Thursday, June 24 - Day 11 - 76 Miles - 780.2 Total Miles

Left Grangeville this morning on route 13 on a nice little descent into the towns of Stites and Kooskia which sit on the Nez Perce Indian Reservation. In Kooskia we turned on to route 12 towards our destination of "who knows where" Idaho. Route 12 is one of the "Readers Digest 120 Most Scenic Rides", which highlights scenic routes in the USA. This route is called the Lewis & Clark Scenic Byway and runs along the Middle Fork Clearwater River and the Lochsa River closer to our destination. It was a relaxing, 75 mile day with little climbing. So, it was a day to get rejuvenated.



We are at a USFS Campground tonight in the middle of an area that has no services (gas, groceries, etc.) for 66 miles. That is where "van woman" comes in handy. When we got to our site today, (which cost us all of $8) we headed to the river to cool off. We definitely got that taken care of. That water could not have been over 55 degrees. It was quite refreshing. When we got back to camp, even though we had put all of the food away, something had eaten the mouthpieces off of some of our water bottles that had gatorade in them. Bobby declared war!



Tomorrow is going to be a fairly short ride by distance (60 miles), but should be challenging. We will be climbing into Montana by way of Lolo Pass, which will take us to 5235 feet. That means our ride will gain over 3000 feet in altitude. We will be camping in Lolo Hot Springs, just over the top of the climb.



Kim & the kids had a lot of errands to do today, so their fun time was limited. They did get to see all of beautiful terrain that we rode on as well as visiting the Lochsa Historical Ranger Station.





Water Bottles Damaged by the Resident Varmint



Dipping in the Cold Water by our Campground