Interesting People

Every once in a while we all get the experience of meeting some truly interesting people.  Sometimes this occurs in places or at times when you least expect it.  This happened to me this weekend with two individuals.

The first was Joze from Slovenija.  I was coming home on my motorcycle when I passed him on the highway by my house.  He was parked by the side of the road looking at a map.  This picture was from his blog.  I turned around to see if I could help.  This lead to a half hour conversation.  He had completed a trip across the USA from Florida to California  a year ago and now was doing the same thing heading west along the US/Canadian border area.  When I met him he was looking for a way west other than the freeway.  I told him it was his lucky day as the paved rail trail "Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes" was just two miles down the highway.  It heads west paralleling the freeway for 35 miles. We then talked about his adventures, bicycles, joys of retirement and travel.  Boy, am I ever glad I turned around and stopped.

One of my favorite pastimes is mountain biking the Hiawatha Trail, another rail trail in the area.  I try to ride it every few weeks in the summer as it's great exercise.  This 13 mile trail is just incredible.  It winds through the mountains along the Idaho/Montana boarder passing over 7 trestles and through even more tunnels.  This first tunnel, the Taft Tunnel, is 1.66 miles long.  I usually ride down for 10 miles, have lunch on the Clear Creek Trestle, where the view is spectacular, and then ride back up.  I should mention that it isn't flat but at a 3 percent grade making for an easy ride down and a bit of a workout up.  Most folks just ride downhill to the other end of the trail where there is a shuttle (converted school buses) that takes them back up to the top using forest service roads.  On this trip I met Dick and his wife, Loula at Clear Creek where they also where heading back up.  We kept passing each other end eventually just road together.  Loula, and especially Dick were from the area, and I do mean, from the area.  Dick's parents worked on the railroad where they lived next to the Taft Tunnel, what now is the parking lot for the trail.  The picture is of Dick standing next to a information sign with a drawing of him and his brother.  The foundation in the background used to be his house.  Since he and Loula ride the trail most weekends in the summer I'm hoping to meet up with them again.  By the way, they met riding the school bus together to St Regis.  They've known each other since grade school.  Loula is from De Borgia Montana, a small town about half way to St Regis from Taft.