This year’s ride participants were Amy Covert, Jon Covert, Quentin Covert, and Ronald C. (with the C. standing for Covert). It was great fun for me riding, sight seeing, and checking out the local eateries with the Covert Clan. I have been on all 25 of the annual summer rides, Quent has been on 21 of them, Jon has been with us the last three times, and this year was Amy’s first ride with us. It was a first for me too in one sense - I’ve never had a passenger on a long trip before. Amy is a very efficient packer and an excellent passenger, with good skills getting on and off the bike (this is when a bike can tip over), and staying neutral when cornering on curvy roads. I hope she didn’t get too tired of my country music playing during six days of riding. Other participants over the years have been Bob M, Carl M, Dale H, Dennie C, Duncan K, Joe A, Merlin O, Ted W, and Jon F, who came along one year in his car.
We did a 6-day/5-night ride into Northern Idaho with a short ride into Montana. We began August 12th in Logan, followed by nights in Ketchum, Salmon, Missoula, Riggins, a return to Ketchum, and ending back in Logan on August 17th. The ride totaled 1,415 miles. We had pretty good weather, with no rain or wind, but it did get hot on a couple of afternoons, and the smoke from fires hindered the far-away views of the mountains. Overall I think we all agreed it was a fun trip. A few of the highlights follow:
DAY 1 - Logan to Ketchum - The photos below are as we were leaving Logan.
We took I-84 out of Utah, and stopped for breakfast at Mollie’s Cafe in Snowville. I wish I had taken photos. The food was great and the service was excellent. Our waitress was the granddaughter of Mollie, the founder, and she had a great sense of humor. We told her we might be coming back through on August 17th and she replied that she would try to take that day off.
We stayed the first night in Ketchum at the Tyrolean Lodge where we had nice accommodations and a great hot tub. We walked to Smoky Mountain Pizza & Pasta where we had a wonderful meal. Someone else probably has a better photo of dinner than mine shown below.
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DAY 2 - Ketchum to Salmon - We rode in beautiful forests through the Sawtooth National Recreation Area and into the Salmon-Challis National Forest to end the day in Salmon, where we stayed at The Stagecoach Inn. The first two photos below are as we are leaving Ketchum.
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As we were walking to dinner in Salmon we saw a couple standing on a bridge about to jump into the Salmon River, flowing quite swiftly below. Sure enough, the guy jumped. He swam to the river’s edge and went back to the bridge and jumped again, trying to convince the woman to join him. But she climbed back over the rail and didn’t jump. Amy & Jon were definitely considering doing this jump, but didn’t do it. Quent claims he would have stopped them.
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We had dinner (and a few margaritas) at Buddy’s and then walked back to the hotel where we spent some time sitting by the river and enjoying the atmosphere.
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DAY 3 - Salmon to Missoula - We rode north across the Continental Divide and into Montana at Lost Trail Pass, elevation 6,995 ft. We rode through the Bitterroot Mountains, with the highway always running along the Salmon River, into Missoula. We stayed at the Broadway Inn, which was nice but we had a difficult time finding it. We ate at the Laughing Grizzly Bar & Grill and watched the sun go down amidst the fire smoke as we walked back to the hotel.
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DAY 4 - Missoula to Riggins - We rode back into Idaho on Highway 12 over Lolo Pass and along the Lochsa River. We were just a little over an hour out of Missoula when we decided we should find a gas station. We turned off the highway at the first indication of gas being available and discovered the Locsha Lodge, a small four-season lodge with a friendly and cozy atmosphere located along the Lochsa River. All of us were impressed with this place and thought someday we should come back. We had coffee, Amy bought a Locsha Lodge T-shirt, and we had some interesting conversation with a few of the guests.
Further down the road we found a pullout that included a small fern garden with a path and signs identifying the various plants. While we were there Quent decided to put on his chaps for warmth. The first photo below shows how well he has trained his kids to help him out.
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About lunch time we came into a town called Kooskia. We decided to stop for a sandwich and to find out how to pronounce the name of the town. We ate at the Kooskia Cafe and were told the pronunciation left the “a” off, so it is said “Koosky.”
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We stayed at a really nice hotel, the Salmon Rapids Lodge, in the small town of Riggins. Riggins lies between the two deepest gorges in North America, surrounded by Hells Canyon National Recreation Area to the west and the Nez Perce National Forest and Gospel Hump Wilderness Area to the east. The hotel overlooks the Main and Little Salmon Rivers.
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We walked to downtown Riggins (population 406) and had a great dinner at the Seven Devils Steakhouse.
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One of the trip highlights for me was an opportunity for a good deed in Riggins. As we were walking to town I saw a woman in a grocery store parking lot crying uncontrollably. I asked her what was wrong and she said a man (boyfriend? husband?) had hit her, threw her glasses to the ground, and left. She said one lens had fallen out and she couldn’t see to find it. I told her I would help her find it, and when I was about to give up, I found it laying quite a ways from where she had been looking. Anyway, she was still sobbing when I left, but was very grateful to have her glasses intact again.
DAY 5 - Riggins to Ketchum - We rode south out of Riggins passed Payette Lake near McCall and Cascade Lake near Cascade, all the while riding along the Payette River. As in the prior days, it was beautiful scenery. As we approached the Sawtooth Mountains we stopped at an overlook for a rest (called shaking out your butt). The photo of Amy below has the Sawtooth Mountains in the distant background, camouflaged by fire smoke.
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When we arrived back at the hotel in Ketchum (we stayed at the Tyrolean Lodge as we had on Day 1) we had a cocktail on the patio and then a delicious dinner at Smokey Mountain Pizza & Pasta.
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DAY 6 - Ketchum to Logan - For a little change in scenery, we took a different route back to Logan than we had taken to Ketchum on Day 1. We went east through Craters of the Moon National Monument and through Arco to I-15, then I-15 south back into Utah. I think everyone could “smell the barn” and we only stopped for gas on the way home and we took no photos.
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