Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (Eureka to Whitefish)

Our first day off to do some bike maintenance, laundry, restock and relax bottoms and knees! Eureka is a cute town with a lovely timber cabin motel and a pub with fabulous local beer and steaks.

After Eureka the trail continues along the Flathead river, returning to within 6 miles of where we were two days ago. Crossing into the US legally meant climbing over two mountain passes and two days' detour. 

White-tailed deer can be seen everywhere. Lucky for us because they are the main prey of large carnivores.

And here is our standard lunch: bagels, salami, cheese and mustard. It's fantastic how every nice spot has a picnic table!

Crossing the Whitefish Divide. This is what most of the trail surface looks like, ...

 ... which gets very dusty when there are cars on it. Lucky we have come prepared.

Our first glimpse of Glacier National Park and the first reason for a detour. The trail runs along its western border, rather than through it.

Camping at Upper Whitefish Lake. Yet again a beautiful site with a private beach. To top it off, our neighbour gave us a cold beer each! And took the empty bottles back to carry out.

This was our last night camping with Garth. He left us at Whitefish to ride to Missoula and fly home, while we took a shuttle bus to Glacier National Park.