We have spent the last many days riding, riding and riding. Had lots of weather, hills/mountains to climb, and wild animals. What an adventure! Idaho is truly a beautiful state with diverse landscape, friendly locals and of course wild animals. Since we haven't any cell / internet service available, I'll just try to give you the Reader's Digest version of the last week or so. We have had an awesome time!
Like I said before, we spent an extra day in Stanley ID, just because the Elk Mountain RV park was so much fun. Great people, free laundry, awesome food at the café (including a Prime Rib dinner!). The lady who ran the RV park was one of the friendliest most outgoing host we have ever had at a campground. She bent over backward to help us with anything AND even had a smile and a joke. That's pretty rare, especially in a huge tourist area like Stanley. We spent most of our day off, eating, playing cards (inside while the rainstorm hit!), and napping. Yes, I said napping that's not a typo. A fun relaxing day. We made friends with some other campers who were motorcycling through, along with another couple who used to motorcycle but now have a big fifth wheeler. Quite a switch from a motorcycle Renny and his wife were towing a pop up trailer behind the bike. It was a neat rig. We ended up at their table in the cafe for the prime rib dinner. Apparently the prime rib was a hit, because people were lined up outside the door to eat. Luckily Rennie and Mike invited us to sit with them, so we didn't have to wait. Fun times!
When we left Stanley the next AM we had to find the Hot Springs Route, since we were off route a bit. All we had to do was make ONE turn and we would be on the route. Do you think we could find that ONE turn...........?? Long story short....by the time we found the ONE turn we weren't speaking to each other! I couldn't figure out how if we had a MAP and the GPS tracks (remember we bought the GPS files and downloaded them in Butte!), we could get lost or couldn't find ONE little turn......
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| How can we be lost Hap? It's only ONE turn! |
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| And you have a GPS! How are we lost already? |
Any way.....after we got on the right road, the road turned into a washboard road. Most of you have probably never experienced a washboard road on a bicycle. Yes, the new full suspension bike helped (a lot) but my back wasn't HAPPY! Hap kept asking me which one was I, Dopey, Sleepy, etc.... He's hilarious isn't he?
We had a stream crossing, which meant walking through ice cold water that was about shin deep, pushing the bikes. Not bad. And by this time we were speaking so it was ok. What's a little wet feet? The route pretty much paralleled Route 21 towards Lowman most of the day. We did have a short section of singletrack trail that was fun. But again, which way do we go? Hap how can we not know where we are? We have a GPS, a Map............? Oh never mind!
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| Mmmm...how do we cross this without getting my feet wet? |
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| Comeon in the water is fine! |
We came out on Route 21 and went to Banner LBM Campground. Turns out it only had five campsites that were full. If we went further we were going to have another 10 miles up a steep mountain to the next campsite. Hap went over to a couple by a RV and asked if we could share their site. It was actually two families in two RV's. We put up our tent and they asked if we wanted some fresh trout they had caught that day. Uh yeah! Then their wives threw some extra potatoes on the fire (Idaho of course!) for us. Fantastic meal! During the course of the dinner we the people announced that they were Jehovahs Witness and then proceed to tell us about that. That was interesting! I respect their ability to their own beliefs and religion, that's why we live in the USA. I don't think they realize that they wrong! It was an interesting night! We also saw some Salmon swimming upstream returning to their spawning ground. It was probably about 24 inches long!
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| Fresh trout dinner |
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| I think this is the way................. |
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| Leaving Stanley ID |
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| Crummy road conditions....I'm not going........... |
The next morning we had a long climb first thing in the morning to Cape Horn Summit at 6370 feet. The climb was always between 4-10 %. A long slog! The weather was beautiful sunny blue skies. Temps in the 90's. We climbed up and down all day, finishing with another climb over Deer Creek Pass at 6843 feet. We camped at Deer Flat campground. A Blm campground in the middle of nowhere. It had pit toilets, a table and a fire ring. A pretty stream ran behind our campsite. We were the only people there so we took a "bath" in the cold stream. And I washed out our clothes in the stream. For dinner we had freeze dried something!
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| A conveniently placed outhouse............... |
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| Deer in middle of pic....walked right over to us |
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| Power bar break |
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| Deer Flat Campground....Hap doing his chores... |
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| How do you carry all this stuff? |
It sprinkled alittle over the night. But it was another pretty day when we finally got started about 10:30. We are not moving very fast in the AM. But at least we are moving! Another gorgeous day riding along dirt/gravel/sand roads in Idaho. How can that go wrong? We passed an airport in the middle of nowhere. We are riding near the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. There were a lot of people out four wheeling or just driving through this beautiful area.
We rode over Warm Lake Summit to Warm Lake. The road turned into pavement just before the climb. That didn't hurt our feelings at all! It started to rain at the start of the climb. We stopped put our raincoats on and kept riding. So what happens? The sun comes out, it gets hot and we take
off our coats. The climb was a long steep one! 8-12% for maybe 6 miles. We crested the top and headed down the other side. It was much steeper going down to Warm Lake. A twisty, turny FUN road, until.....the rain started again.....Then we had to slow down.
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| Rain just before Warm lake |
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| Warm Lake Summit |
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| Warm lake |
We went to the North Shore Lodge to get something to eat. Could be the best hamburger in my life! Amazing how your perception changes when you are starving. We went to Shoreline Campground that had a sign out front that said FULL. The campground host was very nice, and said he would drive around to see if there was a site open. While he was gone, a lady walked up and said we could camp with their church group (NO they were not Jehovahs Witnesses!) in the group camping area. Sometimes its just fun to sit back and watch where God leads us. The situations, the people, the weather....he really directs our paths.
We went back to the Lodge for a $5.00 shower (Yeah, a shower!!!!) and dinner. So nice to sit down for real food. The freeze dried food we have been eating has been really good don't get me wrong. But really what's better than a burger and a cold beer? Then back to the tent for a great nights sleep. I swear there is a tranquilizer in our tent!
Leaving Warm Lake it looked like the route was generally downhill for the day. I know...how does that happen? And then the climbing began........We had several summits to climb today. But for today we had a paved road so the climbs weren't bad at all. The first summit, Poverty Summit was at 5165 feet. The biggest difficulty for today was the sun and the heat. It must have been in the 90's. We stopped at 16 mile Hot Springs for a soak by the river. We had a snack while we stopped. Not sure how to describe how beautiful this river and road were today. Maybe the prettiest road so far (the Icefield Parkway may beat it though). We made our way to Ponderosa Campground along the river. Our site was on the riverbank. We had pit toilets, a table and a water spigot. Instead of taking our bath in the cold river we used the water spigot. No one was there, so I took a really good shower. Even got to wash my hair! We had more freeze dried food again. Good dinner and a great nights sleep!
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| Poverty Summit after leaving Warm Lake |
We knew we had a major climb today on our way to McCall ID. It ended up being a 11 mile climb, 6-10%, loose sandy/gravel/washboard. I'm trying to think of more description for this road. Probably the worst of our trip so far. Very difficult climbing! And to top that off, it was first thing in the morning. About a mile into the climb I had my head down, (trying to figure out why we were doing this as well as other important things) when a bear burst out of the bushes on the right side of the road and ran across the road about 20 yards in front of me. I stopped, turned to look at Hap, then waited for mommy bear to run after baby. I hoped she didn't think I caused baby to run. Not my fault. After awhile we started riding, while I blew my whistle really loudly! Yo Bear, yo bear!
We climbed and climbed and climbed and then we were at the top. I had nothing to do so I debated in my head if this climb was as bad as climbing Alp d Huez in France. (A very famous climb used in the Tour De France, 8% for 13 kilometers). So beautiful though! It was worth it. The road never did get any better. At the top we ate lunch and then headed down. So you would think that after all the climbing it would be all downhill. Well it was downhill, BUT they were working on the road so what we found was new dirt (very deep), that had just been wet down, (so now its a muddy soft road). The ride into McCall was an adventure but then that's what we like, isn't it? Like a pig in Mud...................
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| Our Shower! |
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| Wash board road climbing over Lick Run Pass |
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| Did you see that bear? |
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| STILL Climbing Lick Run Pass |
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| Lick Creek Summit |
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| Lousy soft muddy road on downhill Lick Creek pass |
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| Elevation was actually just over 7000 feet, Lick Creek Pass |
In McCall we had arranged to stay with a Warm Showers host, Chris and Christine. Warm Showers is an organization that we signed up for where we stay with people all over the country. Since we couldn't go to their house until 5p, we did what any cyclists would do. First we hit the ice cream store, then the brewery. After dinner we went to their house and had a great stay.
Leaving McCall, Chris rode out of town with us and took us a different way than the Hot Springs route. A nice road that ran along the west side of Cascade lake. We planned a short day so we stopped at Cascade Lake and spent several hours tandem kayaking. It was going to be another very hot day the next day, so we opted to stay at a motel in Donnelley that we stayed at last year. During the night Hap started to not feel so well. He spent a lot of time in the bathroom if you get my point.
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| Osprey in nest near Donnelly ID |
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| What ya looking at Hap? |
The next morning, with Hap still not feeling well, we decided to take the quickest easiest way to Cascade, ID. We were planning to stay in our friends, Donna and Paul's RV in Cascade. They weren't going to be there. Again, God's planning is much better than ours. It worked out perfectly, we did a short 18 mile ride on pavement and had an air conditioned place to stay while Hap's body decided what it was going to do. We stayed in the RV for a couple of days while Hap recouperated. I think he's ok. No fever or any other symptoms. Hopefully he'll be ready to move forward tomorrow. God willing!
