Columbia Falls man bikes through Spain, France

Dave Renfrow had just come zipping down a big hill into a small town in France and was dog-tired. The Columbia Falls man had been riding his bicycle all day long and stopped at a bakery to get something to eat.

There was just one problem, Renfrow said.

“My Spanish is bad,” he said. “My French is worse.”

He struggled making his order in French and then the kind woman from behind the counter looked at him and said, “Would it be easier if we just spoke in English?”

Such are the humors of bicycling across Europe. Earlier this spring and summer, Renfrow embarked on a 1,200-mile bicycle ride from Vic, Spain to Pav, France, wandering through the Pyrnees Mountains along the way, where he ran into some rather gruesome elevation gain and loss.

“There’s a lot of 7 and 8 percent grade along the way,” he said. “But some were 15 to 17 percent. There’s a couple that are just frightening.”

One route took him over a pass that had 8,000 feet of elevation gain in 26 miles. All told, he biked a full month and went over nine passes in a week.

Emotions ran the gamut along the way.

“It was awful. Sublime. Every breath was beautiful,” he said.

Renfrow biked across Montana last summer, with fellow rider and friend, Jim Beloilin, so he’s no stranger to bike touring.

But the European excursion took additional training. He spent a few months in the early spring riding in the mountains near Las Vegas, Nevada and then Colorado to get in shape. Then he boxed up his bike, a Surly Long Haul Trucker, and took a flight to Spain, where he started his trip on May 25.

The route was not a straight line. He wandered around both countries, visiting the ocean, meeting his wife, Jane, in Paris, among several detours. Riding in Paris was an eye-opener. He went early in the morning, but by 8 a.m. he found himself surrounded by buses filled with Asian tourists.

Renfrow, 64, highly recommends touring Europe on bicycle.

“If someone wanted to combine tourism and fitness and have a very authentic experience, bicycle tourism might be for them,” he said. “They can enter this activity at any level … from self-supported around the world trips … to van-supported group rides that have low mileage, with no baggage. Europe has thousands of miles of scenic bike paths from village to village.”

He spent his nights in either hostels or by utilizing an online service, warmshowers.org, which pairs traveling cyclists with other cyclists who are willing to house them along their journey.

Renfrow thinks Columbia Falls is poised to become a touring cyclist Mecca, as it’s at the crossroads of the Great Divide Trail, which runs north to south from Canada to Mexico and the Northern Tier route across the U.S.

Bicycle touring is great way to travel, he notes. It’s an immersion of the senses as one takes in the sights, sounds and smells along the way.

“It’s an authentic experience,” he said.