Day 10 – Powell ID to Florence MT – 54 miles

Today was a day of changes.

Having entered the Bitterroot Mountains subrange of the Rockies, we went from rolling terrain to our first difficult climb. From our lodging we climbed 1700 feet in the first 13 miles to the top of Lolo Pass where there was a fantastically informative visitor station. There we met our second Eric in two days. He cycled the reverse of our route a number of years ago with his (at the time) 13 year old son, camping the entire way as many adventure cyclists do.

Another change was our route. Since Cape Disappointment, we had been riding the Adventure Cycling Association’s Lewis and Clark route. Once we made our fun descent from the top of Lolo Pass into Montana, we turned south onto the Transamerica Route at Lolo. We’ll do our remaining 50 days on the TransAmerica route. The Adventure Cycling Association advocates for cycling and maintains maps and GPS data for routes with some combination of good surfaces, low traffic, wide shoulders and interesting scenery. It has been around since 1973 in the lead up to the “bikecentennial” when many Americans cycled across the US on Schwinns and various more challenging bikes than today’s high tekkers to commemorate 200 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which was a VERY big change.

Now we’re cycling in a valley between two mountain ranges, with 9090 foot Mount Lolo to our right. Welcome to the Rockies! You can see why Montana got its name from the Spanish word for mountain, with more than 300 peaks over 9600 feet.

One more change – we’re now carrying bear spray.

Nice bike path south of Missoula