On August 15 I was off on what really .. finally …felt like the final leg of this trip. It was a long day (over 110 miles) through some wild, lonely, beautiful country. After a fairly easy climb up to Lolo Pass, a little over 40 miles from Missoula, I coasted downhill the rest of the day along the Lochsa River, through stands of conifers.
It was downhill riding, but I felt as thoughI fought a headwind often. There was no civilization from Lochsa Lodge to Lowell, a distance of some 65 miles. I prayed that the fellow at the bike shop in Missoula had been wrong when he said that we were in for some rain soon. So far so good; an incredibly dry summer overall had been terrible for farmers but welcome to me.
Without any stores nearby, I resorted to my freeze-dried emergency meal of lasagna for dinner, and it was delicious.
The campground was great —- a place to pitch a tent and a clear mountain stream right alongside …. what more does one need, and it was free.