Lonely Country Roads

The only downside to riding around Whitefish is it has the same "problem" as Tucson.  Surrounded by mountains (and enormous lakes abound) kind of restricts road cycling options.  From the west, there is only one viable option for getting into and out of town and it's a very busy state route with no berm.  We love it here so next time, maybe we'll bring our gravel bikes.

After my 50 mile ride around the valley, I got in one more ride that included a climb up Reservoir Road.  It's about 3 miles, undulating, curvy, avg grade of 4% so not overly difficult.  I took 2+ minutes off my best time so.....

....I think I'm as ready as needed for the big climb, day after tomorrow.  

My route included going over the Flathead River and saw....

....this guy.  He had carried a chair into the water and was enjoying the flow of the water and cooling affect.  Our temperatures have turned up with today's high of 86 and then three days of 95 before things return to normal.  

I had pieced together a route via "Ride with GPS" but for some reason, it did not alert me that three sections were gravel.  Fortunately, they were short and packed so no problem.

Check out the color variation in this field.  The image doesn't exactly capture the change of grass color but it's close.

Meantime, we are keeping Jack happy with more trips to lakes and rivers.  Well, a rest day tomorrow during which we'll visit the ski resort on top of Big Mountain.  Will be fun as I begin to get a little nervous about the day after that.