So much for a leisurely 50 mile ride

Beautiful grass lands outside of Three Forks

As of this morning we were about 30-40 miles ahead of our planned schedule.  That was fine, but we are coming up on Yellowstone National Park day after tomorrow and that pretty much has to be ridden in one day from end to end.  Getting a camping spot in the park is almost impossible.  There are campgrounds that don't take reservations, but they are usually full by 10AM. Getting a reserved camping spot along our route didn't work out either.  So in the end, we made the decision to ride to Ennis, MT which was our next scheduled stop, only 52 miles away.  That should give us time to rest up, do laundry, etc to get ready for the ride to West Yellowstone, MT tomorrow and then through Yellowstone NP the following day.

At 52 miles (here is the track), this should have been a fairly easy day, even if there was 3000' feet of climbing.   Well, think again...today was anything, but easy.  

The day started out well.  We met a father and daughter in the Missouri River Headwaters campground that were also riding across the country with a support Sprinter Van.  They are taking a more northerly route and will end in Virginia.  We traded stories for a while, had breakfast, Nicolas did his training run, we packed everything up and were out of the campground by 9:45.

The first part of the ride was really nice.  We crossed the Madison and Jefferson rivers which merge at the camp to form the Missouri.  The ride was rolling hills, but with a steady climb.  At 22 miles we were finishing a fairly long climb and were hit by three pretty strong gusts of wind and then a steady head wind.  It only got stronger as we rode.  We had met Nicolas at the 20 mile mark along the route and told him to wait for us 15 more miles down the road at the 35 mile mark.  It took us almost 2 hours to cover the 15 miles with the hills and head wind.  

Looking forward to a nice downhill ride, but the wind killed that.

At that point, Beth said her fun-meter was pegged and got in the van with Nicolas.  I got on my single bike to ride the rest of the way to Ennis.   There was an almost immediate 1000' foot climb with 2 miles of 7% grade while being hammered by the wind.  I grunted my way over the top.  With only 10 miles left to go, including 3 miles at a 7% grade down hill followed by 7 miles of flat, it should have taken less than 30 minutes to get to the RV park....but it took almost an hour.  I was lucky to hold 10mph on the flat ground going straight into the wind.

When I got to the RV park, I pulled out the anemometer.  It was measuring a very steady 16-18mph with gusts well over 20mph.

It is 10PM now and the wind is just now starting to settle down.  There have been storms in the area, but we haven't seen any rain yet.  I'm planning to get up early and try to get a head start on the day, hopefully before the winds kick up again.

On the good side, we are making a serious dent into the overall mileage on the map.  Currently at 1068 miles.  See the map below.    

Pink is completed miles; Blue triangle is current location; Grn-Blu-Brn segments are individual rides left to go.

From the Headwaters of the Missouri

Hopefully I get this posted before the batteries die on the notebook and cell phone.  We ran the RV batteries low last night, so we are little short on juice this AM.  And the internet connection through my cell phone hot-spot has been very "spotty" which only eats more battery as I have to retry almost everything.

It was another busy day with a quick visit to the Montana State Capital building.  They were running tours and the whole place seemed to be much more lively than the capital building in Boise.

Then we drove to a Pizza Hut parking lot to drop the bikes and hit the road.  We had decided to change the route a little and head toward Three Forks, MT.  This took us down Hwy 287 which was much more scenic than riding along the interstate which is what I had originally planned.  Plus there were a lot more options for camping.

This is BIG wheat country.  As you can see, there were a few clouds hanging around.  This had been the case all day.  We even had a few sprinkles on us a couple of times, but nothing to get us wet.... which was really fortunate since we forgot to put the "trunk" on the tandem that has our rain jackets in it, along with spare tubes, chain links and food.  I'm not sure what we were thinking.  We were 50 miles into the ride before we even noticed.

Luckily, we made it to our stopping point without getting wet.  We loaded up the bikes on the RV and drove 7 miles to the Missouri River Headwaters State Park to spend the night.  We had barely got the RV parked before a thunderstorm dropped about a half-inch of rain on us in 30 minutes.

It was kind of interesting just riding over the Missouri river for the first time yesterday.  I thought that maybe we should drop a bottle with a note in it and see if it would beat us to Jefferson City, MO in about 3 weeks.

I'm not sure if you have wondered what two AARP candidates and a 16 year-old do in the evening with no TV, a limited selection of DVDs, and spotty (if any) internet connections.

... we play board games.  And right now the game of choice is Catan.  This is a game that Ben and Vicky (son and daughter-in-law) introduced us to a few months ago.  It is a lot of fun with 2-4 players.  It is a game of strategy with a good dose of luck since there are dice involved.  Somehow 11 was rolling a lot last night and that wasn't helping me at all!

Here is a link to yesterday's ride.

We are still a little ahead of our planned schedule (about 40 miles) and we are trying to decide if we push-on to try to make it to Yellowstone a little early or spend tonight in Ennis, MT.  We'll have to decide soon....






After two full weeks on the road (13 riding day) here are the stats:

Greetings from Helena, MT

We are definitely in "Big Sky" country now.  Big open valleys surrounded by mountains. Lots of hay and cattle.

We made it to Helena a little ahead of schedule.  We didn't take our full "rest day" off in Missoula.  About noon we headed out and road 41 miles toward Helena. We spent the night in Russell Gates Camp Ground along the Blackfoot River.  Today was a scheduled 110 mile ride to the MacDonalds Campground about 20 miles from Helena. But by putting in 41 miles early, we made it all the way to Helena today.  We will have plenty of time to visit the state capital tomorrow before heading down the road toward Boulder, MT and Yellowstone National Park a couple days after that.  So far we have had plenty of sunshine since we left the Oregon coast, but tomorrow is forecast to be rainy, so we will see how things go.

Just for fun, Beth has made it a mission to find a license plate from every state that we are in along the roadside.  So far she has been very successful.  Today she found 2 Montana plates along the road.  So far she has found at least one plate in every state, OR, ID and MT.

Beth and I rode the tandem 60 miles today and then Nicholas and I rode the last 27 miles together including the climb up to MacDonald Pass.  Nicholas absolutely killed me going up to the pass.  He was at least half a mile ahead of me when he reached the summit.  Even so it was a blast riding down the other side, at least for the first 4 miles with an 8% grade going down.  Here are our tracks from the past couple of days.  Rest Day... Today.

It is hard to believe that we will hit the 1000 mile mark tomorrow on this journey across the country.... only 3000 more to go!!!

At the top of MacDonald Pass

What in the heck is this thing????... think of "finding a needle in a ..."

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.

Whitewater rafting on the Lochsa River in Clearwater NF

Casinos at every gas station in Missoula

Stats after 10 riding days

Welcome to Idaho... Adios Oregon

A goofy picture, but I caught Nicolas smiling, so I had to use it

At the end of our 6th day of riding we crossed the Oregon/Idaho state line at the Brownlee Reservoir dam, about 120 miles north of Boise, ID. We are still trying to figure out why they call this area Hells Canyon... it is absolutely gorgeous.  Beth and I rode the tandem the first 57 miles and then Nicolas and I finished up the last 27 miles to the Woodland campground on the lake.  Here is the track from our final day riding in Oregon.

We continue to be amazed with some of the public campgrounds that we have found along the way that have RV hookups.  The Armitage County park outside Eugene was exceptional and far better than most of the for-profit parks we have been in.  The Mitchell City Park and the Depot Park in Park City had good facilities and were a welcome sight.  The Woodland campground is run by the Idaho Power company and I am sure maintaining it is part of their lease agreement for power generation from the Brownlee Reservoir dam.  It was a really nice park and great facility, literally in the middle of no-where.  Again, very fortunate for us to have such a nice place to stay after a long day on the bike.

Waterfall running into the Little Salmon River

Today was our first full day in Idaho. A planned 106 mile day and over 5000' of climbing.   The climbing started first thing with a steep 9 mile/2000' grind out of Hells Canyon Recreation Area.  I did this solo early in the morning to get a jump start on the long day.  Beth and Nicholas met me in Cambridge, ID.  Beth and I road the tandem for another 47 miles and Nicholas road the last 27 miles with me into Riggins.  The last 20 miles into town was a long descent following the Little Salmon river with some great waterfalls along the way.  We found an RV park right next to the river and set up camp for the night.  Here is the track for the day

Tomorrow is a shorter day, but with big climb right in the middle that averages over 9% grade for 7.5 miles (3500' of climbing)... here is a preview of our coming attraction.





A few statistics from our first 8 days (7 riding days) on our adventure:

Camp site on the Little Salmon river

Day 5 and still alive...

View looking back over Prairie City to the mountains

The ride for Day 5 looked like a mini-Triple-By-Pass ride and it was. (The Triple-By-Pass is a very popular and torturous 110 mile ride in Colorado starting near Denver and ending west of Vale over 3 mountain passes with 10,000' of climbing in one day... Beth and I have checked that box).  The day started cool and a little overcast.  I rode the first two climbs solo.  22 miles and about 2500' of climbing.  After 4 days of 80+ miles per day, the legs were a little tired, but not too bad.  At the top of the 2nd climb, Beth joined me on her single to ride the decent and 3rd climb of the day.

The decent from the 3rd climb was to be a nice 30 mile roll into Baker City, OR. This would be our first scheduled rest day.  Well..... the first 20 miles were a great decent past beautiful Philips Lake surrounded by pine forests.  The weather had warmed up and the sky had cleared to make it just a gorgeous day... we even had a nice tail wind to help us along.  Then we did a small decent into a canyon  which to turned from east to north and smack into a BIG head wind.  The canyon finally opened up into the valley where Baker City is located with even more wind.

Another great view on the way to Baker City

The last 10 miles turned into a real slog.  Even though we were still on a slight down grade, we were lucky to hold 12 mph into the wind.  When we stopped at the edge of Baker City, I pulled out the anemometer and measured a pretty steady 12-15 mph wind with gusts up to 20.  Here is the track from yesterday.

Even so, it was another good day and it felt great to have made our first 5 days of riding on schedule.  Beth and Nicolas hit the Safeway to stock up on groceries and I got us checked into a really nice RV park on the north edge of town.  The Mountain View Trav-L-Park has great showers and a nice laundry.

The shower in our Sprinter RV is OK when you have no other options.  We have used it when the shower at the RV park just looks to sketchy to step in or they didn't have showers at all.  But getting a really nice shower once in a while is a great thing when you spend all day on the bike... covered with road spray on wet days, or bugs and sweat which has been the case the last couple of days.

Heading down the mountain toward Baker City

It is our rest day, so we headed to Boise, ID about 130 miles down I-84 to visit the state capital, pick up the replacement tandem whee from a UPS store where it was shipped and a few other things at a bike shop.  We got the new wheel, transferred the brake disk and gear cluster to the it and checked it out.  There were no other problems, so the tandem is good to go again.

After driving all the way to Boise to see the capital, was basically deserted.  The Idaho state legislature meets in January to early March, similar to NM and then they are gone.  So there were no tours, nobody at the Information desk... nada.  So here is a picture of Nicholas in front of the capital building just to show we were there.

As a conciliation,  not only did we have nice showers at the RV park, we had cable TV with TNT so Nicholas could watch game 7 between the Heat and the Pacers.

Idaho State Capital

After spending another night in the RV park in Baker City and we head on down the the road for another 5 days of riding.  Not sure if we will have internet access or not.  We'll be spending the night at a pretty remote RV park on Brownlee Reservoir.    Here is tomorrow's route.  Just a standard 85 mile / >5000' climbing day.

Overlook of the Prairie City, OR valley

Great days with a few hiccups

We have been off the grid for a couple of days, but we are back to the connected world.

The Three Sisters

What an interesting day we had Friday.  It started off fairly normal.  Nicholas went for his training run while we packed up the RV, did dishes, walked the dog, took care of dumping the waste tanks, filling the water tank, unhooking the utilities and getting the bikes ready to go.  It was a scheduled 84 mile ride from Sisters to Mitchell, OR.  Nicholas was going to ride the first 35 miles with me while Beth drove the RV.  Then we would have lunch in Prineville and switch drivers.  Beth and I would ride the tandem over Ochoco Pass to Mitchell to spend the night in the little "city park"... Mitchell has less than 250 residents, but 3 RV hookups in their park for $17/night and it is a long ways to anything else.

Anyway, things went well to start.  It was a beautiful day with clear blue skies and only a little chilly for the first part of the ride.  After 27.5 miles, Nicholas decided to get in the RV.  That is his longest personal ride on a bike, so that was pretty good for only his second time out with us.  Beth thought about switching to the tandem there, but I said why not just drive the 8 miles to Prineville and she could get ready while I rode into town, then we would ride from there.

 

I had also asked Beth to keep an eye out for a place to fill the propane tank on the RV.  We have been running the heater every night plus the water heater and refrigerator both use propane when we aren't plugged into land electrical power in an RV park.  She found propane in Prineville at a gas station and took care of filling the tank, but when she tried to park the RV to pay for the propane she accidentally backed into the car wash vacuuming station.  She checked for damage and didn't see any and went ahead to find a place to park for lunch while I rode into town.

I found them and we had a quick bite to eat.  While unloading the tandem I noticed the rear wheel wasn't seated in the chain stays and the rear wheel wouldn't rotate.  Then I saw the problem, the rear wheel was severely bent... in cycling terms, it was "taco'ed".  Somehow the tandem wheel was damaged when she hit the trash can.

Beth felt awful!  The big problem is that tandem bike wheels are pretty unique and you just don't walk into a bike shop and buy one, especially ours since it is a road tandem wheel (700mm) with a disk brake.  Being Friday afternoon we had to move quickly. I got on the phone and called DaVinci Designs in Denver where we bought the tandem several years ago.  Brian and Todd were great.  They had a wheel in stock, found a UPS Store in Boise, ID that they could ship it to for Monday delivery.  (I checked this afternoon and the wheel is already in Boise and we can pick it up while we are there to visit the state capital on our rest day.)

With the wheel issue resolved, or at least we had done all we could do, Beth got on her single bike to finish the ride.  This is only the second time on one of our bike trips where Beth has not ridden the tandem.  She commutes to work on a frequent basis, but riding on the open road in the mountains is quite a bit different.  Anyway she hopped on and we headed out to finish the 48 miles and 2500' of climbing left for the day. 

Then to add “insult to injury” (or maybe that should be the other way around), Beth crashed on her bike trying to get started up a steep section of the road.  She banged up her wrist, bruised her thumb, and hip.  She got up and dusted herself off and got back on her bike after we straightened the left shifter that had been knocked askew in the fall.

As she crested Ochoco Pass at 4700', it was a nice accomplishment to make up for the rough start and the crash.  Then we cruised on into Mitchell down a 12 mile, 2500' decent to find the park and set up camp.... RV style.  We cooked out in the park and had a nice dinner. Here is the track from Friday.

From my point of view it was a fantastic day.  The weather was great.  The views were fantastic and I just thoroughly enjoyed the ride.  The tandem wheel will be replaced and I wasn't going to let that spoil an otherwise great day.  I am proud of Beth for putting the accidents behind her and going on to have a good ride and a nice accomplishment.

Our riding today was much more normal.  We rode the 82 miles from Mitchell to Park City, OR without incident.  It was another great day.  We really enjoyed riding through the winding canyon in John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.  Beth rode 31 miles on her single and then Nicolas rode 45 miles with me from lunch to the Depot RV park in Prairie City. Here was the track from today.

We are still on schedule with four days of riding complete for a total of 350 miles and 15700' of climbing done.  Tomorrow we ride 68 miles and 5000' of climbing to Baker City, OR... while it is a shorter day, there are 3 tough climbs back-to-back. Looking forward to our 1st rest day after tomorrow. here is the route.