As I alluded to in the previous post, I made it over the Continental Divide and on to the surprisingly busy city of Missoula without anymore axle/wheel problems.
It went so well that after a quick drive around the city without finding any campground that availability, I decided to press on after a relaxing beer at the Flathead Brewing Company.
I pulled into Kalispell just after sunset. I could have made it quicker but took a roundabout road that I knew had some RV campgrounds along the way. They were all booked up though.
I was glad that Kalispell was big enough to rate a Walmart Super Center. That was as much energy as I had left for. I squeezed in amongst the many other RV’s, Vans and Car campers and had a good night’s sleep.
I awoke to a chilly blue Montana blue sky morning. Strolled the WalMart aisles for a bit to shake the sleep off and drove the 15 miles more to Whitefish. A little western style town at the base of the Big Mountain Ski resort.
I had been here several years ago and knew that the Montana Coffee Traders would be a good place to catch up on some internet time and watch Whitefish’s morning hustle and bustle.
I wanted to find a campground to park the trailer so I wouldn’t have to haul it around all day. During my search, I stopped by the Big Mountain ski resort to take a picture for the #skitownsummer twitter hashtag that I hope will go viral any day now.
While maneuvering around the resort’s parking lot. I got into a tight turn made all the tighter by the tow hitch bike rack between the car and the trailer. I was essentially stuck in a corner on a hill.
If I was a little less stubborn, I would have gotten out of the car and simply removed the bike. Instead, I tried to inch my way out but soon heard a loud pop and a crunch. The bike wheel was crushed between the bumper and the storage box. Literally imbedded into the plastic bumper. Because I was on a hill, I couldn’t unhitch the trailer or it would had ended up in pieces at the bottom of the lower parking lot.
I spent 20 minutes trying to pull and pound the tire out of the fork to free up the bike before I got the wheel off the frame and out of the bumper. With it out if the way, I had just enough extra turn radius to get out of the jam. And as a bonus, I had something to do 
for the rest of the day.
The first on the to do list was to get the trailer off my hitch so I wouldn’t have to haul it around all day. I was lucky to find an open campsite at the Whitefish Lake State park. An easy ride into town, if I had bike. A nice shady site close to the lake. But with the major drawback that hidden in the thick forest, 100 feet behind the site is a train track that handles much of the east/west freight across the Northern US. As well as the Amtrak. Day and night a problem for another time though.
I unhooked the trailer and headed back to whitefish for a bike repair shop. Was lucky to find Glacier Cyclery & Nordic
They gave me a good prognosis that the bike could be repaired for a reasonable amount of money and in just a couple days, given their summer workload. I can think of worse places to be “stuck” for a couple of days. I dropped it off and headed out for the third item on the list, a different bike rack.
The Local Big Box sporting goods store is the Sportsman and Ski Haus. I broke down and got a roof rack. A solution I avoided to this point because I know I am going to forget its up there until a split second after I pull into a low ceiling’d garage. Since I don’t have a garage anymore and that really is the only place I had an easy mount point, roof rack it was going to be.
The afterthought on the list was to get rid of the hitch mounted ski rack. I was thinking I would just leave it somewhere and some lucky soul would think the Bike rack Gods were smiling upon them. Until they try to make a turn with their trailer and here the crunch. Instead, I tried a local used sporting goods Runner Up Sports and got $20. Not bad for a $90 rack that was a pain in my ass.
A successful morning and I still had the afternoon and a long summer evening ahead of me.
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