I forgot to mention that Drew convinced us to gamble on Priceline.com and got us 2 hotel rooms in Missoula for $66 each (normally $149). They show you the area of town and the amount of stars and the price…but you don’t see the name of the hotel until you buy. I think they are just trying to fill rooms but not expose how disparate they are. In our case, we got a nice Holiday Inn in downtown which was a good deal. I took two showers just to be sure.
Drew read a bit about Rock Creek and got worried about the bears so he bought his own bear spray. We rode out of town on the frontage roads and stocked up at Clinton market. We were worried about I-90 but the shoulder was wide and easy. The right turn onto Rock Creek was a welcome relief. We added a lunch beer to our full packs and found a beautiful spot for lunch and a dip. When my cheddar cheese started melting, we rode on, to pick out our camp site. We chose Dalles because it has the relaxing sound of the swift river.
Drew broke his pole. Bob got more experience – but no fish. Brent lost a few flies but found enjoyment in the river just the same.
After cutting some firewood for us, our neighbor in the campground, Jim, brought over the ingedients for s’mores and we listened to some Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin from my iPhone.
We rode 41 miles.
