Lolo Pass

That's very cool.

For those who prefer combining a little strenuous activity with their history, head to Lolo Pass along the Montana-Idaho border.

The Lolo Trail follows a traditional Nez Perce route and stretches roughly 100 miles from the Lolo Hot Springs, Montana into Idaho.

Now, this is where the expedition nearly starved to death in the snow, but hopefully your experience will be a little bit less dramatic.

First night that they were there, um, she's still on East Coast time, so she wakes up at some ridiculous time in the morning, like 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning or something like that, 'cause she's an early riser anyway.

And there is some Airbnb up by Lolo Pass, and I went out to the location.

It's super Squatchy.

It's ridiculous.

As far as our bikes and our saddles, the kids were fine with the saddles, but dad was having a little problem with his sitting.

area, and so we made our way over Lolo Pass into Missoula, Montana, and he was able to get a new bike saddle then.

And my mom and my two sisters... that weren't riding were with us from Eugene to Missoula.

And then my mom and my sister that had been at the Outward Bound camp got on a bus and went back to our house because my mom's parents were taking care of our horses.

I want a little more time to adjust to this whole cycling everyday thing.

So we started looking at alternate routes, and we ended up doing the Lewis and Clark, which kind of brought us through Oregon and into Idaho.

We went over the Rocky Mountains at Lolo Pass, which is one of the lower passes over the Rockies.

Now, it doesn't mean it's low, but it's lower.

They eventually did.

They got through the Lolo Pass, and then they got over to the other side, and then they caught the rivers that flow west from the Rockies, the Snake and the Columbia, and then they made their way and they reached the Pacific Ocean.

That's a little bit of an analogy.

They didn't know how they were going to get to the Pacific Ocean, but they got there.

One night, so where we were, so there's Lockshall Lodge, and I've got something written about here.

So Lockshall Lodge was put there in 19, it's been there since 1929 on the Lockshall River in the bed of Lolo Pass with the Powell Ranger Station right behind it.

Very cool spot.

So we were about over an hour of Logan beating the shit out of the Wagoneer from there in the woods.

And the Lolo Pass was, yeah, it was at least 90 miles in either direction from anything.

We drove about 15 miles to get to Locksaw Lodge.

And then at Locksaw Lodge said next fuel 91 miles.

we did that so that was good and then that was the same day we got the purchase so we're feeling amped up we can

We did it, but, um, uh, obviously, um, The Clearwater River from Missoula to Lewiston, or Lewiston to Missoula.

Lolo Pass is beautiful.

Highway 12, I

believe.

I forget what it was.

Oh, another thing, you know, where they're staying up at Lolo Pass, because we always send people up to Lolo Pass when they come in the shop and say, where should I go Bigfoot? And I said, well, Lolo Pass is good.

This film crew got an Airbnb up there.

And first night, remember I mentioned the woman who doesn't, who gave like a 3% chance that Bigfoots were real? Yeah.

Jeff drives for a living, hauling equipment for a drilling outfit, and in September of twenty twenty-one, he was bringing an empty flatbed back from a job in western Montana to the yard in Lewiston, Idaho.

That means Highway Twelve, over Lolo Pass and down the Lochsa River, and if you've never driven it, it's ninety miles of two-lane through the Clearwater National Forest with the river on one side and the mountain on the other, and no gas, no houses, no cell signal, and no lights but your own.

Daytime, it's about the prettiest road in the country.

Jeff came over the pass at eleven at night.

But yeah, I'd much rather do my walking in the woods when it's warm and dry and not when it's cold and wet.

My very first hunting trip in Montana, Dad and I were up Lolo Pass, and we hiked in, and we pitched a tent, and we woke up to 10, 12 inches of snow.

Um, it had not snow.

It was, there was no snow on the ground when we hiked in and we woke up and we were freezing and cold and wet.