We've reached Washington state! We're down to our last 8 days of riding, and looking forward to wrapping up an awesome tour. The past several days have been incredible. Most of the time was spent through Idaho wilderness area and other areas with poor cellular phone reception, so I've been lacking computer access. The scenary and experiences have been amazing, though.
After leaving Missoula, we had a nice climb up to the boarder of the Pacific and Mountain time zones, which coincided with the MT/ID boarder. We took the Lolo pass, which follows the Lochsa river valley. We camped out twice, were able to see some amazing hot springs, and swim in the ice cold river. Needless to say, we had a blast. After exiting the Lolo pass, we toured into some more rural areas of Idaho, and met some really cool people along the way. We wound up our time in Idaho in Lewiston, which acted as our home base for a rest day. I got to see The Dark Night, and really enjoyed it. We went to a really cool place for lunch the next day (the United Methodist Church we stayed at provided our breakfast and dinner-thanks again!) at a unique local place called Waffles N More, where I had a dessert waffle with ice cream, strawberries and blueberries. I also had several cups of good coffee.
On the ride out today, I enjoyed the scenary very much. I got to see some really awesome geologic formations-the columnar joints continue into Washington, and after that, rolling fields of wheat (amber waves of grain). I've already begun to like Washington very much! I can't wait to see more of the state, and to continue towards Portland. Until then, John