Day 88 – 69 Miles

Lochsa Lodge, ID to Lowell, ID

Total Miles: 4924

I woke up this morning at 7 to a crisp and beautiful mountain morning and began my daily routine of breaking down camp, using the bathroom, packing Forrest up and throwing rocks at Sebastian’s tent until he get’s his ass out of bed. We were looking forward to an easy day of gently descending roads and mild weather so, being in no particular hurry, decided to get some breakfast at the lodge before heading out. The day’s riding began just as we’d hoped and we were treated to gentle downhills, beautiful mountain vistas and light traffic. The majority of the traffic was from our motorized, 2-wheeled brethren the motorcyclists. There were soooo many and not just your typical weekend Harley riders, these guys were riding what looked like a beefed up version of my own bike. It made me want to someday do a cross country trip on of those bad boys. I’d be able to cross the country 3 or 4 times in the same amount of time, just effortlessly climbing up hills that had put me in tears and tested me to my core. But, nah, too easy, I like to work for my miles.

About 20 miles into the morning we come across this awesome wooden bridge spanning the river we’re riding along and decide to stop for a pee break and take a look. Sebastian, like the polite British man that he is, discreetly relieves himself behind a tree and out of sight of the rest of the world. Not me, dammit, the world is my urinal! I walk out onto the bridge and let it fly right over the edge, smack dab in the middle. I think there’s something in the male psyche that compels us to want to pee from high places, like, peeing outside in the forest is great but being able to do it in the forest and from 30 feet above the water makes for a much more enjoyable experience. You know I’m not wrong, fellas. After our scenic pee break we head out again and, not even half a mile down the road, meet up with some fellow cyclists. Dan and Kate were a happily retired married couple heading the opposite direction on their tandem touring bicycle. They had put 17000 miles on it in the last few years traveling all over the world. 18000! I didn’t get a photo of them or the bike because I’m an idiot but Kate said between them, the bike and their gear that they were pushing over 450lbs. And here I thought I was a badass.

Sebastian not peeing off the bridge

As the day wore on it began to get hotter and hotter and hotter. Did I mention it was hot? About 95 degrees of bone dry, water sucking, almost nausea inducing heat. Also the wind picked up and was blowing right in our faces, not so bad when your route is pretty much all downhill but still not exactly pleasant. We pulled into the town of Powell, the first service stop along the route today and our ultimate destination, and hit the diner for some burgers and some ice cold beer. Maybe it was because I was only because I was so damn hungry but I swear that was the best damn burger of my life. Yummy yummy in my tummy. We made quick work of our lunch and headed down the street to our campground for the night. There was a giant sign outside with the words “WIFI. COCKTAILS.” emblazoned in big letters. But, of fucking course, it was too good to be true. After pulling up and speaking to the owner we discovered that the campground area has been closed for a few years and no amount of sweet talking was going to change that. Down the road we go…

A road

Lucky for us there was a Forest Service campground about 2 miles down the road and we set up camp in this beautiful spot right next to the river. We got our tents pitched and immediately went down to the water to wash off the days road grime and cool down. While we’re sitting there enjoying the blessedly cool water Sebastian says, “You know what would make this better? Beer.” I knew I liked this guy. So we dried off a bit, headed back to the diner, bought a bunch of beers, some ice and converted one of my panniers into a cooler. We then proceeded to laze around in the river all afternoon enjoying the hard earned fruits of our labors. Life is good. Stay tuned for the next edition of James and his Bike!

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Too Drunk; Didn’t Read (TD;DR)

-Motorcycles are like bicycles but, like, with motors!

-Peeing from high places because that’s how I live my life

-Dan and Kate Plus 8! teen thousand miles

-It’s fucking hot

-No wifi for the weary

-Lazy beers in the river like the rednecks (chavs?) that we are