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.
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