Lolo Pass

Tom Juster (right) and yours truly

To give: JON'S MDA DRIVE

I woke up this morning and the first thing I see outside my tent is my old friend Tom Juster, just up from his Idaho home 5 hours south with his wife, Sarah Kruse. We had talked about him joining the ride, but I got messages that he was in the Bahamas, Miami, Los Angeles -- I thought maybe he was hanging with Leonardo di Caprio. He would surely deny that.

Anyway, he made it to my campsite, ready to ride. Because we had Sarah's support, and because there are no rules, we gave her our luggage so we could tackle, unencumbered, the awe-inspiring Lolo Pass, elevation 5225 feet, which would unlock the east for us.

The pass was 12 miles away, but it's an interesting rise that might be said to start almost as far west as Lewiston. Following rivers upstream is a nearly invisible way of getting the rider higher, and from our campground we found it easy going -- for a few miles. Then it began to rise precipitously, with unending increases curling along the side of the mountain. You may think you're near the end -- surely you've done enough -- but no, that supposed endpoint is just a turn that disguises an even more urgent rise.

It was just over 12 miles and it hurt.

Sarah met us at a rest stop at the top, the ever vanishing top, and, after some procrastination and a visit to a nearby field of bright blue quamash flowers, we put our bags back on and sheepishly descended.

There's a lot of Lolos in the area, including Lolo Hot Springs, and we went as far as the town of, simply, Lolo, about 46 miles. Tomorrow, a short ride to Missoula.

Andrew and Suzie

I met my first long-distance riders going my way yesterday. The first was a guy from Minnesota who stays in hotels, gets up at 5 a.m. and does 100 miles a day. Who needs him.

Then I met Andrew and Suzie, who stopped by to see the sodden mass of myself resting by the roadside. We talked about our rides, past and present, and I later camped near them at the Lochsa Lodge campground.

They are remarkable bikers. They met when they were English teachers in Korea and were on a ride together. They hit it off, and in the last several years they've biked the Balkans, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Germany, Denmark and South America. They got married along the way, and are now riding   North America in a 9-month curlicue pattern, touching almost every region, and aiming, finally, for Colorado.

They were planning to ride up to Glacier National Park just for kicks when I last saw them. Kicks.

They were fun to talk to, and you can see more about them at by2pedals.com.

Roadside attraction

Rest stop

Timely warning