Western Montana

Habitat for Humanity build day in Kalispell--right outside White Fish. Good day doing siding prep work with Alan--a Canadian caravaner. At the church Pastor Dan gave a touching talk to our group before the dinner presentation and ended it by blessing our bikes. He was the most down to earth friendly Pastor I've met this summer and I wish I could stay to hear a service. The day out of White Fish shaped into another great one, almost epic even. It started out with sourdough pancakes cooked by Dr. John Forsberg. I got to talking to him in the kitchen, and ended asking him if I could take some of his sourdough starter along with me. He was happy to share it and wrote down the recipe. This was the coolest souvenier I could imagine! He's been using this starter--yeast culture good for making pancakes, waffles, bread, beer--for 50 years. It was passed to him by a lady in Oregon, who got it from her grandmother from the Yukon gold rush of 1882--this same starter! So now I've just got to keep it cold back to Ohio and I'll experiment and it'll continue to nourish. We only had 50 miles that day, so I hung out in White Fish with Eileen, Jason, and Angel. We drank lots of coffee at a cool little shop, wandered to the bike shop, and checked out boots at a western store. We met two New Zealanders biking the continental divide from Canada to Mexico and a girl who offered Jason places to stay all down the Pacific coast if he decides to continue his ride. It started raining while we headed to White Fish lake. We couldn't help but take a cold refreshing swim in the 55 degree weather. We started our ride at noon and kept a fast pace. Jason spotted a Ponderosa pine which we stopped to admire. Biggest tree I've ever seen--probably 5 of me around--and smelled sweet like butterscotch. We hit Eureka by 4 and Jason and I split what Good Morning America voted the best burger in the country. Pretty good. I enjoyed the potluck provided by the church that night much more.