Today we rode from Columbia Falls, Montana, US to a dispersed camping spot 10km after Cedar Creek Campground, Montana, US. Very sunny weather with no clouds at all. Road conditions include paved roads, and different types of gravel road. Highlights of the day include a dog.

Riding statistics: on Monday, August 8, 2022, day 8 on the route, it took 10:57h (07:58h moving time), between 07:32 and 18:30, to cover 114 km (71 miles), including 1527 m (5010 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 14 km/h (9 mph), while reaching a maximum speed of 42 km/h (26 mph). During this ride the average temperature was 29 °C (84 °F) with a minimum of 12 °C (54 °F) and a maximum of 42 °C (108 °F).

Totals: So far, it took 2 days, 4 hours, 27 minutes, and 52 seconds of cycling time to cover 748 km (465 miles), including 8580 m (28151 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 14.5 km/h (9.0 mph).

Again, alarms set for 6am so we could leave around 7am. Today we expected a slightly longer day (based on the information on our maps). When discussing our plans for today with Taylor and Dee, they also decided to try making it to Cedar Creek Campground, a primitive campsite along the route. I’ve been meeting Taylor and Dee since my arrival at Banff. They were in a campsite close to mine and left a day earlier than Anna and myself. We also met them in Eureka, and now we’re happy trying to spend some more time together. Anna and myself left before Taylor and Dee, but we would hopefully see them again at the end of the day.

It was again a beautiful morning to ride a bike. The first section was based on paved roads, and we made good progress. Just before noon we reached to turnoff onto gravel. We decided to have a lunch break before we start the climb a little further down the road. At the point where we were having lunch quite some cars passed by. However, once we were about 3km (2 miles) on the gravel road there was hardly any traffic anymore (all cars used a side road to get of the road we were on). Just after the turnoff a climb started to an unnamed pass. We had to climb from 3.000 ft to 5.000 ft. It took us about an hour, quicker than expected. About 1/4th of the climb we saw a dog on the road in front of us. In the next 15 minutes we saw it again a couple of times. Each turn we expected to see the dog owner, but we saw nobody. The dog was warm, thirsty, and limped with his right front leg. He also had marks around his neck. Was he abandoned? Anna gave him some water which he really enjoyed. Unfortunately, he followed us all the way up to the top of the pass, going further away from civilization. We stopped there because we could soon enjoy a downhill, but we were worried about the dog. We had no service and felt bad about leaving the dog. At that moment, a pickup neared us, it was only the second car that we saw after the turnoff. We waved at them, and they stopped, a father and daughter. We explained the situation, and after some help from the daughter, the father promised to take the dog back down into town and provide care / search for an owner. With the dog in good hands, we continued our ride, downhill. No traffic, good roads, we enjoyed it.

After the downhill the gravel road continued between dense forests. We had several smaller hills to climb, and the road continued to go uphill and downhill. We passed a couple that was riding the Divide as well, they just had pitched their tent next to a bridge. We decided to move to Cedar Creek Campground as planned. Around 4:30pm we reached the campground. It was a small campground with limited space. Unfortunately, it was taken, by a mad woman. She did all she could to make us understand that this place was for her, and for her only. We stopped for filtering water and every step we took, she checked upon us. We had no idea why, so far we only encountered very kind people. At first, we had the idea to just pitch our tent somewhere, but eventually we did not even want to stay there anymore so we decided to move on and see where we could pitch our tent. Unfortunately, this also meant we would probably miss out on Taylor and Dee.

After leaving the campground we decided to have a short break before we would continue. We sat down at the turnoff of the road, just before a gate that was closed. There were some annoying bugs, but we did enjoy eating something and just sitting down. After the break we continued cycling on the gravel road which was still very remote and quiet. About 10km (6 miles) we decided we had enough cycling done for today. We saw a potential spot for the night, which was next to a bridge to crossed a small stream. We pitched our tents just after the bridge and hung our food / toiletries / garbage before the bridge, to make sure there was some distance between us and the food. We used the stream to get cleaned up and filter fresh water for the start of tomorrow,. We went into our tents early (and a bit nervous because of possible wildlife in this remote area).

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