a little further south

made it into owl creek in good time yesterday…lotta climbing, with one last stretch of crazy on the swan highway.

second overnight with a young couple from portand, oregon. i added “young” because we are not and allen and susan obviously have more camp energy than us.

after dinner, they came over and we shared tales of the divide. worst moment? swan highway. best moment? those endless miles on gravel where you are the only people in the world.

we are looking ahead at our itinerary. today’s route involves a lot of climbing (duh; most of the trip) and a half-way destination of seeley lake for resupplies. as of now, we plan on moving on to moncton campground, which is about 51 biking miles from owl creek.

our fitness has increased significantly, and with it, the notion of taking bigger chunks out of the route each day is a bit more prominent.

then you sleep, or try to, and wake up and that old man shit gets going and you just want to sit at the picnic table and drink coffee and make snide comments about other campers and the world.

scott and i were talking last night about how the first days of the trek are now a blur and already, some of the details of .our early stops are lost.

we remember well, getting lost, rain, heat, and hail, but the totality of the journey is just too big for minutiae. not as big as the canadian rockies. nothing is bigger than them.

being the eternal biologist, i brought binoculars because i assumed there would be viewing vistas galore. there are some, but most of your day is spent on a road within a contiguous forest. you just zone ahead.

realizing my role as an “observer” was limited, i sent my binocs back to tofte and right away regretted it when a large “forest raptor” flew in front of me. wing beats and grey color had “goshawk” written all over it, but i am now can only relegate it to “large forest raptor”.

sun is up, but a barred owl is chattering nearby.

noisy fucker.

a perfect start to another day on the divide.