Year: 2008

We’re just about out of the desert. Lots of miles, no shade. Four days without showers. Yuck!

We made it to idaho! It’s already much greener. Took a day off yesterday. Greg has a bit of a cold.

ok – hopefully now we’re going to be getting back in the groove. It’s been a spotty couple of days, mostly because of this nasty sinus cold i picked up. We spent a day holed up in a motel trying to recover. I’m feeling better, but It’s been pretty off and on the whole time. Anyway, We’ve made it to idaho, and joined up with the main adventure cycling cross country route that mike and i did, so hopefully we’ll start seeing other cyclists. The oregon desert wasn’t too bad except for me being sick. There was a stretch of 112 miles with only one place to get water, but we were prepared for that. What we didn’t think about was 112 miles with maybe 4 spots of shade. There was just nowhere to take a break! We had lunch in the gravel on the side of the road! Cars passed us like every 20 minutes. Anyway, we’re out of the great basin and heading into the mountains. Hooray for trees!

We sure do miss ya, sarah!

well, we’re both still sick. We spent two days in a motel in council trying to rest up. We’re both feeling better – at least it doesn’t feel like someone’s trying to drill a hole into my brain through my nose anymore. But we’re both still coughing and sniffling a lot. Good news is we’ve made it into the mountains. Hopefully the fresher air will be good for us. We’re falling behind our schedule, but we’ll make it up further down the line. We crossed 1000 miles today. Other than being sick, we’re having a great time!

Hello,

We’re feeling much better – we still have a few remnants of our colds, but for the most part, our legs are back to being our weakest link. Since our last post, we’ve ascended and descended two large passes. First, we climbed the White Bird Hill, in Idaho. It was rather tough. Lots and lots of switchbacks, and no shade! At the top, a couple in an rv gave us some water and told us all about the tandem recumbent.

In between, we rode through an awesome river valley, between Kooskia and Lolo Pass. It was full of big trees, and we followed the the river all day. We had our first cloud cover in three weeks. We also started running into a ton of other bike tourists. We hadn’t seen any for the whole trip, but in the last 3 days, we’ve probably run into at least 25-30, going in each direction – mostly because this is the confluence of two Adventure Cycling routes. There was one group of 5 guys who are on a 7900 mile epic ride – i think it’s portland->vancouver->eugene->St. Louis->Chicago->Maine->DC.
Next, we went over Lolo Pass, half in Idaho, half in Montana. It really wasn’t too bad. There’s an awesome visitor’s center at the pass, complete with free hot chocolate and coffee. We hung out there for a little bit and chatted with other bike tourists while sipping on our hot beverages. We decided it was time to get back on the road when it started pouring (our first rain in three weeks!) and there were rumors that it was going to hail! (It didn’t). So we booked it on into Missoula, where we are graciously being hosted by Rai’s friends, Juniper and Ryan.
We may take a day or a half day off today to run errands such as buying more soap and getting my headset tightened. We’re actually just about half way there. We just uploaded a bunch of photos, so you can check those out! See ya down the road!

Had a lovely time in missoula! We really appreciate the great hospitality. saw batman last night, creepy. Now We’re back in the saddles, making good time. Excited about big sky country. Hoping to see lots more buffalo. Haven’t eaten nearly enough pie. Really wanted to see moose, but didn’t. Maybe we still will.

Pie and arnold palmer break

We’re on to the next climb, chief joseph pass, where we cross the continental divide. Then It’s into the big hole, where they test insect repellant. Heading for got springs. Had an awesome tail wind yesterday, did a seventy mile day, even though we started at noon. We’re gal way there!

Up up up

We’ve been making good time. Been going over lots of ups and downs. Weather’s cooled off a bit, though still on the hot side. We’ve been meeting a ton of other cyclists – we keep running into this group of five guys. I think their website is bikingacrossstates.com. We also met this swedish guy on a world tour – www.metrobloggen.se/samborombon . The scenery has been amazing – lots of river valleys. We’ve also made sure to deposit large amounts of our blood in the millions of convenient flying receptacles, just in case something happens. We’ve also made a strong habit of frequent stops for ice tea and pie. Well, we should be in yellowstone tomorrow. Hope You’re having as much fun as we are!

we made it to the bizzare tourist trap of west yellowstone. All the traffic intersections and oblivious pedestrians make this our least favorite town. We’re excited about getting back into the wilderness. The actual park is going to be rad! Still hoping to see moose. Hard day yesterday wit lots of head wind and everywhere we tried to stop closed. Saw multiple bus sized rv towing an suv. Sick! Can’t wait to leave our stuff at the campsite and travel around the park sans gear. Wyoming here we come!

there was a cinnamon roll there

We ended up spending a few extra days in yellowstone, due to a fire that closed the main loop through the park. Fortunately, yellowstone isn’t a bad place to get stuck. We were debating on whether to ride 90 miles the other way round the loop, or take the gnarley north road out of the park, when we were rescued by the amazing Yip family, who gave us a ride to the other side of the park. We got to join their family for a day, including a successful eagle hunt, and a great swim in the firehole river. Thanks Yips! Today we had an amazing ride out of the park, riding through some beautiful country. We also dropped 3000 feet and had a great tailwind. We rode pretty close to another huge fire – close enough to see the flames! We finished off the day at a great italian restaurant, where i ate two orders of rollatini. Still a bit behind, but we only have one big climb left – 6k feet over the bighorns. We should start that tomorrow! Ps we survived a staredown with a buffalo