On the Road: Welcome to Montana!

Lolo Pass summit and the Montana state line

It has been 3 days since our last post on the blog and we have covered quite a few miles in western and central Idaho. The cell phone coverage has been very spotty (and that is being generous) and access to the internet was very limited at one RV park and non-existent in the Clearwater National Forest. I think we went 200 miles with no cell phone coverage at all. Anyway we are in Missoula, MT right on schedule and having some issues with the internet in the hotel.

If you haven't seen the schedule, here it is. I'll try to update this if it changes for any reason... weather, mechanical problems, etc. I'll also try to add links to the ride descriptions that are stored on ridewithgps.com as well.

Nicholas rolling down the mountain.

The 3 days in Idaho were great. We had perfect weather, great scenery, nice places to stay, big climbs and big DESCENTS (I'll try to keep spelling it right). Speaking of descents, Nicholas got his first taste of a nice ride down a mountain outside of Grangeville, ID on the way to Kooskia. Mom and Dad don't worry, we barely broke 30 mph and as you can see there was a nice guard rail. On the other hand Beth and I hit 48 mph coming down from Lolo Pass today.

Here are our rides from the last three days:
Riggins to Kooskia, ID: 72.8 miles / 3732' climbing
Kooskia to Wendover Campground: 84.3 miles / 2333' climbing
Wendover CG to Missoula, MT: 61.8 miles / 2328' climbing

When Beth and I were at the summit of the climb between Baker City and Halfway, OR, a guy who works for the local telephone company stopped to take our picture. He asked about the trip and started to rattle off every small town between here and Missoula that has a big climb into or out of it. I can barely remember the major towns (population greater than 250 in Idaho) for each day, much less 3 or 4 days in advance. Anyway he said we would have quite the time with White Bird. Well he wasn't kidding. 7.5 miles and 2500' and you can see almost the entire climb from the start. Luckily there were pullouts every mile or so and we had Nicholas hang back for while until were part way up and then meet us half way to the top. Everything went well, but it was a long steep climb.

We also ran into our first major stretch of road construction about 8 miles outside of Kooskia, ID. The construction crew were very friendly. They wouldn't allow us to ride the 2 miles of one lane construction zone, but put us into their lead truck and hauled us across. We still had another 9 miles of ground off asphalt beyond our drop off point.

Speaking of rough roads, the torn-up chipseal roads we have hit, sometimes for 15-30 miles at a stretch have made for some sore hand, shoulders and seats. For the most part, it looks like clearing the winter snows has torn up the roads and made them really rough. So far no major problems, it just makes the day seem a little longer.

We are clearly on the Lewis and Clark trail. Mile after mile of Lewis and Clark camped here markers.

Today is a rest day, but we plan to ride 41 miles to put a dent into the planned 110 miles scheduled for tomorrow. Then push on to Helena, MT tomorrow to give us a little more time in the capital on Tuesday.