Day 11 - Into the wind
Day 11 - Lochsa Lodge to Missoula, MT - 53 miles - 1972 ft of elevation gain (mostly in the first 12 miles)
When you have 11 people cycling all day, breakfast is an important meal. The Lodge opened their kitchen at 7am PDT, so we were first in line for tables. I ordered the huckleberry French, which was really good, however I learned I burn French Toast really quickly!
During breakfast we noticed that the rain started, so we made a call to delay our departure until 10am. It turned out to be a good call. The rain subsided as we made our final climb up and over Lolo Pass. It was about 12.5 miles of climbing, but the last 5 miles were the hardest with about 1300 ft of elevation gain. A mile before I reached the summit the rain started spitting. At the summit they had a nice visitors center with WiFi so most of us were cuddled up near the router sending off messages to dad’s for Father’s Day or trying to update everyone after having a day of no contact.
Today was supposed to be a quick day, up 12ish miles and down the rest of the way. However, we did not account for the wind. Just after the visitors center is the welcome sign to Montana (obviously a picture stop). Then we jumped on the bikes for what we hoped was going to be a nice descent to Missoula. Several of us bundled up on rain gear because the clouds looked iffy and the temps were cool. I felt like I was wearing a parachute as we began the descent. The wind was so strong I could barely get above 25 mph with pedaling, and I had held back from the group hoping to do my thing without being impeded by slowing cyclists. No worries there, I couldn’t even catch them because I was wearing a parachute 🤦🏻♀️. When we got to the flatter section the group rejoined and started a draft line. It was so windy that we had to change the lead cyclist every few miles. Like a group of birds switching out their lead, only we don’t fly in a “V.”
At mile 30 we pulled off to the side and I whipped out a granola bar. One of the boys was like “we are stopping in 5 miles can’t you guys wait?” The answer was “No!!” I was so hungry, that French Toast and snacks at the summit visitors center were gone!
Once we got closer to town, one of the boys got a surprise visit from his grandparents. They were in town for another event and figured out that we were going to cross paths. At the hotel another boy got a visit from former neighbors from PA that moved to MT. It was nice that each of them could spend some time with familiar faces.
After dinner and devotions, we did some bike maintenance on one of the bikes. This is the last town for about a week until we find another bike shop. So in the morning the bike will go north with the SAG, while we go south. Our extra bike is getting used.
Not too many pictures today because I was busy climbing the mountain and then fighting wind, neither were times for a camera.
