Water World

Surprise! I found a Wi-Fi hotspot at the Lochsa Lodge, near our campground by Lolo pass. Tomorrow, we have to climb to the top of the pass, cross the Idaho-Montana border, then zoom down into Missoula. Looking forward to meeting the folks from Adventure Cycling, who are practically the patron saints of cross-country bicycle touring.

The theme for the past couple of days seems to be water! We beat the heat by leaving early in the morning, reaching our campsite at the Wilderness Gateway campground by lunch time, then we went swimming in the cold Clearwater river. “Swimming is an exaggeration. We got wet, and cooled off. And I used up a good bit “camp soap” (biodegradable soap) scrubbing my bicycling outfit, my hair, and anything else that was exposed. It took about 10 minutes for everything to dry. If I can get past this very slow Internet connection, I’ll post pictures. Looks like I'll have to post pictures tomorrow when we get to Missoula. 

Earlier in the day, we ran into about a dozen boy scouts riding from Washington to North Carolina raising funds for an unrelated charity. They all wore identical outfits, rode identical bikes, and carried identical gear. I realized how rag-tag we must look to them, so I told the ride leader that we were the Astoria Irregulars. Ironically, Bryce, who organized our entire ride, had initially been inspired when he met up with the same crew (but a different bunch of scouts) two years earlier, and rode with them for 15 miles near Astoria. Now here we were crossing paths on the road. We get to talk to lots of folks out touring on their bicycles. Amazing how popular it has begun. Anyway, we may meet up with the other group of scouts sometime within the next few days, since our paths are similar for awhile.

Then today, since we only had to ride around 40 miles, we scheduled a stop at the Weir Creek trail and hiked a quarter of a mile to a hot springs. None of the boys had ever been to a hot spring, so it was a big adventure for them. For me, it was a chance to slip into 115 degree water and soak my tired muscles for a few minutes. None of the boys made it all the way into the water … too hot for them, but to me, it felt great! No pictures of the hot springs, because we all left our cameras behind except for Ryan, and he dropped his cellphone, putting him temporarily out of service with a cracked screen and an experiment in drying out the cell phone in a bag of couscous. Soon, hopefully, the phone will be “hot to Trott.”

We’ve been told by a couple of people to avoid Highway 12, but we’ve seen more cyclists than motorists, and it’s been a gorgeous ride so far. We crest the Bitterroot Mountains tomorrow, then start our ascent of the Rockies. Everyone will have tired legs before we get there, but everyone is riding strongly, so I’m sure we’ll make it with flying colors.