We continued south along Hwy 93 and followed the Salmon River all day long. The valley ranges from 1km wide to just 70m in places. The scenery is similar along the river with high hills topped with rock outcrops. The road is sparsely populated and we were surprised to find a café open in Elk Bend, a town of 25 that is not even on the map. The lady served us her homemade soup and presented the healthiest lunch we have seen so far - Soup, veggies, fruit and fresh buns. The weather was cooperative – cool in the morning, with a tail wind, but hot with a strong headwind in the afternoon. Of course all day we were riding upstream.
Stopping at the hot springs was very nice but we were only part way up the mountain to the pass so we had to ride up the access road to get to the main road and then cycle 10.5km and climb 600m to Lost Trail Pass at 2137m. A tough start to the day but it kept us warm in the chill morning air. We checked out the Visitor Centre and then diverted to the east to ride a further 1.5km uphill to Chief Joseph Pass at 2214m which is part of the continental divide. This is also the border between Montana and Idaho and we are now in Idaho for a few weeks. A quick photo stop and some warm clothes for the downhill run and then we were on our way back to Lost Trail Pass and south towards Salmon. We hardly pedalled for over 20km and had an easy ride for another 18km downhill to North Fork where we stopped for lunch. At North Fork the North Fork Salmon River runs into the Salmon River which turns west through the mountains. We had to continue south for 34km to Salmon against the flow of the river i.e. uphill but only gently. In fact the scenery was so spectacular we did not notice we were riding uphill and after many photo stops we finally rode into Salmon at 5pm and booked into the first motel we saw. A brief tour of the town assured us that the microbrewery business is alive and well in Idaho also.
Last night in Hamilton we stopped in at a bicycle shop and the lady behind the counter gave us A-1 service. When she found out we were heading over the Lost River and Chief Joseph passes on the Montana-Idaho border she gave us the name and location of every lodging along the way. She then phoned a few to find out their rates and availability. I then booked a room at the Lost Trail Hot Springs Resort. Instead of a 150km day we had a leisurely 67 km today.
Bitterroot valley
We followed a river through the Bitterroot valley and gently rose 500 meters throughout the day. A forest fire had scorched the whole valley in the year 2000 and stands of blackened trees still cover the hillsides along the road. The weather was so changeable we were putting on raingear and stripping it off every 5km. Half the time we were riding in sun showers.
We are now in the Hot Springs resort. The site has a hot pool at about 98°F and a hot tub at 105°F. So after a tough day in the cold rain and hot sun we soaked in the hot pool with a cold beer for an hour before supper and bed.
Today we changed the route and instead of heading west to Hell’s Canyon we are heading south. We are leaving out the Canyon to make sure we have enough time for Teton and Yellowstone parks so instead of turning right in Lolo we carried straight on. It was a cool start and the showers that we could see to our right on the Bitterroot Mountains soon engulfed us so we stopped to put on the rain jackets until they had passed. After 34km we decided to leave the busy US93 and crossed the Bitterroot River to use the East highway. This kept us parallel with the 93 but out of the showers. It was well worth the detour. It was a quieter road, we saw our first herd of buffalos, TimB had to be nice to some horses, there were some deer and in Corvallis we saw the Brooks hotel which is over 100 years old (not bad for Montana) and in fully restored order.
Next door to the hotel was a small gift shop and now somebody has a present coming. It was only another 10km to Hamilton and by 6pm we had checked into a central motel, showered, changed and were on our way to, yes, Hamilton’s very own micro-brewery for a burrito supper.
We took the day off to tour around Missoula. With a population of 60,000 it is the biggest town we have been in so far. It is the county seat and the home of the U of Montana. We toured the campus, which sits on the edge of town and we were able to wander around the stadium. Set into the hills on the edge of town the stadium has a terrific setting. After lunch we tracked down the breweries. Microbreweries are a success story in Montana. The licensing laws allow breweries to sell beer to customers on site (to a limit of 3 pints per day) and there is a tradition of “growlers”. We see most customers bringing in 48 fl oz bottles for refills. At a price of $6 per fill up, this is a great price for beer, but it must be drunk fairly quickly.
Growlers
Our final visit was to the Big Sky Brewery. When we arrived at the entrance we could see there were still a lot of visitors even though it was getting late in the day. The visitor’s room had a lot of merchandise on offer but we headed resolutely for the bar where a single barmaid was struggling to keep up with demand. We were drinking samples (about 0.2L) that were limited to 4 per person when a young man from Newcastle, UK started talking to us and explained that the beer is FREE!!!!!!!!!!!! The posted limit of 4 beers is the DAILY limit of free beer because the brewery does not have a licence to sell beer for consumption on the premises. Why don’t we adopt such US customs in Europe?
We woke up to a light rain and heavy clouds. The temperature was down to 9°C when we set off and rain drops few but the increasing rainfall soon forced us to stop and don waterproof jackets. We rode the next 50km in the rain and stopped in St. Ignatius, primarily to see the church that had been recommended to us in White Sulphur Springs, but being chilled through we detoured to the Oldtimers Café first. We spent more time clutching warm cups of coffee than actually drinking while the hot soup helped to warm us up from the inside. When we re-started we both pulled out fresh dry clothes and heavy ski gloves and then visited the church. Naturally, the weather warmed up and 17km later we stopped to strip off the heavy clothes and rain gear. Shortly after that TimG felt the rear tyre was getting softer and a few kms later small stones on the road were compressing the tyre to the rim so we stopped and pumped it up in the hope we would get to Missoula before repairing the tube. It was not to be. Each time the tyre went down faster and 6km short of the town we had to stop and put in a new tube. We had to do this on the hard shoulder of the motorway, not a fun place to be.
Fortunately, it stopped raining shortly after the lunch break and we rode the last 50km on drying roads. In order to get into Missoula we had to ride the last 10km on the I90 highway shoulder. This was a harrowing stretch with fast trucks and large patches of broken glass. We found a motel in Missoula and we’re staying here for 2 nights. We have 3 breweries to track down tomorrow.
We got underway rather late, but today a short day was planned. The road from Kalispell was somewhat erratic. We had a bike path for the first 25km but the path ended and we were on a busy road with heavy traffic. The shoulder was wide and safe in spots and narrow or non-existent in other spots. Unfortunately the wide shoulder usually had tons of debris scattered around. I picked up my first flat of the trip, but we were back in business quickly. Better than the poor lady we passed at the intersection.
David Ryneburg from Lethbridge joined us in Kalispell. We had stayed with David 2 years ago on our Cross-Canada trip. David is familiar with the area and he acted as our tour guide for the day. We visited Big Fork in the morning, a village on Flathead Lake. The village is home to original old buildings with several art stores and a teashop. We had tea and scones. In the afternoon we visited Whitefish, a ski town north of Kalispell. The town is also the home of the Great Northern Brewing Company. They brew 9 beers and their IPA is the best. Thanks David for a great day.
