Wyoming, Montana, IdahoTuesday, Sep 7
Thompson Pass, Dobson Pass (reminiscent of US 129 in NC/TN), Marent
Trestle (steel railroad trestle), Lolo Pass, the nice town of Mccall ID.
Thompson Pass
- nice road surface - next to zero traffic - decent curves
Spitting out from there we were about to take a left at the intersection - but first a picture stop
Dobson Pass - NFD 456 north of the town of Wallace ID - reminded us of
the US-129 road in TN/NC. Road surface wasn't quite as good, and
it wasn't as long, but perhaps it was the most technical of the roads
for this trip - tight turns, upsweeps, downsweeps. A mix.
These single hitch platform carriers always seem to be 'just barely'
hanging above the pavement. Traffic is doing right about 80 to 85
mph and this thing is jostling about in front of me - but only long enough
for a picture.
Now that is one nice uniform lay of trees (with a train bridge tossed in for good measure).
Click for a larger size (92KB)
OK - so maybe we're getting a bit carried away with the hat - but it's all in good fun.
Marent Steel Trestle (steel replaced an original wooden trestle)
Again, fortunate to have a train coming (we waited about 15 to 20
minutes for it and were entertained by the nice gent that lives on the
property below the trestle)
Video
MRL & Marent Steel Trestle
mrl-marent-trestle-a-(320x240-500kbps).mpg
MPG, 15.6 MB, 3 min 38 sec
This set of pictures starts off Lolo Pass. This is one special
piece of road. From the town of Lolo to the town of Lowell (sign
below) there is a distance of 109 miles. About 90 miles is
all of the same - single road - few to no side roads. Pine trees,
a nice mountain stream, road, curves, curves, curves. The shocker
was the 77 Miles of curves ahead sign - which was at the pass - after
we'd been on it for 30 some miles. After about 70 miles I was
about in overload - I never thought I'd have enough of 1) great
scenery, 2) great road. One trick is that you can't get off - you
have to process on through.
30 miles down - 77 (at least) to go.
Good spot to take a short break.
This is one of the pictures I did some editing on - and it is partially
evident when you know where to look. A few more minutes touching
up and it would be rather hard to spot the edit -
click to see the original - you decide which you'd prefer to look at.
After Lowell we had some additional curves, up and down a valley, then
a ride along a nice plateau - and then we didn't expect it (after
riding in a valley for most of the day) - a long drop down into a deep
valley carved by the Salmon River. A whitewater rafting haven.
Transitioning from the plateau (wide open space to stretch your eyes)
to the long downhill (5 or 10 minutes worth) to the valley floor.
Salmon River
Listed above was the nice little town of Mccall ID. I don't have
any pictures but this was a nice well kept town where Ken and I saw one
fantastic sunset - one that lasted for the better part of 20 minutes
(we left our gear at the hotel and were heading to dinner - neither of
us really wanted to go back and get a camera fearing we'd miss the
thing - but it lasted so long that it would have been possible - 'next
time'). We pulled into a parking lot down at the town
center. In front of us was a beach, sailboats, mountains on the
far side of a good sized lake, just enough of the whispy clouds in the
sky to turn the sunlight into fire. Memorable.