we finally got out of grangeville!!

Hello friends,
This is Amie and I'm writing from a computer at Adventure Cycling headquarters in Missoula!!!
Here's a quick recap of how we got here...

So we ended up spending 3 nights and two full days in Grangeville with the wonderful Asker family. They fed us 5 delicious meals, let us sleep in their house and guest house, and let us take showers and do laundry! Their house overlooks Grangeville and the hills of Idaho from atop a hillside. They also have a pickle ball court (mix between tennis and ping pong) and two awesome elementary-aged kids, Jon and Abby, and a black lab puppy named Brandy.
On our second day in Grangeville, our derailleurs and hangers arrived from Missoula, and we managed to connect with a high school senior named Silas who knows how to fix bikes. We met him at a closed bike shop in town and spent the rest of the afternoon dozing in chairs and watching him fix up our bikes. Finally around 5:15 (4 hours later...) we paid Silas for his efforts and made the trek back up to the Asker's house.
Later in the evening, we made signs for Jon and went to his baseball game (at the same park where we had camped two nights earlier :) We cheered obnoxiously for him and his team until the game was canceled for a spectacular thunder storm passing through.
Back at the Asker's house we had a DELICIOUS dinner of fettucini alfredo, lasagna, salad, garlic bread, grapes, beers, and ice cream!!! Then, completely comatose, we watched the movie up, and passed out.

The next morning we actually did manage to get something of an early start, and we left the Asker's around 8 am. We said goodbye to Jon and Abby, their adorable black lab Brandy, and Mike and Lorrie Asker. Then we went straight for the nearest Conoco station and bought a bunch of donuts, as usual.
We rode a stunningly gorgeous descent out of Grangeville (our new favorite place) into Koosia (pronounced "koosky") where we loaded up on food for the next two days of wilderness.
From Kooskia we hopped onto highway 12, which we heard would be the most dangerous and most beautiful highway of the trip. It follows the Lochsa river for miles and miles, meandering through tall, pine-covered hills. Traffic wasn't bad at all, and we saw several groups of Kayakers heading down the river in the opposite direction. Even though we were heading uphill, it felt very flat and gradual, and we cruised on our bikes all day long, while I hung off the back of the pack and listened to Harry Potter book on tape and my Hill Attack playlist.
We were looking for some hot springs, which we apparently either at mile marker 134 or 143, Mike couldn't remember. Long story short, we ended up biking 107 miles that day, made possible by nice pavement, low traffic, beautiful scenery, perfect weather, an early start, and a decent tail wind. We ended up camping at Jerry Johnson campground, just a mile from the bridge to the Jerry Johnson hotsprings, where we decided we'd go in the morning.
For dinner we scarfed bowls of vegetables and ramen, while the boys made pot after pot of macaroni, and mixed it with whatever they could find. We all ran out of fuel, so we ended up doing some cooking on the fire (Jared collected all the wood, super handy as usual!)

The next morning, we took our time getting out and only bike for about 5 minutes before hitting the bridge that leads to the hotsprings trailhead. We crossed the bridged and hiked for about a mile and a half through the beautiful Idaho wilderness. Jerry Johnson hotsprings are the clearest hotsprings I've ever seen. The water was like a hot tub and there was almost no algae growing in the pool, nor did it stink of sulfur. We spent WAY too long in the hot springs, sitting lethargically and kicking ourselves for not trying to camp there the night before! Jared and Tamara had both purchased inflatable inner tubes at the grocery store in Kooskia and they floated lazily on those, while Jared tried to auction his off for higher and higher prices.
When we finally rallied and decided to head back to our bikes, Tamara and Jared had the brilliant idea of floating down a side stream that poured into the Lochsa near the trailhead we had taken. By side stream, I mean a sizeable, snowmelt river that gushes over boulders... They floated for about 200 yards, then stopped to find a good place to get out.
Chad, chaz and I (who was carrying their clothes) walked from the trail to the bank of the river, to tell them to get out before the river got too rough. They were on the far bank, where they ended up having to hike back and up and walk across in a calmer area.
All the while, I had been sitting, watching them, on a large log that had fallen into the river but was held to the bank as well. Walking across, Tamara's raft ended up falling into the river. As it floated downstream toward me, I saw that it would be caught by the eddy created by the log on which I was sitting. I scooted down the log to try to retrieve the raft before it was swept under, and in doing so tried to use a loose log as an arm support. It tipped straight into the river, followed by my head, and then the rest of my body. Everything about the situation was classically slapstick. Also, I had spent the morning trying not the get the pad of my bike shorts too wet. Now I was floating in a river, pinned to a giant log, still wearing my bike shoes and rain coat... but I got the raft!!! I hauled it out, left it by their pile of clothes, and ran back to our bikes to have a snack, trusting that Chad and Chaz would lead our foolish friends to safety.

FINALLY back on the road after 3 ridiculous hours, we biked up to Powell where we ate lunch at the Lochsa Lodge.
Then we started our climb. About 16 uphill miles to the top of Lolo Pass. Only the last 6 or so were particularly steep. The boys took off (they wanted a nap at the top), and the girls chugged along behind them. About halfway up, my chain broke in half, and I ended up fixing it on the road, where we met a retired couple coming the other way who gave us some help and some cleaner for our hands!
Despite these hardships, we made it to the top, where we snacked and filled up water at their visitors center. We also met a young couple on a bike tour to Seattle wearing Chacos and cargo shorts with a Corona lashed to their front rack... Takes all styles I suppose!
We stopped to get a picture with the "Welcome to Montana" sign, and then booked it down the back side of the pass toward Lolo. We were running late, since we had just entered Mountain Time and lost an hour.
Arriving in Lolo, the girls went straight for Subway and the boys for McDonalds, then we went food shopping, and headed out to find a place to stay. A nearby RV park wanted 30 bucks for the 5 girls to sleep!! So we left and, sure enough, the boys had already found a perfectly suitable backyard.... We set up camp on beautifully manicured grass, and then we ATE. This is usually our evening ritual: decide where we're sleeping, eat dinner, eat dessert, then eat lots of ice cream, then have a bedtime snack, and then have snacks in the tent.

This morning we woke up to a horrible storm outside, as rain spattered our tents and the wind nearly blew them away. (The boys almost went parasailing...) So we decided to pack up rapidly (only took about 15 minutes, record time!) and we headed to the Subway down the road. At Subway we finished the usual morning routine, then put on our rain gear and biked 8 horrible miles on the interstate into Missoula.
Claire, Chaz, and I went to the "Open Road" bike shop (the same one that had mailed us our parts) where we got our bikes nice and fixed up (we had chain, derailleur, and bottom bracket problems). We were helped out by a soft-spoken guy named Arthur who did a great job and didn't charge us a thing for labor!!
Meanwhile, the others did some errands at REI and Walmart.
And that brings us here! Arthur gave Claire and I directions to the Adventure Cycling headquarters. This place is fantastic, they have free ice cream and sodas and computer use! Not to mention tons of information and awesome bike jerseys. Now I'm waiting for the rest of the group to get here so we can have lunch and have our pictures taken, and sign the big book!

The rest of today, we will try to head south (back through Lolo) on highway 93, and see how far we make it.
We are altering our original route from Missoula to West Yellowstone, and we're going to follow what the boys are riding, since they have actual adventure cycling maps that tell us about camping, food, bathrooms, etc. SO, don't be alarmed that we aren't on the planned roads. The new route that we're planning is as follows:
south on highway 93 all the way until it hits the border, then east on highway 43, then right on highway 278, then left on 41 (through Dillon). Then in Twin Bridges we hop on the 287 and take it all the way into West Yellowstone (from Twin Bridges onward the route is the same as planned). We should be there after about 5 days of riding, including today. Then we will spend a few days getting through the park before we part ways with our friends and head through Wyoming.

Hope all is well with you friends and family! So far we're still alive and mostly on schedule. More blogging to come as soon as we can!

PS - Dan's camera has a plastic film over the lens which was recently removed so expect some sparklingly clear pictures in the future :)