Day 16 Rest Day

Today is a total rest day, so we sleep in till 8 and get a continental breakfast at the motel. Then we link up with the crew and drive down to Adventure Cycling. Suz and I spend a couple of hours creating our new route with little help from the Adventure group. I use their directory of maps to chart a route and then buy the maps for best cycling routes and add up the mileage. It seems farther than what I thought and I check the maps again after we go back to the motel. We leave Adventure and go for Pizza at a place recommended by the Park Rangers at the Montana visitors center. Not so good, poor service and gourmet type menu that I decide to pass on , have a bite of Suzanne's sandwich and a cold smoke beer from Scotland, good lager. We go back to motel and do laundry and blog updates. Meet in the lobby to share a bottle of Cabernet from Tom and then on to the Paradise falls grill. We have our Last supper and chat for awhile and back to motel for another night of old movies and some leftover wine. Good rest tonight as we will rise early for tomorrow departure.

A flutterby lights on Suz's had in this picture..........

Jim, Suz and Beau

Day 15 Lolo Hot Springs to Missoula

35 miles into Missoula Montana, an easy ride downhill and we stop at the McD's in Lolo 7 miles out of town for breakfast. Tom, John and I do a easy paceline into Lolo, where we meet Suz and then we move on to Missoula to find a Motel. Super 8 has best pricing, laundry and nearby grocery, restaurants and Walmart. Cold this morning, we all leave bundled up in our cold weather gear, 42 to start and 83 at the end. Looking forward to a full days rest and a visit to adventure bicycling . We will rest today and go their on Monday to create a new course for the Solo Jim supported by Suz and Beau ride. I am sorry to leave the Lochsa gorge coming into Missoula as it was a great scenic ride on great roads with no trucks and little traffic along the Lochsa and Clearwater rivers for two days. Would love to have this route in my backyard to do daily or even once a week. We do an Italian restraunt tonight and it is good food, but American Italian, missing some core foods but ok. John buys the group a bottle of wine, well appreciated by all and the crew give us a card with some $$ in appreciation for Suz sagging and doing groceries and motel search and the like. We decide to regift and we will pick up the tab for tomorrow's "Last Supper " together as we would not have spent any more money, but it was a great and heartfelt gesture from the group and much appreciated by Suz and me. We go to the motel and rest by watching old, old, old Scifi movies ........

Jim Suz and Beau

Jim, Suz and Beau

Day 13 Long Park to Wilderness Gateway

57 miles. Another beautiful day, and another big breakfast at the Sakejewa lodge up the road. I can hardly finish my short stack and will have to start cutting back on the amount that I eat if we don't increase the mileage to compensate. Since we have decided to leave the group in Missoula and make our way along the Northern then South to the Trans America route , I will shed the panniers as I know now I will not be camping with tent and sleeping bag, so I can pick up the pace to 70-75 or more miles per day. That will save us approximately 30 days over our current pace depending on the total mileage. It was mostly downhill along the Clearwater and Lochsa rivers today, so pretty easy day. I get into the campsite at 11:30a and we read and nap in the shade and wait for the crew to show up. Tonight we all eat sandwiches and leftovers as there is no food stop for 25 miles in either direction. Bob does not show for over an hour later so John and I jump into the van and ride back to where we find Eli and no Bob. Turns out he was in a different part of the camp when we left. Early night tonight, everyone wants to leave early tomorrow to crest the Lolo pass before it gets too hot.

Jim Suz and Beau

Day 12 Winchester to Long Park Kamiah

54 Miles today, we get a late start after a big breakfast at the Winchester Lake Cafe. Robert gets the pancake egg sandwich and it is bigger than him. A short stack is two pancakes the size of a large serving plate and no one can finish their breakfast. The locals at the cafe are very friendly and stop at our table to give route advice and local history. We find that Winchester was named for the fact that in 1851 it was the most popular gun here. The Nez Perce Indians were creating havoc with the settlers and the army chased them around for a number of years. Today I am out front and miss the turn as it was not marked and go five miles out of my way. I stop at Cottonwood and get direction back toward Kamiah, over the farm land again a lot of wheat and peas. Because I get lost I miss my turn and come into Kamiah about 5 minutes behind the crew. Bob has just arrived and Tom and John are in the local Cafe having lunch. I decide to go to the campsite and meet suzanne for a sandwich and get stuck for a bit in road construction. They just paved this section so I get roasted on the top and bottom. The Long Camp RV place is ok, and by a fast moving river and the showers are hot. We have been joined the last few nights by Eli W. from Brooklyn who is solo riding from Portland to New York over the summer. We have been sharing our sites and food to reduce cost for all and he will probably stay with us to Missoula, Montana. He does not like to get up early, so he does his ride at his pace and meets us at camp a few hours later. Not too much excitement here, Suz makes a complete pork chop dinner on the grill for all, most excellent, we all have very healthy appetites each day.

Jim Suz an Beau

Day 11, Hells Gate to Winchester Lake

54 miles, we leave Hells Gate at 8 and have a nice slow start up highway 505. A lot more fields of wheat and peas along the way, Come to a T in the road and not sure which way to go as it is not marked. I ask a car that come along and the woman drivers says one way and the man in the back says the other way........so I go to the right and hope for the best as east is our general direction. A few miles along I come upon the Jasper coffee shop and they confirm that I am going in the correct direction. I have a coffee and read the local paper , good article about the Tour de France, then I am off to Cul de Sac, a very small town with just a gas station mini market. I meet Tom the Harley biker there outside and get his entire life's story of woe over a gatoraide while I wait for the crew. After 45 minutes, they don't show so I start up the Winchester grade myself. The sign says it is steep and 8 miles straight up. I make pretty good time and about 2 miles up I stop and call Suz as I have cell coverage back now. I spot a large female elk across the gorge feeding in a green field. Wish I had binoculars, but then for the weight I am glad that I don't. I continue up the hill in my lowest gear doing about 6-7 mph and I make one more stop in the shade of a big pine. Lucky there are no dogs along here as I could not outrun them, can't out ride my Shadow. Finally crest the top and see a cell tower so I know the climbing is over at least for awhile. I have a nice 7 miles on top of the mountain before coming into the small town of Winchester, Idaho. The campground is by a beautiful Lake and is in a stand of giant old forest pines. The pines give the air a fragrance of Christmas trees , all very pleasant with the view. Previous campers left some wood so I will make a fire tonight, it will be cool in the 40's. We go into town and find the pub for a beer and sandwich and chat with the locals and wait for the crew. They show up after another hour and we go to the campground only to return to the pub later for dinner. We make a fire later and relax, the climb was hard on some and we all retire early as it gets chilly. Really pretty sight in the mountains looking down on the lake.

Jim, Suz and Beau

Day 10, Lewis and Clark to Lewiston

78 miles to Hells Gate State Park in Lewiston, Idaho. Another great weather day. We are up early in this little park that has a bee problem. Yesterday some sites were swarmed by bee's so they closed a part of the park. Quarter showers again and Beau is up at 4:23 am, but we sleep again till 5:15a. Early start to Dayton, OR for a great breakfast at Al's drive through restaurant. We chat with the elderly waitress and some of the local regulars that have long since been retired. Suz joins us and we eat well on this cool morning. I ride an easy pace after breakfast as the day warms for another 37 miles and find a coffee shop on Route 12 in Pomeroy around 10a. Beth makes me some fresh espresso and I get a homemade oatmeal and cranberry cookie and read the paper for a half hour and relax. The crew does not come along so I am back on my bike and tool up the hill out of Pomeroy and do some moderate climbing over the mountains then some steep descents . I take may time going down the steep descents as some spots have guard rails and no shoulders so it is a squeeze with trucks. The panniers cause the bike to wobble in the crosswinds so I take is slower than I might normally. After a 25 mile decent I enter Clarkston across the river from Lewistion and make my way through construction in town, then over the bridge and four miles up the path to Hells Gate State Park, the gate way to Hells Canyon . Pretty ride along the river and there is a park all the way for bikers and joggers . I see two beaver along the river, not sure that they were beaver until I pass a info sign about the beavers that populate the rivers edge. I finally find the campsite and have a nice rest under the trees on a lush grassy lawn with the river in view. Good hot shower and wait for the crew. It's around 1pm now so we read and play some backgammon and chat about the sights today. The crew calls around four from a local pub where they stopped in Clarkston to get refreshed. They finally show in camp around 5 and we have salad and cold cuts for dinner and plan the next day.

Jim, Suz and Beau

Day 9 Walla Walla to Lewis and Clark

25 Miles today, Monday 6/29,2009. We decided to ride two short days instead of taking an entire day off, so this is a short day. We sleep in and have a big breakfast and leave late around 9:15a from the motel . We stop at a bike shop uptown for John to get his bike computer fixed and re calibrated. We ride the middletown road to Waitsburg and we find out why the song America has the waves of amber grain line in it. We ride for twenty or more miles with the only sight being wheat feilds puncuated by an occasional farmhouse and barn or by a cemetery in the middle of nowhere. Near Waitsburg there are long fields of peas as this is Green Giant Company territory. I get into Waitsburg ahead of the crew, I have not seen them since the first hill, and ride around this all American town. Very clean and both very old and new buildings on the small main street. The hardware and general store has everything from appliances to antique horse saddles . The owner tells us of other riders coming through in the past week and how good the weather is for us, it is usually over 100 but this week is in the cool 80's. I stop at the farm store which used to be the livery stable, then gas station, now propane and gas station , grain store and quick mart. I chat with Walt there for about a half hour waiting for the crew. He gives me a fairly detailed history of Waitsburg including current bike rides and the local politics. Then the crew comes in and we spend another half hour checking out the town. We ride another five miles up the road to the campground and meet Suz, we have the pick of sites and it is clean and neat and quiet. Looking forward to tomorrows ride of 75 miles to Hells gate campground in Lewiston. We all agree to leave early tomorrow to try to beat some of the heat on this longest day yet. I will ride my own pace to see how I hold up at this distance in the hills. Early to bed tonight after some backgammon and stories as well as more map checking.

Jim, Suzanne and Beau