Woke up to a glorious beautiful sunny day in Libby Montana. The weather was warmer and we were ready for a fun ride. Phil and Gale met the owner of the RV park in Libby who is a cyclist and he said he would like to ride part way with us today. He showed us a back road with fantastic scenery to get us back onto Route 37. Andy was from South Carolina and now owns and manages the RV in Libby. He told us about all the wildlife he has seen on the road he took us on but we did not see any today. But what we did experience is very few cars and knock out beautiful mountains and rivers. Our route took us north to Eureka Montana about 2 miles from the Canadian border. We rode 67.8 miles, gained 3,791 feet in elevation and maximum grade was 8%. The ride was tough lots of uphill and my knees were telling me all about it! For most of the day our journey took us along side the emerald waters of Lake Koocanusa which is 90 miles long. The water was such a beautiful color it reminded me of the
Emerald Coast in Florida, except here there were snowcapped mountains everywhere. We did stop at the Koocanusa Dam for a rest and took several pictures. About 20 miles from Eureka the weather started changing and dark clouds loomed ahead. The wind started picking up, it felt like it could just blow my bike off the road. I was grateful for the many times today that the wind was at our backs and we were able to ride UP hill at 15 mph. At one point, I had unzipped my jacket down to about 2 inches and then was going downhill. The wind was collecting inside my jacket and I thought I might start parasailing at any moment! It felt good to reach Eureka. The weather for tomorrow looks badrain and cooler. We have a lot of miles to cover tomorrow to reach West Glacier. The joy of the Lord is your strength. Nehemiah 8:10
