Day 15 – Lowell, Idaho to Powell, Idaho

66 Miles with Nothing in Between

Thursday began week three of the trip, which seems hard to believe. I was in Lowell, where they have a sign in town listing the population as 24, but with that number crossed out and 23 written next to it. While this was done as a joke, it might have some truth to it as the word is that the woman who operated the only store in town rather suddenly ran off with a man, leaving the store to be closed down.

This was bad news to me as I needed food for this day’s ride, which was 66 miles with not even one store along the way. Thankfully, there was a restaurant in town which also sold a few snack items so I was able to stock up a bit and get by.

While having breakfast, election coverage was on. The place was fairly crowded with some locals and also people like me just passing through. Rob, a very social Canadian motorcyclist who I had met at the restaurant the night before, blurted out for all to hear, “So, your election is coming up. Who’s going to win?” I thought this was going to lead to a possible firestorm of a conversation, but it was more along the lines of, “I can’t believe these are the two we have to choose from.”

Leaving the comfortable diner behind, I hit the road at 8:45. About twenty minutes later, Rob passed by on his motorcycle and gave the thumbs up goodbye. I had heard a lot about riding on this route, highway 12, regarding large trucks and safety issues, but it wasn’t bad at all.  As a matter of fact, it was lightly traveled. It followed the river nearly the entire day and was a good, scenic ride. I was climbing throughout the day, very gradually.  This would set me up for tomorrow’s much more steep, final climb to the top of Lolo Pass.

Along the way, I missed a specific pack bridge stop where supposedly you could get water, but this wasn’t an issue as I brought enough with me.  However, later in the day all of it was getting much too warm and wasn’t exactly refreshing to drink.

When you arrive in Lowell, you find that all it is is a place called Lochsa Lodge.  Here, people rent cabins, some fancy and some without electricity or running water. They also have a nice lodge-style restaurant, along with a couple of gas pumps and a store.  It turns out that if you’re traveling through on a bike, they let you camp for free in a nice, grassy area just behind the store. What a deal.

The guy who ran the gas station/market was a bit of a character and seemed somewhat out of place in this western, wilderness setting. He was more of a Boston type, which would make sense because he had Aerosmith playing. Not only playing but he was singing along with it. I sometimes envy people who sing out loud in public, but I didn’t envy those of us who had to listen to this particular voice. Funny guy, though.

  

The rest of the night was great, even without working internet. They had a football game on in the restaurant/bar and it was good to see a game and talk some sports with others before calling it a night.