07.07.2023 - lookout pass and goodbye dan

i slept well on the wood floor of the porch, dan not so well.  air pads really do help.

we hit the road before the rest of the town was up, breakfast to be 10 miles up the road in historic wallace.

this whole valley, running up to lookout pass was a big mining area, especially silver.  kellog was apparently the scene of a big union standoff against the mining companies that resulted in the mining operation burning down.

wallace, 15 mi.up the road, still has a large (6 blocks +/-) historical area thriving off the tourist crowd, biking and sking.  but the pass up is narrow and in order to preserve the town and river, they built i-90 in the air.  it creates an interesting interface with the town.

we had our usual good breakfast, this time in the brooks hotel restaurant, and then we headed up the final 10 mi. of paved trail at a somewhat steeper slope.

at mullan, we made the connection to the norpac trail, which proceeded to climb at roughly 3% grade all the way to the top.  it was gravel and rock, but not too bad for me.  dan, of course, flew along.  this continued unabated for 5 miles up to the pass.

when one crosses the state line on a bike path, there often isn't any signage.  so we didn't get to pose by the 'welcome to.... ' sign at the border, either idaho or montana.  nor was there signage for the pass and the elevation at the top of the pass.  turns out lookout pass is at elev. 4,710, almost 300 feet lower than newfound gap.

we somehow managed to fail to photo document the moment.  dan has some shaky video of the final ride in.  but we made it.  at the pass there was the ski lodge, which doubled as a mountain bike rental in the summer.  we hydrated at the lodge, no free refills unless ghey weren't looking.

we weren't there long before amy wheeled up in a pickup truck.

and the happy couple reunited... oops, what a bad photo.

we hugged and cried, said our goodbyes and promised we'd meet again for a beer or two in knoxville.  and then they drove off into the sunset, though i think the were going down to missoula to spend the night.  they would get there a day ahead of me.

as theycdrove off, i proceeded to head down the mountain on the trail.  it seemed steeper heading down, i took it slowly.  i had read warnings about the tunnel on the east side being closed, though interestingly enough none of the bike riders we talked to in idaho knew anything about it.  so when i reached the trail closure sign, i was prepared.  there was a simple bypass that, though steep, i could manage to get down.

below that, the trail was pretty rocky and jarring.  as it leveled out, it smoothed out though with some crators.  then it was perfectly smooth and i was at good speed for several miles.  until it wasn't.  then back to rocks and being bounced around.  

hot, tired and hungry with about 3 miles till st. regis, i finally abandoned ship and jumped on the i-90 for the final run into st. regis and a huckleberry milksake.

all the traffic at the service center in st regis reminded me that it was a friday evening.  i didn't have a reservation, but i was hoping to camp at a nfs site about 10 miles further down the road.  so i hit the road only to find google had misled me down another private road/deadend.  i turned around and headed back to the exit, i decided to jump back on i-90 for 5 miles down to the next exit.  

now to be clear, most people think interstates are more dangerous, but i don't really think that's true.  the shoulders are very wide usually and provide a good deal of comfort.  the thing you have to be careful of is when that shoulder narrows, especially at bridges.  what interstates are, though, is 1) heavy trafficed and 2) full of debris waiting to puncture a tire.

exiting the interstate, it was another 3 mile ride down a side road.  after what seemed like a pretty long day, i rolled into a national forest service campground.  they had a tent space available, wonderfully situated under ponderosa pines.  exactly the kind of spot dan and i were talking about as our favorite.

only it seemed like i lost an hour somewhere.  welcome to mountain time.