Lincoln to Great Falls

Wednesday, June 25, 2003

Westbound: Missoula to Lincoln Eastbound: Great Falls to Stanford

Slept in a bit, had breakfast, packed, and then decided to thank my friend at the grocery store for her kindness. Walked over, found her, met her husband, and promised to let them know if I got to D.C. on time. By the time I was rolling through the center of Lincoln, I saw I’d had a few more choices for food but none seemed compelling. Spotting the Subway, however, suggested the utility of carrying lunch. Alas it was not yet open, but that changed while I was tending to another chore and off I went with my foot long Spicy Italian.

Blackfoot River near Roger’s Pass

The road was level and uncrowded for quite a while. The Blackfoot River was often in sight to the right. The weather was fine. I had no reason to regret choosing MT 200.

Eventually I came to the steeper approach to the pass. While the climb was work, the greater problem was the loss of shoulder and narrowing of the roadway. I was lucky, there was almost no traffic. In fact, unlike other cyclists, I can’t recall any encounter with a logging truck the entire journey.

The climb is not long, and I could see my progress as the ridges to the right and left appeared lower and lower. Eventually the road emerged to a more open area, albeit still with trees, and I could see the sign announcing the pass not far ahead.

I also saw another cyclist on the other side of the road. As I approached, I called out, “Got a camera?”

“Yep, do you?”

A major milestone.

Clay from Chehalis

Clay was a school teacher from Chehalis, Washington, about fifty miles and three hours (by bike) from my home on the way toward Portland. He was on the second day of a tour from Great Falls to Seaside, Oregon, on the coast a bit south of the Columbia River’s mouth. I’d skipped the last week of school. As a full-time teacher he had to finish the year, but he had cleared town as soon as he could.

We exchanged cameras, took the pictures of each other in front of our respective signs, and chatted about this and that, both touring and teaching, until clouds brought light rain. He opted to redon his rain gear and I opted to head downhill on the “dry side.”

The down hill ride had just enough switchbacks to make me cautious so it was free of work but not a particular thrill for me. I don’t mind 35 mph on straight segments but curves and 40 mph both exceed my current comfort zone. On the other hand, since I have reduced expectations for the down hills, it may be that I feel less of an investment in the up hills. When discussing this same hill a few weeks later, another cyclist’s eyes just lit up with the memory of his descent.

Once off the steep part, there is a stretch of nice road with an assisting descent. For a while, I made really good time and had hopes of an earlier, comfortable arrival in Great Falls. The clouds had not survived the lost of altitude, the sky opened up, and I could see great distances. I thought what a shame Lewis and Clark hadn’t known about this pass. It would have saved them months.

And then reality set in. Scale matters. From space, according to my Photo-Atlas of the United States, the terrain between the foot of the pass and Great Falls looks nearly flat. We now see why photo interpretation is a skilled profession. On the ground, there is an extensive stretch of up and down. Repeated climbs of 200 or 300 feet are part of cycling but after more than a dozen, they do get tedious.

As 1 pm came and went, I began to hope for a gas station or convenience store to restock beverages. I’d eaten half my sandwich before the pass. I was now ready for the other half and hoping for a cool drink and a little shelter from the wind. Eventually I saw the signs promising the intersection of US 287. At once a two-fold hypothesis sprang in my mind. A US highway suggested at least enough traffic to justify the gas station I sought. And rational road builders would place the US highway at the foot of these foothills. The end of these annoyances could be nigh! Again, a faith-based expectation.

Nice hypotheses; contrary observations. Sincerity don’t cut the mustard. The intersection brought instead a bar with a wide variety of cold, 12 ounce, soft drinks and a porch that provided some shelter. I had a drink, finished my sandwich, and learnt that I was more than halfway through these hills but not near their end. The bar was not a bad substitute for a convenience store. The expectation of more up and down had no mitigation.

The prediction of more hills proved true, but lunch, a drink, and rest helped. Eventually, I came out on the bottom and soon reached communities clearly based on farming. With that came flatter roads and much more traffic.

Down on the flat, I was in terrain much more friendly to my recumbent than all that climbing had been and started going much faster. It felt great to be touring at 18 mph. Until. . . Until, I started to feel a twinge in one knee because I wasn’t spinning properly. So I changed gears and backed off the speed. Maturity, or at least age, had reared its grizzled head yet again.

In time I reached Interstate 15 and had a slight confusion until I confirmed that I actually needed to go south on the Interstate to reach Great Falls. The actually direction is much more easterly but the logic of the sign was accurate even if I hadn’t remembered the layout. The initial miles on I 15 were a perfect illustration of how the Interstate can be safer than alternatives. I could see a service road to the right. I could also see that the service road had no shoulders and served significant traffic. On the highway, I had a wide lane to myself. On the service road, I would have had to impede local traffic to our mutual discomfort.

Glenn Elert had written about the shoulder disappearing on the Interstate in Great Falls and I watched for that. For me, part of the issue was also occasionally ugly rumble strips. And one of the early bridges on the way toward the City presented a challenge. I think that might have been the bridge Glen described. For experienced highway riders, I think it’s tight but ok. For the faint of heart, well you might not be on the Interstate anyway. I do, however, recommend getting off the Interstate at the first downtown exit rather than the third because the shoulder between the second and third exits was quite bad and dirty.

When I reached the exit that would take me a few more miles to the Super 8, I saw a sign for Airway Motel at a very attractive rate per night. I could see a big shopping center nearby with at least some food choices. I was tired, I was hungry, I was cheap. I rolled on in. Dinner was pizza and beer next door at a Casino.

A cell phone strong signal also allowed a large dump of email etc. This experience was an excellent illustration of the burden of spam. My ISP will store only so much stuff before it gets annoyed. My desktop machine usually gets the mail every 20 minutes and I clear out the spam several times a day. When I delete the message locally, Eudora takes it off the server the next time it signs on. That keeps the server happy. With my filters, I don’t lose too much time to the sorting process.

On the road, however, I don’t get the new stuff every 20 minutes and cannot clear it out several times a day. Having had some difficulty in Missoula and ere I had not gotten stuff for days. It took a while at 14k wireless. Later, I learned from Qwest that my ISDN service at home entitled me to dial up access across the country and that Qwest had dial up numbers in a huge number of locations. But that’s part of another diversion. In the meantime, I was pleased to catch up using the cell phone.

While the Airway is not the most elegant establishment, it sufficed and its location was good.

87.12 miles in 7:32 on the bike for an average of 11.5.

Westbound: Missoula to Lincoln Eastbound: Great Falls to Stanford