June 23, 1998 - Quartz Flats - Missoula

DISTANCE TRAVELED: 78.00 Miles

TIME: 8 Hours 30 Minutes

AVERAGE SPEED: 13.4 Miles/Hour

TRAVEL CONDITIONS: Sunny in the morning turning into lots of rain and a few spots of lightening.

ROAD CONDITIONS: Mostly smooth road due to highway and a few places that were rough including a stretch of 1 mile which was under construction which resulted in huge potholes which were horrible for the road bikes.

TERRAIN/DIFFICULTY LEVEL: Mostly flat or a very small uphill with a few short downhills.

DAILY JOURNAL COMMENTS:
We woke up today around 8:00 in the morning and did the usual pack up of gear. I went with Julie, Abigail, and Lana to a local place for breakfast where I had an egg, two pancakes, two pieces of bacon, two pieces of sausage, and a piece of Canadian Bacon. We then got back to camp around 10:30 and threw our gear into the SAG and finally left around 11:00. I ended up leaving by myself and biked on the freeway for about 12 miles before getting onto a less busy road. I was on this for about 5 miles all of which was fairly rough and not straight like the highway. I found a place where I could bike under the highway and then get back onto the freeway. It ended up that this saved me about a mile since the other road was so windy. I continued on for a few miles and it started to rain heavily. I was currently going about 15 miles an hour and saw a bridge about 300 yards in front of me where I could stop and put on my rain gear. I picked up my speed to about 27 miles an hour and got under with just enough time before the rain started to come down really hard. About 2 miles later, I heard the pulsing sound of air and discovered that my rear tire had a flat. It was still raining fairly hard and fortunately I was able to get to a bridge where I could stay dry while I changed my tube. This was very fortunate since there is typically a bridge only every 2-4 miles. It took me about a half an hour since I decided to eat a Stoker bar during this time. I had two large cuts in the rubber and I had heard that by taking the wrapper of a Powerbar, folding it over a few times, and sticking it between the tube and the tire, I would be less likely to puncture the tube in the same place. I did this and then pumped up my tire. By this time the rain had stopped and I continued on my way(Picture14) until I met up with Julie. We rode together for about 3 miles and suddenly she got a flat. I helped her fix it and once again we were on our way. The next town we came to, we stopped in and got a cheeseburger, milkshake, and an ice cream cone. About 8 other Bike-Aider's also had the same idea but they mostly had coffee and hot chocolate. I left the cafe alone again and a little later I met up with the SAG. I then found out that Julie had a total of three flats during the day and asked to be picked up so that she could buy a new tire and bike another day. We traveled along the designated roads for a while and found that the mileages where way off.(Picture15) At one point it said that we had 5 miles to go when we actually had 13 miles. At another point, we were supposed to have 8 miles and we had 18!(Picture16) Finally we got to the YMCA and took a quick shower before dinner. I then took off my back tire once again and replaced the new tube with the old punctured one with a new patch. The patches don't stay on well unless they are in the tire and this way I have a new tube for later in the trip still. We then did a passing of the candle where each person said what he is feeling which was followed by going to bed around 12:30.

TRIP ROUTE: Get onto Rte 90 and follow until you get to Missoula. Get off on Reserve St. Go South and turn left on 4th. Turn right on Russle and follow until you reach the YMCA.