Today was another amazing day of cycling and scenery, with precious little in the way of services or settlements. I was worried about having enough food and especially water to bridge the gap between a simple store in a holiday park in tiny Lowell, 23 miles in, and Lochsa Lodge, the next available food, a hotel 65 miles and several thousand feet further uphill on another scorching hot day. But in fact it was OK and I carried way more water than I needed. Better safe than sorry.
A few things definitely helped. First, I was out early and it was cool. Second, today was in mountains with tall pine trees everywhere, including by the roadside, so there was much more shade to enjoy. Third, if I’m honest, I surprised myself with how strongly I rode. And I kept myself very well hydrated all day. In fact I haven’t peed so much in a while. Which, let’s face it, is a good sign.
Going down…
I’m pretty exhausted now though so this will be a brief entry that I may come back and update tomorrow.
In brief, until about 4 miles from the top of the pass, I followed first the Clearwater River and then it’s substantial tributary the Lochsa River, all the way today. The road was much quieter than yesterday and it was wide and good for cycling. The gradient was forgiving and at times I honestly found it hard to know if I was going uphill or downhill. I just kept pushing on the pedals and the bike responded, extra weight or not. The river higher up was much more rocky and shallow, but still wide with regular areas of white water. And that is how it was most of the day!
The last few miles up to the pass and then down for 10 miles on the Montana side were considerably steeper and I was very glad to reach the top as the heat began to bite. I crawled up the last part of Idaho and flew down my first section of road in Montana as far as Lolo Hot Springs, where I got both dinner and a soak in the natural hot water after the sun had fallen behind the mountains. It wasn’t the most salubrious of establishments, which surprised me, but it was OK and did the job for me. Good beer as well!
Tomorrow should be mostly downhill to Missoula. I’m not setting my sights any further than that. I’ve lost an hour today and changed to Mountain time. That feels like a milestone.
First visitor/granddaughter free day of the summer and settled down to catch up with your story Mark. What an adventure! Loving the photos and commentary! Can’t wait to read more….
‘Next diesel, next gas?’ That’s no good, we want to know Next cake, next beer!
I thoguht the hot springs sounded good for aching legs, but in that heat not so sure!