Our Epic Bike Adventure

The morning air was chilly at 6:30 am. Well, that happens in the mountains. After a quick pick me up breakfast, we sagged it to Missoula. Again, erring on the side of caution because of the road conditions, we were glad to skip highway 93 for several miles and start today's ride in Missoula.  Once we unpacked the bikes and clicked into our shoes, it looked like it was going to be a lovely day! Paved trail riding for the whole ride! What a relief! We started out on the inner city section of the Bitterroot Trail. What a quaint little city! Lots of cool things to do there, but we just took it all in as we cruised by.... As we got out further from the city, we saw a small herd of Buffalo, a purple and white Buffalo too, some beautiful vista's of the Bitterroot River and the mountains looming up ahead in the direction of Hamilton. As we got closer to Hamilton, we could see the snow in the peaks. Cool. Ticking off the miles, we cruised ...

  Concealed Carry Magazine and Ice Cream in Hell Eastern Oregon .... it was hot as Hades basically.  107 in the shade.  You are truly riding across a hellish landscape of basalt flows stacked one on top of the other that act as the biggest and most efficient radiant heater you have ever seen.   The basalt is covered by burnt up, straw-like grasses and the entire landscape is sketched by thin lines of green that correspond to small streams draining the highland and cottonwoods slurping up water.  Ya’ll come see us!  You never see THAT description in the tourist flyers.    If you live in Hell you do two things: 1. You become overly concerned with what the Lord thinks and 2.  you open up an ice cream place.  The young fellow in Dayville, Oregon did the later.  He made a damn fine ice cream shake. Hanging on the walls of his ice cream parlor he hung various animal skins; buffalo ($1200), coyote, fox and ...wait for it Timber ...

  After reading several accounts regarding the VERY narrow to NONEXISTENT shoulder on Rt 12 up to Lolo Pass, we opted to ride with Lesli in the SAG wagon.  We were able to have a more leisurely morning and stop along the way to visit the Lolo Pass visitor's center chronicling the Lewis and Clark expedition as well as the life and fate of the Nez Perce tribe of native Americans. It was a 2+ hour drive and due to space limitations 2 of us had to ride in the back.  Surprisingly, the view from the truck bed is quite different.  It was glaringly evident that the shoulder was frightfully narrow at times.  The Lochsa river running the length of the ride was exceptionally beautiful however. Once we crossed Lolo Pass we entered another state! Yay!  Montana. Our lodging for the evening was at Lolo Hotsprings RV and Lodge.  We had one deluxe (bath and small kitchen) and one "dry" cabin ( refrigerator, but no bathroom or shower).  It was anothe...

After studying several blogs of cyclists who conquered White Bird Pass before us, we got the distinct impression that today would be a formidable challenge. A quick glance at the elevation profile paints a clear picture -- 2, 835 ft of elevation gain over 14 miles! Usually  we start our rides together and generally keep tabs on each other as we spread out through the day.  Today Suzanne and Stephanie road off from the Canyon House at 6:05 am and the rest of the gang enjoyed a brief oatmeal breakfast prepared by Lesli at the campsite and got underway by 6:30 am. Suzanne and Stephanie adopted a "10 min on/2 min rest break" strategy that allowed us to climb at a steady pace without getting overheated.  It also afforded plenty of time to take photos and see the wildlife. This "Gatorade Photo Moment" is of Suzanne enjoying a hydration break just as the morning sun was cresting over the mountain. Seven miles into the ride and half way up the climb, Sue Shr...

Super pumped about today's ride. Not so pumped about the road/traffic/truckers...but ready and willing to give it a try. Today we have 66 miles of a mostly down hill run. The first 35 miles are down hill all the way to Riggens. So let's go! Allons-y! After an early, chilly start and a few hasty pull overs to let truckers by, the flow of riding just eased away the world. The mist was lifting lightly over creek beds. Cows watched us pass by, slightly bewildered at the sight. Golden mountains stood at attention, waiting for the sun to grace their shoulders. (Speaking of shoulders, the shoulder of the road was wide and clean for the most part. That made pulling over for truckers a little less daunting and the ride more pleasant).  As we wove our way through the countryside, it was hard to believe that this incredible ride through Hells Canyon could keep going down and down and down for almost 2 hours!  Turn after turn. It was a crazy fun ride. When we gathered at the town of Rigge...

  Today we decided to change things up a bit and ride on a gravel rail trail.  We were off to a slow start and nearly turned around due to deep gravel.......actually stones.  But instead, we sent out our scout Sue B who reported on better conditions ahead.  In fact, the trail conditions changed frequently from packed dirt to gravel to just plain rocks.  We crossed many quaint bridges and enjoyed being off the busy road. The wildlife seemed to be quite active on the Weiser River trail.  Someone spotted a partridge, a buck and his does, and..........a black (or maybe brown) bear.  Lauran, having never seen a bear before (what? not even in a zoo??) stared at the animal who stared back at her.  Sue B informed her that it was a bear.  Curiously, there was bear skat all over the trail, but who would believe that we would come face to face with one.  The bear started to walk away but gave one last look (according to Lauran) to decide wheth...

Well that was an interesting night for sure! I slept in the shack "out back." On my way to the shack to go to bed,  I saw a large feral cat. That sprang my imagination into high speed. Hmm I wonder why it ran under the shack? Will birds and snakes crawl into my shack? Oh bother! When I finally went to sleep, I slept well. No creatures visited in the night.  Monday morning. Up bright and early! Lauran gave me a gentle reminder to wake up. As she had already perked a pot of coffee, I was eager to get up and get going. We all bustled about the place packing and preparing for today's climb; almost identical to yesterday's trajectory. Today we hoped to get started an hour earlier to avoid the predicted high heat. We might make all 58 miles if we planned it right. Donning some very strange looking duck billed visors, we set off into the rising sun. What a fantastic morning. Flying up over hills and down the other side on Hells Canyon Rd. I got a great view of an Elk standin...

Starting at 6:49 am to take advantage of the comfortable 65 degree morning, we rolled out of Baker City and were quickly welcomed by a brief climb to 3,684 ft.   This part of the route followed the old Oregon Trail and the Powder River for a good portion and included a fantastic downhill ride  to Richland.   S everal of us thought this was the most pleasant ride of the trip so far ... until we arrived at Richland and had to make a difficult decision -- do we fight the heat and climb to the next pass at 4,131 ft or do we enjoy a berry cobbler at the local diner then hitch a ride with Lesli in the sag wagon? Of course Sue Sister cruised ahead and already arrived in Halfway while  several of us opted to make the 6 mi climb up a very steep grade (5-7%).  It required 3-4 brief rest stops to catch our breathe.  Once at the top, we were treated to a spectacular ride down to Halfway.  But it took a lot of effort to...

Saturday, July 23rd A day of rest for us and our legs today. Wow. It was sorely needed!  We had a leisurely morning with awesome home made french toast by chef Lesli. Then we mostly lounged around the house. It is a beautiful big house. Our companion canines Frankie and Pearl settled in nicely finding shady spots on the lawn. We all caught up on blogging and talking to family, doing laundry...visiting the town...Baker City is a really cute town. We really made the most of relaxing until somebody had the bright idea of rafting down the Powder River on a section that runs through town. Sounded good at the time. Other people were doing it. Why not us? We were lucky to survive our white water rafting escapade using home made so called "floatable" devises made out of 1 dollar pool noodles and some sort of netting that was supposed to be used as a seat. We won't be patenting that idea. We are lucky to still be alive. Honestly, it's safer going 35 miles an hour down a mounta...