July 22, 2022
0722 - The road to Wisdom is not always easy
But it's worth traveling
A CASCADE OF SMALL ROCKS trickled down the cliff face to my left, and slightly behind me. At the time, I was at about 5,500 feet elevation on my way to the top of the Chief Joseph Pass, elevation 7,241. I didn't dare turn my head to try to see whether the stones had come loose on their own, or perhaps been dislodged by an animal. (I'd love to spot a bighorn.)
After yesterday's extra mileage, I had "only" about 43 miles to cover today, with most of them downhill. But first came the small matter of climbing over what may be the highest pass of my trip¹, and one of the longest at about 18 miles.
Although I had not gotten on the road anywhere near as early as I intended (it was nearer 0800 than the 0600 I had "targeted" when I went to bed last night) that wasn't a problem: at 0800 the temperature was a brisk 45 degrees, making me glad of the arm warmer sleeves and windstopper vest I've been carrying.
Within an hour, the sun had climbed over the crests of the peaks and canyon walls south of Sula, MT and the temperature began to rise quickly. However, as I gained elevation it remained quite comfortable and never really did get hot.
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Once more I began playing the 100 foot game, creeping up the 4-5 percent incline at my customary whopping 4.2 miles an hour. That didn't bother me, nor did the tinge of smoke that was wafting in from the "Moose" fire (although I could smell and taste it, and it stung my eyes ever so slightly).
What really got me were the flies. This is the first encounter I've had with bugs of any sort on this trip, apart from mosquitoes in a couple campgrounds. The flies came in two sizes: ordinary housefly size and B-52 Stratofortress model.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse-fly
1 year ago
The big ones were vicious brutes, seeming to favor ankle meat. In self defense I ended up tying bandannas around my ankles, forming a bite-proof barrier about three inches high above the tops of my shoes. That seemed to deter the blighters.
The smoke came from the Moose fire, which at that time covered about 22,000 acres in mountainous Idaho and was listed in the daily briefing I saw later as "0 percent contained". The smoke filtered in but was never so heavy as to present a problem for me.
Around 1300 I was near the top. There's a rest stop at the top of Lost Trail Pass, which carries U.S. 93. That's also the junction with MT 43, which veers east and continues upward for another couple hundred feet over the space of a mile, cresting the Chief Joseph Pass before dropping a few hundred feet down the opposite side and running for many miles before reaching Wisdom.
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The drop has two parts: three miles of 4 to 6 percent then 24 miles at 1 to 2 percent. All of these miles flew past, making up for the several hours I'd spent inching upward. Oh, and I had a tailwind, too! It just doesn't get any better, cycling-wise.
9.5 miles before Wisdom I stopped at the Big Hole National Battlefield Visitor's Center. Susan Carpenter, another writer here on Cycleblaze, had alerted me to it based on the time she spent living in Hamilton. It was the scene of a horrible clash ("massacre" would be a suitable adjective) between the U.S. regular Army plus some local volunteer militia, and a band of "non-treaty" Nez Perce attempting to make their way to safety in Canada. ("Non-treaty" means Nez Perce who didn't recognize the validity of the "treaty" between the U.S. and a bunch of Nez Perce who had signed it, despite having no authority within the tribe to do so.)
The story of the battle is told in a 25 minute film. It was little more than a nighttime massacre of mostly women and children, many killed in their sleep (the soldiers deliberately aimed low knowing the tepees would be occupied by sleeping Nez Perce) or burned alive when the tepees were set ablaze by the Army. It is inexpressibly tragic, and in modern times would almost certainly be classified as a war crime.
Reaching Wisdom, I tried for a room in the only motel (6 or 8 rooms) but they were full. However, the adjacent RV park reserves a grassy area exclusively for tenting, which I was prepared to do. As I was finishing setting up, two more cycle tourists rolled in. We quickly concluded that three people are better company than just one or two.
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We enjoyed dinner together (there are actually two places to choose between in tiny Wisdom) then retired to our tents to hide out from the horrible, terrible, nasty, vicious mosquitoes that infest the town.
I was glad to have put in the extra miles yesterday to shorten today's ride.
¹ - It wasn't the highest. Sylvan Pass, leaving Yellowstone, is at least 1,000 feet higher. But it doesn't have the same long ramp-up as the combination of Lost Trail / Chief Joseph.
Consecutive days without a tire inflation problem: 3
Today's ride: 44 miles (71 km)
Total: 836 miles (1,345 km)
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