Sisters To St. Paul

Day 1

Date: July 25, 2005

Route: Sisters, Oregon to Libby, Montana

Distance: 550 miles

Ride Time: 9 hours

Elevation Climbed: Who cares?!?

Weather: Cold to Hot, Ice and Fire

Log:

Four states and a lost hour --- quite a day!

We got up bright and early, 5:00AM, to finish our packing and chores. The nightly irrigation left the lawn covered with ice --- not that unusual in the high desert but still surprising. It’s late July for Pete’s sake!!!! I know it will be in the high 80s this afternoon but we will not be around to enjoy it. As to be expected, everything took longer than planned and we finally pulled out at 10:00AM.

The trip was long but easy. I napped and caught up on email while Jon drove. We traveled through the stunning grasslands of north central Oregon, the desolate wasteland along the Columbia River, the verdant hills and pine forests of Spokane, and the glorious lakes and mountains of northern Idaho and western Montana. It is a little disconcerting to be mentally prepared to ride 4000 miles and to zoom through 550 miles less than 9 hours. This would take me about 7 days on the bicycle! We were transfixed by both the angry clouds of black smoke darkening the horizon from the grass fire near Umatilla and the graceful span of the Cable Bridge crossing the Columbia into Kennewick.

I was waiting for the Welcome to Montana sign since this is a new state for me. It was nowhere to be found. Maybe I can get a picture on our way out. We followed the beautiful Kootenai River the last 20 miles into Libby, Montana. We arrived at 8:00PM to find out it was really 9:00PM! Yikes … now that my clothes and food are ready and this is written it’s way past my bedtime!