Northern Tier Adventure part II: Seattle to St. Paul: Day 15: To Eureka, MT

Wed. Jun 7, 2017
Stats: Today - 56 miles; 742 miles to date
Elevation climbed: 5148 ft; 29,161, feet to date
Temp. Low: low 50's High: low 90's
Light clouds to sunny, Slight headwind at times

He said "Eureka!!!"

She said "You don't smella-so-good-u-self!"

Today was a grueling day. We knew it would be hilly, but not this hilly. Today the hills were longer and steeper grades than we've had in several days and there were many of them. The elevation of the hills combined was almost as tall as our climb over Sherman Pass only we weren't anticipating it. Just like over the passes, we spent the majority of our day climbing.

We actually had three choices for routes to Eureka today. Choices one and two were on either side of the river and they both had similar elevation gains. The third was told to us by a local resident at the campground last night. It was an old service road that followed the railroad tracks and supposed to be less climbing, but with no way to verify that information, we chose to stick with the map.

Another factor with today's ride is that we camped toward the beginning of a seventy mile stretch with limited services. The campsite we stayed at only had pit toilets and no water. Last night we had to pack enough water to get us through last evening, overnight and today. We made it.

In spite of the workout we again enjoyed another day of beautiful scenery as we road most of the day along Lake Koocanusa on the Kootenai River.

In Eureka we camped at the city park behind the town hall building. They had showers there, but they didn't want to leave them unlocked overnight since they've had some issues with vandalism. When we were done with our showers, Naomi who was really a nice woman, locked up the showers and restrooms for the night and told us the gas station across the street was open all night and we could use theirs, if necessary, until 8:00 am when the business day started at the town hall.

At the park, we met another couple bike touring. Ben and Camilla started in Seattle, where they live. Their destination is his grandparents' home in Walker, MN. They are taking a leisurely time as they are taking many side trips from the Northern Tier Route and then coming back to it.