We slept in this morning until 7 am. There was no rush to get moving because we needed to wait until 9 am to call Ken at the Libby post office to see if my replacement tent pole arrived. At about 9 am Larry headed out and we rode a mile into town to eat breakfast at Hank’s Restaurant. At least Betsy did because I already ate cold left over pizza at the RV Park. Yum! At 9 am, we rode a few blocks to the post office and called Ken. He found my package and kindly opened the window just for me so we wouldn’t have to wait until 9:30. Thank you, Ken!
We got on the bikes for a delightful and easy 15 mile ride along the wide Kootenai River (see photo). We then climbed several miles to Libby Dam, which creates the 92-mile long, one-mile wide Lake Koocanusa. It extends into British Columbia, Canada. In 10 miles, we rode down to a marina and store for a cold drink and snack. Back on the bike: the rest of the day consisted of about 15 climbs of 300-500 ft. of elevation, each followed by descents. The ups and downs wore us out physically and mentally.
After about 56 miles on the day, we came to a bridge over the lake. An interpretive sign stated that the bridge was deemed to be the most beautiful long-span bridge in the world in 1972. We biked another 9 miles to the hamlet of Rexford, pop. 105. We got a fine shady camp site at the Rexford Bench USFS Campground for $6. The bathroom was the fanciest I have ever seen in a Campground with tile floors and rustic pine walls. After we set up camp and cleaned up, we biked a half mile to the Frontier Bar for dinner. Today was a fine and tiring 65-mile day.
