Thursday, July 26, 2012, 58 miles - Total so far: 1933 miles*
* Miles ridden on the TransAm route
Odometer miles - Today - 58.2 Total to date - 2010.3 miles
Welcome to Idaho - more spectacular views
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| A leftover photo from the night before in Missoula - kayakers riding the rapids on the river near the center of town. |
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| Turning southwest onto U.S. 12 at Lolo - 25 miles to Lolo Hot Springs |
We rode back out of Missoula on
the same route we came in. That included
the very busy U.S. 93/12 south to Lolo.
It was almost as unpleasant leaving town as it was arriving. But we made it the 13 miles to Lolo where we headed west on U.S.
12. After ten more miles we came to a
rest stop at Lolo Hot Springs. We
stopped for snacks and then continued the eight miles up to Lolo Pass. As we started out it looked like rain up on
the pass, but as we rode we encountered wet roads but no rain. Another lucky miss for riding in the rain.
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| Alongside U.S. 12 past Lolo |
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| Bee boxes in the foreground, Lolo Peak, 9139 ft., in background |
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| Cattle ranch alongside U.S. 12 - beautiful backdrop |
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| A Dutch couple who have been tracking our route for several days on their own TransAm adventure - self supported, obviously. |
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| The road leading up to Lolo Pass |
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| Interesting phone booth with old AT&T logo at the resort at Lolo Hot Springs |
The climb wasn’t too steep. We made it to the top and stopped at the very
nice visitor’s center. They had a nice
diorama view of the mountains in the area which clearly showed the flat land we
had ridden through on the approach to Missoula from the south and the mountains
we would be riding through the next couple of days.
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| Entering Idaho at the top of Lolo Pass, 5235 ft. |
At the pass we entered into Idaho
and also into the Pacific Time Zone. We
turned our watches back an hour temporarily.
Because Idaho is divided into Pacific Time in the north and Mountain
Time in the south, and because our route is northeast to southwest we’ll move
back into Mountain time in a couple of days and then back into Pacific Time
when we cross into Oregon. Very
confusing.
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| Lewis and Clark passed over the Lolo Pass |
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| The diorama of the mountains near Lolo Pass - the valley on the right is from Darby, MT to Missoula. Angling to the southwest fromm Missoula is the road over Lolo Pass into Idaho. |
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| Very nice Visitor's Center at Lolo Pass, 5,225 ft. |
The ride down from Lolo Pass was
filled with more spectacular views. We
followed Crooked Fork Creek most of the way.
The creek winds through beautiful, steep forested valleys. After a while we moved away from the creek
and then about 20 miles down from the pass we came alongside the Lochsa
River. We spent the night at the Lochsa
Lodge, a very nice campground/resort with nice showers, decent restrooms, a
store, a restaurant and exceedingly slow wi-fi service. It was virtually impossible to access the
internet which is why this blog is delayed.
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| Heading down from the pass - Powell, 12 miles |
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| "Winding Road, Next 99 Miles" - our next couple of days of riding on U. S. 12 |
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| Spectacular view down from the pass |
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| U. S. 12 follows the Crooked Fork Creek leading into Powell, ID |
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| A fish trap in the creek - used to catch fingerlings for fish population studies. |
We arrived into camp about 1:30
(with the time change) so we had time to relax after setting up camp and
getting showered. The camp didn’t want
us to cook, so we ate dinner at the restaurant.
It was good, but the service was slow again. After dinner some of the group drove about
ten miles down river and walked about a mile to a natural hot springs. I didn’t go, but the pictures they brought
back show it was a very neat place.
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| The entrance to our overnight location - Lochsa Lodge campground |
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| Our campsite under the trees at Lochsa Lodge |
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| The Lochsa River, just below our campground. |
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| Another view of the river. |
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| And one more view of the river. |
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