Over the hill - Day 15: Wilderness Gateway to Lolo Hot Springs

Everyone woke up with thoroughly soaked gear just from condensation, which added a bunch of weight as we approached what would be the biggest climb I’d seen so far. Bart and I were the fastest of the group and made it to Lochsa Lodge, before the real climb at Lolo Pass, around 12 or 1. We spread our stuff out on the lawn to dry and sat down to eat and wait for Ian, Tom, Ethan, and Jon, who arrived in that order. Apparently there is also a Trans-America bike race going on, because an Italian guy came in looking like a zombie and Bart, starstruck, walked over to get his name and help him with whatever he needed. The Italian looked more interested in calories than discussing gear and signing autographs, though.

Since we made the lodge early, most of us decided to attempt to cross the pass today and make for Lolo Hot Springs on the other side. Ian stayed behind, making the good point that we’d get to Missoula tomorrow either way, but I couldn’t be left behind and hot springs sounded very appealing. I spent the next several hours in my lowest gear, racing rapidly-building thunderheads to the top of the pass. I made it to the top just ahead of Bart and hung out in the visitor’s center to eat and rehydrate. Another racer showed up, Andrej from Slovenia, who was much more talkative than the Italian guy. He posed with Bart for a picture and accepted a food bar or two, technically against the rules of the race. I liked that his bike had a lot of cheap components that I recognized from my own preparation research on Amazon. Tom and Ethan arrived before we headed down the pass to Lolo Hot Springs on the Montana side of the border. Jon arrived just as we left, due to time spent taking pictures and actually enjoying things.

The thunderclouds kept threatening us but never materialized. We made it to the hot springs and ate in a large, empty bar room that looked like a disused set for a wild-west movie. It included a sign with a revolver mounted to it that said “We don’t dial 911 here”. I talked to Richard from The Netherlands and Jeff from the US, who were headed the other way. Bart treated the New Yorkers and I to passes into the hot springs, which felt great after the big climb.

We camped across the street in a large, empty field, so I decided to practice my full camping setup for the first time since SOAK, including an A-frame made from a tarp and my overturned bike. This proved to be a very good decision when the thundershowers finally hit. I was very excited to see my equipment hold up to a deluge like that without any problems. Once the thunder died down, I was able to get to sleep.

Here's Ethan arriving at the hot springs:



Here's the tent setup I was so excited about. The bag sticking out is a waterproof bivy: