July 14, Sunday

This was the first CG site without a picnic table/toilet, but we were fine. I’m glad for the closed cell foam pad; it gave me something to sit on. We had peanut butter and raisin tortilla roll ups for breakfast and undid our bear hang which we had suspended from the bridge.

There was a sign near last night’s CG at the junction we had left the route that noted the road was impassible due to a washout, but it was dated 6/9. Pah. Bridge out. Excavators on both sides of the gap, moderately deep ravine between lined with large rocks and a tiny stream at the bottom. On the far side a divide rider had written “JUMP” using the construction crew’s spray paint. Jamie and I separated our panniers from our bikes and made two trips across, while John and Roger lifted and control-rolled their bikes (difficult to unload those bikes). It was not as difficult as I expected, because you could lift and roll down the rocks while squeezing the brakes to keep the bike from rolling while you climbed up or down.

We hit our first closed road double track. It was a bit overgrown, with yellow flowers. My front chain ring jammed as I tried to shift to the smallest ring, my feet came to a sudden stop and I did what Roger called a “lateral dismount,” ie I fell over. Good thing it was grassy.

Most of the day was on dirt/gravel, as was yesterday, so when we came to a short patch of paved road, it was weird. Holland Lake CG, but the host told us we could camp in the day use area, which had a vault toilet and running water and was free to boot.  Instead of pitching our tents, we headed for the Holland Lake Lodge (another place I would like to come back to with Dwight), where they were fully booked for dinner.

John made desperate attempts to get food anyways and they did offer us box lunches.  We drank Moose Drool beer again and wrote out postcards before heading to the day use area to pitch and swim and make dinner.  Roger found someone in the day use area from Missoula he met last year.  The guy runs Missoula Bike Works and last year they met because he had been testing out a race route.
After all that, we had enough energy to travel 1 mile back to the lodge for dessert and another drink.  There were some people there who were scoping out the lodge because they are getting married there next weekend. The bride is a professional photographer and took tons of pictures of us in chairs by the lake.  We didn't get back to our tents until 11pm.

Stats:
Start ODO- 634
end ODO- 715
total- 42.42
max- 24.9
avg- 9.8
time- 4:19