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.

Today was THE DAY, the first leg of our bike tour! Knowing that this would be a fairly short day, Corey and I left the hotel around 8:30. At Scott’s house we took a few pictures and headed back out around 9:30.

Wonderful hosts, Scott, Anna, Roo.

The Three Amigos, ready to roll. Scott, Mike, Corey.

Between Missoula and Lolo, which is where we would turn West on 12 to head up over the Lolo Pass, there was a nice bike trail. I understand the trail heads south another 40 miles or so to Hamilton (Tami, a good bike trail for us to try, maybe when we go sapphire hunting!) (T: Yes, please! Sounds like my kind of riding). Along that trail there was a spot where everyone had told us we would be able to see a large herd of bison. Unfortunately today was their day to go into hiding somewhere else. Scott said he had never failed to see them there before. Oh well, Buffalo Gal won’t you come out tonight, come out tonight….

The Bitterroot River. Looks cool and refreshing.

Shortly after we turned off onto 12 at Lolo, we stopped at a park at Travelers’ Rest State Park, a Louis and Clark camping spot.

Travelers’ Rest State Park

There was a nice museum, and we ran into a docent who walked us around the grounds. He even showed us where the L&C latrine had been! This was actually significant, as it was what enabled archeologists to determine that this was the actual camping spot by analyzing the soil and finding traces of the mercury that was used as a medicine for ailing members of the party.

Gives a new meaning to the term Thunderbolts. Science is grand.

Travelers’ Rest story

Good thing these two guys were there to point the amigos in the right direction.

A short while after that we visited the site of Fort Fizzle, a site where the army tried to stop a Native group trying to escape the area (and being put on a reservation), but the Native American’s simply bypassed the fort by going up into the hills above it, so the army’s effort fizzled.

Well-named fort.

Corey and Scott stay hydrated. Mike, are YOU staying hydrated???

The whole route from Lolo up to Lolo Hoy Springs Lodge where we are spending the night was a remarkably consistent low grade climb the whole way. We climbed maybe 1000 feet over the course of around 25 miles. At one point I noticed a business sign next to a driveway. I am guessing it might have been either for a blacksmith or a jeweler. The business was named Maxwell’s Silver Hammer. We got a chuckle out of that.

At one point, however, we LOST SCOTT! Great Scotts! We discovered today that Scott is a stronger rider than I. At one point he could no longer bare my “climbing” pace and rode ahead a bit. Soon we came around a corner and he was not visible in the distance. We were not sure whether he had pulled off or just pulled away. There were two possible places to pull off, a campground or Jack’s Saloon, which was a place we had seen a sign for a ways back that I thought might be a good place to stop for lunch. Since we did not see him when we rode by the campground, my stomach decided to gamble on Jack’s. Only it turned it when we got there that Jack’s was an indeterminate distance up a gravel road. Who knows, it might have only been 100 yards up, or it might have been several miles, but I was not about to go and try to find out. As it turned out, Scott had pulled into the campground and quickly came back to the entrance to watch for us, but we apparently rode by in the short period when he was turning around just past the bend in the campground entrance.

It did get hot, so we were glad to get to the lodge about 1:30 (total mileage for the day was 38), where we guzzled some of the pure and cold spring water in the lobby. We will fill our water bottles with THAT in the morning. We were told it is actually the water flowing into the hot springs (the lodge has two indoor soaking pools just off the lobby). The secret is to just fill your bottles with ice before you fill them with the water from the pipes pouring into the pools.

Nice of Lewis and Clark to drop by, but what is this with Christmas in July?

What is that thing? How do you use it? What is it for? Ten cents? Really?

An actual phone booth! Mike used it to call home.

This evening we will be on moose watch. There is a moose, or maybe several moose, that like to frequent a pond right next to the lodge in the evenings, and there is a fire pit where people gather to watch for the moose. Our room looks down on the pond, so we can also just sit in front of the window to keep watch if we want. We are told that the pond was specifically built to attract moose. Melinda, you might need to come stay here! (T: maybe you should try your moosey moosey song to attract them? Although it didn’t work very well in Alaska)

Corey and I have very different styles for bike touring. He values being prepared, while I put a premium on getting my fat ass up the hills. As such, he has a lot more gear than I do. After seeing how I was packed into two panniers to his four, he suggested maybe we could go through his pile together to do some winnowing, though it may be me that ends up wishing I had packed differently. In any event, there is now a small pile that will get home through other means, which may make the following days go just a bit easier. I only hope that nothing we culled out will be regretted down the road! (Mike, why did we take out my pants?)

After breakfast we took the bikes out for a test ride to check that we had not missed anything in the reassembly. Missoula has a great bike trail network that we were able to follow almost the whole way to Scott’s house. Did I say how much I like this town?

Scott then led us on some beautiful and quiet backroads, ending up at a park on the grounds of the old Fort Missoula. We toured some various historic buildings that had been moved there as well as a nice history museum.

At Fort Missoula

More of the fort.

Also at the fort museum.

The history was not all positive, the fort having been used both in the repression of local Native Americans and for housing Japanese non-citizens and other “non-resident aliens” during WWII. On the other hand, the fort history also included having been home to a black regiment in the early 1900’s, some of whom participated in a great experiment with mounting soldiers on bicycles. At one point they cycled all the way from Missoula to St. Louis, without the benefit of significant roads. Makes our trip look like nothing!

(T: here is a link to a PBS feature on the Bicycle Corps. Amazing story- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNnTSD219GA )

I was also able to find a shop that was able to adjust my bottom bracket, not the easiest thing to find on a Sunday. And then they only charged me $15 for probably an hours worth of work! I was gobsmacked.

Come evening, Scott picked us back up for dinner at his house. His wife has a family recipe for chimichurri sauce, an Argentinian sauce that is wonderful on beef and just about anything else. Scott grilled steaks, which went perfectly. When I told Tami later she was very jealous, as steak with chimichurri is one of her all time favorite things.

Where Scott lives- wow!

The view from the porch. Not bad, not bad.

Sharing Ardbeg. Why bother going on the ride?

By the way, since I do not have Tami along taking pictures, I will be leaning on Corey a bit. He has a knack for it.

Mike, that is me, is heading off on a trip without Tami. Not that she was not invited, but more that she refused to subject herself to such foolishness. (T: Mike’s big mistake here is that he is leaving it up to me, Tami, to put his posts up. So that means I get final editorial control. Bwa ha ha ha!)

I am, as you probably know, as passionate about cycling as Tami is about soccer. I have had a desire to do a longer cycle touring trip than Tami would be comfortable with. On the other hand, Tami is also not comfortable with me heading out on such a tour alone. (T: No siree) That brings to her mind too many images of me lying bleeding in a ditch somewhere.

She therefore insisted that I find both a doctor and someone who could actually handle money as travel companions. So I did. There are several online forums where one can find cycling companions. On the Adventure Cycling Association, Corey had advertised that he was looking for a few people to join him on a ride from Missoula, MT to Portland, OR. That sounded doable. Even better, he was planning to keep it down to 40-50 miles per day and stay in motels as often as possible (as opposed to the hard core crazies who ride 80-100 miles per day and camp every night). Perfect!

Corey is a retired business executive from Connecticut. Scott, the other person who responded, is a newly retired ER doctor from Missoula. I think we have got everything covered, though it is not clear what skill set I add to the group. So far my role seems to be the annoying know-it-all. (T: I am quite confident that Mike’s navigating prowess will come in handy. The question is whether he will let on that he is using technology as an aid to navigation, or just let them think he has some kind of internal map in his brain.)

So the day finally came (I had been pretty much packed for weeks). At the airport I was horrified, or at least highly amused, to discover that our Alaska turboprop was painted in WSU cougar colors and logo. They did let me on, and somehow the thing was able to fly (clawed it’s way into the sky), and 90 minutes later we touched down in Missoula.

Uh oh. GO DAWGS!

Three cycling dudes at the center of the cycle touring universe!

Scott graciously picked me up at the airport, bike box and all. We stopped at the hotel to drop off luggage and pick up Corey. From there we made the pilgrimage to the Adventure Cycling Association headquarters in downtown Missoula. We were thrilled to be on hallowed ground, and even more thrilled to be given a guided tour. The whole place is decorated with old touring bikes hanging on the walls, as well as other bike touring related photography and other art. We even got our pictures taken and hung on the visitors wall. (T: Now they’re going to think they’re famous or something.)

They’re famous! Or at least pinned on the wall.

They even let them inside!

Mike thought this was for Tami’s skirt, but since she doesn’t have one, it must be for Mike’s kilt

After that excitement, we cooled down by walking around downtown a bit, hitting a couple farmers markets as well as a couple bike shops (of course). Then Scott introduced us to The Notorious PIG BBQ for lunch. Heavenly burnt ends! (T: Okay, now I’m jealous.)

Back in my room I spent some time putting my bike back together. It went well enough, but I did notice that my bottom bracket seemed a bit loose. Hopefully I can find a bike shop tomorrow that can adjust it for me.

The bike in the bubble. Well-protected and safely arrived. Mike, too.

Corey and I discovered that the bar and grill at our hotel was surprisingly good! We tucked into a couple local beers and split a bison burger and an elk burger that were wonderfully prepared (the bison came with huckleberry BBQ sauce).

I rounded out the evening watching the Sounders trounce (have not been able to use THAT phrase much this year) the Vancouver Whitecaps. It was also great seeing our new player Raul Ruidiaz get his first minutes on the field as a Sounder. Go Sounders! (T: As a live witness to the game, it was truly glorious. An actual win at home against a Cascadia rival, in the sunshine, and we got our brand new toy (Ruidiaz) to boot!)