At some point early in the ride (Lowell, perhaps?) we lost the Clearwater River and picked up the Lochsa River. It was then our close companion for the rest of the day.
It was a very meditative ride. We had a gradual uphill all day, but ever so gentle. The river was right by our side, sometimes smooth-running, sometimes bubbling as rapids through scattered boulders. The forests were pretty thick on the hillsides and it was wonderful to be dwarfed by Mother Nature. It was a mostly cloudy day but the sun came out a bit from time to time. Most of the road had been freshly paved and traffic was very light. Maybe the fact that it was Saturday helped to keep most of the big rigs at home.
Since there truly were no services available to us along today’s route, Cy whipped up a delicious roadside luncheon buffet at about 40 miles.
I meant to take an earlier version of this sign. The first such sign was with 77 miles to go.
This is the Mocus Point Pack Bridge at about mile 52.
Our ride was to be 71 miles today, but for the last 10 miles they had cones down the middle of the road for traffic control as they were paving. The paving was complete but the line painting had not yet been done. If we had ridden this section, there would have been no way for traffic to get around us. We don’t go very fast uphill, so holding up traffic for 10 miles would not win us any friends. Instead, we loaded all the bikes onto the van and jumped in for a lift to our lodging at Lochsa Lodge. Our group size is 27 riders, so it took 2 van shuttles + the SAG car to get us all safely to our home for the night.
A really lovely day on the bike!
Stats for the day:
98 km / 61 miles from River Dance Lodge (Syringa ID) to Lochsa Lodge (Powell ID)
2017 feet up, 211 feet down.
Temps: 9C to 19C. Mostly cloudy, but very comfortable for riding.
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