Overnight we heard bashing and crashing from the food storage area nearby, only 5am in the morning, so I spent a little while clutching my bear spray and wondering how to use it if the tent was tangled up with a bear who could smell the traces of a berry electrolyte tablet from this morning's water bottle. The noise ceased and the sounds of humans waking up replaced them. I suspect that bears are creatures of habit and check out their favourite dumpsters each morning. Probably not a worry - other than just how hungry are these bears getting when they fail, yet again, to access the dumpster. In Wales, Red Kite feeding areas are familiar tourist attractions. Which wildlife should you feed? Is all the world's wildlife destined for the status of pet? Oh dear.... And what limits an animal population....? Our population... gulp! How fast from a curious question to a shocking question. That's enough...! The usual problem of planning the route turned up - either we do a ridiculously big day to the next habitation or else we do a small day and a normal day and split the mileage up. So we are doing the latter - Whitefish today and a bigger day (most likely to Eureka) tomorrow. We don't need to hurry since the plane is in mid Sept and Seattle only needs a few days for a decent exploration (music, books, culinary). We hope to explore Puget Sound and various peninsulas or islands as well. Crashing waves are always interesting and we might reach them. Before setting out we ate fritattas in a cafe in Apgar - ridiculous tiny frittatas for $5 about 3" diameter. We compared thus with some of the excellent breakfasts we've had... Apgar is a rip-off.
The route today was initially hilly and through the foothills of Glacier, but the landscape gets much less heroic and now we are riding along a valley with more modest hills. Whitefish has cyclists, some cowering from the traffic on the pavement, some using the hard shoulder, including a family all on the road - go for it, the roads were built for bikes, people, horses, and also, more lately, for cars too. Share the road. There is a bear that visits this campsite often according to the lady at the check-in desk - so all edibles, trash and wash stuff (mint in the toothpaste) are in the bear safe boxes again. I'd like to sleep a good unbroken seven hours without bear intervention. Cycling is best with recuperation and a good night's sleep. This may be aided by a Belt Brewery Beer (Montana!) that we've drunk - an excellent London Porter, probably 'beer of this transam' a noble accolade. But there's still time for other entries from Idaho and Washington. This campsite is on Whitefish Lake but water visibility is about 12 inches and it does not look like fun to swim in - beautiful to look at though it is. A small group wobbled out but did not swim. Yesterday my kindle crashed with screen problems after 14 years (tried a reboot, no luck) so Vanity Fair is now being read on my phone as a Web page, who needs special e-readers after all..? The photo is of our tent today - lovely setting surrounded by trees plus another photo lower down of our route yesterday in Glacier National Park - certainly one of the highlights of this transam. We are here.