The Loneliest Road in America

I am touring by bicycle from Sandpoint, Idaho to Bishop, California. I hope you enjoy reading about my trip! Turn-by-turn directions for my route appear at the end of this blog. I took photos along the way. You will find these photos at the end of this blog.

Detours and Delays

I am the type of bicycle tourist who likes to plan things. It is nice to wake up each morning knowing exactly where I’m headed and what route I will be following. On the other hand, spur of the moment excursions have provided some of my very best bicycle touring experiences.

Most of these “off the beaten path” touring adventures have been the result of detours caused by road construction. On one trip, for example, I encountered a tunnel along the Blue Ridge Parkway which was blocked because the tunnel’s ceiling had collapsed. The resulting two day detour allowed me to visit cities near the parkway which I had not previously visited. By the time I returned to the parkway, I had washed my clothes at a laundromat and had purchased groceries. I was grateful for the detour! Initially, I am always dismayed by detours. Then, after the detour, I am usually delighted by the new places I am able to visit!

My current change in travel plans is the result of six weeks spent in Sandpoint, Idaho working with a machine shop to design and build a high quality bicycle cargo trailer. Normally, I depart Sandpoint in the middle of August and then bicycle across the North Cascades and down the Oregon Coast during the dry season. It is now early October, however, and there is a decided chill in the air. Morning temperatures are in the thirties. It might be snowing in the North Cascades. It is likely to be cold, wet, and miserable along the coast. I decide it will be far better to head south into Nevada and then rejoin my usual route in Bishop, California. Hopefully, the weather will be dry and sunny in the Nevada desert!

October Skies

I depart Sandpoint on October 7th. It is a bright, sunny, and very cold morning. I head east on Hwy 200. This part of the route is familiar because I am backtracking along the route I followed on my way into Sandpoint. Hwy 200 follows the shoreline of Lake Pend Oreille. The lake and the fall colors are absolutely breathtaking!

Ice Dams and Submarines

I stop to read a historic marker next to Lake Pend Oreille which describes the geological events that formed the lake. The lake is surrounded by mountainous foothills. During a distant ice age, glaciers formed on these foothills. As things began to melt, enormous quantities of ice began to pile up in the valley below. Eventually, with an otherworldly rumble, the ice dam broke and the resulting flood gauged out the lake. Lake Pend Oreille is 1,150 feet deep in places and has been used to test submarines! All these events seem very distant from this peaceful fall morning!

Rivers and Highways

For the next three weeks, I travel alongside rivers. First, I follow the Clark’s Fork River through the Cabinet Mountains. Then, I travel alongside the Bitterroot and Salmon rivers. I love riding next to rivers! The scenery is beautiful, the sound of flowing water is peaceful, and the pedaling is easy. The water seeks the path of least resistance. Whether you are pedaling upstream or downstream seems to make little difference. Either way the pedaling seems almost effortless!

Hwy 200 follows the Clark’s Fork River to Missoula. In Missoula I turn south onto Hwy 93 (Reserve St.). Reserve St. is very pleasant to ride on because there are nice wide bicycle lanes on both sides of the highway. There is an REI store on my right shortly after I turn onto Reserve St. I stop and buy a new Thermorest Pro Plus sleeping pad. I also enjoy a latte at the Starbucks inside the Target Store on the opposite side of the highway from REI. The seating area in the Starbucks has electrical outlets where I charge all my electronic devices.

I head south on Hwy 93 towards the town of Lolo. There is excellent stealth camping all along the way. There is even a paved bike path next to Hwy 93 from Lolo all the way to Hamilton as I continue south. I am now in the Bitterroot Valley. There are lots of pine trees. I begin following the Bitterroot River. I enjoy watching the fly fishermen along the river. Distant mountains are topped with snow.

Between the towns of Darby and Salmon there is a major climb. Signs announce “Chain Up Area Ahead.” The climb takes about two and a half hours. Even though it is very cold, I am soon soaked with sweat. The roadsides are covered with snow and there are occasional patches of ice on the road. At the Lost Trail Summit I cross into Idaho from Montana.

The descent is much worse than the climb. It is very cold and my hands are numb from gripping the brakes. I have to be constantly on guard to let up on the brakes whenever I cross an icy patch! There aren’t too many things I’m sure of, but one thing I AM sure of is that narrow road tires and ice don’t mix! I only make it about half way down the mountain when darkness forces me to stop and camp. It is going to be a very cold night! I snuggle into my down sleeping bag wearing my down vest and my wool socks!

The next morning, I continue south on Hwy 93. I follow the Salmon River to the town of Salmon and then on to the town of Challis. The terrain becomes very dry and desert like. Golden cottonwood trees line the river banks. The clear waters of the Salmon River sweep around the massive, tawny flanks of the foothills. The sparkling rapids flash silver in the clear, blue-green waters. If you were to ask me at this moment what is the most beautiful bicycle ride in all of America, I would surely answer, “Along the Salmon River near Challis, Idaho!”

The Snake River Canyon

After passing endless fields of potatoes, I approach Twin Falls, Idaho. The terrain is flat and somewhat monotonous. I am completely unaware that I am approaching one of the most magnificent scenic overlooks in all of America. The Perrine Bridge takes me over the Snake River Canyon. The view from the bridge is absolutely awe inspiring!

On the other side of the bridge, there is a monument commemorating Evel Knievel’s unsuccessful attempt to jump the mile wide canyon on a rocket motorcycle. Some of Knievel’s supporters erected the monument with a carved likeness of the rocket motorcycle in honor of their hero. The monument is engraved, “Robert ‘Evel’ Knievel: Explorer, Motorcyclist, and Daredevil. Attempted a mile-long leap of the Snake River Canyon on September 8, 1974 employing a unique Skycycle.” I turn away from the monument and take another look at the immense canyon. Evel Knievel was a very brave man!

The Great Affluence Fallacy

My bicycle touring lifestyle is relatively simple. Everything I own fits in my bicycle trailer. Nevertheless, I am amazed by my constant neediness. I need food and water. I need clean clothes. I need a bath everyday. I need a warm, dry place to sleep. It never ends! If I don’t pay attention, for example, and run out of propane, how am I going to cook my meals? No soap, no bath. No water, no anything. Virtually every morning, while I am cooking breakfast, I take inventory. What do I need besides water? Paper towels? Half & Half? Coffee? Olive oil?

When I return to civilization, it gets even worse! Every additional material possession requires attention and maintenance. A car must be washed and requires regular oil changes. Grass must be mowed. Houses must be cleaned. It continues on and on in this vein like some exquisite form of madness!

While I am pondering this grim state of affairs, I read an astonishing article in the New York Times by David Brooks entitled “The Great Affluence Fallacy.” Here is a brief excerpt from this article:

“In 18th-century America, colonial society and Native American society sat side by side. The former was buddingly commercial; the latter was communal and tribal. As time went by, the settlers from Europe noticed something. No Indians were defecting to join colonial society, but many whites were defecting to live in the Native American one.

This struck them as strange. Colonial society was richer and more advanced. And yet people were voting with their feet the other way.

The colonials occasionally tried to welcome Native American children into their midst, but they couldn’t persuade them to stay. Benjamin Franklin observed the phenomenon in 1753, writing, “When an Indian child has been brought up among us, taught our language and habituated to our customs, yet if he goes to see his relations and makes one Indian ramble with them, there is no persuading him ever to return.”

During the wars with the Indians, many European settlers were taken prisoner and held within Indian tribes. After a while, they had plenty of chances to escape and return, and yet they did not. In fact, when they were “rescued,” they fled and hid from their rescuers.

Sometimes the Indians tried to forcibly return the colonials in a prisoner swap, and still the colonials refused to go. In one case, the Shawanese Indians were compelled to tie up some European women in order to ship them back. After they were returned, the women escaped the colonial towns and ran back to the Indians.

Even as late as 1782, the pattern was still going strong. Hector de Crèvecoeur wrote, “Thousands of Europeans are Indians, and yet we have no examples of even one of those aborigines having from choice become European.”

This strange tale demanded an explanation! Not for a moment had I ever imagined, while watching the John Ford movie, “The Searchers,” for example, that Natalie Wood would have preferred for John Wayne NOT to rescue her! I suppose I had always blithely accepted the Hollywood version of American history. It was time to dig a little deeper. I highly recommend that you read David Brooks’ very fine article. (Simply search for “The Great Affluence Fallacy” on Google.)

As I write this blog, I have been touring America by bicycle and living outdoors for seven years. During my time on the road, I have come to realize that civilization is not all it is cracked up to be. It is the small things that are most telling. Since I use only two pots, one plate, two cups, and one spork while cooking, it takes me less than five minutes to wash dishes. There is no bathroom to clean because there is no bathroom. It never requires more than one load of laundry to wash my clothes because I only have three sets of clothes. I am used to cooking sitting down. When I return to civilization and cook in a normal kitchen, I am disheartened by all the walking back and forth! The waste of water at every turn is outrageous! Where is the fresh air? Why can’t I hear the birds? Honestly, I stress out at the mere thought of “retiring” from bicycle touring and returning to a more conventional life!

I want to emphasize that I am not advocating that you attempt to become self-sufficient. Such an attempt is likely to require even more work! The efficiencies achieved by civilization are not to taken lightly! Do you really want to spend all your time trying to grow your own food? It is far better to embrace new technologies, in my opinion, especially when they offer opportunities for making our lives simpler and better. My lightweight tent, high tech bicycle clothing, and Kindle Paperwhite are indispensable tools for which I am exceedingly grateful! I am simply advocating that we are more likely to enjoy life if we spend more time outdoors. We are also more likely to enjoy life if we do our best to live simply with fewer material possessions.

Tumbleweed Terror

It is so beautiful riding across Nevada in October! It feels like you are on another planet! Nevada has a surreal beauty that is almost beyond belief! It takes time to adjust to Nevada’s unusual terrain. Whichever direction you head in Nevada, you will be crossing rugged mountainous terrain. In between the mountain passes are vast, incredibly flat valleys. These valleys have names: Ruby Valley, Butte Valley, Steptoe Valley, Railroad Valley, etc. While you are crossing these valleys the highways are perfectly straight and recede into the distance. This general pattern repeats itself again and again.

One evening, I walk away from the highway into the empty, unfenced desert to find a camping spot. I stop for a moment and look back at the highway. I am no more than fifty yards from the highway. The passing trucks seem to be floating by in slow motion! The sound of passing traffic seems strangely muffled! I can only surmise that these strange effects are somehow caused by the thin, extremely dry atmosphere.

In the town of Ely, Nevada, Hwy 93 joins Hwy 50 for a short stretch. Check out Hwy 50 in your road atlas. You will see that it is labeled “The Loneliest Road in America.” It must be very lonely indeed, because Hwy 93 from Wells to Ely is quite lonely! Hwy 6 from Ely to Tonopah is even more lonely! I am barely able to restrain myself from turning onto Hwy 50 in order to see for myself just how lonely it is! “The Loneliest Road in America” inspired the title for this blog.

Powerful head winds occur frequently. Powerful tail winds are so rare, however, that they are definitely worth mentioning! One afternoon in Nevada, I have an incredible tail wind! I am cruising along doing about twenty miles per hour!

Tumbleweeds are so light they travel at about the same speed as the wind. Sometimes they clump together to form giant tumbleweeds. Some of these giant tumbleweeds can be six feet in diameter! I am beyond startled when a giant tumbleweed overtakes me from behind, runs up my back, and continues straight on down the highway! No harm done, however, other than a pounding heart and a few strands of tumbleweed sticking out of my bicycle helmet!

Alien Runways

One afternoon, as I am crossing Nevada, I stop in a dusty rest area. A young man walks over from a car parked nearby, gestures at the eerie landscape which surrounds us and which happens to look almost exactly like photos from Mars that I have seen, and asks me if I think there is alien life in the universe.

Whenever anyone asks me this question, my first thought is always that WE exist and that WE are aliens to all the other life forms that are possibly out there! The profusion of life on planet earth suggests there most likely is lots of life in the universe, especially considering the vast size of the universe. I replied along these same lines. My young questioner seemed very pleased with my answer!

Carl introduced himself and explained that he and his father were traveling around America and were visiting all the alien hot spots, including Nevada. They were planning to hit Roswell, New Mexico on their way home to New Jersey.

Think for a moment what it would be like if YOU were landing YOUR space ship on another planet. Wouldn’t you want to land on a spot that reminded you of home? Of course you would! Nevada looks like the kind of place where an alien would feel at home. Therefore, it is only natural that Nevada is considered an alien hot spot!

Speaking with Carl, I found myself warming to the idea that those long, flat Nevada valleys would be perfect alien runways. Now, before you dismiss all this as utter nonsense, please consider the following close encounter as reported in the New York Times article “Navy Airman and an Object That Accelerated Like Nothing I’ve Ever Seen.”

“Cmdr. David Fravor and Lt. Cmdr. Jim Slaight were on a routine training mission 100 miles out into the Pacific when the radio in each of their F/A-18F Super Hornets crackled: An operations officer aboard the U.S.S. Princeton, a Navy cruiser, wanted to know if they were carrying weapons.

“Two CATM-9s,” Commander Fravor replied, referring to dummy missiles that could not be fired. He had not been expecting any hostile exchanges off the coast of San Diego that November afternoon in 2004.

Commander Fravor, in a recent interview with The New York Times, recalled what happened next. Some of it is captured in a video made public by officials with a Pentagon program that investigated U.F.O.s.

“Well, we’ve got a real-world vector for you,” the radio operator said, according to Commander Fravor. For two weeks, the operator said, the Princeton had been tracking mysterious aircraft. The objects appeared suddenly at 80,000 feet, and then hurtled toward the sea, eventually stopping at 20,000 feet and hovering. Then they either dropped out of radar range or shot straight back up.

The radio operator instructed Commander Fravor and Commander Slaight, who has given a similar account, to investigate.

The two fighter planes headed toward the objects. The Princeton alerted them as they closed in, but when they arrived at “merge plot” with the object — naval aviation parlance for being so close that the Princeton could not tell which were the objects and which were the fighter jets — neither Commander Fravor nor Commander Slaight could see anything at first. There was nothing on their radars, either.

Then, Commander Fravor looked down to the sea. It was calm that day, but the waves were breaking over something that was just below the surface. Whatever it was, it was big enough to cause the sea to churn.

Hovering 50 feet above the churn was an aircraft of some kind — whitish — that was around 40 feet long and oval in shape. The craft was jumping around erratically, staying over the wave disturbance but not moving in any specific direction, Commander Fravor said. The disturbance looked like frothy waves and foam, as if the water were boiling.

Commander Fravor began a circular descent to get a closer look, but as he got nearer the object began ascending toward him. It was almost as if it were coming to meet him halfway, he said.

Commander Fravor abandoned his slow circular descent and headed straight for the object.

But then the object peeled away. “It accelerated like nothing I’ve ever seen,” he said in the interview. He was, he said, “pretty weirded out.”

The two fighter jets then conferred with the operations officer on the Princeton and were told to head to a rendezvous point 60 miles away, called the cap point, in aviation parlance.

They were in route and closing in when the Princeton radioed again. Radar had again picked up the strange aircraft.

“Sir, you won’t believe it,” the radio operator said, “but that thing is at your cap point.”

“We were at least 40 miles away, and in less than a minute this thing was already at our cap point,” Commander Fravor, who has since retired from the Navy, said in the interview.

By the time the two fighter jets arrived at the rendezvous point, the object had disappeared.

The fighter jets returned to the Nimitz, where everyone on the ship had learned of Commander Fravor’s encounter and was making fun of him.

Commander Fravor’s superiors did not investigate further and he went on with his career, deploying to the Persian Gulf to provide air support to ground troops during the Iraq war. But he does remember what he said that evening to a fellow pilot who asked him what he thought he had seen.

“I have no idea what I saw,” Commander Fravor replied to the pilot. “It had no plumes, wings, or rotors and outran our F-18s.”

But, he added, “I want to fly one!”

Turn-by-turn Directions

Here are turn-by-turn directions for my route from Sandpoint, Idaho to Bishop, California. The total mileage is 1,135 miles. Road conditions are excellent the entire way with either full shoulders or acceptable mini-shoulders and with very light traffic.

The summits all range from 6,200 feet to 6,500 feet with the exception of Montgomery Pass which is 7,167 feet. The climbs all have long, straight 4-6% grades. I would describe the climbs as a lot of work but not particularly challenging.

The mileage figure next to each city is the distance from the preceding city. Mileage is calculated from city to city based on Google Map’s routing engine. Numbers in parentheses refer to the page number for the relevant map in the Rand McNally Road Atlas. Once you arrive in Bishop, simply rejoin the route described in my book “Chasing Spring.”

Starting in Sandpoint, Idaho (31)

E 200 Clark Fork, 26 mi

E 200 Thompson Falls, Montana (60), 59 mi

E 200 Plains, 25 mi

E 200 Ravali, 41 mi

E 200/S 93 (Reserve St) Missoula, 36 mi

S 93 Lolo, 12 mi

S 93 Hamilton, 37 mi

S 93 Darby, 17 mi

S 93 Lost Trail Summit

S 93 Salmon, Idaho (30), 76 mi

S 93 Challis, 59 mi

S 75 Stanley, 58 mi

S 75 Ketchum, 61 mi

S 75 Shoshone, 55 mi

S 93 Jerome, 19 mi

S 93 Twin Falls, 16 mi

S 93 Jackpot, Nevada (64), 47 mi

S 93 HD Summit

S 93 Wells, 68 mi

Desert mode from Wells to Ely, make sure all your water containers are full.

S 93 Ely, 138 mi

Desert mode from Ely to Tonopah, make sure all your water containers are full.

W 6 Currant Summit

W 6 Railroad Valley

W 6 Black Rock Summit

W 6 Lunar Crater

W 6 Warm Springs Summit

W 6 Saulsbury Summit

W 6 McKinney Tanks Summit

W 6 Tonopah, 169 mi

W 6 Montgomery Pass

W 6 Benton, California (12), 81 mi

W 6 Bishop, California (15), 35 mi

Here are the photos I took along the way: