US and Canada Tour

Roz and Stan's big trip for 2015

page 09: 12-13 Jun

Fri 12 Jun 2015

Lochsa Lodge, Powell to Missoula

Today:99km Total:1000km

We went to bed at about 8pm ready our early start and said goodnight to our fellow cycle camper (and his dog). We got up at 4.30am (it is already light at this time and so much cooler than later in the day) to find that 3 other individual cyclists had joined our little camping area - 2 of them were racers and the other was Steve who has been travelling with us for the last few days.

The early start was worthwhile to go up the steep Lolo pass (which I'm happy to say didn't feel as bad as it had looked on the map. And then we had a lovely 60km of downhill to make up for it. Some pics from the pass which was also the border into Montana and a time zone change.

When we turned at Lolo we lost our beautiful quiet rural road and had to do the last 10km into Missoula on a very busy, high speed road (but it did have a wide shoulder).

Coming into the city there was a sign that said 'Welcome to Missoula: a bicycle friendly city'. Whoosh, zoom as the cars and trucks whizzed by my left ear. It didn't feel very bicycle friendly. But as soon as we turned off that road, it did indeed improve.

Missoula is the home of 'Adventure Cycling' - the organisation that makes all the touring cycling maps that we are using. They encourage touring cyclists to come by their office and have their photos taken to go on their wall and website (although I can't see them there yet).

There were 5 other touring cyclists there when we arrived so it was pretty busy. Three of them we have been meeting on and off for the last few days (Roger, Dan and Cindy) and it was good to catch up with them. There was also a Swiss (French speaking) lady, Eva, travelling on her own and one of the racers - the youngest at 19 - a Chinese-American guy whose family moved to America when he was 14.

We also saw photos on the wall of other cyclists we have met on the way including one father and son duo - the father was 75 years' old and they were crossing America from East to West and we met them on day 55 of their trip. They both looked very fit.

Sat 13 Jun 2015

Rest day in Missoula

Very quiet day catching up with the blog and emails after a few days without a connection.