August 29 - Lolo Pass - It’s about the Ride, not the Destination

For me today was about finding colors in unexpected places – the sun-drenched yellow fields near New Meadow Idaho, the deep green water of the Salmon River, the blackened burnt plots of land near Lukes Gultch Road, and the pink and purple sunset on the Montana horizon. My objective today was to ride highway 12 across Lolo Pass from Idaho to Montana. But today was a great reminder to me that it really is about the ride not the destination.

I left Boise Idaho early this morning, taking state route 55 north past Lake Cascade to the town of New Meadows. The ride was beautiful, with blue skies above, bright yellow fields of grass, and the brown and caramel colored gently sloping hills I had seen on my rides the previous two days. I had a sense of anticipation about riding Lolo Pass as many people had recommended it to me over the last two years.

After gassing up in New Meadows, I headed towards the small town of Lowell, the starting point for the route to Lolo along highway 12. As I headed north on highway 95, I could see the deep green waters of the Salmon River and the dark brown vegetation of the Hells Canyon Wilderness Area surrounding it. It was wonderful following the river with one s-shaped curve after another.

Unfortunately, I had no idea that when I turned on Luke’s Gultch Road my map app was essentially taking me off road for the 15 miles before my gas stop in Kooskia. The road quickly turned to what seemed like hard packed dirt with gravel on top. There was almost no traffic and semis were nonexistent. I suppose I could have turned around. But I had no internet connection and wasn’t sure if my app would be able to re-route me. So, I decided to make the most of it. It was curiously serene, driving alone along a dirt road on my large Harley, on back roads cutting through land that appeared to have recently burnt to the ground.

I finally made it to Kooskia to gas up and headed up Lolo Pass. The pass was indeed beautiful, with thick forests of trees on both sides of the road and the flowing water of the Clearwater River on my right. The funny thing is, though, I completely misunderstood what the pass was about. The river was gorgeous, but I didn’t stop to take pictures of it as I kept expecting to see mountain peaks. To me a “Pass” means a mountain pass with pronounced peaks such as Beartooth Pass. I did get a picture of the Lolo Peak itself and some beautiful meadows at its base.

After eating in Lolo, I headed west through Montana to start my journey home to Portland. As I reflected on the things I had seen during the day and what I had learned on my trip, the sun started to set in the horizon. At first the colors were pink and purple then as time progressed, they became orange and blue and finally black. Because I was driving towards the setting sun, the sunset lasted for hours. I realized at the end of the day that while Lolo Pass had been my objective, I had actually had more fun on the ride to and from it. It was a great reminder to me that it really is about the ride, not the destination.