Temporary tent city
<p>Patrick Cote/Daily Inter Lake Tents and bicycles from the Montana Bicycle Tour fill the back of Lawrence Park Tuesday afternoon. Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2012 in Whitefish, Montana.</p>
A group of bicyclists on a one-week, 456-mile tour of Northwest Montana assembled for a massive campout in Kalispell’s Lawrence Park on Monday and Tuesday nights.
About 300 riders were out for a Montana Bicycle Ride organized by Bicycle Rides Northwest, based in Bend, Ore.
Riders came from Oregon, Washington, Idaho and California and from as far away as the Midwest and Florida. A few riders even came from southern France. They ranged in age from 14 to 82.
“We started in Plains on Sunday morning and started riding to Polson, then from Polson up here. Then we have a layover day [in Kalispell] which the cyclists love because they don’t have to pack up and move,” Sanna Phinney, the director, said Monday night.
Organizers coordinated the campout with Kalispell’s Parks and Recreation Department. It can take as long as a year to plan a bicycle ride in terms of the route and coordinating with local authorities, Phinney said.
“Our riders have been asking for years to go to Montana,” she said. “We tried a couple times and just didn’t get it pulled together. This year we made it happen.”
A couple hundred riders were camped out in Lawrence Park Monday night, turning it into a tent city. Others stayed in local hotels.
A layover day was set for Tuesday, with a loop ride down to Bigfork planned if any riders wanted to make the trip.
“Some people are doing hot air balloon rides. A lot of people are going whitewater rafting. A lot of people have rented cars so they can get up to Glacier,” Phinney said of the layover.
From Kalispell, riders departed Wednesday morning, headed to Eureka, Libby and Noxon and finally back to Plains.
They seemed to be enjoying their time in Montana.
“This is the first one we’ve done outside of Oregon,” said Jon Lueker, of Portland, Ore., who has done about 10 such rides. “That was one of the big draws, doing a bike tour in Montana and getting to see this area. It’s beautiful, the combination of the lakes and the backdrops of the mountain ranges. It’s quite spectacular.”
Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com