Originally Posted by
jimincalif
Great picture, yes do tell about the tour, interested in your route. We just bought a home in the Boise area. There's a lot of ID to the north I've never explored.
14 days on the road, including one no-move day. That's the day I took a 6 mile ride from camp near Yaak, MT into the woods to look for critters and ended up seeing the bear. (There are both black bears and grizzlies in those woods.) Tow days were spent in Idaho. The third day of the trip took me from ID into MT via the Route of the Hiawatha Trail then back into MT via the NorPac Trail to Lookout Pass. Descended I-90 for 7 miles to Mullan, where I picked up the Trail of the Coeur d'Alene to Wallace, ID. Back into Montana the next day.
This is the route, although I did make some changes south of Whitefish. A heavy storm moved through the area in the morning. Some of the roads I had planned to ride that day are dirt/sandy. Didn't want to get the bike junked up so I took highways between Whitefish and mile 502.3 of the planned route.
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/29428535?beta=false
I did most of this route two years ago, so I knew what to expect most of the time. Days 2 and 3 were unfamiliar mileage and included the 16 mile, 3,200' climb up unpaved Gold Pass to the ID border. The surface was rougher than I had expected, making it a real challenge. Despite some showers and a brief period of hail, the paved descent in ID was absolutely gorgeous. The Route of the Hiawatha Trail, with all its tunnels, was also neat, although I was one of only a few nuts going W to E, which is the uphill direction. I also planned the days so I could ride up to and spend some time at the Ross Creek Cedars area, which boasts trees as old as 500 years. On Days 1 and 2 I got to ride two different sections of I-90 westbound that were closed to motor vehicles in preparation for upcoming bridge work. Nothing like have an entire interstate to yourself. Kootenai Falls, where part of "The Revenant" was filmed, was another highlight.
Total of 3 days of rain while I was on the road. A few other days there were brief showers while in camp. Some mornings were downright chilly, in the 40s and 50s. Better than the hot days I had back in 2017. I did end up with two unplanned indoor stays. The first was in Thomspon Falls. It was cold and rainy and the nearby state park has no where to cook under cover, so I got a motel. Ended up in a cabin at the campground just west of Troy, MT because an organized ride had taken all the tent sites. Camping was at state parks, Forest Service campgrounds and one city park.
Made a slide show and posted it to YouTube: