Day 12, June 8

Campground near Lochsa historical ranger station, ID to Lolo Hot Springs, MT
61 miles

We continued climbing along the river toward Lolo Pass. We started out at different times and I was quickly passed by everyone except Ian, who I rode with for a bit. There were quite a few interesting historical markers that I kept stopping to check out. The pictures below are from this stretch.

Entry to a local hiking trail.

The roadside grave of George Colgate,  1841-1893, cook for a group of settlers.

All of us decided to stop at Lochsa Lodge, just west of Powell and trickled in over 45 minutes.

Left to right: Bart, David,  Ethan and Ian.

As Bart and I were filling up our bottles from a handpump outside we ran into the first of many racers competing in the TransAm Bicycle race, which also follows the same route.  I didn't catch this guy's name because he was in and out of the lodge so quickly. He came from Italy to compete in the race.

After lunch all of us except Ian, who decided to spend the night at the lodge,  continued on toward the summit of Lolo Pass. Just as I was riding the last quarter mile to the visitors center at the top of the pass I was passed by another TransAm racer. I am sure I could have beat him to the top if I tried but wanted him to feel good about himself. ;).

Sergeij was from Slovakia and was a really nice guy and posed for pictures with us and several other curious people who were there.

Me at the summit and entry to Montana.

A seriously fun, miles long 30 mph blast followed. Soon after we hit the town of Lolo Hot Springs,  where we enjoyed a dinner, showers and an hour or so long soak in a pool of natural hot springs water before settling into the campground across the street.

Scenery along the way.

Lolo Hot Springs Lodge/ Restaurant

The guy on the right is a Dutch rider we ran into in the restaurant.  He was crossing the U.S. the opposite direction.

Biker gang invades the hot springs.

How David manages to get by with the relatively low load (bike plus gear) of 75 lbs.

The first serious rain of my trip occurred later that night.  There were huge lightning strikes directly overhead and a heavy rain.  My tent held up fine and I stayed dry.