Townsend to Helena, MT

Matt and I left early out of the Mustang Motel like horses itching to be free. We rolled over to the local gas station for some coffee. By late afternoon we were in Helena.

Our destination was a Wyndham hotel for their deals! We got checked in and decided to take an Uber to dinner at Suki Cafe. Matt and I love sushi and we could not pass up their all you can eat sushi!

We arrived and placed our order. The fine print stated that you had one hour and fifteen to finish all the sushi you ordered or be charged $1 per piece😲. Matt and I were up to the challenge! They soon began serving us roll after roll. By the time we ate our last sushi roll, we had eaten 98 pieces of sushi and two appetizers. Kind of a celebration dinner for making it to Helena!

We called an Uber and were carted back to our hotel. We were so full. I am glad we didn’t trip we would have rolled. Lol. I could never win a food challenge because I eat so darn slow. Matt is the fastest eater I know. More on that later.

The next day, we picked up our car rental at the Helena Municipal Airport. Our plan was to be tourists for a few days, drive to Spokane, pick up our bike boxes at a local bike shop, bike some rail trails in Idaho, run errands and return the rental car to Spokane International Airport.

Helena to St. Regis

The following day we left Helena and took Route 12 out of town towards Drummond, MT.

Matt and I were ready for lunch by the time we rolled into Drummond. We stopped at Parker’s restaurant and to our surprise, the menu had 135 hamburgers on it AND a eating challenge.

Out of 142 challengers, only 25 have won. Matt is the 26th winner! 19 minutes and 2 seconds! Needless to say, neither of us needed dinner. Our whole meal was less than $16. #frugal

We left Parker’s stuffed. He really knows how to make a great burger. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

We were ready to call it a day when we found a Super 8 in St. Regis. If you ever find yourself in St. Regis, MT and need a place to rest and have to book their last room available, the handicap room, do it! I would give this room ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ because it is very handicap accessible and is nicely furnished. Roll in shower, wide doorways allowing more than enough room for a wheelchair bound person to enter and manuever around. Great job on this Wyndham! We got a good nights rest, though I felt bad for taking the accessible room.

Idaho!

The next day we got an early start. We were traveling down I 90 towards Idaho. We were surprised at how generous the shoulder was AND how reasonably flat it was. Google cycling maps originally had detoured us to alot of little roads and mountainous climbs in this area when planning a few days ahead on our bicycle tour. Granted it was probably safer yet, I 90 was much flatter, practically downhill. We arrived in Coeur D’Alene after driving all day and sightseeing. We grabbed a cheap Wyndham hotel and called it an early evening. We had been on the go all day.

Friday morning, we made plans to ride a section of the Trail to Coeur D’Alene rail trail. This was one of the top rail trails in the country. We were excited to get back on our unloaded bikes and onto this beautiful trail. It did not disappoint. Within the first 2 miles East of the Harrison trailhead we saw a bull Moose napping in the field and a cow and calf on the other side of the trail! So darn exciting!! Up until now the only big wildlife we had seen on tour were antelope, wolves, mule deer, white tail deer and a dead badger.

After riding a ways we turned back to explore another old railbed.

After our ride we stopped at the local grocery store and grabbed lunch fixings.

We sat at the picnic tables along at the entrance of the trailhead and made lunch. There was a town rv park with vacant tent sites directly behind us. Unfortunately, the park host skeedaddled earlier in the week so we made many failed attempts to reserve a tent site online. We found all the tent sites had been reserved🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️ and the very few remaining RV sites were $50. Hmm. Nope. We packed up our bikes and drove to a nearby National Forest Campground (camping with a pit toilet, picnic table and a fire ring) only to find they were all closed. Their season runs Memorial day to Labor day. But after a few inquiring phone calls there was one remaining campground open! We made our way there and got the last pull in site! We paid our $24, set up our tent and occupied the table with our cooler and headed to the store in town. After we returned we settled in for the night. Reminiscing around the campfire about our past four months on the road. Both of us sad to see it end, but eagerly looking forward to our next adventures in 2023! The next day we head for Washington State!