Today we rode from Eureka, Montana, US to Red Meadow Campground, Montana, US. Very sunny weather with little clouds and 10 drops of rain. Road conditions included paved roads, gravel roads, and gravel road with sharp edgy rocks. Highlights of the day climbing Whitefish pass and Red Meadow Pass, camping at Red Meadow Campground.

Riding statistics: on Saturday, August 6, 2022, day 6 on the route, it took 09:36h (07:59h moving time), between 08:27 and 18:03, to cover 99 km (62 miles), including 1615 m (5299 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 12 km/h (7 mph), while reaching a maximum speed of 45 km/h (28 mph). During this ride the average temperature was 24 °C (75 °F) with a minimum of 15 °C (59 °F) and a maximum of 46 °C (115 °F).

Totals: So far, it took 1 days, 16 hours, 54 minutes, and 53 seconds of cycling time to cover 567 km (352 miles), including 6634 m (21766 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 14.0 km/h (8.7 mph).

This morning we got up way before our alarm clocks and packed early for today’s ride. We needed to do some groceries before we left, and we decided to walk through main st. to visit the Montana Market. There we could buy food for the next two days. In main st., people had hung quilt to the front of all buildings. It was part of the yearly Eureka Montana Quilt Show. After groceries we walked back to the city park, stored our groceries, and went to the gas station for a final stop before our departure out of Eureka.

Just outside Eureka, we immediately got to climb. It got our legs warmed-up. Since the sun was shining well, it wasn’t cold. During the morning, the road surface changed from paved, to gravel, and eventually we even hit jeep tracks. On the gravel roads and some of the jeep tracks there were larger rocks, but all with smooth edges. Our only concern was not damaging our rims. Later, the type of rocks changed from smooth rocks to rocks with very sharp edges. Now our concern changed to the tires as well. These sharp edges could have cut through the tires easily when hit wrongly. This type of road surface continued throughout most of the morning. Fortunately, none of us no issues with rims or tires. The scenery was, again, beautiful with all the mountains, hills, forests, etc. Just after noon we passed Whitefish Pass and we started a downhill. We had to do that relatively slow because of the road surface.

After a long section of the downhill we arrived at the Tuchuck Campground. We had aimed for this location for our lunch break. Fortunately, we had not planned for staying the night, because there was a sign that there was a bear active in the area and staying at the campground was not recommended. For our lunch we did not consider it to be an issue, so we cycled onto the campground, towards the river. There we met Taylor and Dee again and we had lunch together. We sat between the trees net to the shallow river. We also filter some water to make sure we had enough for the remainder of the day. When we finished lunch and left the campground, we also saw Jane and Dave having lunch in another area of the campground.

After lunch we continued riding on gravel roads. We had again beautiful views. We went through forests, meadows, and even saw the mountains for Glacier National Park in the distance. We also passed several Cabins that provided opportunities for staying the night. We had our goals set for Red Meadow Campground. The last 20km (12 miles) of today’s ride were the hardest. It ended with an elevation gain of 250m (820ft) in the last 3km (2 miles). It was nice to see we eventually ended up with a group of 7 cyclists, of which 5 knew each other from previous days. We cleaned ourselves in the Red Meadow Lake, ate dinner together, and went into our tents. The mosquitoes were horrible, and once the sun was behind one of the mountains, the temperature dropped significantly.

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