Day 53 - Whitefish - Tuchuck Campground

Not the best night’s sleep due to the train activity but was up and packed reasonably early. Rode back through town and then up along the edge of the lake. Lots more lovely houses looking out over the water. This part of Montana certainly seems to give Colorado a run for its money in the affluence stakes. 

Quickly onto the main climb of the day over Red Meadow Pass, which was short but pretty steep and rocky. There was a really nice lake over the top of the climb but I didn’t stick around as it was extremely buggy, including horse flies, which were painfully biting me if I stayed still too long. Dropped down the other side and thankfully the fly activity seemed to stop. From here I got a view of the mountains of Glacier National Park. Really cool but a bit of a shame to not get closer for a better look. 

Another hot afternoon and pulled over to get some water from a river. I got my filter out but when I got down to the waters edge it looked so clean and clear that I opted to just drink straight out the flowing water. A strangely freeing feeling and not something I’d ever do with the state of our rivers back home. 

Got to the campsite which was a lovely setting in the forest and next to another stream. There was a group of horsemen also camping and I asked them about drinking the water, which they said it was fine to do. Made some dinner and planned out the next couple of days as I’ve arranged to stay with Reuben in Fernie on Tuesday.