Bicycling the Lewis & Clark Trail
Powell, ID to Missoula, MT

Sunday, July 25, 2004
Distance Cycled: 58 miles
Vertically Climbed: 2,110 feet
Average Speed: 12.5 mph

After a great dinner last night at the Locksa Lodge we started the day with a 1,840 foot climb to the top of Lolo Pass. The first 9 miles were not to difficult, we only climbed on 2 to 3% grades. Then we crossed a bridge over Shotgun Creek and suddenly we were climbing a grade of 6 to 9% for 4 miles. Once in a while the grade would decrease to 5% for a short time and we had a couple of hundred yards of 4% grade. We stopped several times to rest on the way to the top of Lolo Pass. Even so it took us almost 2 hours to go 13 miles since we traveled between 4 and 5 miles per hour for the last 4 miles. When we started the day riding at 7:30 it was 54 degrees.

We spent sometime at the top of the pass resting and visiting the Visitor Center and then we began the decent on the east side of Lolo Pass. We reached speeds in excess of 40 miles per hour. After the first 7 miles we continued down the pass at 15 to 20 miles per hour but we had to peddle in order to maintain these speeds. Our speed was reduced all the way to Lolo because of a strong headwind. We stopped at Fizzle Fort and ate a snack before we continued on to Lolo where we all had lunch together. When then continued on to Missoula, part of the way on a bicycle path with lots of stop signs. Ken and Jan are spending the next couple of nights with Ken's sister who lives in Missoula.

When we arrived at the Red Lion Motel we washed all our clothes, in fact we had to wear our swim suits until the clothes were done. We then walked to Safeway and bought some food which we took back to the hotel room to eat for supper. We no sooner got back to the room when the heavy winds, rain and thunder started. We are glad to be in the motel room and to know that we do not need to ride tomorrow. A rest day will be nice as we look forward to the next couple of weeks as we cross Montana. We have met lots of people bicycling the Lewis and Clark trail, most of them are going east to west. Last night we ate supper with a man cycling across the USA from Yorktown to the Oregon coast Jim was from New York State. Today we met a couple from Connecticut also traveling the Lewis & Clark trail. The world is full of people who know the joy of cycling.