Day 17: Libby to Happy's Inn to Logan State Park Campground

June 17, 2021

Off the Northern Tier, briefly

“This is so nice not to have to listen to traffic,” Rachel says as we are riding the Fisher Creek Road. “This is what cycle touring is all about, hearing the birds and river.” Patrick agrees that the road is a good choice….at least for now.

We are still adjusting to a new time zone. In the campground, Robert has already quietly packed up when it’s light and we wake up, 0-bladder-thirty. It…is…cold….40 degrees, when we set off about 7am. In the center of Libby we leave US2 and turn onto 37 north, there is a shoulder but rumble strips between the white line and the edge of the pavement, so we ride in the road. The road continues to follow the Kootenai River upstream for another 14 miles until we reach the junction to Fisher Creek, just in time for second breakfast. But there’s nothing here, so we make nutella and peanut butter sandwiches, and dig into the pound of the donut holes we are carrying. We have these because Ross at dinner last night mentioned that Rosauers have the best donut holes, and that was all that was needed for Rachel to start craving them. Turns out, Patrick does too because on many of our breaks today it was Patrick who wanted to pull them out to eat.

Fisher Creek road is paved and though we need to gain elevation it is at a nice grade and through forests, riding upstream and following the railroad. We reach the junction where USFS 36 continues to follow the railroad and the suggested road by Cyndie in Sandpoint. We had also received a message from a Warmshowers host in Whitefish that this USFS road was a nice road and paved as well and would take us closer to Whitefish. We decide to stay with the original plan of turning south to meet back up with US2, bypassing Whitefish, and coming into Kalispell on a bike path. There is an elevation gain from 2164 to 3593 feet over 21.6 miles.

The road junctions again, we take McKillop Creek Road 8miles to US2. The first 5 miles are like a pass but it does not have a name. So we named it “Surprise Pass”. After 5.5 miles the road returns to a nice grade and a bit of a downhill. Turning left on US2 now with a nice wide shoulder, we are 2 miles to Happy’s Inn and stop for a refill of water, pick up beer for when we reach the campground and enjoy ice cream before setting off again. Our original destination of McGregor Lake Campground is another 13 miles east, and Patrick noticed that about halfway there is Logan State Park that offers showers. We check-in with a volunteer and initially are directed to camp at the day-use area for a reduced rate. Later the volunteer discovers that she can only do this if the campground is full, so now we are back to a full-priced site at $28, plus $3 each for the showers. It is nice to share the site with another cyclist, doing this alone would get expensive. Robert moves one of the bear proof garbage cans to our site, it’s clean and we place our panniers with the food inside.

Tomorrow when we reach Kalispell we’ll decide whether to continue onto Columbia Falls. We are getting close to Glacier National Park, and the information we have for now, the Going to the Sun road is still closed.

Second breakfast at the junction to Fisher Creek Road

Turnoff to McKillop Creek Rd to get us back to US2

Just down the road, around the corner, Robert had stopped for a lunch break

The 5.5miles that was more like a pass....

Enjoying the lake view at Logan State Park...until we were told we had to move to a camp site

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Today's ride: 47 miles (76 km)
Total: 646 miles (1,040 km)

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