No moose. Although I do not think we gave it a fair chance, as we were pretty much in bed by the moosing hour.

Odd thing behind lodge- perhaps it scared away the mooses?

Critters- moose precursors?

The night was uneventful. It was good to learn that no one snores (or at least if I did, no one told me about it, or covered my head with a pillow, or anything).
While we had plans to dawdle this morning so we could have lunch at the Lochsa Lodge 20 miles down the road, once we were up we just wanted to hit the road. Lunch be damned, we will make it breakfast.

First we had to tackle Lolo Pass. That meant about 3 1/2 miles of steeper grade, but not granny gear steep. We ground up at maybe 4-5 miles per hour. We topped out about 15 minutes after we started. Hmm, that math is not working for you? Well, we had the benefit of a time zone change right at the summit!There is a great visitor center at the summit as well (we did not determine if it was on the Montana or the Idaho side of the line, or even straddling both). They were so nice they even offered free coffee, tea, or hot chocolate. (T: No beer?)

Lolo Pass Visitor Center

No cell service at Lolo Pass!

When we left there, it was an immediate downhill scream for about five miles. We were very glad no one came along to try and pass us during that section, as we were well out in the lane because of the speed. The next five miles were a more pleasant no brakes down hill cruise. I could have done THAT all day.
Finally it flattened out and we came to the Lochsa Lodge. Now that is a place I would like to come back to and spend a few days! It is just a magical place with cabins spread out on a green grass lawn, and with a restaurant and a general store.

Lochsa Lodge

Beautiful grounds

Even the bikes got a well-deserved rest

We had our breakfast there and were very impressed, not only with the food, but also with the three little girls who set the table for us and took our coffee orders. Extremely cute. I also ordered a breakfast sandwich to go, to make dinner out of later.

Breakfast at last! Now where IS that food?

The best service

While leaving we ran into another cycle tourist going our direction.(T: Hope you didn’t hurt her?) She is also following the Louis and Clark route, but she started in St. Louis. Hopefully we will run into her and her companion again down the road. (T: Be careful, Mike, and don’t run them over)
The highway continued to wind gradually downhill (and it does wind, we saw a sign that said “Winding road next 99 miles” – which I also saw on a t-shirt at the lodge) following the river, which helped our speed quite a bit.
We had been warned about road construction, and we eventually ran into it. We had to be ferried in a highway department pickup through two different 2 miles segments. The last pickup ride left us off about two miles from the campground we were headed for. It was a relief to get there, as it was getting very hot by that point. The first thing we did as soon as we picked out our campsite was go sit in the river for a while. Oh boy did that feel good!

Aaahhhhh…

Mileage total for the day was about 56. We are probably looking at about the same tomorrow. We want to get to Kamiah if possible, as Scott spotted a microbrewery there. It looks to be another hot one, so hopefully we will get an early start.