With Bucky’s Cafe within stumbling distance of our motel room there really was no excuse not to make an early start this morning and try to avoid the unrelenting heat. So by 6am we were inside ordering hash browns, eggs and sour dough toast. We were also drinking – lots. If there’s anything we’ve learnt…
Do Groundhogs ride bikes? New Meadows to Cambridge
I woke in my tent at Zims Campground this morning with Paul McCartney’s ‘Silly Love Songs’ ringing in my ears. I couldn’t get it out of my head all day. It’s all Al’s fault. The owner of the campground had told us last night how had felt trapped in his own personal ‘Groundhog Day’ except…
104° in my Shades – White Bird to New Meadows
Enclosing us as we headed south beside the Salmon River were, to the east, the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness and, to the west, Hells Canyon Wilderness. (Honest! The Americans started bigging things up real early.) It was worryingly easy even though we were going uphill in the morning sunshine with the grandeur…
Seeing the Wood for the Trees – Kooskia to White Bird
One question that comes up time and again on the trail is whether to stick to the maps produced by the Adventure Cycling Association. Often the suggested route will weave and turn when there appears to be a much more straightforward and more direct alternative. The temptation to cut off a loop, or take a…
Too Hot to Handle! – Whitehouse to Kooskia, Nez Perce Reservation
By Terry Lying in my tent in the early hours, listening to this huge bear, just the other side of a sheet of nylon, ripping the drybag to shreds to get to all our food which I had stupidly left only a few inches from my head was absolutely terrifying. People have died for such…
In the Footsteps of Lewis and Clark – Missoula to Whitehouse Campground, nr Powell
When Meriwether Lewis reached the Continental Divide south of the Bitterroot Valley on August 12 1805 he expected to see a plain descending towards the Pacific Ocean. Instead the dream of a North West passage was shattered when he saw: “immense ranges of high mountains still to the west of us”. Leaving Missoula this morning,…
Spat over Tea leads to Fireworks – Hamilton to Missoula
With all the flags flying and fireworks on sale, Terry and I have been convinced there’s some sort of celebration coming up, so we asked Mike, our American travelling companion, what it was all about. Turns out we used to run the place until some spat over Earl Gray, or Darjeling back in the day….
Freedom – but with Reservations – Wisdom to Hamilton
It’s impossible to travel across The United States without being reminded time and again of the horrendous injustice inflicted on the Native Americans who lived on this land centuries before European settlers ever set foot here. Yesterday we learnt about lives of cattle ranchers in the Big Hole Valley – today we found out what…
Badgers, Beatles and Home – Dillon to Wisdom
We cycled the 1500ft Badger Pass climb out of Dillon this morning individually, the three of us strung out over a mile or so, each of us lost in our own thoughts. Perhaps it was because it was July 1st, our final month on the trail, or the realisation that at the end of the…
Paul sets the Pace and Terry gets Pulled Over – Ennis to Dillon
By Terry Slow and steady, tapping out a rhythm for 12 miles up a 2500 ft climb. Two hours sitting right behind Paul, the rubber of our tyres almost touching, watching his buttocks at close quarters rhythmically rise and fall was quite mesmeric … pity the hill wasn’t a few miles longer really (‘That’s enough!…