Needing a breath of air last week due to the limits of COVID-19 considerations and widowhood, a spokane grandmother took a break on her bike.
“I was itchy, so I scratched it,” said Sharlene Lundal, who was not satisfied with the platoon in her career opposed to aging.
“I just took care of this and deal with it for two years from my husband’s (death),” she said. “I have friends at the Spokane Bicycle Club who do a smart task to keep me fit, but at my age it’s hard to pinpoint who needs to leave Dodge.”
Especially when the 325-mile escape would involve transporting everything he needed on his bike, up to 120 kilometers per day, as well as several mountain passes burning on his thighs over the Continental Division.
“For 20 years after (my daughter) moved to Bozeman, we came and went along the Clark Fork River and it occurred to me that one day I would explore it in more detail when I got here to see her,” Lundal said.
Lundal took this photo by pedaling on Interstate 90, which crosses the Clark Fork River in Montana 16 times from St. Regis to the river fountain near Warm Springs. When traveling by bike, it may be one with the river and infrequently sample the insect hatches into your teeth.
An experienced traveler to destinations around the world, Lundal has been deterred from turning to the wing with recreational cars and 18-wheel cars.
She said her age is important because ageing motivates her to do more as much as she can.
He said he was 79, but someone would have to check his birth certificate to check that he wasn’t 50.
“I see a lot of people my age buying electric motorcycles and motorcycles for girls with the most sensitive folding tubes,” he said Monday, in Spokane. “I can still pedal, so I don’t need an electric bike: too heavy, too many problems.
“And I can swing my leg in my seat to get on my boy’s bike,” he added, convincingly demonstrating. “I try to swap the leg on which I swing from time to time (it shows it with the other leg, just as impressive) so that one leg doesn’t bend more than the other.”
Lundal said he was driving a motorcycle because he could, and he knew it was a gift.
“That doesn’t mean I’m not surprised at what other people my age are doing with their time and talent,” he said. “I really appreciate other people who know about quilts. I know Doctors Without Borders, my God, how smart they do for humanity.
A friend dropped her last week in Mullan, Idaho, where Lundal climbed I-90 and attacked the Lookout Pass at the start of her first 54-mile trek in Superior, Montana.
“Cake, ” he said of the challenge of lighting the necklace at a height of 4,725 feet. “I’m mentally prepared for it.
“A few days later, even Butte’s Homestake Pass (6,375 ft) wasn’t bad because my head was in a position to do so.
“But the day after Whitehall, the rank increase after Cardwell almost kicked me because I didn’t expect it,” he said, noting that it wasn’t marked on a card as a pass. “I wondered, “Where did this hill come from?” I had to take a break at the top, rehydrate and step again.”
It would occasionally go on the front roads, but more commonly stayed on the four-lane road.
“I know it’s not for everyone, but I have no challenge to stay on I-90,” he said. “The noise and traffic don’t bother me. It has wide shoulders and almost everyone moves a little to give you even more space.
“And there is a small advantage. Every time a vehicle passes quickly, it moves me a little forward. I’m getting close to him.
He travels in a straight line and sits on his bike, which he named Boudica after a British warrior hero.
“The front roads are also beautiful, but you can’t just relax. Some of the other people who drive them are not about to move. They catch you pretty close.
Based on a tip in Garrison, he ventured on I-90 with the goal of crossing the Yellowstone Trail through the Deer Lodge Valley. It is a remnant of an unpaved road established in 1912 as the first transcontinental highway in the northern United States.
“It seemed quite interesting, ” said Lundal. “But it’s horrible. Oh, my God, it’s not suitable for a road motorcycle. What am I thinking? It’s the end of my day and when I had to get down and push my heavily loaded motorcycle into the sand, I knew it was in trouble.
She had her camping gear packed on her motorcycle just in case, “and I think I was going to want my tent when I got stuck. But I turned around and put it in a bag. I’ve done a little more research.
Discovery, of course, is the intriguing component of the journey. Being flexible makes cycling horny for Lundal.
“I take the time to explore the cities and their inhabitants, places like the Wagon Wheel Café in Drummond, a position that most people simply drive,” he says.
He spent two nights at Deer Lodge after finding a cultural attraction.
“They gave me a motel room the first night and I learned two things,” she says. “There’s a cowboy museum nearby, and the steak they were roasting in front of the coffee smelled delicious.”
He spent the day visiting the Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site.
“It stands out for portraying the farm animal industry and the cowboy era of the past 1800,” he said. “I felt some of that cowboy freedom on my bike.
“I had a ranger for myself, visiting the blacksmith’s workshop, the cart and the total story, adding the transport of farm animals to the market. And he gave me a shout when I heard Gene Autry sing cowboy songs.
When he returned to his motel at night, his attention went from farm animal husbandry to beef.
“I had made myself a sandwich for dinner, but all I can think about is the smell of that grill the night before,” he says.
“So I asked the motel girl if I’d ask the coffee guy if he wanted to pass out and cook me a steak on the barbecue. He came out and said yes. Another young woguy joined us. We were having a good time at the picnic table when he confessed and warned me that he was a scoundrel and that he had been drinking a lot.
“I said, “It’s okay, honey, because cooking a good steak.” They gave us good.”
When you ride a bike, other people are great with you, she says.
“You’re a threat. You’re less hard to recognize.”
Lundal has a chatting ability that improves his travels and saves his buttocks, as he was near Whitehall when his rear tire exploded.
“It’s my first apartment in about 8 years,” he said, “and I knew I had left my motorcycle bomb at home on my mountain bike.
“It wasn’t long before two breeders arrived in a van. I denounced them and Cliff and Nancy showed up to take me to Whitehall. We had a great verbal exchange while they took me with a guy who solved the tires, and while he solved my apartment, they took me to check in at a motel, then they brought me the bike, everyone was great.
Beyond his pedaling and social skills, Lundal has a well-trained sense of sniffing smart bakeries in a motorcycle seat. Missoula and Bozeman, of course, are in smart restaurants, but finding gems in a small town is like winning a jackpot, he said.
“Camp Creek Coffee Bar in Manhattan is fabulous, and I fell in love with Bluebird Sky Coffee Shop in Whitehall,” he says. “It’s beautiful. And so is the baker, Adrien. I learned all about her, adding her love life. It’s a wonderful stop.
With nights at Superior, Missoula, Deer Lodge and Whitehall, she said she made a wonderful discovery for her last night on the road: “I love the other people and the story I discovered at the Lewis and Clark Motel in Three Forks. Where the Gallatins, Madison and Jefferson sign up to shape the Missouri River.
“I took my mask and put it on when I went places,” he said, following the COVID-19 prevention protocol that followed in Spokane. “Many other people wore a mask in Missoula and Bozeman, but not so much in small towns. I saw men in some small cafes carrying guns, but no mask.
With the help of a grandson who took his car from Spokane to Bozeman, Lundal was able to return home with his motorcycle to finish the adventure and begin making plans for the next one.
“My rule is to think positive,” he says. “If you start thinking, “I can’t do this, I can’t do that, ” soon you won’t be doing anything.
“I just returned to who I spent two years ago. At 79, I have to keep moving. I have positions to see and other people to meet.”
He said his ears straightened out when he learned that a friend had discovered a way into Germany.
“I wanted to ride a motorcycle along the Danube and explore it intimately,” he said.