Kiki Bikes Across America

Wednesday, August 5th – 14 mi. east of Roosevelt (mile marker 148), WA to Portland, OR

We woke up at 5:30am when the sun was beginning to rise and it was getting light out – we were starving but thought we could make it to Roosevelt to the store and get something to eat there. Turns out just a few miles down the road and we had to stop because I was starving and had no energy – we hadn’t had real dinner last night and had done 106 miles practically when we went to sleep, so I was pretty hungry. We stopped on the side of the road and got out the bagels and peanut butter and endulged for a few minutes and tried to re-energize ourselves. On the road again and finally about 1 hour and 53 minutes later, I had reached Roosevelt (only 14 miles from our campsite on the side of the road). It took forever because the wind was howling and so strong – it was frustrating to say the least.

Camped on the side of the road because we were too exhausted to continue on.

Once in Roosevelt, I waited up for Chase and watched some guys working on manuevering containers to take off tractor trailers and put them on train cars to be hauled somewhere. It was kind of neat watching how they did it and they were really efficient and fast. It took around 2 minutes and 30 seconds for them to unload/load a train car with two containers (double-decker style).

We met up with three other cyclists, Katie, Adam, and Scott, whom we’d met in Missoula at the Adventure Cycling Association (ACA). They were from North Carolina and were doing the full transamerican ride to Astoria. They’d had a rough morning, getting 5 flats from thorns as they were leaving the campground. They’d also had a cell phone and ipod stolen from the bathroom (they were plugged up and charging), and they were running out of cash and none of the places had working ATMs or would accept Credit or Debit cards… so they were having a rough time and just hoping they’d make it to Portland okay.

They went on ahead of us and we left about 30 minutes later after grabbing a bite to eat – mind you, a very-overpriced bite to eat. This was one of the only places for miles where you could buy anything – milk, gatorade, etc. I bought a quart of chocolate milk (Darigold!!!), a 32 oz. gatorade, and 2 apple danishes for $7.50. Plus I was having to be careful of my cash supply since we knew we may have more places that were cash-only.

Back on the road, Chase was lagging by a good bit and started a little while after me – I just wanted to push through the winds and get to Portland … the winds were excruitiating and not at all pleasant. We were blown left and right and had the headwinds coming right at us… strong, for hours, the entire day! It didn’t seem to let up at all. Finally, I stopped to eat a danish and wait for Chase and he and I had been thinking the same thing – why waste 3 good days trying to pedal our butts off into the late evening/night to try and make up for miles we can’t do as easily or as fast because of the wind. Why not, just hitch-hike and get to Portland so we can see the city before we don’t have any time and it’s time for him to fly home and me to continue my journey along the coast. So we decided we’d try to hitch and we were tired of the wind. It wasn’t like we had to prove anything to anyone that we can bike X number of miles, because we’ve already proven ourselves by getting as far as we did and we could keep going just as easily, but we weren’t willing to waste our precious time. We wanted to see Portland more than to spend ourlast three days biking in the wind of the Columbia River Gorge!

I flagged a pickup truck down at mile marker 123 or so and he gave us a lift about 17 miles up the road and dropped us off at the top of a big hill. From there, we had an additional 9 miles to Biggs where there was an intersection and bridge across the river to the Oregon side. We knew there’d have to be someplace to eat and gas stations there and we’d most likely find another ride from there. We got there and Chase was looking more and more frustrated and pooped from the winds. He was almost as sad looking as the day we hitched from southern Utah (Lake Powell) up to Yellowstone. So we got some food at the gas station and then  I asked a guy who had an empty truck bed if he was going to Portland – he was going through and said he’d give us a ride, so we loaded up the truck with our bikes and then rode all the way to Portland just about – he dropped us off in a suburb, Troutdale, and we rode from there to 122nd Avenue where Josh met up with us and showed us the way back to his place.

We rode the last 20 miles into Portland and to Josh and Alina's.

We got in about 6pm to Josh and Alina’s and then cleaned up, did laundry, and had a yummy dinner that Alina made. She made paella with shrimp and it was pretty yummy:) We then just hung around and then conked out pretty early.

Chase, Alina, and Josh

GPS Stats:
134 miles
05:41 moving time
78.5 max speed
23.5 avg speed

Computer Stats:
50.86 miles
05:31:32 moving time
9.2 avg speed
31.0 max speed

Tues, August 4th – Walla Walla, WA to 14 mi. east of Roosevelt (mile marker 148), WA

We woke up early, at 4:30am and rolled out about 5:30 from Michael’s house to run to Walmart and buy a few things  - snacks and gatorade and the sort. We left there about 6:30 and headed towards Oregon along the Columbia River. Just as we were leaving College Station (next to Walla Walla), another cyclist (older man on a road bike) passed us and then Chase was going pokey, so I made it my goal to catch the other cyclist ahead and try and pace myself behind him. I was cruising – the pavement was awesome (super smooth and all), and I was doing around 17-23mph or so. Just a short bit later and I caught up to the other cyclist ahead and paced with him for a short while and then slowed up to see if chase would catch up. But then I just waited for him in the next little town.

We kept on after a quick break to refuel and a pit stop and about 10 miles or so until we he started going south along the Columbia River and hit lots of wind. The wind was fierce – I just laughed because it was ridiculous how strong it was. I was being blown all over the shoulder and going about 5mph and thought, this is insane and ridiculous. We’re not going to make any decent progress at this rate. Luckily, after about an hour or so, the wind died down a bit and we were able to ride a little faster. We passed another cyclist going eastbound – Walter, from North Carolina (but originally from Holland).

Crossed into Oregon for a bit today.

Our last 20 or so miles before lunch and we were cruising pretty well – excited to be making progress better than earlier in the morning with the wind and we were ready for lunch! Plus, we saw signs that read “Portland 215″ so we liked seeing that and we were getting excited that in a couple of days we’d be in Portland.

We had lunch at Umatilla – where we’d cross the river into Washington to ride for the remainder of the trip into Portland. We just grabbed some food from Subway and then we filled up water bottles and were on our way. We ran into a group of women cyclists that warned us that there was nothing for 50 or so miles, so we made sure all of our water bottles were full and topped off! Just as we were turning onto Route 14 to head west towards Portland, we saw a sign that said “83 miles, no services” – so it felt like Utah or Kansas where there were such long distances of nothing. From Umatilla to Biggs, there was nothing really – just 1 little store in Paterson that did some sandwiches and had a few things you could buy like chips, drinks, and other snacks. Then in Roosevelt, another 40 miles or so from Paterson, there was a little store near the campground. Overpriced of course, but they had a few things, but no hot meals.

We had stopped at the store in Paterson to get a bite to eat and rest for a while. It was pretty hot out so we were loving the AC inside We rolled back out around 4:30pm and rode until about 6:30pm and had just passed Crow Butte Park when we were both losing energy. We had done 92 miles at this point and the heat wasn’t helping, the wind had picked up, and we were exhausted. Decidely, we thought it’d be good to turn around and backtrack 8 miles (4 back and then 4 to get back to where we were when the wind/exhaustion hit us) to Crow Butte Park to nap on the grass for a bit. We were hoping to continue riding into the night some and get some more miles done, something like 120 or so. We got to the park and both fell asleep on park benches within just a couple minutes. I conked out for about 20 minutes and then woke up and decided to roll my sleeping mat out on the ground and rest there. Chase did the same and then about 8:30 the sprinklers popped up so we got up really fast and put everything away and thought we’d go over to the campground area and see if any sites were available. On our way there, we saw 2 long snakes in the grass (like the grass where we’d been resting/sleeping), and then decided we didn’t want to go to the campground knowing there must be plenty more snakes and we weren’t looking forward to seeing any more. So we rolled back to the bathroom area to fill up on water bottles, change back into our biking clothes, and then continue biking up the road to see if we could make it to Roosevelt in decent time. At to our luck, there was another snake waiting for us outside of the bathroom – slitthering alongside the wall next to the men’s bathroom. That was it – we didn’t want to see anymore snakes…3 snakes in the span of 5 minutes was enough.

Off we went by bike again, leaving Crow Butte Park around 9:30pm and biking ever so slowly (wind and exhausted still) west on Route 14. We made it only 10 miles from Crow Butte Park before we were extremely exhausted and decided to look for the next best place to camp safely on the side of the road. We found a spot at mile marker 148 where there was some gravel on a slope, so we pulled in there and set up a tent and crawled in and conked out about 11:30pm. We’d hoped to have gotten up after a few hours of sleep, but we were so exhausted that we slept until 5:30am when the sun was starting to rise.

GPS Stats:
103.2 miles
09:06 moving time
11.3 avg speed
33.0 max speed

Computer Stats:
105.86 miles
09:07:26 moving time
11.6 avg speed
34.0 max speed

Snake count: 3 live snakes

Monday, August 3rd – Chief Timothy Campground, WA to Walla Walla, WA

We woke up fairly early, 6:30am and then I started to pack everything away. I even had breakfast before Chase appeared from his tent (that slow poke!)…hehe. Anyway, once he was up, he started working on repairing his tube since his tire wasn’t holding air and he had a flat yesterday. He managed to find the whole and patch it up and then Patrick and Theresa came out of their RV and offered us pancakes for breakfast, so we couldn’t turn that down! Even Morris (the cat) had pancakes for breakfast, although he didn’t really eat them, instead just stared and pawwed at them a little.

Shortly before 8am, we got a warning from the ranger that the sprinkler system would turn on at 9am. However, just as we were finishing breakfast and putting things away, the sprinkler system pops up and starts spraying everywhere. It got Chase’s tent (since had woke up and went straight to repairing his tube, he hadn’t yet packed up his tent and the rest of his gear). We all frantically tried to rescue his tent and stuff and move it away from the sprinklers onto the road through the campground to keep it dry. His tent got a bit wet, but it wasn’t horribly wet.

We rolled out of the campground around 9:30am after packing up and climbed a hill that was completely unexpected – approxiately 1,500-2,000 feet of gain and about 7-8 miles in length. At the top, we ran into another cyclist, Michael, who’s riding from Portland to New York and then down to DC as part of a climate/environment awareness event. We continued on down to the next town, about 9 miles down the other side. We stopped there for free chocolate milk at a gas station and got a bite to eat there (chicken strips, tater tots, and a 20 oz. drink for $2.49). Off we went after lunch back into the strong headwinds and we made it another 10-12 miles or so and stopped at an intersection (Dodge) where there were public bathrooms (pit toilets on the side of the road). Just as we were about to roll out and bike again (we still had 55 miles to go until Walla walla), an older man and his young grandson pulled in and asked us where we were going. We told them Walla Walla and he offered to give us a lift as he saw how windy it was and how hot it was outside. So we figured, why not – I wasn’t feeling very confident that the horrible winds were going to let us get to Walla Walla at a decent hour – if we hadn’t taken the ride, I think it would have been 10-11pm before we got to Walla Walla. So we took the ride and it turns out we would have had a really nice and long climb which wouldn’t have been fun!

Looks a little like Kansas and the midwest, I think.

We were dropped off in Walla Walla and a few minutes later a man pulls up and asks us if we need directions. We didn’t, but he offered some advice on a place to crash for the night – he told us to contact his friend Michael Austin from one of the bike shops in town. So we went on down there and met Michael and he was really cool and said we could camp in his backyard at his house. So when 6pm rolled around and the shop closed, we followed Michael to his house and showered and cleaned up and then walked to the Iceburg for a bite to eat. We had cheeseburgers, fries, and milkshakes (raspberry for me, vanilla for Chase). Tasty place. Afterwards, I worked on updating my site a bit and then we called it a night around 12am or so and set the alarm for 4am.

Originally, we had planned to just roll our sleeping pads/bags out on the grass since it was so nice and soft, but then we spotted several large slugs and decided we didn’t feel like sleeping with them. So we slept on the front porch and sometime during the night I woke up to something crawling over me – I thought it was the dog, but when I woke up the next morning, I saw the dog was sleeping inside and had no way of getting outside (no dog door). So who knows what crawled over me in the night. I only know it was 4-legged and similar to a dog… raccoon? cat?

GPS Stats:
80.4 miles
04:41 moving time
17.1 avg speed
64.5 max speed

Computer Stats:
36.35 miles
03:36:01 moving time
10.1 avg speed
29.0 max speed

Sunday, August 2nd – Kooskia, ID to Chief Timothy Campground, WA (10 miles into Washington State)

It was a good thing we didn’t camp on the grass at the city park last night since I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of sprinklers going off everywhere in the park. They must have been all hidden in the grass and automatically come up at a certain time. It was amusing nonetheless, because the cop had driven by earlier in the evening and didn’t stop to talk to us, so maybe he thought we’d learn we weren’t supposed to camp there once we got soaked by sprinklers. Who knows? Either way, we didn’t get in trouble for overnighting in the city park and we were told the cop was cool (by the cashier at the grocery store), so we weren’t worried.

Waking up in Kooskia, Idaho

The alarm didn’t go off on my GPS this morning because the batteries were too low, so that was annoying. We woke up an hour later, at 6:30 instead of 5:30 and packed up and rolled out of town at 7:45 this morning. We were aiming to do 100+ miles and head past Lewiston and into the state of Washington.

Scenery along the river in Idaho

We breaked at a small town up the road (7 miles) and grabbed a donut and lemonade for fuel, then we continued to Orofino where we bought meat and cheese to put on bagels. There Joe (one of the guys from a couple days ago) caught up to us, but Geordie wasn’t with him. They had split this morning as Joe wanted to finish sooner and he knew we were taking a short-cut across Idaho and Washington to get to Oregon faster. Geordie was going to continue on the transamerican route and finish in Astoria, Oregon. So Joe rode with us the rest of the day to Lewiston and I went ahead for the last 10 miles or so leading into Lewiston. Turns out Chase wound up with a front flat tire a few miles outside of town and he tried fixing it, but didn’t have any great luck. His tire seems to have a slow leak and the second tube he put in also didn’t seem to work too well, and he has yet another flat.

Patrick and Theresa Peters from British Columbia

In Lewiston, we refill on water and then about 2 hours after I got in, we depart to continue riding a little further down the road to see how far we get. Not even 7 miles outside of Clarkston, Washington (we crossed into Washington between Lewiston and Clarkston when we crossed the Snake River), did Chase wind up with another slow leak on his front tire. He pumped it a few times and continued riding – it made it far enough to get us another 4 miles or so down the road to a campground next to the river. We pulled in there and debated whether or not we wanted to pay the ridiculous $22 campsite fee for tents. We decided to ride through first and check out the campsite and see if any were available. As we rode in, we met a couple (Patrick and Theresa Peters ) walking their cat (yes, a cat) and so we stopped to chat.

Morris, the cat on a leash

Their cat is awesome and is on a harness with leash as they’re on a 10-week vacation around the States. They’re from Vancouver in British Columbia and they offered to let us camp on their campsite and so we rolled on over there and set up while they went for a cat walk around the campground. Patrick and Theresa got us cold drinks and some watermelon and cantelope which was amazing. We sat around chatting for a bit and then I went off to shower. By the time I got back, they had already gone to bed, but had told Chase we could use their propane stove if we needed/wanted to cook anything. So I got out my chicken and broccoli rice which I’ve been carrying since Kentucky probably and decided to make that. Now I’m completely exhausted and going to hit the sack – we covered another 87 miles today, so not too shabby. Unfortunately, tomorrow will start out with Chase trying to track down the leak in his tube/tire since his front tire is completely flat again.

Camping in Washington State with the Peters

Saturday, August 1st – Wendover Campground, ID to Kooskia, ID

Woke up at 5:30 and got rolling early so we would have time to check out the Jerry Johnson Hot Springs 8 miles down the road, so we rolled out of the campground around 6:30am and got to the hot springs around 7 or so and started to hike in. We found all three hot springs and took a dip in the last one which seemed to be the biggest one. It was neat and a first for me – I’ve only ever been in a hot spring where they made it a pool, like a swimming pool. That was in Peru last year on the way to Machu Picchu.

Jerry Johnson Hot Springs

We left the hot springs around 9:45 and continued downstream on Route 12 – a scenic road that runs by the river all through Idaho. It was nice except for the fact that there was a lot of traffic (RVs, and people on vacation) as well not having any shoulders really, so that was a bit frustrating. We stopped in the early afternoon in one spot to dip our feet in the river and cool off a bit – the temperatures during the day were over 103 degrees. The last 15 miles were pretty tiresome and we were exhausted. I think it was probably just the heat and trying to readjust to such hot temperatures. We ended the day of riding with some 85 or so miles and stayed in Kooskia’s city park – just camped out without tents under a pavilion.

For dinner, we wound up buying some pasta, alfredo sauce, and rotel and mixed all of that together and ate an entire bag of pasta! We were hungry and polished it all off. Off to bed around 10pm in hopes of getting an early start in the morning.

Chase enjoying the dinner we just made with our stoves

Friday, July 31st – Missoula, MT to Wendover Campground, ID

Today was a bit of a slacker day – we got a really late start, but mostly intentionally. We had planned to start about mid-day and just ride to get over our last major pass, Lolo Pass. So we slept till about 9/9:30 and then started to get organized and we did a last load of laundry at Brent’s before heading into Missoula around 1pm for Chase’s last Pita Pit experience. Then we mailed off a few odd things to shed some weight and then we were going to hit the road, but Chase realized he hadn’t yet replaced the broken sunglasses, so he went to the mall and then an outdoors store to try to find a decent pair. And then finally we left Missoula around 4pm and had the next 40 miles to climb slowly over Lolo Pass.

The riding wasn’t too bad actually – it was very gradual and we ran into Joe and Geordie just about 7 miles from the top of Lolo Pass at a RV park. They were taking a break and we had just stopped to refill on water. The guys were only going a few more miles up the road before calling it a day. We wanted to get over Lolo Pass and then down into Idaho before ending the day, especially since we’d had such a late start.

Entering Idaho for the second time, the real way (by bike)

At the top of Lolo Pass, we changed into Pacific Time and gained another hour, but lost an hour of sunlight so to speak. Instead of the sun setting around 9:15pm in Missoula, it would now set around 8:15pm in eastern Idaho. After the pass, we rode another 20 miles or so downhill and then it flattened out for a bit – but was still easy riding. We had hoped to make it to Jerry Johnson’s Hot Springs at mile marker 152, but we pulled into Wendover Campground to refill on water (we had seen a sign as we came down into Idaho about last stop for gas and all services for the next 65 miles), so we thought we’d better be safe and have plenty of water in case we didn’t find any for the next 65 miles or so.

The family we camped with in Wendover Campground. They're from Frederick, MD

We stopped into the campground and were instantly greeted by some folks who had just pulled in shortly before us. They invited us to stay for dinner (spaghetti and garlic bread) and to set up our tents on their campsite since they were all sleeping in an RV. It was amazing – awesome spaghetti and company. Turns out the McDonald’s (Mac and Lauri) are from Frederick, Maryland and just doing a 3-week adventure around the country with their two kids Marley (9) and Tyler (13). So we just sat around and chatted and then Tyler made a fire and we all made smores which were yummy. Finally we called it a night around 11:45pm or so (in Pacific Time).

Most random question about the bike trip:
Mac: “So how do you keep it platonic?”

Chase/Kiki: “Umm, wow. [Chase farting] – “well that answers that” – Kiki

Wow…that was funny and definitely an odd question and first question ever for this trip.

Thursday, July 30th – Hanging out in Missoula

We decided to hang out and relax in Missoula and try to let our bodies recoup a bit – my back and shoulders were killing me so I was definitely looking for a day off.

I got up around 7:30 or 8:00 and Craig was packing up to head out. He and Brent went and grabbed breakfast downtown somewhere and then Craig went off to continue riding on his own. Chase and I planned to hang around town for another day.

I made an appointment at a chiropractor’s here in town and went and saw her at 10am and then I ventured off on my bike to explore the University of Montana’s campus as well as a store called Rockin Rudy’s which had all sorts of odds and ends…pretty neat place. I wound up buying a T-shirt that says “My ass is on vacation… Missoula, Montana” – couldn’t resist that. Even though I’m not really on vacation because pedaling across the country is hard work and requires a lot of endurance and calories!

I then went back to the ACA and met Chase there and then we ran and did a quick Walmart run – forgot to buy batteries for the flip video camera and backup for the GPS in case the solar panel runs out of juice. Afterwards, we biked down to 1st street to Free Cycles and did a small informal class there before trying to build bikes for fun. We were there all day messing around with bikes that were donated, trashed, scrapped, etc. We had to look for all the parts to build a bike from the frame up – it was a little frustrating since it was sometimes hard to find stuff that worked together, but it was a pretty cool place nonetheless and with enough time, you can definitely build a decent bike for free.

After working at Free Cycles all day, we left about 7:30 and went down to Taco del Sol to grab a bite to eat. We got burritos and then headed to check out REI (the smallest one in the country, I believe)… it was still neat though. I did an exchange and then we wound up sitting outside REI for 2.5 hours talking about all sorts of stuff and I got us ice cream from Albertson’s for $1/ice cream cookie – amazing! It was tasty!

Finally, we headed back to Brent’s to crash for the night – but only after doing more journal updates and such. Finally, I went to sleep around 1am and called it a night.

Tomorrow we’re heading off for a half day of biking to get over Lolo pass and then the rest of the riding should be relatively flat or downhill-ish until we reach Portland (so we’ve been told anyway)!

Wednesday, July 29th – Darby, MT to Missoula, MT

So I forced myself to wake up early this morning since I wanted to get to Missoula as soon as possible to enjoy half a rest day and see some of the town. I woke up at 6:30 and rolled out about 7am after packing up and leaving a note for the ladies who got us a motel room. I then ran across to the gas station and picked up some calories (donuts and some electrolytes) for the 17 mile ride to Hamilton. I forced myself to ride fast, keeping a pace of 16-20mph and an average of about 17mph when I arrived to Hamilton. I had sent Craig a text message seeing if he had left Hamilton already or if he was still there and wanted to ride to Missoula together since Chase was still sleeping and getting up slowly. I was a bit more motivated to get to Missoula earlier rather than later. So Craig and I wound up riding the 40+ miles to Missoula together.

The ride went pretty well – it was flat for the most part with an ever so slight downhill grade, but barely noticeable for the most part. We ran into a couple other touring cyclists, Barbara and Matthias, two Germans from Hamburg who started in Richmond and are ending their tour in California. We chatted for a bit and I was able to practice some German which was nice and then we continued on our way to Missoula. The last 17 miles or so were pretty slow and not exactly fun. I was really in a bit of pain at this point with my shoulder and back and was frustrated that the pain was coming back. I also hated the last 6 miles of the ride since it was even more slow and we had to ride on the shoulder of highway 93 which was absolutely no fun at all.

But finally we made it to Missoula – just over 4 hours of riding time with an average around 14.5 mph, I think. So it was a pertty fast-paced 72 miles or so by the end of the day, and we arrived by 1pm or so, so we had the whole afternoon to do whatever.

Did a quickie Walmart run and restocked on a few items – bagels, peanut butter crackers, soap, shampoo, that sorta junk. Then we were off to find the Adventure Cycling Association headquarters/office in Missoula. The ACA creates the maps that we use for biking across the country and we arrived to the office where we were greeted with ice cream, soda, candy, and a free membership if we didn’t already have one, so that’s exciting. I should be getting the magazines now which’ll be awesome:)

Once at the ACA headquarters, I started to look for a plcae for the three of us to sleep (preferrably indoors and not having to deal with tents and such). I started by looking up hosts on WarmShowers.org (an organization for cyclists who are traveling and looking for people to stay with – a hospitality group but for cyclists only). I called several people and left messages, but never heard back from any of them. Then about my 6th call, someone picked up and said “the answer is yes” before I could even tell him about us and ask if he was available. So that was really cool and Craig and I rode up to Brent’s place in the Rattlesnake area of Missoula. We were greeted outside and then chatted a bit, did some laundry, and then Brent and Craig rode down into the city and I waited for Chase to show up and unwind a bit before we then headed downtown to grab some food.

We wound up getting pitas from The Pita Pit, which was amazing! Afterwards, Craig met us at The Big Dipper for ice cream and I had a Little Dipper (Maple Walnut ice cream + hot fudge + whip cream + nuts + a cherry on top. It was delicious! After ice cream we just headed on back to Brent’s to sleep for the night.

Tuesday, July 28th – Jackson, MT to Darby, MT

Wow – today was a rough one. We got up at 7:30am, went across the street to get real food for breakfast — I had a breakfast burrito, hash browns, and toast – it was decent, but not great. The place just opened and they’re working on getting the kinks out, so no real complaints. It was normal food and was decent in taste, just not super warm or hot. Craig came over shortly after we sat down and had breakfast with us as well – he camped out back behind the lodge in a camping area they had there.  He also gave us his leftover dinner last night when he saw us at the lodge frozen and cold from the ride, so that was really nice and we were very appreciative since nothing was open at 10:15pm. We got on the road about 10:15am this morning since breakfast took a while (a little delay on the cafe, but no biggie). The riding was pretty easy, but for some reason I wasn’t feeling it. I just couldn’t get in the groove to ride like I had been the past few days with a really good and fast pace. Shortly after starting, I wound up with a horrible pain in my rib and it stuck with me for the remainder of the day. I also started to have back pain again – probably because I did two passes and 106 miles yesterday and didn’t think to put the back brace on again. I have been riding without it for maybe 5-6 days now which has been great. I have had very little pain at all, and then I started to feel some pain/soreness today. I think it’ll probably go away soon – I’m just going to continue stretching and taking the vitamin pill things. Craig again left us in the dust as he rode on – he’s a much faster paced rider and also is carrying a lot less weight on his bike (to his advantage). Chase and I were a bit slow and not really in the groove today, but continued on anyway. We did the Gibbons Pass (which was an alternate route to the usual). It was gravel for 8 miles to the top of the pass and 12 miles down on the other side and apparently cut off 4 miles from the main road. We decided to give it a go – and boy was that a bad idea. The scenery was much more pleasant and beautiful, but the gravel in places was really course and loose, so it was a pain to ride on. The ride up to the top wasn’t so bad and took about 45-50 minutes, but the ride down was horrendous. The road was not easy at all – lots of rocks, lots of loose gravel, and it was steep, so there was a lot of breaking involved. 50 miles into the ride today and I wound up with my second flat of the entire ride across the country. I was a bit bummed, especially since I didn’t want to deal with fixing a flat in the heat (it was now sunny and hot out). I fixed the flat after one tube’s valved was broken upon pumping it up, so had to  use my last new tube.

I got my second flat coming down the dirt/gravel road into Sula, Montana

Finally, down the mountain and into Sula, Montana and it was already 6pm. We had spent 3 hours climbing 8 miles and going down 12 miles of gravel – it was pathetic and annoying. So we got ice cream (Snickers ice cream bars) at the convenience store (the one and only thing in Sula, and that was closing 1 minute after we arrived)! We refueled in an attempt to make it to Hamilton for the night. That would then leave us with 50 or so miles to Missoula for tomorrow.

Unfortunately, Hamilton was still 33 miles away and 16 miles after we stopped and got ice cream it started storming horribly. The winds picked up really fast and before we knew it, we were being blown all over the road and sand and dirt was flying into our eyes. The rain was coming as well – it was a nasty storm and we had 2 miles to go before reaching the town of Darby. We got there and found a place to take cover out from the rain. We then found out the entire town was out of power from the storm, so the restaurants couldn’t serve anything. I got out my cooking stuff and decided to make pasta on the sidewalk outside of the community center. It was tasty and Chase also made pasta. While we were out there on the sidewalk, two ladies walk past and chat briefly asking if we had a place to stay tonight. We told them know and they mentioned they were staying at the motel down the street and that they may still have rooms available. Chase and I get back to cooking and eating and then the two women come back in the car and tell us that there’s a room waiting for us back at then motel and it’s been paid for. It was incredible – how nice of them to get a room for us and pay for it. Apparently, they told the motel owners that they have kids similar in age to us and thought about if their kids were in this sort of situation, what they’d do. So they went ahead and bought us a room for the night, which was the most amazing thing anyone’s done for us on this trip thus far. So we came to the motel and the power was still out, but just about when we got into the room, the power came back on! It was awesome. Got a shower and cleaned up and now updating the website with all the blog updates from the past week.

I’ll add photos into the blog entries later when I have more time, but for now, text will have to do.  I did add more photos to the picasa web albums though, so you can check those out.

Monday, July 27th – Virginia City, MT to Jackson, MT

Had a bit of a rude awakening as we camped out inside the community center after receiving permission from someone in town. However, this morning a woman came in and in a nasty tone told us we shouldn’t be in there and that it wasn’t allowed, but that she “wouldn’t bust our balls” for being there. What a whack. Not very friendly at all and woke us all up at 7am. It was, me, Chase, Craig, and the 5 JMU guys from the “Z team” camping out there. Jacob  was also camping out there, but he was outside camping, not in the gymnasium.

So the day started about 8:45am and Craig, Chase, and I headed for Twin Bridges and eventually Virginia City. We had 106 miles to cover and 2 fairly big passes to cross. We got caught in a rain storm in the late morning around 10-11am, so we took cover in Sheridan and hung out there for an hour or so for the storm to pass. The guys had some breakfast and what not and then we headed on to Twin Bridges (a quick 10 miles or so downhill with 20-24mph pace going). It was a nice ride. Then the ride to Dillon was pretty good as well – fast riding again with maybe a slight tailwind that helped. We arrived to Dillon just after 2pm and had McDonald’s for lunch (YUCK, never again). We left Dillon around 4pm and had another 48 miles or so to go before reaching Jackson, where there were supposed hot springs.

We had two passes to cross, both pretty significant climbs (2,000 feet for one, the other at 1,800 feet or so). The first pass was pretty grueling as it was 14 miles of uphill and the winds were coming from the side and they were strong! Craig disappeared way off in the distance – he left us in the dust. So Chase and I climed the passes slowly, but su.rely. After the first pass, we got rained on again and saw a rainbow (woohoo, or not), and then climbed the second pass slowly for another 10 miles or so and then we were freezing cold because we had gotten wet. My feet were frozen beyond frozen – I was miserable and we had another 11 miles to go and it was 9:30pm when we finished the second pass. At the top, we put on all our warm clothes (socks, hats, gloves, long-sleeve shirts, jackets, pants,etc) in preparation for che 11 miles of downhill we had coming. Unfortunately, the 11 miles of downhill had a few bumps in it so it took about 45 minutes or so from the top of the pass to Jackson.

We rolled into Jackson freezing cold and miserable at 10:15pm to find the bar still open. We went in there to warm up and hung out and Chase celebrated the end of 106 miles and nasty weather with a couple beers and a double shot of whisky. Chase decided to go ahead and get a room there which was much appreciated at this point – so we got a cabin room with fireplace and two beds, shower for $4 0. It was excellent and we crashed after showering and woke up at 7:30am the next morning.