Total mileage: 89
Today we descended gradually along the Lochsa River through a beautiful wilderness area. It wasn't totally vacant - there were plenty of cars, a few campsites, and even a historic ranger station, where we stopped to fill up on water. The view was consistently lovely. It looked a bit like this:
A highlight of our day was stopping for lunch at one of the trailheads advertised by signs along the road. The bridge we took across the river to the trail was quite lovely, contributing to the scenery rather than detracting from it.
We ended up climbing diwn the bank and picnicking on rocks right next to the river. As we ate, we watched several cyclists go by! Unusual because we had already seen several that morning. Best of all, we had time to take a dip in the (rather quickly moving) river and sun ourselves on the bridge before continuing on.
 |
| View from our picnic spot |
 |
| Taking a break in Lowell, not too far from Kooskia |
We made it within 11 miles of Kooskia when disaster struck! Well, not really. But Alix's rear derailleur snapped leaving her rather shiftless and stuck in high gear. Unfortunately, because Alix plans a lot of things that she never ends up doing, we didn't have an extra cable with us. So we rode the remaining 11 (flat) miles into Kooskia, hoping that we could hitch a ride to a bike shop the next day.
Further inspection of the map revealed that there wouldn't be a bike shop on route for a couple of days, at least. Inquiries revealed that there wasnt one off route nearby either. And riding without gears wasn't an option since the grade the next day would get up to around 8%! We even used a phone book (yes, they still exist!) at the grocery store to see if any of the hardware stores nearby carried a cable we could use. Negative/unlikely. The employees there were very helpful, but basically told us they didn't think anyone in Kooskia would have extra bike parts.
We headed to the city park rather discouraged. We were pleased, however, to find LOTS of people in the park (mostly kids, participating in a game night). The park itself was lovely, too, being located right along the river. A nice place to break for dinner and make plans for hitchhiking the next day!
As we got out our food for dinner, we decided to ask a group of women sitting near us if they knew anyone in town who might be able to help us. It turned out that they were the town's Saddle Club, having a meeting. "Hmm, not off the top of my head," one woman said, "but let me make some phone calls." We waited until their meeting was over and she called a friend in a nearby town who liked to bike.
Four or five phone calls after that, she had tracked down the two people in Kooskia who might know something about bikes. I was pretty amazed by her dedication to the task, and the speed with which you can get these things done in a small town (thank you, Louise!!)! A man named Lucky came over right away to check out the situation. He returned a bit later with a spare cable, but it wasn't quite long enough to fit the bike. He told us that a guy named Greg would probably have what we were looking for. Louise had called Greg already, but he wouldn't be free until around 9.
It was dark by the time Greg showed up at the park, wielding a whole bucket full of cables and tools. After a few tries, we finally found a cable that was long enough! Installing it wasn't a problem at all, and we got Alix's shifting working in no time. We were so, so grateful to him for coming to help us out! And, of course, he didn't charge us anything for the cable. We were totally floored that we could just ride out of there the next morning. To Greg and Lucky and Louise, and all the wonderful people we talked to in Kooskia, ID: thank you, thank you, thank you!! We genuinely thought that fixing the bike that evening would be impossible, but y'all made it happen. You are now at the top of the list of Alix's favorite towns on the TransAm.
No comments:
Post a Comment