Wow! Today was a tough ride! Smoke, Heat and Headwinds! But the scenery was worth every single one of the 4,408 calories I burned on the bike today. The day started early as we had a long 115 miles to go and we hit our 4th state today – Montana! – and also went into the Mountain Time Zone. Our group rolled out at 6:50 AM after a quick breakfast in the parking lot.
The energy was high this morning as we broke into our groups on a cool morning with many of us in arm warmers or even light jackets but that was all shed by the first SAG stop at Mile 22. Our route took us up Idaho state HWY 12 which essentially was the Lewis and Clark Trail from the early 1800s. The highway follows the Clearwater River from Kamiah to the Lolo Pass in Montana. Only we were going uphill against the river for 90 miles.
So we just got our paceline going and tried to keep up a decent speed, switching out the lead every 3 miles or so. We hit some pretty acrid smoke after the Mile 22 stop and then the headwinds started and pretty much stayed with us the whole day. I was disappointed that we didn’t really see any wildlife except for a bald eagle and few deer given the remoteness of the area. But the scenery was stunning and we had very little traffic on the road. It must be a popular road for motorcyclists because we saw more of them than anything.
With stops at Mile 44 for topping off and Mile 67 for lunch, our legs had begun to feel the slight, almost imperceptible climb that we had been taking all morning, especially with the headwind beating against us. At Mile 88 we had another SAG stop before the big climb to get us up to the Lolo Pass summit at Mile 107.
The start of the climb looked ominous with my GPS showing a 4.6 mile, 1379 foot climb with a lot of red between the start and the summit. So you can imagine the resolve you have to have after being on the bike at that point for nearly 7 hours and taking on that climb. So, like other climbs – I just found my pace and stuck with it. Getting to the summit though felt great – I was soaking wet with sweat and exhausted but I loved every minute of it!
We had a 7 mile descent to our lodging for the night at the Lolo Hot Springs Lodge and had a group dinner at The Bear Cave Diner right next door. Tomorrow we have only a 37 mile ride into Missoula for our first rest day on Sunday. We are all looking forward to resting up and catching up on things but first we must get to Missoula.
Another quick P2P profile for you is one of our riding partners, Vince, who splits time with his wife in NJ and Cape Cod. Like me, he’s early 60s but had a career in the food business as an entrepreneur. One of his creations was Veggie Straws and he will soon have another product coming out that he expects will have similar success.
I would like to say a big “Thank You for all of the messages that you are sending on the message section below. I read all of them even though they are not posted publicly for others to read. I can’t tell you how encouraged I am by the messages you’ve sent and I hope you understand that I can’t respond to all of them – but can always text me as well for those of you who know me!