Day 8: Helena to Harlowton

What a great day! The scenery on this day was just beautifull. It doesnt require any words, just enjoy the photo's:

Day 7: Missoula - Helena

After a day of relaxing it was time to ride again. We headed out of Missoula from the Interstate 93. This was not the nicest route but the easiest and quickest. At Garisson we took the exit and started the climb to the Mac Donalds Pass. This was a very serious and heavy climb. The temperature was high again. A reporter from Elenair.com took a picture from me on the pass (second last photo on this link). After the decent to Helena the fun was not over. We had to move to Kim's Marina which meant another 600 feet of climbing.

Day 6: Missoula Restday

Today we enjoyed a restday at the KOA at Missoula. Great to regain some strenght and get things cleaned and so on. The students of the local massage school payed us a visit. Thanks ladies for a nice massage!
Further we were invited by the local bike club of Missoula for some snacks and drinks. Some of their members made a test ride in our velomobiles. Ofcourse the local press payed us a visit. Find more information here

Day 5: Three Rivers Resort to Missoula

What a beautifull cycling day! We started riding in the rain and in the cold! What a difference compared to the last couple of days! Ahead of us was a 90 miles ride to the top of the Lolo Pass, and the decent to Missoula ofcourse but that doesn't hurt your legs anymore. Those 90 miles did!! The beginning was a beautifull ride along the river. No cell phone service, almost no cars and just a beautifull scenery. Me and Maarten were climbing with a nice and easy pace. Then we arrived at the foot of the Lolo pass. We had some lunch there and then started the last far steeper part of the climb. That was quite challenging. The lowest gear was almost not enough, it didnt have anything to do with cycling anymore, rather working your way up to the mountain throwing water over my head every now and then. Finally I reached the top and we headed down with some considerable speeds of around 50 miles/hour. From the foot of the mountain it was something like 15 further miles to the campground in Missoula. And today we have a restday! great after 5 days of riding in a row and covering around 600 miles.

Nice movie!

Checkout this movie that was made when we set off from Portland. The CIBERQuest is also visible several times

Day 4: Hell's Gate State Park to Three Rivers Resort (Lowell)

An easy day only 750 feet of climbing and only 100 miles... easy!
A nice road next to the river going slightly up. Every now and then a bit hilly.
So all in all a very easy and nice day. We took it easy and were at the campsite around 3.00 pm and had some time to swim in the river!

Day 3: Hat Rock Campground to Hell's Gate State Park (Lewiston)

This day was a very serious day on the total schedule. We had to take three serious climbs. Fortunately the gradient was not that big in the beginning of each climb but each end just before the top was quite steep.
I am driving together with Maarten Heckman, my cycling buddy that I have trained with for quite some time. We have the same pace and next to that its nice to have company and to help eachother when something might go wrong. Since this day was expected to be very long and serious we left really early (around 6.00 am). We arrived at the campground at 6.15 pm so not bad at all. The latest participant on this day came in at the campground at only 10.15 pm so it was a real serious physical effort.
Temperatures were extremely high again and in this area there is no shade anywhere. Next to that its pretty deserted so we had to plan ahead for water and food often. But we made it, our support people (Maarten's wife Winda and my father Jacques) help us very good. They put up tents, cook, buy groceries and so on. Most of the riders need to do that themselves. After a day of more then 12 hours of cycling that can be pretty tiring. On this day we rode 240 Kilometer (150 miles) again, we climbed in total 4500 feet.

Day 2: Cascade Locks to Hat Rock Campground

This was the first day of serious riding. For the biggest part of this day we headed out on the I84. We were confronted with some serious heat! Around 95 till 100 degrees was something thats quite shocking for a dutchman that just left from a cold climate. I drank a serious amount of water, cola's, milshakes and some more. On this foto a nice view on mount Hood:
Total distance was around 240 kilometer (150 miles). We ended up at Hat Rock Campground in Hermiston. Some riders got in very late and some didnt make it at all and needed support from the support truck that we have with us.