End of Week 3!

Progress so far:

End of week three already - what a time we are having! Every day we cannot wait to get out on the road to see what sights we will see. We have had some incredible, once in a lifetime rides (although we both have our favorites we would love to ride again some day). As the map above shows we are gradually creeping West and are now just a few days from the Pacific coast - what a milestone that will be.
We feel we have been very fortunate with the weather, just having a few rough days but thankfully not on days when we had to travel 100's of miles. Right now we are in a spell of incredible weather and we are enjoying every moment. The bikes have been amazing - not a moments hesitation and are just brilliant touring machines. We have settled into an easy routine of setting off early, stopping for coffee (or breakfast) midmorning, picnic lunch at a scenic pull off, check in to our accommodation about 4:00pm, head out for an early dinner about 7:00pm and then early to bed about 9:30PM! Works well for us.

Statistics so far:
Total mileage: 4476
Total moving time: 88hrs.
States visited: ME, NH, VT, NY, Ontario Canada, MI, WI, IA, NE, SD, WY, MT, ID, WA.

Day 21. To Clarkston, WA

We were up and off a bit earlier this morning. We started out the day riding up to the Lolo Pass and on reaching the summit crossed once again into Idaho. Idaho is my new favorite State! Fantastic, scenic, well maintained and uncrowded roads. Numerous rest stops at strategic pull offs, all having clean rest rooms and I have not found one yet that wasn't well stocked with loo paper!

The significance of todays route (other than being an amazing ride) was that we were following the Lewis and Clark Trail. This was the route they took trying to find the fabled Northwest passage, which of course they never found. However, they did manage to cross the Bitterroot mountain range with the help of the local American Indians, the Nez Perce, who basically saved the entire expedition from starving to death on the high mountain passes.

 Visitor center at Lolo Pass. The Idaho visitor centers are informative and staffed with very helpful rangers.

The road followed the river the whole way.

Signs like this make us very happy!

 Lovely place serving fresh coffee

Idaho route 12 - Lewis & Clark scenic byway

We had our picnic at Canoe Camp, in the Nez Perce National Historical Park, near Orofino, ID. This was the spot where the Expedition Corps made dug out canoes which they then used to get to the Pacific Ocean.

Another amazing day. We are now bunked up at a Best Western Hotel in Clarkston, Washington State. Once again we have been upgraded to a suite! How lucky are we?

Today's mileage: 222.4   Moving Av: 49mph

Day 20. To Missoula, MT

A truly memorable day today. First of all the weather was amazing - brilliant sunshine all day long. Temps started out at a chilly 48 degrees but warmed up to 92 by day's end! Thank goodness for heated gear and layers that can be shed. We had a long day planned and I wondered if we had bitten off more than we could chew when we chatted to a man in the parking lot of the hotel who had taken two days to ride what we had planned for today. Even then, he complained that his second day was too long. Indeed it was a long day but we had an amazing ride - another tick off the bucket list. We rode North on Route 75 through the Sawtooth National recreation area. We joined Route 93 at Challis and followed the Salmon river for most of the day. This area is an outdoorsman's dream, with fishing, whitewater rafting and hiking in the most incredible countryside. The riding was quite demanding with lots of twisty curvy roads - but we loved it! We climbed high into the Bitterroot mountains across the Lost Trail Pass where apparently Lewis and Clark got lost - or at least no one knows quite which way they went! Here we crossed back into Montana. Then we descended into a valley where the temps climbed into the 90's and finally we reached our destination of Missoula for the night.

Day Trip total: 320.   Moving time: 6hrs. Total time on the road: 9hrs!
Total mileage to date: 4253

I have almost 800 photos from today to sort through - so here is just a small sample:

 The Tyrolean Lodge in Ketchum - very reminiscent of Austria

Ski slopes just across the road from the Lodge

Steam rising from Hot Springs running into the Salmon River

Day 19. To Ketchum, Idaho

We had a quiet, comfortable night's sleep, then the alarm went off at 5:45am and it was still dark!  We need to remember that when heading West the sun rises later until we change time zones again. So a slower start to the day than we planned but we could see it was going to be a beautiful one.

Our cozy cabin at the Nordic Inn

 We rolled out of the tidy town of Alpine along the Snake River Valley - just spectacular and a lovely winding road. We did hit some fog along the river valley but as the sun got higher it cleared. Somewhere along the way we crossed into Idaho.

 We reached the town of Idaho Falls in time for coffee and breakfast sandwiches at a lovely bakery. Then we rejoined our old favorite - Route 20. As on our travels though Iowa and Nebraska, this route delivers us West on a good fast road with minimal traffic and, for the most part, beautiful scenery.

We were getting glimpses of the Sawtooth mountains in the distance but were struck, once again, by the vast emptiness of this land. Miles of sagebrush with a few cattle here and there, this struck us as a parched land. All of a sudden the landscape was interrupted and we found ourselves at the Craters of the Moon National Park. After spending some time at the informative Visitor Center we followed the Park loop through this other worldly landscape:

 The area consiste of fields of black lava flows formed when the local "hot spot" erupted 2,000 years ago. Molten lava flowed through various craters and solidified into these amazing formations.

 Above: Mini volcano

 Lava formations

This is a giant mound - the tiny dots near the apex are people!

After a picnic lunch in the park we returned to Rte 20 and continued towards our destination for the night. Once again we had empty roads and amazing views as we sped towards the Sawtooth Mountains. We stopped at Ketchum for the night and are now ensconced at the Best Western Tyrolean Lodge which has a wonderful Austrian flair. Plus we got upgraded to a famile suite so we are happy campers tonight!

Trip Mileage: 225miles

Moving time: 4:14

Moving Av: 53mph

Day 18. To Alpine, WY.

We awoke to a cool morning with clouds in the sky but the promise of clearing as the day wore on. We packed up the bikes and got off to a slightly later start. Having been in one place for three nights we had managed to pretty much completely unpack the bikes and it is always difficult to squeeze everything back on again. Good thing is we have absolutely no room for any purchases - so no T-shirt souvenirs for us! Despite some misgivings on my part we headed into Yellowstone Park but thankfully did not meet any Bison, Elk or other horned creatures, although we did see a couple of Bison from afar. It was a cool morning but the sun was shining and gradually started to warm things up. Traffic was light and the ride was amazing.

Packing up first thing - Tom is checking the tire pressures

We stopped for a quick coffee to warm up:

 Then headed back on the Park roads lined with Lodge Pole Pines

 This area was affected by forest fires in 1988

We turned South towards the southern entrance of the Park and found ourselves climbing upwards until we came to this:

This is by no means the highest elevation we have reached but for my Family in England - the significance of crossing the Divide is that now all rivers and streams flow to the Pacific Ocean! As we continued South, a different vista appeared - The Grand Tetons! We took the inner park road which bought us closer to these huge mountains - we were awestruck.

We had lunch at a picnic area overlooking Colter Bay (of significance - as Tom and I met in a Bar in Buffalo, NY called Colter Bay).

Just imagine how happy I was to find this fastened to the picnic table! 

After Lunch we continued South, exited the Grand Teton National Park and rode alongside the Snake River until we arrived in Jackson, WY. This swanky, ski town afforded an excellent coffee stop and a pleasant walk in warmer temps.

We then continued alongside the Snake River until we came to the tiny town of Alpine, almost on the border of Idaho. Here we are settled into the very comfortable and quiet Nordic Inn, where we have had an excellent dinner. All in all an amazing day.

Today's mileage: 213

Total Trip Mileage: 3708

Day 17. Chief Joseph Highway.

Finally the weather is beginning to break and there was no threat of rain this morning. So we headed out to ride the Chief Joseph Highway. Unfortunately the BearTooth Pass was still socked in with cloud so we gave that a miss. We had a great ride - cold first thing but we were OK with our heated gear on, which keeps us toasty warm. The scenery was stunning and we can now really appreciate the wide open spaces out here.

 Yours truly taking a photo of this:

Yes! That is snow on the mountains in the distance.

After the ride we had a late lunch in Cody, then back to our lodging where we spent a few hours cleaning the bikes, which really needed it. We then had a hasty supper in our room and headed out to the Rodeo  - only to find it had been canceled because of all the rain! Fortunately we had bought the tickets with cash at our hotel and the owner cheerfully gave us our money back as we will not be in town tomorrow. After 3 lovely nights here we are moving on.

Day 16. Yellowstone!

What can I say? We will definitely come back. A few days is not enough. Incredible!

With limited time to explore the park, several weeks ago we pre-booked a guided tour of the Park. A small mini-bus picked us up from our Accommodation at 8:00am and with the rest of the group (a total of 8, including us) we headed to Yellowstone. We had a constant narration from our guide who was incredibly knowledgable about the geology of the park as well as it's flora and fauna. We got so much more out of the day than if we had bumbled around on our own.

First the volcanic phenomena:

 Hot springs everywhere we looked

 The vivid colors are caused by organisms living in the boiling hot water

And of course - Old Faithful

 More colorful hot springs and flows:

Then, of course there were the wildlife sightings:

 An Elk Doe

 At this point we were glad we were on a bus!

We had an amazing time which flew by and eventually headed out of the park at about 6:00, which made for a long and very interesting day. At this point the sun was finally putting in an appearance:

We're not sure how we will top today's experience but tomorrow is another day!