Day 27-Would Have Liked to Go Further

Last night, the bathrooms locked at 9:00. No big deal, I was done with what I needed. However, they were still locked this morning. Hmmm…could be a problem…I thought I might have to dig a cat hole in a city park! As I was filling my water bottles at the drinking fountain in front of the restrooms, I heard this faint female voice say, “Door unlocking.” Hallelujah, the restrooms were open! It’s the little things!

Also, the sprinklers did come on in the middle of the night. Even though Doug and I had our tents in the pavilion, the sprinklers still hit the tents, about 3 times. Corey was the only one who didn’t get any water on his tent because he was smack dab in the middle of the pavilion. 

The guys went off to have breakfast at the cafe. Doug and I hit the road at 6:30. The initial goal was to get at least 50 miles, if not a little more. We want to get to Missoula by Friday to go to Adventure Cycling Headquarters (they aren’t open on the weekends). In order to do that, we have to average about 50 miles a day for the next three days. Sounds easy, but there’s this little thing in the way called Lolo Pass! So we got an early start. 

It was a very pleasant morning riding along the Clearwater River. 

Not so much shoulder though. 

We were trending up, but very gradually. Just following the river upstream. When we got to Syringa, it was time to change the map. I took that moment to look at where we might end up at the end of the day. Unfortunately, the following map panel showed no camping opportunities, and we wouldn’t be able to do that many miles to get to a camping place. The furthest we could go was Wilderness Gate CG which was 49 miles for the day. That’s fine, but it was not a difficult 49 miles. We thought about going on, and just trying to disperse camp, but basically, the road runs between the river and a rock wall. No apparent spots to camp. 

Split Creek Pack Bridge. I thought there might be a camping spot…nope. Of course, we weren’t wanting to camp there, but we check d it out because there are more of these Pack Bridges to come beyond the last campground.

No camping here!

Cool bridge though. 

Lochsa  River from the bridge. 

Up the road from Split Creek was Shoestring Falls. We decided it would be a good place for lunch. Well, they must have literally meant a “shoestring”. It was not impressive. 

There it is, across the river. 

At least I got this photo…

So many butterflies everyday! Finally got one to hold still long enough. 

Even though the water fall wasn’t what we hoped, we still pulled out our chairs, and had a nice lunch. Today my lunch was a packet of deli tuna and some Tillamook cheese on a cauliflower herb sandwich thin. It was pretty good!

While we were enjoying our lunch, a guy (later found out his name is Eric) rolled up on a recumbent trike (tadpole version). He was going to the same campground as we were. We passed him as he was pulled over. Then, just as I was thinking we weren’t seeing any younger people anymore, up rolls a kid named Ben. He had started in Lowell, so would be going through the map section with no camping. He said he had met another couple. I asked if he knew their names. He said it was Matt and Grace! He saw them yesterday in Grangeville! We were in Grangeville yesterday! Apparently, they are still having bike issues. We don’t know if they are ahead of us, or behind. 

About 7 miles up the road after lunch, we arrived at the campground. It was only 1:20. We did 49 miles. Tomorrow, the climbing up Lolo starts in earnest.