Florence-Missoula-Salt Lake City
August 1 - September 3, 2013
34 days
Total distance: 1729 miles (2766 km)
Average daily distance: 50.8 miles (81.3 km)

This was an exhausting tour. I first started to feel exhausted when I got to The Dalles after 3 long strenuous days. Several relatively flat days along the Columbia river helped me to recover. I felt strong after my first full rest day in Missoula. But frequent mountain passes between Missoula and West Yellowstone really wore me down. I was still exhausted after taking a day off in West Yellowstone. After that I just wanted to rest and avoid mountain climbing as much as possible. I stayed in motels every night and usually took a long nap before dinner. After the tour it took me 14 days to overcome the chronic fatigue. In the past I could get away with never taking rest days and often finished a tour feeling like Superman. In the future I need to rest at least one day a week.

At the beginning of the tour I camped 8 consecutive nights. At the end I stayed in motels 11 consecutive nights. The final tally was 14 nights camping and 21 nights in motels. I don't rest as well when camping compared to staying in a motel. Near the end of the tour I just didn't have the energy to camp.

The rear wheel had spoke issues, pinging when pedaling up steep grades. I tightened the loosest few spokes twice, but the wheel kept getting gradually looser. Then I tightened all non-drive side spokes significantly. The rim stayed remarkably true through all of this. I just built the wheels in June and obviously didn't get the spokes tensioned enough for heavy loads and steep grades.

The rest of the bike was very reliable. No flat tires. I only pumped the tires once and oiled the chain once. Before the tour my right sandal was already starting to crack in two. I reinforced it with Goop adhesive and it survived the tour without breaking in half. But it's time to retire the old "Exustar" sandals. I replaced them with the new generation Keen cycling sandals.

On the average, this tour used more high-traffic roads than most of my tours. I made the mistake of pedaling Oregon highway 126 from Springfield to McKenzie Bridge on Saturday and Sunday, with peak summer vacation traffic. US 12 in eastern Washington and Idaho was very busy, but most of it has a good shoulder. And traffic is heavy for the entire route through the Bitterroot Valley south of Missoula. Interestingly, my route into the biggest city (Salt Lake City) had very little traffic.

I've struggled to come up with a catchy theme name for this tour. But no one thing sums it up very well. The tour has many elements.

Migration History:

Following the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery route.
Learning about various "cutoffs" of the Oregon Trail.
Following the Mormon Pioneer Trail into Salt Lake City.

Geography:

See the mid-Columbia, Clearwater/Lochsa river route for the first time.
See the Pacific Northwest climate fade into the wilder northern Rocky mountain climate, with frequent thunderstorms.
Tour the high mountain west region for the first time, roughly following the Continental Divide from Missoula to Salt Lake City.
Three major watersheds: Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean (Chief Joseph pass to Salt Creek pass), and Great Basin.

Cultural:

It was interesting to see the cultural shift from good beer being widely available, to unavailable, to illegal.
In Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, most every convenience store sells 22-ounce bottles of quality beer such as craft brewed India Pale Ale.
In Montana the selection was smaller, but stores sold 22-ounce bottles of Montana-made microbrews.
In Wyoming the stores only have Budweiser and Coors after you get well south of Jackson Hole.
In Utah the retail stores can only sell beer that is 4% alcohol by volume, essentially making quality beer illegal.

Best Surprise:

Virginia City, Montana. An incredibly well preserved frontier gold mining town.

Biggest Regret:

Not pedaling over 8432 foot Teton Pass.

Heart

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