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I just can't bring myself to get an early start.  Morning is my favorite part of the day and I like to linger over coffee until the air warms up a bit.  And the scenery makes it even more difficult to pack up and leave.

Once I did get back on the road, a deer crossed in front of me.  It was easily the biggest deer I have ever seen in the wild.  It had a big rack of antlers, but it was running too fast for me to count the points.  I'm sure any experienced deer hunter has seen a hundred bucks bigger than this one, but to a casual wildlife observer like me it was pretty big.  I saw a couple more deer prancing across the road too, but the biggest thrill of all occurred a few miles later when I came around a curve and saw the unmistakable tawny yellow form of a mountain lion pop out of the woods on my right and saunter across the road into the woods on my left.  And following closely behind was a mountain lion cub, or kitten, or whatever a baby mountain lion is called.  They were no more than 40 yards ahead of me.  I came to a complete stop to let them cross and disappear into the woods for a while before proceeding . . . very, very cautiously.  I don't think they ever saw me because they didn't seem to be in any hurry to get across the road.  I was on a very high emotional plain.  Mountain lion (cougar) sightings are extremely rare, so I was feeling like the luckiest bicycle rider of all time.

As I write this, I am now trying to picture what goes on BEHIND me as I ride.  If there are deer and mountain lions who are fearless enough to cross in FRONT of me, just think of all the other shy animals who probably wait for me to pass:  Hundreds of deer gleefully criss-crossing the road.  Perhaps a mountain lion in pursuit of one of them.  Grizzlies shaking hands with raccoons.  Porcupines thumbing their noses at me.  Bighorn sheep and elk dancing on their hind legs.  Black bears doing cartwheels.  Hawks flitting about like bluebirds in a Disney movie.  Squirrels and jackrabbits giving me the finger.  Etc. Etc.

Heart

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Highway 228 on the west side of Lake Koocanusa has been very good to me.  There were a lot of hills, but in the first two hours I saw more deer than cars--4 to 2--and a 2 to 2 ratio of mountain lions to cars.  Nice!  At a few points I could see the much busier Highway 37 on the other side of the lake.  I definitely chose the right route.

I fought a fairly cool headwind and a few minutes of rain in the morning.  In the afternoon, I saw the mountains ahead of me to the north were completely enveloped in rain-drenched clouds.  I made it to the town of Eureka and checked into the Silverado Motel just before the rain, thunder, and hail arrived.