Day 69 - July 11 - Powell, ID to Lowell, ID - Two Old Guys Take On A Continent

July 11, 2023

Day 69 - July 11 - Powell, ID to Lowell, ID

Downhill Into the Wind

Ed’s Story

Went to bed early last night as it was a big climbing day yesterday. Put my cooler weather gear in my tent in case I needed it…but I didn’t.

Needed a bio break at 11:00 PM. Glad I had my light as it was very dark on the walk to the restroom.

Woke up at 5:00 and started my day. After all my body said it was 6:00. Got up, packed up, and started breakfast.You’ve heard of Punxsutawney Phil, well….

As Oklahoma John emerges from his den, will he see his shadow or not? Will there be 6 more weeks of biking?

Left camp and headed out. It promised to be a easy day..all downhill!

The ride took us through 3 construction areas with one lane roads. At the first one they let us ride behind the pilot car in front of traffic. At the second one, they told us we couldn’t ride and they put our bikes in the back of a pickup. At the third one they let us ride again. No consistency.

Sometime around noon, the wind picked up. We had to constantly pedal whether we were going uphill or down. The wind only seemed to be on the side of the road where we were biking. When we took our lunch break on the other side of the road, we didn’t feel any wind. Maybe we’re just unlucky. Current forecast for tomorrow is more wind starting about noon from the west which is the direction we’re heading.

The highlight of the ride was stopping at the Historic Lochsa Ranger Station. From 1925 to the late 1950s, the station was utilized as a backcountry Ranger Station by the Forest Service. It served as the administrative hub for a system of fire lookouts, smoke chaser cabins, and other remote Forest Service facilities linked together by a system of pack trails and telephone lines.

The ranger’s wife was insistent on having her bathtub brought with her.

Root cellar for their food. I tried to get John to go in and promised I wouldn’t lock it.

They didn’t let just anybody become a forest ranger.

It’s interesting to think about the roads we are riding on. To think Lewis and Clark went up these hills on foot dragging all their stuff. I guess for a while this path was called the Lolo Trail.

We stopped for lunch at a trail head about 13 miles from our campsite. There was a bridge going over the river that led to trails on the other side.

We made it to the Three Rivers Resort in Lowell, ID. Lowell only has this resort area and maybe two or three other buildings. The new managers have been here only a month. The resort has cabins, a small hotel, RV sites and tent sites.

We set our tents up under some large trees. We should be shaded most of the time.

Camp sweet camp. I’m the one on the far right.

Dinner will be a freeze dried meal tonight.

The lack of a decent cell signal is tough. I have not been able to talk to my wife in 2 days. I looked at the Verizon coverage map and it appears that Cottonwood may have coverage. Cottonwood also has 900 people (more than Powell and Lowell combined; and it has a brewery.

Until tomorrow happy biking!

John’s Story

Last night we put our food panniers in the men’s bathroom for defense against critters. Even though this Forest Service campground provided no bear boxes, they did have a notice posted about properly storing food from the prying eyes (and noses) of bears. We thought we’d better be safe than sorry. We would have done bear hangs but the trees here did not allow that.

There was a dense fog this morning just above the treetops at the level of the campground. It started to break up before we left camp, but it made for some great pictures.

I like the black tree silhouettes in the foreground with the ghostly images in the distance.

The scenery this morning continued to be amazing. Among the things about it that amazes me is that a nearly vertical mountain slope can be heavily forested.

Fog was lifting by the time we hit the road.

Another one of those “I’m only going to say this once, so you’d better pay attention” signs.

This one’s for you, Sarah. Lewis and Clark returned from the Pacific Ocean via this route.

The Lochsa River is beautiful. It runs free and clear the entire length of this canyon.

The first of the three construction sites. We followed the pilot car with the motorized traffic behind us. We pedaled as furiously as we could to try to keep up. It seemed the faster we pedaled the faster the driver thought we could go. She did slow down a couple times to let us catch up, but we were huffing and puffing.

At the second construction site Arthur loaded us up in the back of his truck, strapped the bikes in and drove us the two miles or so through the road work. Arthur is awarded Road Angel status. In the interest of full disclosure I did not pause my GPS for the ride. He was limited to 25 mph and we had been riding as fast as 18 mph downhill, so over today’s 66 miles it made very little difference.

From the catbird seat. They held up the entire line of cars until we were loaded up and ready to go, and they put us directly behind the pilot car.

My favorite picture among the ones I took at the Lochsa Ranger Station. This is called a fire finder. It was used to help pinpoint the location of a forest fire by triangulating from multiple fire towers.

Yesterday when we went over Lolo Pass we were at 5,233’. My GPS says we are at 1,471’ this evening. That’s a drop of almost 4,000’. Tomorrow we climb back to 3,000’ and keep going up.

Now for today’s flora and fauna.

This stuff looks like the Spanish moss you might find hanging from old oak trees in the Deep South, and it’s probably related, but probably not exactly the same thing. Bill?

This is not a herbaceous plant, but a woody shrub or small tree.

These look like dandelions to me, but the flowers are on the longest stems I’ve ever seen for a dandelion.

While walking around the Lochsa Ranger Station I saw some plants that reminded me of the thimbleberries I had seen in Canada and Alaska. I asked a woman who was working at the station what the plants were, and lo and behold, they are thimbleberries. The growth habit here looks more like blackberry or other bramble bush, but without thorns. In Canada each thimbleberry bush had just one berry at the very top of the plant. There must be different varieties. I did find some ripe berries, and they were tasty!

You can see this butterfly is injured. I found him fluttering on the road at a stop. There were butterflies everywhere today, and they did like to fly in circles around me at times.

Dozens of times today I heard the sound of rushing water to my right, flowing toward the river, but by the time I heard it I was already past it going downhill. I finally managed to stop in time to see that they were small streams coming off the mountainside.

Two other bikers our age showed up here at the Three Rivers Resort shortly after we did. Johnny and Dave are riding gravel roads from the Canadian border to Tucson, Arizona. Good luck to them, I say.

After I took a shower this afternoon I jumped in the pool, the first time since we were in Kansas I think. Refreshing!

Why is it named the Three Rivers Resort, you ask? The Lochsa River joins the Selway River here to form the Middle Fork Clearwater River.

Tomorrow we will be riding through Kooskia and Kamiah. A pronunciation primer: Kooskia = KOOS-kee. Kamiah = KAM-ee-eye.

Time to go fix dinner.

Today's ride: 66 miles (106 km)
Total: 825 miles (1,328 km)

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