OMG! Please make the climbing stop!
Luckily we get a break from climbing tomorrow with less than 600 ft of elevation gain and 1500 ft of elevation loss. Yay for the downhill.
Today, after riding along the Clearwater River all day, we successfully made it up and over Lolo Pass, which peaks at an elevation of about 5200 ft (we started the day around 1400 ft). This brought us into the Mountain Time Zone and our fourth state, Montana. It was a beautiful ride along the river and actually not a bad climb with an average grade of 5%. We were all dreading the climb because the route GPS file indicated that there were sections with a grade of 17%, which for maybe 5 seconds is okay, but it wasn’t clear how long we’d be facing double digit climbing. Turns out the GPS file was wrong and it was just a normal 6 mile climb, so we were all pleasantly surprised. (But, I’d still like the climbing to stop for a bit.) It was also a mostly cool and overcast day until we hit the big climb, but even then it didn’t get too hot.
I also decided to downgrade myself today and rode the day with the B group. The last couple of days my legs have been toast so I was spending most of the time riding solo. 103 miles mostly solo is a long and lonely day and uses up way more energy. The B group keeps a really nice pace and they share the work load so I was able to sit in, conserve energy, and only had to pull a few times. The downside, they take a lot more rest stops, but I also got more pictures today because of it.
Oh, and I almost forget. Last night I had an amazing dinner, which I was not expecting since we were out in the middle of nowhere and honestly the people running the place seemed annoyed to be serving us. We first had a cheese plate with pickled asparagus, which I’d never had before and really enjoyed. Then for our main meal I had a salad and a wonderful plate of tofu, quinoa, and steamed veggies. Maybe I was extra hungry so it tasted extra good (I’ve been know to make that mistake, ask me about the burrito after the Santa Cruz Mountain Challenge), but I think it was actually a really good meal.
And I have to say it is really weird to spend two whole days without cell reception, wifi, or TV. I didn’t even know that was possible anymore.
Tomorrow is a short day and we lost an hour moving time zones, so we get a slightly later start time. Breakfast isn’t until 7:30am (instead of 6am)!
Day 9 stats:
distance: 91.4 miles
elevation gain: 4163 ft (significantly less than the route profile indicated)
nutrition:
breakfast: eggs, hash browns, plain yogurt with granola
lunch: PB&J, 1 chocolate chip cookie
post-ride: 1 recovery drink, 1 small coke, kate's real food chocolate cherry bar, banana
gels: 4
bloks: .5
52 oz skratch superfuel, 26 oz zym, 26 oz water
Day 10 details - Lolo Hot Springs to Missoula
planned distance: 37 miles
planned elevation gain: 581 ft (elevation loss 1519 ft)