At the Snake Pit, our planned route called for us to start going up Thompson's Pass Road. We looked at the Iphone and saw what we thought was an easier route over Thompson's pass that allowed us to go on the Trail of the Couer D'Alene's longer. We were uncertain of the gradient of the new route, which took us up Idaho State Route 4. We voted on which route to take. It was a 2-2 tie so we let the coin flip decide it. The new, shorter route was chosen.

Here we are enjoying ourselves at the start of route 4. Little did we know what awaited us up the road.
After travelling through some old mining villages with such names as "Black Bear" and "Mace" we found this sing up the road. As we had already travelled many miles since the road to Thompson's pass we had no option but to forge ahead on the road and to see if we could pass the closed bridge.


The closed bridge was not an impedement at all and in fact carried us over a beautiful
mountain brook. Our minds were temporarily at peace and we believed we only had a little bit more climbing until we reached Thompson Pass.

Well we climbed and climbed, well over the 4862 ft of Thompson Pass. After a quick look at a Montana Highway Map (this is an oppurtunity for all you Luddites to chime in) we discovered we were traveling over Cooper's Pass 5822 ft. The climb to the top was intense. At first we faced >10% grades with large rocks sticking out of the dirt road. Our weighed down touring bikes were at their limit. At the top we found snow both on the ground and in the sky.

After a brief stay at the top we began to travel down in to Thompson Falls, not knowing how far we had to go or how long we would have usable light.