We made a relatively early start, leaving the motel about 8am – no easy task after two days of our bags ‘exploding’ over the room.
Tom makes porridge outside our motel room
Predictably for July 4th, it was a quiet morning on the roads. We cruised out along a deserted Main Street and made our way back to the bike path we’d used to enter the city a couple of days ago.
We were planning to get to Powell, a junction with a cafe and campground, about 13 miles east of the Lolo Pass. It was due to be another hot day, but it was nice and cool as we left town and got on to Highway 12 that led us out towards Lolo.
We were using Craig and Sherri’s commute route to get back to Lolo – we both decided it was one of the nicer commutes we’d seen.
The start of highway twelve took us out of the valley and along the route of Lolo Creek. We were cycling through pine and cedar trees along a steep-sided canyon towards the pass.
We knocked off the first 30 miles by about 11am (those days off having breathed some energy into our legs). With the pass just 18 mikes away, it was time for an early lunch stop. We found a great picnic site next to a USFS campsite and went about preparing our usual lunch.
Well fed, we returned to the bikes and had a pleasant ride into Lolo Hot Springs, where we hoped to stop for an ice cream (we’d thought about a dip in the hot springs, but the only effect it would have had was a light par-boiling before we got back on the bikes – we skipped it). There was an empty bar/restaurant that served a cold beer and a crap ice cream – so bad that Jan refused to eat it. I managed about half before consoling myself with the rest of the Big Sky pale ale I’d ordered.
Back on the bikes we had an eight mile climb to the pass along a winding road. It was a great ride. We whipped along and before we knew it we were at the top. It was bittersweet, since we were leaving Montana (it’s been great – one of our favorite states). But we were entering Idaho, which also promises to be fantastic. We could also wind our watches back because we were entering our third time zone – Pacific Time.
From the top of the Lolo pass, our first thirteen miles of our newest state were great: downhill all the way with great views of the steep, heavily wooded valleys.
We also passed the Devoto Memorial Cedar Grove, planted in honor of the historian who edited the journals of Lewis and Clark into a single volume.
After those thirteen miles, we pulled into Lochsa Lodge at Powell Junction. With the time change we’d finished our day’s cycling nice and early, and we headed to the terrace for a celebratory beer and lemonade.
The lodge was great (although their WiFi wasn’t), there was a good menu available for dinner, free camping on the shady lawn behind the store, and excellent showers for $5 each.
We walked down to the river before setting up the tent, hoping for a nice cool dip before dinner. Well, it was certainly cool. We didn’t get in much further than our ankles before wading back out and warming up in the sun.
We wandered back up to the lodge, grabbed some showers, pitched the tent, then spent some time perusing the books in the gift shop, before heading for dinner.
Idaho is famous for its trout. Sure enough, it was on the menu. Jan didn’t hesitate and I went for some salmon. It felt great to be eating some fish again. The beer happened to be pretty good here too. I had two more pints of IPA from the Bale Breaker brewery. Highly recommended, especially on a shady porch overlooking a wooded valley.
We polished off some slightly unremarkable desserts before retiring to our tent.
It was barely 8pm. We were asleep in minutes.
