June 3, 2005

Majestic Wilderness

Clearwater River, Idaho

Today was an interesting day in many respects. First it was Tattoo’s (Nick’s) 20th birthday. He started out this ride back on May 28th a teenager and he’ll finish it in five and a half weeks a man. There was not much in time for celebration for Nick and we followed the Clearwater River from Kamiah to one of it’s tributaries the Locsha River and then followed the Locsha the remainder of the day. There were limited services the entire route and certainly no cell phone coverage. Nick was a bit bummed that he was unable to listen to any birthday messages on his cell but the entire day was pretty much spent within 100 yards of wilderness.

Locsha River, Idaho

The route was certainly majestic wilderness. The Clearwater River was fairly wide when we first got to it. It flowed swiftly but with very few white water areas. The Locsha was the same at the beginning but the last thirty miles or so it was laced with many white water areas. We saw a few rafters along the way.

As you might expect when you follow rivers up stream you are constantly gaining altitude. The only downhill we had all day was when we left Kamiah at 1,213 feet and descended to our lowest elevation of the day of 1,175 feet. From then on it was a gradual up hill all day long until we finished the day at our high point of 3,343 feet. The whole day involved pedaling and no coasting.

We had planned to ride around 85 miles to a state forest campground on the map. When we got there it was on the other side of the road and away from the river. It was also a brand new campground that looked like a clear cut area of forest. It was not what I had in mind after a long up hill ride. Tattoo got a flat just as we reached the campground while he was fixing it we decided to ride another ten miles to the next on the map which is where we are staying.

Facilities are primitive. A well with a hand pump, and a men’s and a woman’s out house. That’s it. Nick finished making his Pepsi stove last night and treated himself to a hot meal on his birthday. He had planned to eat cold food the entire trip but when he saw me cooking and eating hot food when we last camped he decided that hot food was a better option. He had two Ramen packets. I had one with Uncle Bens Rice on top. Since we finished riding at around 7:15 we were both starved and believe me the food tasted really good.

The good thing about pressing the extra miles is that it will be a fairly short ride for a hot breakfast tomorrow. We find ourselves breaking the day down by how many miles until the next meal.

We are in bear country so we had to hang up our food tonight before entering our respective tents. Its in the low 40’s temperature wise but it’s toasty warm in the tent in a sleeping bag while writing this log entry.

Camping in the Rockies

Tomorrow we climb over Lolo Pass at approximately 5,500 ft. It should be fun. I’ll let you know how much in tomorrows log entry.

Jim

Cycledog (Ride the extra mile!!)

© 2005 - JNS

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