Following the River

I'm in Missoula now (yay!) but before I can say much more about getting here I have to get back to the thing about following the watershed. I made up my route by combining the eastern leg of what's called the "Selkirks Loop," that goes north out of Sandpoint, ID and circles around the Selkirks mountains and Kootenay Lake (though I didn't do the whole loop) and two sections of bike touring maps put together by the Adventure Cycling Association. It turns out I followed a good piece of the Kootenai River (called Kootenay in Canada).

I finally realized this when I saw a little placard at a scenic overlook along the road near Libby, Montana (which is also one of the country's biggest Superfund toxic cleanup sites). The Kootenai starts in the Canadian Rockies and (according to Wikipedia) runs 485 miles from there through northwestern Montana and the Idaho Panhandle, then back to Canada. It flows into and out of Kootenay Lake and then into the Columbia River - the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean.

I started south of Bonners Ferry, and rode up to the bottom of Kootenay Lake, then back down and over through Libby and near the top of Lake Koocanusa - which was created as a lake by the Libby Dam - more on that below. (Its name is a combination of KOOtenai, CANada and USA, get it?). Then my route cut east, just before the Canadian border - to head to Glacier National Park.

It rained a lot the night before I rode up along Lake Koocanusa and that morning there was mist over the water - it was really eerie and beautiful...

There's one bridge across the lake, called (of course) the Lake Koocanusa Bridge. It was built by the Army Corps of Engineers and while I think you should decide whether it deserves the award it won...

I might mock its aesthetics, but I do appreciate being able to spread out my wet tent to dry in the parking lot there while I ate my peanut butter sandwich.

n