Adding to our growing list of interesting characters, we met a biker at the motel breakfast who'd ridden 700 miles from the Washington coast the previous day. He had been there to watch the start of the annual "unsanctioned" cross country motorcycle race. He raced last year and finished in 66 hours, 22 hours behind the winner. Easy enough to understand why the race is unsanctioned. This year's field was thinned out when seven riders were caught in a small town going through a red light at 70 mph in a 35 zone.
He'd lost a bag the previous day along the road ahead and was going to look for it.
Our route took us gradually up along the Clearwater River to Lowell, where we had planned to stop for the day. But feeling rested and restless, we decided to eat a good lunch there and stock up food for camping after 25 more miles. No motels, restaurants or stores ahead for 65 miles.
Lowell is where the Selway and Lochsa Rivers join to become the Clearwater River. Our route took us gradually uphill along the Lochsa, in a deep gorge with heavily forested mountains around us- beautiful country. The rivers are popular for rafting, and the Clearwater looked good for canoeing, too. But as we moved upriver the Lochsa became a constant cascade of rapids.
We saw a bald eagle swoop down to the river, but it left empty-taloned.
A few miles before our destination we ran across our biker friend with the "Here's Trouble" t-shirt. He'd had no luck finding his bag and his fancy leather jacket.
The riding was fairly easy despite the constant upgrade. A mile before we reached the campground, we stopped at the only other point of interest, an historic ranger station dating from the 1920's, now kept open as a museum staffed by friendly elderly locals. The fresh water available there was welcome.
Also welcome was the campground where we unwound after a long day in the saddle and dined on canned chicken, cheese and crackers, with granola bars for dessert. As soon as it was dark, we hit the hay.
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