So much for getting on the road early. I was nearly packed up, I just needed to fit my water bladder into my frame bag. I knew it was going to be a bit without good services, and I was pretty sure it was going to be a hot one today. I didn’t want to stop to filter water so I loaded up on water. I’m cramming everything into my bag and just trying to zip it up and the seam on the zipper pops. Great, now I either have to attempt to fix the zipper, or buy a new bag. Either option means I’m in town until the stores open, so instead of leaving at 6am I’ll be in town until 9am at least. Unfortunately that’s the risk I ran when I decided to run the bags I’ve hand since 2014. I just didn’t think I’d have a problem.
I decide to go to the bike shop in hopes that they have a frame bag. Glacier cyclery is a Revelate dealer so I cross my fingers that they have something in stock. I head to the restaurant next door for something to eat since I have some time to kill until they open.
A leisurely breakfast done and I’m waiting outside the doors for the shop to open. I must be super lucky because they have one frame bag in stock and it’s a medium. I buy it no questions asked.
Everything transferred over to my new frame bag, with a stretchy zipper, I finally leave Whitefish. I say finally like I was there forever, but really it’s only like 9:30am. That’s still a lot later than I wanted to leave though. Today there’s a lot of pavement, and a section that I’ve never been before since this year’s route gets a change to avoid logging activity near Swan Lake. I was hoping to get to Holland Lake for dinner today, but I’m guessing I’ll be lucky if I make it there to sleep.
I don’t have a lot of other notes about today. I remember it being long, and kind of boring. I still needed to stop several times to try and use the toilet. My stomach was overfull, but also giving me trouble.
I pushed past dark and was hoping that I could make it to Hungry Bear restaurant for something hot to eat. I even rode the extra 2 miles to see if it was still open, but by that time it was well past 10pm and of course it was closed.
I pushed back to Holland Lake and for some reason decided to head to the furthest campground to try and find a spot to camp. The sites were all taken or reserved so I stopped at the bathroom (again), and even considered sleeping there, but I couldn’t find a switch to turn off the light, and it seemed busy even that late.
Eventually I decided just to stop at one of the reserved spots and set up my bivvy. If no-one was there by now, I figured they weren’t going to get there tonight.
