Via Hwy 93. 40 miles.
It took us what seemed like forever to get out of Hamilton this morning. In addition to the usual routine (eat breakfast, pack up, etc.), we went to the post office to mail a few things back home that we decided we can live without (this however resulted in only a small reduction in the rate of increase of stuff we are hauling.*) We then rode all over town looking for another dry bag to pack our additional stuff in. We finally located a store that had a pretty good selection, but they didn't have the duffle bag style we wanted. So we ended up strapping the extra stuff* to the top of the trailer with bungee cords. We finally rode out of Hamilton looking like the Beverly Hillbillies on a bike. Somehow it all works OK though.
We ran into the Williams' (the family on the 3-seater tandem) on our way out of town. They said they were going to Sula today as well, but had not shown up by late afternoon (by which time we had showered and were into our 2nd or 3rd beer), so we had assumed they stopped for the night. Lo and behold, shortly after 6 pm they showed up in Sula, tired after what they said was a bad day.**
Penny and I, in contrast, had a very good day. Despite the uphill nature of today's ride, it was breathtakingly beautiful - particularly once we passed the town of Darby (about 1/2 way). The traffic was light as we ascended the valley of the East Fork of the Bitterroot River, continuing to follow Lewis and Clark's route (backwards). It is no wonder that many more people have moved to (or want to move to)Montana.
*The cooler, our tent, my shoes, an extra pillow for Penny, a roll of paper towels.
**There was a persistent headwind the entire day and Mike said that his knee has been bothering him.
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Monday, August 10, 2009
Team Triple arrives
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East Fork of the Bitterroot River pic #2
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Sula country store pic #2
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Sula country store
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East Fork of the Bitterroot River pic #1
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Missoula to Hamilton, MT
Sorry about the huge slug of posts at once. We've been without cell/Internet coverage for a week - both because we've been mainly riding through canyons where there is no cell service at all, and due to gross incompetence on the part of Verizon. Anyway, I am happy to report that we're back in the saddle (so to speak).
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Via Hwy 93 to Stevensville, Hwy 269 to Hamilton. 52 miles. (Ridden August 9th).
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Via Hwy 93 to Stevensville, Hwy 269 to Hamilton. 52 miles. (Ridden August 9th).
It was a pretty uneventful ride today until a few miles before the end. Most of the first 13 miles from Missoula to Lolo were on US93, the same stretch that we'd ridden in the monsoon rain on Friday. Today the sun was mostly out and the weather was cool but dry. Moreover, today was Sunday so traffic was relatively light. In other words, it was almost pleasant.
South of Lolo we rode along a paved bike path all the way to Stevenville (16 miles). We rode through the Bitterroot River valley, where many celebrities own ranches. It's certainly beautiful, but they obviously aren't raising animals on these ranches (we saw very few cattle, horses or anything else with 4 legs).
At Stevenville, the bike path ended and we turned onto a 'side road' (Hwy 269) that paralleled US93 a mile or so to the east. It was definitely quieter and more scenic, but had no shoulder for much of the way into Corvallis (remember, we are in Montana and not Oregon). There, as we rode by a cafe we spotted another loaded tandem. It was the three-seater* ridden by the couple and their 10-year old son that we had heard about in Oregon from the couple on the recumbent tandem. Mike and Dorrie are from California, where Dorrie was a teacher and Mike had a handyman business. When she recently lost her job due to the budget crisis in California, they decided to sell their house and their cars and take off on their tandem with their son Gregory. They left Baker City, Oregon (we also passed through there in late July) a couple of weeks ago and are also riding east like us.** Even though Dorrie received a new job offer shortly after they sold their house, they decided to go on their tandem ride anyway. They explained that, for them - particularly with Gregory along, the trip is all about the people they meet. They had many stories of people inviting them into their homes,*** giving them lifts to the top of some of the passes, etc. As I have previously noted, that has been our experience as well. The bike riding is great (most days anyway), but the people we've met and experiences we've had are the things we'll treasure the most.
When we told Mike and Dorrie that they were somewhat famous (after all, we'd heard about them when we were still two states away), they told they had encountered a 5 person family traveling by tandem on a 7,000 mile trip. In addition to the mother and father on the bike, there were two small girls (6 and 4 years old) and a 2 year old baby! The baby was in a carrier on the back, but had the ability to lean forward so he (she?) could sleep easier. Are you kidding me?
Late today we finally heard from Devon again, the young woman riding solo. While she was in White Bird she met some river rafters who invited her to go rafting with them in northern Idaho for several days. When she called she was in Coeur d' Alene, which is well north of the Adventure Cycling Association route we have both been following. She got someone to agree to give her a ride to Missoula, since the feasible direct way from Coeur d' Alene
to Missoula (where she can rejoin the ACA route) is on an interstate highway. This again highlights the advantages that a young, good-looking woman has bike touring over a couple of middle aged has beens. The same is true of Mike, and Dorrie, the tandem couple with their 10 year old son Gregory. They have gotten offers of help, etc., that we'll never experience (don't get me wrong, I am not wining - that's the way it should be). But we were disappointed today when they declined to lend Gregory to us for a while to garner some roadside sympathy.
*Mike rides in front, Dorrie behind him and Gregory behind her. Like us, they are pulling a B.O.B. brand single-wheel trailer, creating a ridiculously long rig.
**When I pointed out that - based on their current pace of about 40 miles/day - they may not reach the East Coast until winter, Mike said "if that happens and we get cold, we'll just head south instead of east." Wow, talk about not having a fixed agenda!
***For example, they stayed in someone's home in Missoula for a week. The owner had to go to San Francisco after a couple of days, but told them to stay as long as they liked and left her car for them to drive.
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Bear proof trash container
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Road construction
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Clearwater River (South Fork) pic #1
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Lunch stop pic #2
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RBFT
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Home on the range
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Kooskia to Wilderness Gateway campground (Clearwater National Forest, ID)
(Ridden August 5th). Via Hwy 12. 51.6 miles.
It finally cooled off today. The skies were partly cloudy and we enjoyed a nice breeze (even though it was a headwind) as we rode along the Clearwater River (the South Fork this time) from Kooskia to Lowell. Just before we reached Lowell, which is the last place to buy food and supplies for the next 66 miles,* we heard thunder rumbling. Just after we pulled into the cafe there, the skies opened up and it poured for about 20 minutes. We felt lucky we had avoided the rain, and even luckier when we later learned there had been a hail storm earlier this morning with hail stones nearly golf ball-sized. Ouch!
It finally cooled off today. The skies were partly cloudy and we enjoyed a nice breeze (even though it was a headwind) as we rode along the Clearwater River (the South Fork this time) from Kooskia to Lowell. Just before we reached Lowell, which is the last place to buy food and supplies for the next 66 miles,* we heard thunder rumbling. Just after we pulled into the cafe there, the skies opened up and it poured for about 20 minutes. We felt lucky we had avoided the rain, and even luckier when we later learned there had been a hail storm earlier this morning with hail stones nearly golf ball-sized. Ouch!
After the skies cleared, we made our way out of Lowell along the Lochsa (pronounced "lock suh")River. What a beautiful place! Lewis and Clark explored here extensively and now I can understand why they raved about it. Hopefully the pictures give you some idea what I am talking about.
The only negative to riding along the Lochsa is that the road through the river canyon (US12)carries quite a bit of truck traffic. And I mean gigantic trucks - many of them of the tandem axle type - carrying logs, construction material and equipment. To add to the problem for cyclists, US12 presently has no paved shoulder and winds around, up and down the canyon. The truckers are aware that the road has a lot of bicyclists on it (it is part of the 30-year old TransAmerica route) and are generally good about sharing the pavement. Still, it can be nerve-wracking at times. We pulled off the roadway several times to let a line of trucks and RVs pass, something I almost never have had to do in many years of riding bikes.
There is a road construction project underway to add a 3 foot paved shoulder specifically to address this problem. This currently involves several sections of one-lane over a 23-mile segment from Syringa northeast. Traffic going either way has to stop for 10-15 minutes sometimes while the road crew lets the oncoming traffic through. You might think that we were unhappy with these repeated stops, but they actually turned out great for us. The flaggers all waived us right to the front of the line and were great to chat with. They were also very helpful regarding campsites and other information. And they let bicycles go first. That allowed us, once we received the "green light," to get through the one-lane section without any other vehicle trying to squeeze by us. Once we reached the two-lane section we would then pull over and let all of the other stopped traffic go by. By that time the road crew had again closed the road to traffic going our direction and we were able to ride for up the 30 minutes at a time without seeing another vehicle going the same way. It was almost as though we were back on county roads in the Midwest, except that instead of cornfields and rusting farm equipment we were looking at a spectacular river canyon. And since the only significant access to Hwy 12 is at Lowell, once traffic was halted in the construction zone the effect continued even after we exited the construction zone. So we continued to follow the same pattern - we'd pull over to let a stream of traffic go by, then ride for up to 1/2 an hour without a care. At one point a family of wild turkeys ran across the road in front of us, so clearly the wildlife enjoyed the break too.**
*For this reason we are carrying a lot of additional food and water today, including a cooler with at least 25 pounds of ice, cheese, sausage, etc., in it. We decided not to carry cooking gear so our camping meals are all cold, although we were able to grill some hot dogs over the fire pit the night we camped in Hells Canyon.
**We saw a couple of wild chickens (grouse?) running into the brush near our campsite. Had we been able to catch them we might be eating a little better tonight.
Wilderness Gateway CG to Powell CG (Clearwater National Forest, ID)
(Ridden August 6th). Via Hwy 12. 41.1 miles.
About midnight last night we were awakened in our campsite by
thunder and lightening and it began to rain steadily. When it began to rain, I jumped out of the tent to move the tandem under the overhang of the roof of the campground's bathroom (it was only about 50 yards away).# But I completely forgot about our hydration packs, helmets and panniers, which lay on our site's picnic table exposed to the rain all night. So a lot of our stuff was soaking wet when we went to put it on in the morning, which really made me feel stupid since we were able to stay dry in our tent (a Big Agnes model*) and only got a little damp on periodic dashes to the bathroom. The rain finally began to ease up by about 9 a.m., so we got up and moved the rest of our stuff under the bathroom roof overhang (once again, we were the only tent campers in the area of this bathroom so we pretty much had the place to ourselves). The rain stopped altogether as we finished breakfast** (yes, eaten under the protection of the bathroom roof overhang). We then packed up our soggy tent and other gear and got back on the road.
We continued riding up the Loscha River canyon on another blissfully cool day. Today's ride was all uphill, but the grades were gentle and there was very little traffic. We had one closer-than-it-should-have-been encounter with a RBFT, a tandem axle monster that failed to move over to give us extra room despite the lack of any oncoming traffic. This brought up my biggest complaint about those very few drivers who seem to be oblivious to the needs of cyclists on the road. When there is no oncoming traffic MOVE OVER at least part-way into the other lane. It drives me crazy that some drivers act like they cannot under any circumstances stray outside the lane they are in even though there is no other vehicular traffic. The risk of actually being hit by a passing vehicle is very small, but big trucks and RVs can create a very strong "wake" of turbulent air that can affect the stability of a bicycle being passed.
OK, now I will get off the soap box. And I will continually remind myself that 99.9% of drivers (including truck drivers) have been just great to us. A lot of people have been honking (friendly honk) and waiving because they realize we are doing something that many of them admire and/or would like to do also.
About halfway through today's ride, we met another westbound rider. He looked like Jesus wearing a bike helmet (long hair, dark beard and eyebrows). He had started in the DC area and had literally been all over the country on his bike, most recently in Glacier National Park on the US-Canada border. As if to verify that, he had on long-sleeved winter clothing and full-fingered gloves. Again, nothing seemed to ruffle the guy: "yeah, I got wet in the storm last night...I'm going to try to dry my tent and sleeping bag today..."
We decided to call it a day when we reached the campground at Powell,*** where they have some little cabins and a cafe in addition to regular campsites. We managed to arrive in time to get the last available cabin, a "rustic" one. That means a one-roomer with no sink, bathroom**** or TV, which still sounded a lot better to us than crawling into our damp tent with a forecast of more thunderstorms and without a shower for the second straight night.
And there is a little store here that sells essentials such as beer.
So we're resting up for tomorrow morning's climb over Lolo Pass into Montana, then on to Missoula where we plan to take a rest day.
#The bike is made of steel, which of course will rust.
*Many years ago I had the very unpleasant experience of sleeping in a leaky tent. It only took one such experience for me to decide that - despite my overall miserly nature - when it comes to tent camping, I am not going to cut corners.
**They say that everything tastes better camping, which I generally agree with. But cold food (cream cheese and deviled ham sandwiches and canned fruit) without coffee still doesn't taste very good.
***Many of you have asked whether we have a rigid daily schedule of destinations. The answer is no. Nor do I think any of the other long-distance cyclists we have met use such an approach. While we have a target destination in mind each day, and look at the route several days out to There are simply too many variables involved (weather, mechanical problems, terrain, weather again) to stick to a fixed schedule or make advance reservations for a place to stay. For the most part, we decide when we want to quit, then look for a place to stay, eat, etc. We have never once been forced to continue riding because we cannot find somewhere to stay (which may include a motel or rooming house that is not on any list or maps, a campground or someones house). Most of the time we wind up in very small towns. By asking, around we've always been successful
finding a place to lay our heads for the night.
****Bathrooms with showers are available just down the road to "rustic" cabin occupants.
Missoula pic #1
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Missoula pic #2
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Powell CG (Clearwater National Forest, ID) to Missoula, MT
Via Hwys 12 and 93. 59.9 miles. (Ridden August 7th).
It was a tale of two halves today. The first half of our ride was nice, even though the first 13 miles involved an uphill grunt over Lolo Pass (elevation 5,235 feet).* It rained early in the morning before we left our cabin and it was quite cool. We had the wood stove in the cabin cranked up to keep us warm and dry our soggy gear.
We crossed into Montana at the top of the pass, where the temperature could not have been much over 40 degrees. On the way down the other side we had every article of clothing we owned on to try to stay warm.
We took a lunch break about 15 miles into Montana, after passing several sections of Hwy 12 adorned with designated "Moose Crossing" signs. (After being assaulted by the pesky things while we tried to eat, we decided they should have posted "Savage Mosquitoes" signs as well.)
It began to rain about 10 miles from Lolo, MT, and there was a strong wind in our faces as we rode down the Lolo Creek canyon. As a result, the rain stung like hail and we felt cold even though the air temperature was supposedly in the 50s. We pulled into a C-store about 3 miles from Lolo to pump down hot drinks and regroup. From there, the ride into Lolo was not bad, but things got ugly when we turned north on very busy US93. We had a decent shoulder the entire way in to Missoula but the heavy rain made for poor visibility. We later learned it was an all-time record rainfall for Missoula. There was a lot of standing water at intersections, which should have told us this downpour was something out of the ordinary. With the heavy truck traffic on the highway, despite the decent shoulder, the ride into Missoula was a little scary.
As we entered the Missoula city limits we pulled into a Wal-Mart to pick up a few things and dry off a little. We found two other touring cyclists there doing the same thing.** That bolstered our spirits a bit - knowing we weren't the only idiots riding bikes long distance on a miserable day. All 4 of us got a good laugh out of the situation. Penny and I just kept thanking God that we did not have to camp tonight, and are looking forward to a day off tomorrow.
*Only the last 5 miles were seriously steep.
**Surprisingly, unlike our motel tonight, Wal-Mart had the heat on and the A/C off.
Missoula pic #3
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Bitterroot valley pic #1
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Rest day in Missoula, MT
(August 8th). After riding the tandem over to a bike shop for some maintenance work,* we walked all over town, including the University of Montana campus and at least a 4 mile hike to the REI (outdoor equipment) store, and an equal distance back.
Missoula is a very nice place. It sits at the feet of the Rocky Mountains and there are 3 rivers running through it or nearby. Plus it is a college town, home of the U of M Grizzlies. There are a lot of young people, a ton of bars and coffee shops and it is very bike-friendly, with lots of bike lanes and a remarkable number of bike shops for a town of this size.
On the way back from REI, we stopped at a thrift store to buy some new (used) books to read. Unlike most of the thrift stores we have been in (as you can tell, we love these places), the Multi Item Store was a dingy, smoky dive. There were two old guys working the store. One guy handled the checkout (there was no register; they took cash only and gave us a handwritten receipt). The other guy - who kept his gaze on the down on floor at all times - at first sat at a little table right in front of the wall of books we were looking at. I guess we should have asked him if he could move so we could see the books better, but I thought he might be asleep. He finally got up with a grunt but without uttering a word and moved into the other room. When we were ready to check out we found the second guy sitting next to the first guy, who was listening to some obnoxious rap music. The second guy told the first guy how much to charge for each item (nothing had prices on it). It was a weird place, but we found three paperbacks for $2.25 so we were happy.
*We actually went to two shops because the first one did not have the parts (new saddle and tires) that we wanted. We had worn out a front tire (tread separation) and needed to replace Penny's saddle (although the White Bird welding job had held up fine).
Missoula is a very nice place. It sits at the feet of the Rocky Mountains and there are 3 rivers running through it or nearby. Plus it is a college town, home of the U of M Grizzlies. There are a lot of young people, a ton of bars and coffee shops and it is very bike-friendly, with lots of bike lanes and a remarkable number of bike shops for a town of this size.
On the way back from REI, we stopped at a thrift store to buy some new (used) books to read. Unlike most of the thrift stores we have been in (as you can tell, we love these places), the Multi Item Store was a dingy, smoky dive. There were two old guys working the store. One guy handled the checkout (there was no register; they took cash only and gave us a handwritten receipt). The other guy - who kept his gaze on the down on floor at all times - at first sat at a little table right in front of the wall of books we were looking at. I guess we should have asked him if he could move so we could see the books better, but I thought he might be asleep. He finally got up with a grunt but without uttering a word and moved into the other room. When we were ready to check out we found the second guy sitting next to the first guy, who was listening to some obnoxious rap music. The second guy told the first guy how much to charge for each item (nothing had prices on it). It was a weird place, but we found three paperbacks for $2.25 so we were happy.
*We actually went to two shops because the first one did not have the parts (new saddle and tires) that we wanted. We had worn out a front tire (tread separation) and needed to replace Penny's saddle (although the White Bird welding job had held up fine).
Winner - cleverest Montana business name
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Triple tandem family
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Technical Difficulties
Hi Everyone!
Steve asked me to let you all know that He and Penny are doing great, everything is fine. Steve is just having some technical difficulties right now with the blackberry which is preventing him from posting to the blog. They will be back posting soon and didn't want anyone to worry. He has been taking lots of pictures along the way and will post those soon as well.
Right now they are in Darby, Montana heading to Sula via US 93. They are about a week away from Yellowstone National Park.
Kerry Ciulla
Steve asked me to let you all know that He and Penny are doing great, everything is fine. Steve is just having some technical difficulties right now with the blackberry which is preventing him from posting to the blog. They will be back posting soon and didn't want anyone to worry. He has been taking lots of pictures along the way and will post those soon as well.
Right now they are in Darby, Montana heading to Sula via US 93. They are about a week away from Yellowstone National Park.
Kerry Ciulla
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