Across the street from the Old Montana State Prison,

is the Deer Lodge Art Club.

Dave joined the art club. Today was his day to volunteer. The gallery currently has a showing of wood block prints by Frederick Remington. This one was titled “Thanksgiving Dinner.”

In the back is an artists studio where classes are held or community projects are restored.

When I looked up trails near here, the first trail that popped up was the Great American Rail-Trail. The preferred route of the Great American Rail-Trail connects 145+ existing rail-trails, greenways and other multiuse paths spanning more than 3,700 miles across the USA from coast to coast. And this 1.6-mile section in Deer Lodge is part of that system.

In the background, the Old Montana State Prison. This was a fast photo stop! Mosquitos descended on me.

The southern trailhead.

Suggestion: when the next a bridge is built, lay the planks perpendicular to the path of a bicycle tire. Riding on parallel cracks or grooves is destabilizing for some cyclists.

The northern trailhead. The Old Montana State Prison.

I rode the trail several times, then rode around the downtown area and eventually ended up riding 11 miles.

It is an other worldly landscape. Craters of the Moon National Monument is a 618 square mile lava field in southeastern Idaho.

I stayed in Bellevue at the southern end of Sun Valley. The trail was just across the street.

I rode north toward Ketchum, slightly uphill all the way.

Spur is the name of the sculpture created in 2016 by John Grade. It was inspired by Grade’s visit to Craters of the Moon where he digitally mapped the inside of a lava tube.

It’s motivating to ride to a delicious place to have a coffee and cinnamon roll before heading back.

The ride back was fast, downhill with a slight tailwind. 37 wonderful miles.

A short drive today! Once I turned east and began climbing, the scenery was beautiful. A couple of scenic viewpoints. The road I just traveled:

On the other side of the road after the 5527-foot summit:

I stayed in Bellevue, south of the main touristy area of Ketchum and Sun Valley (the town). Nice hotel, friendly staff,

and a free ice cream from the cutest trailer in their parking lot.

I choose hotels that are close to the trail I want to ride the next morning. Just one intersection to navigate to get to a safe bike path along a really busy road then

down a ramp to the Boise River Greenbelt.

When the “natural path” began, it was time to find the paved trail:

Thank you, Ada County, that 1.6 miles stretch is really bumpy.

A deaf bike rider and I ended up at this spot at the same time. Pretty soon, we were making gestures to each other that these guys are crazy and riding bikes is much better. To get in position to “ride the wave,” you could swim upstream to a ledge or scramble onto the rocks and walk upstream, paddle over and carefully go over the edge and set up. The guy in the red sweatshirt was two-footed jumping from rock to rock.

The northwest section bordered Boise State University:

Great trails, lots of connections on both sides of the river. The trails extend beyond the Greenbelt going all the way to Eagle and south as well. I would ride here again. 31 miles.

Despite a chilly morning, it was a great day to explore a new bike trail. OC&E = Oregon, California, and Eastern: a rail way that served the forestry industry in this area which declined in the 1980s, and was given to the state in 1992.

The trail intersects with A Canal Trail, just 4 miles long, I rode both spurs.

The OC&E is 110 miles long. However, only the first 8 miles to Olene is paved. Three bicycle touring guys on mountain bikes passed me. When they got to the end of the paved section, they weren’t sure where the trail continued on the other side of the road. The guy on the left is coming back to join his buddies. The rest of the trail has varied surfaces, hard-packed dirt, sand, rocks, ranch land and hills; close all gates behind you. No thanks, this is where I turned around.

This farmworker rode his dirt bike out to the field and was moving very long irrigation pipes and hooking them up.

22 miles altogether and I was done by 10:15. Time to load the bike and drive on. Boise ID, here I come.

On Thursday I forced myself to put away the embroidery and started making piles.

By late Saturday morning, I was almost ready to leave.

A 4 1/2 hour drive to Klamath Falls OR. Great referral from Whitney to get pizza from

About a week ago, Adrienne sent me a text, “… Please tell me you’re not camping but staying in lodging.” Oh Ade, I think I’ve finally found my preferred style of bicycle touring. Better than self-contained camp-all-the-time bicycle touring. Better than an RV for sure. Tonight I did not set up a tent or convert a small couch to a bed. I did not hook up the water or cook dinner. Nope.