Keith
We both woke up and our motel room seemed pretty stuffy, after having a shower we both started to pack up the bikes. That new bag has sure made things easier to move around the gear. I was able to place the small roll bag and everything that Leah carried in it into the new trunk bag. She seemed pretty happy as that little roll bag caused her issues accessing her saddlebags.
After packing up we headed into Missoula looking for a place to eat. We quickly found a cute little cafe that served breakfast and finally an americano. We both enjoyed the wonderful food and more importantly the coffee. As soon as we finished it started to rain as it was forecast to. We both put on our rain gear and got ready for the road ahead.
The rain started pretty light at first but began to come pretty heavy as we made our way through Missoula and towards Lolo. We turned onto and continuing on highway 12 onto the Lolo pass biway.
To our relief about 10 miles onto the road the rain started to let up which gave us the opportunity to stop and clean off our glasses. You could tell the storm had passed over the road before we reached the pass as the first 1/3 of the pass, the surface was quite wet.
The Lolo Pass is considered by the motorcycle community as the best road in Idaho and man, it does not disappoint. The speed limit for most of it was 50 mph but you didn’t have a huge opportunity to maintain that rate due to the corners. For anyone that knows me, I love technical roads like the Lolo Pass.
The pass followed along the Clearwater river all the way from the pass down to Lewiston. It was everything that I hoped and more, tight technical sections with a suggested speed of 35 mph into long left and right handed sweepers that almost made you feel like you were completing a 360 turn, this road is spectacular! Down the road something dawned on me so I had to immediately call Leah. I asked her what this area reminded her of and before I could talk she said what I was thinking. This road was very much like the Bella Coola Valley in BC, the river meandering on your left with jagged peaks and and a very narrow valley as you lose elevation. The fog and mist laying overhead added to the feeling.
Halfway down the road, the sun started to peek out and both Leah and I started feeling quite uncomfortable. We stopped off on the side of the river and peeled off the rain gear to feel human again.
Along the way I started to notice huge homes on the opposite side of the river with cables spanning the river. Those cables were for a cable car that looked like a gondola to transport the owner across the river. Pretty neat, if you ask me.
We soon made it to Kooskia where the terrain started to change and the clouds started to look menacing. Feeling a few drops we headed into town to have a bite to eat for lunch. Seeing a couple bikers outside of The Hub Bar and Grill, we decided to head in. As we ordered our food I went outside to grab a few things off the bike and man I was glad we stopped, it was pouring outside. We both had a burger and beer, the one thing both of us still cannot get past here in the US is the portion size, everything is huge!
After eating we headed out to find the storm had passed and the bikes were dry. Both of us felt relieved that we would not have to put on the rain gear again hit the road.
Our destination was a campground outside of Orofino beside a dam built by the Army Corp of Engineers. We came through the town and hit a backroad, then quickly found the campground. The campground is a primitive campground that has no assigned sites and only a few picnic tables. After discussing with one of the people already there he decided as his gear was drying out on another picnic table he would let us take the site with the most shade.
We set up camp and took on some down time reading our books. One of the camp rangers stopped by and informed us that they are in for a huge storm tomorrow morning but also let us know about the visitors centre just below the camp. Leah and I decided to walk to the centre by cutting down hill. I kinda wish we just zipped there on the bikes as I’m sure the humidity right now is hovering in the 90s, so by the time we reached the air conditioned visitor centre, I didn’t want to leave.
Returning to camp we chilled out reading for about an hour, then decided to hit Orofino for a bite. Our neighbour in camp suggested the Mexican restaurant so that’s where we are now.
We are finding the wifi in these areas is kinda lacking so I’ll be posting pictures later.
Keith and Leah's travel on 2 wheels 