July 7th Holland Lake to Seeley Lake

Holland Lake to Seeley Lake 37 miles

Well, we tried to eat at the famous Holland Lake Lodge for dinner last night,  but they were overbooked. BOO!  Instead, we had a great dinner of tortillas, beans, quinoa and cheese. Oh yeah and a bottle of wine.
More pics here

This sunny beautiful morning started off with me having a flat tire.  Fortunately it was the front, much easier to repair than the rear.
Heading today to Seeley Lake.  This part of the route is apparently famous, or infamous for it's tough(which it was, and very hot) 5.5 mile, 2500 ft total,  climb on a fire road. Then a 4 mile segment on single track covered with rock slides, downfalls, and loose rocks.  Our friends Paul and Russ said they were not going to do this segment because of how rough it was.  And now having done it, I can't believe anyone could ride it with a trailer.  And my very favorite part, it is part of a grizzly habitat restoration project!(yeah!).  Daren reminds me that it is called Grizzly Basin.  Again, no bears to be seen, although, that morning, Sarah saw a black bear strolling across the road leading into the Holland Lake campsites.  It was around 10am.  We think it new that people were frying up bacon around that time.
Daren and I took it slow because of the heat, 90 that day.  On one part of the climb, we came across two guys, we're pretty sure were brothers, cutting up firewood(think Deliverance).  They were as shocked to see us as we were them!  We stopped at many streams to dunk our heads in the icy water, and to refill our drinking
water.
During the single track climb, we were both pretty nervous.  Bears for one, falling off the edge another.  We walked quite a bit around Richmond Peak where this trail is located, then "bushwhacked" the backside which wasn't as close to the edge, but overgrown with young pines that grabbed your handlebars as you went by.
Eventually, we made it to our wide open descent with many humpty dumpty bumps(fu-un!) and 10 miles of mostly downhill.  I need to change my brake pads!
It was another 3 miles to the campground at Seeley Lake.  Daren saved his big crash for right in front of
"Rocky".  He caught his peddle on a post near the camper, then down he went.  Surprisingly, I haven't fallen yet.  I know, I know, now I've jinxed it!

Loraine  brought Silas to us at Seeley Lake, and we had a heart attack dinner at one of Seeley's finest(not so much) diners.