Wednesday September 26

OK, that day was harder than we thought it was going to be!  The cue sheet said 42 miles and uphill all day but no big hills.  One thing weren't counting on, though, was the wind.  We have been spoiled on this trip with so much "following" wind.

We didn't venture out this morning until after 9:30.  With a short ride and cool weather first thing, we all like to wait for it to warm up a bit.  About 6 of us took a 4-mile detour right away to see a mansion built by the widow of the founder of Hamilton.  Known as The Daly Mansion, it has beautiful grounds but the architectural style is somewhat "restrained".  We didn't stay for the tour; just a walk around the grounds.

Back to the main route and into the wind - ugh!  Although  it was a balmy 8C the wind had a bite to it.  We had good views of the Bitterroot Mountains to our right,  including Trapper Peak (the highest peak in the range).

Not too far from town we passed a small forest fire burning.

I stopped in the small town of Darby where they had a field full of metal sculptures.  I thought the rooster might make a nice handlebar ornament, but it was a tad too big.

This was a rather well-to-do ranch entrance along the way.

Up until Darby (at about mile 20) I was feeling that the ride was a bit of a slog.  The headwind was part of it, but also the views were largely obscured by vegetation along the roadside.  After Darby the wind lessened (and in fact became a bit of a tailwind at time towards the end of the day) and the views opened up.  Very different views on the right (west, Bitterroots)

and the left (east).

We were often riding beside or crossing over the Bitterroot River.

Someone was all decked out for fall.

We went through a rather large burn zone that was probably at least 10 years old.

We're staying at another cluster of cabins in the middle of nowhere.  Lost Trail Hot Springs Resort.  There is a hot springs pool but I didn't bring my "swimming costume".  I got in up to my knees and didn't feel the need to borrow a costume.  Nice place, though.

Here's our rustic 3-person cabin.

And some of the grounds, including carvings of Lewis and Clark.

Stats for the day:
74 km / 46 miles from Hamilton MT to Lost Trail Hot Springs Resort (near Sula, MT)
1933 feet up, 361 feet down
Temps:  8C to 23C.  Biting headwind to start the day, but it ended very nicely.  Bright sunshine all day.

Tuesday September 25

Well, the internet at the Hamilton Super Duper 8 motel ain't all that super duper.  Therefore, the blog is being updated some days later.  Yesterday was our last "free" day.  We were in Missoula.  Kind of a funky little-ish (population about 70,000) college town, home to the University of Montana Grizzlies.  It is also home to Adventure Cycling.  So - we wandered over there after breakfast and were added to their wall of fame, for having cycled to town.  Also - a free 6 month membership.

Then off to "hike the M" above the university.  It was an easy and fairly short hike; totally worthwhile to get great views out over the university, the city, and the various surrounding hills and valleys.

  

We wandered around campus a bit.  Then downtown and eventually back to our hotel.

Breakfast outside at the trailer at 8:30 this morning.  It was just a few degrees above freezing, so many people retreated inside to eat.  We were away around 9:30.  Lots of bike path and then road turns to get out of town, but Joyce flawlessly led the peloton.  Other than for a short stretch in Missoula, we were on bike path all day.  The bike path paralleled US93 (a 4-lane highway) so we still had the steady noise of traffic but it was so nice not to have to think about it.  I'm often asked what I think about on these long trips.  Frankly there isn't much time for idle thought.  I'm always thinking about traffic, holding my line, avoiding anything on the road/shoulder, etc.  It was so nice today to not have to think about any of those things!  It was a pretty flat ride all day through the Bitterroot Valley, between the Bitterroot Mountains to the west and the Sapphire Mountains to the east.  Lots of farmland - some crops as well as horses, cattle, goats & sheep - some acreages and other rural properties and some National Forest lands.  The scenery didn't change a whole lot throughout the day, but it was quite pleasant.  I didn't take many pictures today, but here are a sampling.

At about mile 20 we went through the town of Florence.  Wait!  What?  Didn't we start in Florence??  Have we just done a big loop?  No - Florence MT vs Florence OR.  No ocean in sight here......

A bit of snow high up on the mountains.

Stats for the day:
76 km / 47 miles from Missoula MT to Hamilton MT
1023 feet up, 712 feet down.
Temps:  5C to 18C.  A bit of a chilly start, but sunny and warming up nicely in the afternoon.

Sunday September 23

I always try to get my big suitcase out to the van early since it is one of the biggest.  As I looked skyward on my way to the trailer, I paused to take my rain jacket out - just in case..... By the time we headed over to the lodge for breakfast it was raining lightly.  Then a bit harder.....  We delayed our start a bit, hoping that it would lighten up and maybe even stop.

Cy and Sue (our guide & chef) had risen early to take a drive up the road to see what the state of construction was going to be today.  Turns out that the "candles" (tall cones in the middle of the road) only went on for a mile & a half, so the plan they developed was to have us ride in a peloton with the SAG vehicle behind to protect us from traffic.  Traffic was light at that time of day and there was only one ya-hoo who decided to pass us.  On the plus side, we had fresh pavement all the way up the pass to the summit and the Montana border.

We started the day with 13 miles of uphill to Lolo Pass Summit.  Another classic pass along this route.  This is where Lewis & Clark crossed the Bitterroots in September of 1805.  Apparently they were also greeted with cold and wet weather.  The rain pretty much held off for those of us who got up fairly quickly.  Apparently some of the slower riders got quite wet.  Not a lot of stopping for me along the way.  Once I get in the zone going uphill I like to just keep plugging away.  There wasn't great visibility, so any pictures wouldn't have done it justice.  Many of the trees have started to turn up high and they would have been very pretty on a sunnier day.  The temperature had dropped from about 9C at the lodge to 5C at the top.  The rain started to pick up, so I did a quick tour of the visitor centre, grabbed a PayDay bar, put all my clothes on and headed downhill.  It rained harder for quite a while and my hands and feet were pretty darned wet and cold.  Thoughts of a hot bath kept my legs spinning.  In spite of the amount of climbing we did today, it was my second fastest average speed day.  Of course, a tailwind and miles of slight downhill helped the cause.

I did stop for a while at Fort Fizzle at about mile 40.  Restroom, snack, change of layers, etc. 

Shortly after that some of the other riders caught up with me as we headed onto the bike path in the town of Lolo.  Some stopped there for food, but four of us carried on together into Missoula.  It's always good to travel in a group when we come into a larger city, especially with a bike path.  It's good to have multiple sets of eyes looking for street signs and bike path turns.  As luck would have it, one of our four riders got a flat about 6 miles from the hotel.  Here's a picture of 2 of them calling the SAG.  I'm not sure they really wanted a ride; I think they were just excited about having cell phone coverage again.

Turns out we got the flat fixed just as the SAG found us.  Actually, I'm kind of glad we had that delay.  The rain had stopped, the sun had come out and it had warmed up quite a bit.  It turned into a rather nice day and I might have missed that fact if I had kept riding directly to the hotel.

Margaritas today for crossing the state line.  Cy amped mine up a bit to compensate for the fact that my rental bike has been causing me some grief.  It's going into the bike shop tomorrow to see if the gear shifting can be improved a bit.  We have our last rest day here tomorrow.

Stats for the day:
94 km / 58 miles from Lochsa Lodge ID to Missoula MT
2588 feet up, 2915 feet down
Temps:  5C to 15C.  Light drizzle on the climb.  Steady rain and cold on the downhill.  Much nicer once we got into Missoula.  The forecast looks pretty good for the next week.  Dare I hope that that was our only yucky day??