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Wednesday 4th August 2004

Quake Lake in MontanaMadison Hostel/Hotel to Ennis, Camper Corner. 74 miles on route. The day didn't start off too well with a huge rain storm that kept us in the Madison Hostel for a while - then headed out, rain started again, and Steve got a puncture only 4 miles down the road, which he fixed rather slowly under a bridge. But then things improved, the wind was behind us, and we were headed down a slight downhil for many many miles. We reached Quake Lake - where the 1959 earthquake killed 28 people, commemorated on a plinth at the site. The wooded hills are quite pretty - nice to have green, largely wooded hills and mountains. The seismograph in the visitor centre showed that even while we were there, there were tiny tremors - a bit alarming! In the photo you can see, in the distance on the mountainside on the left hand side of the valley, the scar where the earth shifted down into the valley. The wind hurtled us on down the road to Cameron, where we ate in the cafe waiting for a huge stormcloud to blow over - good cheap food. Then on to Ennis, where we pitched our tent. 10 dollars for two people on bikes - I think this was a discount rate! This was one of our fastest days on a bike - for about 30 miles we averaged 20mph, even though there were a few uphills. It's nice to have a following wind for a change! Bears seem to be the top of the food chain around here - perhaps that's why the local culture likes to have over sized everything - it makes us look a bit bigger in the scheme of things so we aren't put in our place by the grizzly! At Ennis Camper Corner there were a crowd of Canadian camping motor-bikers, heading to a motorbike convention in the Dakotas somewhere. Of all the forms of motorised transport that there are, motorbikers seem the most in touch with the cyclist. The two species seem to understand each other well.

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