7/3/17 Ride C2C Day 16 Eureka to Whitefish

7/3/17. Day 16 Eureka to Whitefish
Miles: 58. Total Miles:805.7
Break Camp 7:32am. Make Whitefish hotel 4:15pm

It was so nice to wake up and look through the foot of our tent and see the Tobacco River flowing peacefully along. Many people thought were were nuts to bike AND camp - frankly I was a little worried about how my body would put up with it. But with a GOOD air mattress and our pillows made from down coats in our sleeping bag stuff sacks, both Doug and I sleep well. I just love the feeling of connection with the outdoors (as long as the weather is not too harsh!).

Tobacco River at the foot of our tent

There was a 24-hr gas station/grocery store a block away, so we walked over to grab a 2 cups of coffee, 4 hard boiled eggs, and a can of peaches, The clerk looked at us like we're were a little bit crazy. We added some granola and a banana and that was breakfast.

We followed the Old Tobacco Hwy - a very quiet road- for the first 14 miles of our ride.

We saw grassy forests of pine trees, ranches with horses, and farmland with hay.

When we joined HWY 93 for the next 30 miles, we knew were were in for a hard day. Strong headwind, not much shoulder, and 70 mph heavy traffic. This took all the concentration we could muster. When the wind is blowing hard like that, it really slows you down and we help each other by taking short turns being in front or “pulling”. My Garmin was dead and since I had no clock, I counted 100 exhales before I took my turn at the front. The wind eased up a bit and we took plenty of breaks. Sometimes we needed just to put a foot down to stop the noise - the noise of the wind and the noise of the traffic.

Hwy 93 with a headwind

Mercifully we were able to take about a 10 mile detour off HWY 93 on a lovely side road that took us peacefully and quietly through farmland and ranch land. The final 3.5 miles to Whitefish put us on the WORST of HWY 93 - No Shoulder, plenty of rough road, and fast moving big rigs. UGH.

When we arrived in Whitefish it was over 90 degrees and there were no close-by campgrounds. The heat got the better of us and we took a room at the StumpTown Hotel - convenient to town, had laundry facilities. We took the first shower in 3 days (don’t be too grossed out, we splashed around in the rivers on the other days) and felt refreshed.

Whitefish is cute but with a lot of traffic

The solution for carrying your 6-pack or wine bottle...

My electronics charger died and so we had to find a new one of those, supplies for breakfast, and of course dinner out - Italian and it was delicious. It's 9:20pm and just starting to cool off. Tomorrow will be an early start to beat the heat

The river walk back to our hotel (in the background)