Day 59 Week 9, Tuesday’s 17 June 2025

Today after our off day we rode from Missoula Montana to Powell Idaho.  Another state down AND we enter the Pacific Coast time zone so we gain yet another hour!  It was a beautiful ride through the Lolo Pass where we enter Idaho and change time zone at the same time.  Apparently the Pacific time zone runs along the Idaho/Montana border.  The ride was crossing the Bitterroot Mountains through the Lolo Pass, a beautiful valley lined with pine trees.  There had been several fires some years ago in one area of the valley so we encountered again standing dead and charred trees lining the valley on the left side in particular.  At the Lolo Pass Visitors Center we talked with a ranger who told us that fires are becoming more prevalent and because of the dry climate conditions it is harder for the forest to recover from these fires.  There is a current fire burning along our route tomorrow but is now only 150 acres.  There is a West wind blowing so we will see what its like.  The ranger said there is currently no danger of it jumping the highway, it is likely to burn away from the road.  We stopped short of the big climb to Lolo Pass at the Lolo Hot Springs for breakfast.  Up to then our ride had been a steady climb at a gentle .5 to 1% grade.  After the Hot Springs, for the last 5 miles to the pass we climbed around 1000 ft at a 4-5% average grade.  So a decent climb, but not nearly as bad as some of our previous, in particular the climb to Cameron Pass along the Cache La Poudre river in Colorado. Several moose crossing signs on the road as we climbed, but no moose sightings yet.  I need to see at least ONE moose before we end our trip!    Stopped at the visitors center to wait for others to catch up.   Some friendly ground squirrels were living near the picnic area and very interested in receiving food bits from us.  We didn’t  give them anything (not supposed to feed the wild animals!!) but took some great pics of them.  A nice downhill after the pass through a similar pine tree lined valley. No more sign of fires- an extremely verdant valley, beautiful.   Stopped at the DeVoto Memorial Cedar Grove-  a grove of huge cedar trees by the side of the road.  Reminded me of the Sequoias in California.  Our campsite is right in the pine forest at the Powell US Forest Service campground, nice and peaceful, no trains to bother us at night!  We had access to very nice showers at the lodge adjacent to the campground.  Should get a good nights sleep tonight!