my hardest to hold true to some great advice I received before the trip - “try to enjoy most of it in a way that’s not through a camera lense!”

After lunch, we started to leave the pretty rocky mountain area. Once it got real flat showing endless grass fields, it kind of hit me that for the next 3000(ish) miles this is reality. Here’s to 5 weeks of rolling grass fields!

Reid almost got hit by a car on the highway for probably the 100th time on this trip. Someday he’ll learn to look before veering literally all the way to the yellow line. 

As we rolled into Cardston I noticed how freaking wide the roads are! My theory is that Canada is so big that it has so much extra land space so as a result the streets are literally a mile wide. I’m not complaining - it was a blast sailing through the wide streets!

xoxo
JT 

Lightning round: Something you learned today
Jacob - on bigger roads it’s important to communicate even louder to get the message across & it’s important to not let my thought sink in the pooper because it’s so easy to get down out here
Jade - cows in Alberta are easy to herd with high pitch moo sounds
Webster - Canadians declared war on the Germans ten days into WWII
Oliver - downhill doesn’t mean downhill 
Wade - Canada produced over half the vehicles for the allies during WWII
Mary Elmore - I like sour mike & ikes 

Hi! My name is Kristin, and I am Oliver's fabulous little sister. If you were wondering why I’m named Pre-Newb, that’s because I will be attending SPS next fall and Webster says that all new third formers are newbs. As the rest day yesterday continued Jacob eventually decided I was Pre-Newb since school hasn’t started just yet. And of course, I'm not too psyched about this name but I can’t much about it.

Anyways, today we rode the Going-To-The-Sun-Road, which for me was my first ride of the year.  The road signs claimed that it was a 6% gradual grade, but personally it felt like 15%. The sights were fantastic! Even though Glacier National Park is so close to Whitefish, I still forget that such massive mountains are only a 25 mile ride away from Whitefish. Everyone started riding from Whitefish and rode the back road over Blankenship Bridge and then into West Glacier but I didn’t ride this section. I met everyone in West Glacier and started the 32 mile climb around 4 in the afternoon (the road isn’t open from 11am to 4pm). The brutal climb essentially started around 5:30pm which was about halfway through the ride. As the hill got steeper, my leg muscle energy started decreasing - quickly. The road started wrapping around the edge of the mountains which gave me the creeps since we were so high up, and Oliver kept telling me to look over the edge which definitely didn’t help. On the way up we passed two people running up the Going To The Sun Road (which made me so glad I was on a bike instead of running) and we went under the weeping wall of water (and yes, Oliver tried to show off and fell over in the water). Once my legs turned to jelly, we were approximately 1 mile from the top of Logan Pass. By the time we got to the top Reid had been at the top waiting for the “flock” for almost an hour (great time riding with you Reid). The best part of the day was definitely the 19 mile downhill, except it was freezing cold (just saying I rocked Webbys one arm sleeve on my leg and I think I pulled off the look very well - thanks Webby). Once we got to the KOA, we downed about 7 entire pizzas and went straight to bed. 

Today was an awesome day and made me very excited about riding across country when my time comes. Much thanks to the flock for letting me join - it was an incredible experience. Good luck with this insane adventure. 

Much Love,
Pre Newb


P.S. We all know my blog post is better than Oliver’s. Please don't make him sad about this as it can’t be easy for him when his little sister beats him all the time.  

Check out these photos!

Today I reached my happy place on my bike reminding me of why I love this stuff so much. We made the big leap from Idaho to Montana today (although Montana has no signage to mark the border..) and I swear we went through a porthole from one world to the next. As soon as we were all of 3 miles into Montanaland it felt like home! When Missoula started appearing on the highway signs I had such a rush of happiness! Riding our bikes across Montana is such an amazing opportunity to really take in our surroundings and see everything the big sky state has to offer. I’m way too excited! 

xoxo
JT

Today began with an up, then a magnificent down, then some hot hot weather on the flat, then another surprise up resulting in almost every single one of us bonking. The first “up” goes by the name of Sherman Pass AKA the tallest pass in Washington state. Rainy pass, Washington pass, and Loup Loup pass trained us well for Sherman pass. I felt so well-trained for climbing this pass that I actually reached a new level of boredom on my bike today. After about 10 miles of climbing at an undeniable pace of 7mph, Reid and I started singing to each other. Once that got boring I started playing around with ways I can pinpoint specific abdominal muscles depending on where I place my hands on my bars - yay anatomy. 

The other side of Sherman pass was a whole new story. Jacob and I took off in a 2 man draft absolutely sailing. We absolutely nailed our drafting strategy on this descent. Switching lead every 30 seconds or so we held a solid 38-40mph for at least 5-10 miles - it was awesome. At some point we were wheelin so hard I swear I took out at least 2 monarch butterflies every odd numbered mile.

Once the descent calmed down a bit Webster, Oliver, Jacob, and I fell into the rhythm of a killer pace line. The pace line brought us to water stop 1 where we enjoyed the luxury of a clean gas station bathroom. Funny how much we’re learning to appreciate civilization and clean bathrooms. 

We all learned a valuable lesson today… That being said, it was 100% my fault. I was leading the flock down a pretty rural road around Kettle Falls looking for a turn. I got like half way passed an unmarked turn and realized that was the turn I needed so without thinking I last minute took a sharp turn which resulted in the following 8 riders half wheeling each other and then 2 people on the ground. I learned a lesson, and I don’t think any of us will fail the turn communication game for the rest of the trip. Valuable lesson learned? Yepp. 

After lunch we experienced 20 of the hottest miles yet. This is when Webster officially become world’s worst DJ. I swear this kid played elevator music from the 1800’s and called it “classics”. This one track dragged on for over 9 minutes. Rather than the music pumping us up to power through these final miles as it should, it literally drained the energy from me through my ears. 

The surprise “up” was discovered at the final water stop where we realized it was actually 11 miles until we got the campground. We all started to bonk a bit… or a lot a bit at this point. Webster took off incessantly talking to himself, Jamie trailed off with some Steve Aoki track, and I found some freak burst of energy to push to the top. 

We rolled up to Beaver Lodge just outside of Colville, WA to a beautiful lake. We all immediately dove in to the mountain water and felt so so much better. The cabins at Beaver Lodge are so homey! They gracefully agreed to host us for breakfast tomorrow morning early early before we take off for our first century ride. Whoot whoot, let’s go flock!!

xoxo,
JT


Shoutouts:

• S/O to Oliver for powering up Sherman pass while hurling over 5 times and then still managing to force food down his throat to keep himself fueled 
  
• S/O to Jacob for biking through endless hills today with a bike that absolutely refused to shift from big ring to little ring on command 
  
• S/O to Reid for only falling twice today 
  
• S/O to Gabby for powering through after hitting the decks (oops my fault) and then getting multiple bee stings and continuing to push through the hot hot hot miles without a complaint 
  
• S/O to Sid & George Marshman our flock parents for the week!!!