Dave rides his bike to school

Above: Lolo Peak, outside Missoula, MT. The mountain is over 9,000 ft tall. This is the first snow-capped moutain I’ve seen on this trip.

Above: Downtown Missoula, MT

Above: Caras Park, in downtown Missoula.

Above: A dude surfing on the Clark Fork River in downtown Missoula (picture taken from Caras Park).

Above: A dude kayaking on the Clark Fork River.

Above: Every Thursday night during the summer, Missoula has a festival with live music and concessions. Missoulians definitely take advantage of the warm weather…

Above: same as above

Monday, 6/26 3pm
Location: Missoula, MT

Coordinates:
46.8959 N
114.0439 W

I started off the day (last Thursday) by climbing up to 5,200 ft. to cross the Lolo Pass.  I was a little concerned about the climb, given how steep it looked on my bike map and also because I wasn’t sure of whether the higher altitude would make it difficult to breathe.  Well, it turned out to be not bad at all.  In fact, in some ways, the climb was harder for the cars; I passed by two trucks that broke down on the way up to the pass.  I have to admit that it did feel satisfying to pass an automobile, for once.  As a courtesy, I gave the trucks plenty of room as I cranked by at 7 miles an hour…

The best part about climbing up to 5,200 ft is that you get to DESCEND afterwards!  I think I went about 10 miles without pedaling.  What a nice feeling!  Oh, the other nice thing about clearing the Lolo Pass is that not only did I cross into a new state (Montana), but I also crossed into a new time zone (Mountain Time).

The only downside of descending was that the lower I got, the hotter it got.  By the time I got to the valley in which Lolo and Missoula are situated, it was almost 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

I pulled into Missoula in the evening.  Unfortunately, the only campsite in town is a KOA, which is like camping in an RV parking lot.  Regardless, I set up my tent and then heading into town for food.  With great pleasure, I happened upon Missoula’s weekly free outdoor concert.  There was a band playing country music, vendors selling all sorts of foods and drinks, kayakers playing in the river, and hundreds and hundreds of people hanging out and having a good time.  Plus, since the sun goes down at 10pm here, there was plenty of time left to hang out before I needed to head back to my tent.

Some other fun things that I’ve done in Missoula:

– I went to an outdoor screening of the movie “Whalerider”.  I was particularly proud of myself for attending this event, because even most of the locals weren’t aware that this was going on.  During the summer, they project movies on the side of a local elementary school every Saturday night.  People just sit in the grass, eat, drink, and watch the movie.  It reminded me of Stern Grove in San Francisco.  I found out about this event after chatting with a guy at Bernice’s Bakery, which is a popular little coffeeshop near the University.

– I visited the headquarters of Adventure Cycling Association.  ACA is a not-for-profit group that advocates bicycle touring at various levels of government, develops bicycle maps (like the ones I’m using) and publishes a magazine about touring around the world on bike.  I’ve been a member of the association for a few years, and their magazine has always chewed at my wanderlust, so it was a really cool experience for me to meet the people who run the show.  Good people.  They took a picture of me and put it on their wall o’ cyclists.  On their billboard, there was an ad for a 150 mile bicycle race on Saturday.  I tried to sign up online, but registration had already closed.  In retrospect, that may have been a good thing…  150 miles is pretty far.

– I went whitewater rafting yesterday (Sunday).  Man, that’s one of the best ways to spend a nice sunny day.  I, along with 4 others in my raft, got dumped into a set of rapids called “Fang”.  I was positioned in the front left side of the raft.  We hit a big wave which sent the right side of the raft up into the air several feet.  Before I knew what was happening, the people on the right side of the raft fell straight down on top of me and knocked me over the side with them.  It was pretty scary for a few moments while we were crashing through the rapids with just our life vests on, but I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat.  Our raft also literally ran over a kayaker, which was really scary, because she didn’t come up for about 7 seconds.  However, she was fine, albeit a bit shaken up.

– While in Missoula, I have seen a beaver and her baby building a dam.  I also saw a Bald Eagle while rafting.  Bald Eagles are every bit as majestic looking in real life as they are on TV (or US currency).

 

I’m meeting up with Tori in Ft. Benton, MT, on July 2nd.  Ft. Benton is only a few days away from Missoula, so I’ve had some time to kill here, which has been a nice break.  However, I depart tomorrow.  I’m hoping to watch a minor league baseball game in Great Falls on Friday night.    

 

Tags: Travel

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