Day 71: Missoula to Lolo Creek Campground

July 20, 2006

Spending the morning in Missoula getting business taken care of. Got some pics uploaded, but I'm tired of playing on the computer and am going to go find some food, get some money, and get on the road in the next couple of hours. I'm seriously thinking about ending the trip at Florence instead of Astoria ...demands of school/work are starting to encroach and I think I'll be ready to make a run for the coast when I get that close, so I'm working on a plane ticket this morning, too, before losing the unlimited free internet at the UM campus.

Will probably be out of contact for a few days since I'll be in some beautiful but less electronically connected areas.

Hollyhocks outside the campus library where I spent much of the morning

Hey group, I found a can of tuna for you!

Later: So I left campus when I got bored, found a burrito place and finally left town sometime around 1 p.m. Hit a MASSIVE pot hole on the way out and found out why I should use the locking mechanism on my Arkel bags. It didn't completely disconnect, but it would have if I hadn't looped Velcro through both handles to lash my jacket on. Oh well. Lessons learned.

I wasn't really excited about leaving town. I had more than 10 miles of backtracking to do back to the route and considered hitching a ride from somebody since I was technically off route, but I only had 30 miles to do anyway and grabbed some cold drinks before heading out. I wanted to let the group get ahead of me today anyway, so I wasn't going to push miles. There are only so many places to camp, and I had planned out the mileage for most of the rest of the trip when I was trying to buy plane tickets. Plus, Suzanne was filming the group and doing promo interviews with the riders today and I didn't really want to be a part of that, so I laid back and headed for a USFS campground.

I'd stocked up on a bunch of food since I knew I was headed into a mostly unpopulated area, but I'd been around people so much that I was ready for some solitude and was willing to do campsites away from people to get it. My Lolo Creek campsite was great. I had to cross a little bridge to get there and set up in a sanctuary of trees. I should probably say that at this point, my spider bite is better. Still a little sore but not enough for me to go to the dr. in Missoula (looking back, I should have been at a doctor at some point for this because it acted up again later-I apparently didn't have enough antibiotics to kill off the infection).

At least I thought I wanted solitude, but then I got kinda lonesome there and called a couple of people at home before doing dinner. Now I'm headed to bed-hopefully no rain tonight because I'm not putting on the fly. At least the RV running its generator finally shut up.

Solo camping again--this was a great campsite across a little bridge over a stream and in a sanctuary of trees

Today's ride: 32 miles (51 km)
Total: 3,558 miles (5,726 km)

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