July 1, 2023 to July 3, 2023
Day 16 and 17: Shaken and Stirred
Wallace, Idaho to Missoula, Montana
We made it to Missoula, Montana, finally! We got a late start on Sunday leaving Wallace as we thought that our day would be an easier short day; we were thinking it would be around 54 miles and 2,400 feet of climbing. Again, we were not sure of our route because it had changed from Mike’s original routing, and we were using multiple apps to navigate.
We decided to change the route to not include the Trail of the Hiawatha because there was a $40.00 per person fee…I know, you are saying, “why?” So were we. Well, I can tell you that Look Out Mountain Ski area became the concessionaire for the Forest Service, and then it became Disney Land. The fee included a shuttle, which we did not want. Honestly, the trail sounds very interesting with its tunnels and tresses, but $80.00 bucks wasn’t worth it for us; therefore, a reroute.
Well, yesterday’s reroute was a tough one. We left Wallace riding the Trail of the Coeur d’ Alenes, which was pleasant, and then the day got real once we left it. We started a climb on a multiuse trail which was a rail trail that any user could access, so that meant any vehicle: off road ATV, bike, car, etc. That meant the terrain was very variable, which meant our day was very long. The scenery was beautiful, but the terrain would have lent itself better to our bike packing set up rather than the Surely Long Haul Disc Truckers, but we managed. Sometimes we had comfy crushed gravel, and other times we have chunky rocks. We came across gravel worse than Scott Road’s…inside joke for anyone who has driven or ridden our road.
It was slow going to say the least. There were at least four miles of river rock gravel type rock. It was so bumpy that Mike lost a screw from one of his panniers and a strap from his handle bar bag is tearing apart. At one point, the routing was not perfect and we missed a turn; we ended up below the train tress we needed to ride over. It was way above us. So, up a steep, rocky road we went; we tried to ride it until I fell over, so we started to bike push with all that gear.
Our route was at least forty-five miles of this type of dirt. We were mostly on OHV roads that consisted of part of the route of the Hiawatha, the old Northern Pacific Rail Road and then the Route of the Olympians. We were pretty remote, so we did strap our bear spray to our bikes; however, I started to feel more comfortable when we came across some OHVers and one mountain biker. At one point I did occasionally ring my bike bell to warn any critters, and Mike made a comment about a dinner bell; I got a chuckle out of that.
Looking pretty haggard, really dirty and dusty, we finally got to camp around 6:30 pm or so. We were fortunate that we had made reservations at Camp St. Regis, or they told us they would have turned us away…I was pretty annoyed by that. We would not have had many options. I am more than happy to pay full price for a piece of grass if it means having a place to sleep with water, showers, etc.
Anyway, it worked out and the camp hosts were very helpful. We got to our site and immediately began to think about the next day, which was today, and poured over maps and apps to try to find the best route to keep us off of what we had just experienced. Well, it was a little stressful; we were tired, hungry and dirty. But we sat there and tried to come up with a solution and route while eating some snacks and thinking about getting cleaned up. The first thing we did before all of this was wash our bikes and panniers off at the Dump Station…I know, yuck, but it worked and we were reassured that it was sanitary.
While route planning, the camp host came around with two beers for us! Then, after this, we had even more champions in our corner - literally, The Champion family from Georgia. Frank Champion, who was RVing with his family across the country, came over to our site and asked me, “Are you doing what I think you are doing? If so, I have two leftover chicken breasts that you can have.” Oh, my god! Was that an amazing offer. We did not have a very exciting dinner planned as we did not have a store on the way to camp, and we were going to eat freeze dried, but frankly, I was too tired to boil water, so this was amazing. Anyway, we literally had Champions in our corner.
This blog is getting long, so I will tell you that today’s ride was long as well, but there was not as nearly as much dirt. We used three different routing apps to try and get the route right, and that was still difficult. At one point early in the ride, we were routed on private property that we decided to continue on, and it seemed sketchy but worked out. Then, we were routed on another crazy road that posted it had no outlet, so we decided to turn around and get on the interstate instead. However, serendipitously, we had lunch in the town of Tarkio on the Clark Fork River, a river that we followed most of the day, and enjoyed watching commercial outfitters take out from the river. We chatted with some of the guests.
After lunch we turned around and got on the interstate for a short period. We were off and on Intersate 90 a few times today. That was the only way we could make connections. In this part of Montana, it is not easy to link up areas, so that is why we were on the multiuse roads yesterday, and off and on the freeway and some dirt areas today. Again, routing was a challenge. At one point, Google wanted us to take a left to stay on a frontage road, and it turned out to now be private. There were several signs indicating so, and one basically said that if you are looking to get to heaven that you could get there sooner if you trespassed…We did not go that way. We, again, hopped on the interstate. You might ask why we didn’t just stay on it, and well, it was inviting - especially because it was the 3rd of July with very little traffic and a very wide shoulder. Well, the shoulders are littered with tire debris. As we were riding, it was like trying to avoid the gauntlet of shrapnel; this is a good place to get a flat.
Anyway, our day ended after many miles: 80 to 90 or so…, a trip to Costco, and an air conditioned room at Motel 6 in Missoula. We continue to move foreword and east!
Team Bean
Tour Stats
- Cribbage Game Wins: Mike 5, Dawn 5
- Tortillas Eaten: Mike 33, Dawn 15
- Jars of Peanut Butter: 3
- Flats: Dawn 2
- Bike Haters: 3
- Bags of Salad Consumed: 7
- Dog Encounters: 2
lol
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Today's ride: 140 miles (225 km)
Total: 886 miles (1,426 km)
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9 months ago
9 months ago