Day 52-1st and Goal

We said: Nice relaxing day in Baker City. Sharon took a bike ride on some nice bike paths in town. Played cards and read by the pool, went for a swim, watched some football, and just rested up for the last 400+ miles or so. Should be in Florence to dip the tire sometime on Friday if the weather and everything else cooperates.

Met our new traveling companions at the hotel last night. We figured they'd be helpful on the trail.

Cooking up dinner on the Oregon Trail.

Day 51-We are in Oregon-Paul's wearing his disguise

She said: It was a beautiful morning in the campground. We packed up our site, ate breakfast, and took off for the Oregon border. It was only a few miles down the road, so after our mandatory border picture we agreed to meet in Halfway, OR. We still haven't figured out halfway to where? We were still riding in Hell's Canyon most of the day, the mountains are close and for the most part it is very dry. When we left Halfway I noticed a house all by itself at the top of one of the mountains. As I wound my way through and up the canyon I spotted the house down below-nowhere to get a good picture from up top-there never seems to be a good place to pull off the road to get a photo. I guess it's hard enough to get the road in on the side of the mountain-no room for extra "pull off" space! Saw 2 mama elk each with 2 fawn (I think that's what you call a baby elk) on the side of the road. There were Jersey barriers where they had stopped and it was something to see those babies jump those barriers like nothing. We ended the day out of the canyon and into more flat land as we approached Baker City. On the Oregon Trail now. We are staying at the Oregon Trail Motel (can you sense the theme). We will be taking a rest day tomorrow, so we went to the movies tonite. it was an old fashioned movie theeater, with a marquee outside with flashing lights and everything. when we left there was a young couple leaving in front of us. they got on their bikes and were off. What a treat. The weather seems to be in our favor for a good week-it was sunny and 90 today.
He said: we were about 4miles from pacific coast time when we left so we gained an hour very early. the campground we stayed in was great. owned by idaho power, it had great bathrooms, showers included and we were right on the water. no bugs either.played nertz, with sharon winning and the competition drawing closer. talked to a gentleman from astoria oregon who had been a longshoreman there. todays ride was nice early, as we were in the canyon with the snake river and all the crappie fishermen (they weren't crappy fishermen, that is what they were fishing for, whatever that is). first stop was Halfway. i wanted to ask someone what two locations it was halfway between but got to talking to a local guy and forgot to ask. you want to see the hunting around here. elk, deer , wild goats, cougars, wildebeasts and yaks.the cougars even come into town so you have to keep an eye on your pets. the rest of the day was pretty uneventful as far as riding goes. we settled in Baker city for tonight and a day off tomorrow. have to clean and oil the bike andget ready for the final push next week. sharon has decided that she would like to try and ride her bike home so i said go for it, so it lookslike we will be switching roles. i hope i don't screw up payroll to bad at the last green valley. really looking forward to tomorrow. it is supposed to be 90 again so we expect to go swimming and otherwise relax. hope everyone is having a nice weekend and the weather there is changing for the better.

Sunrise at the reservoir.

State #10 on the bicycle trip, more to come.

Check out the house on the top of the hill....that must be some view! (Same one I was looking down on later-we really do go up and down some hills)

There was a landslide her in 1984. Enough material came down the mountainside to fill 10 cu. yd. dumptrucks lined up bumper to bumper from Baker City, OR to NYC and back again. There is a 1/2 mile lake where the river used to flow.

You can see part of the old road buried under the material. The new section of 86, which I was riding on when I took this picture, was opened in 1986.

Day 50-Our last day in Idaho-Haven't seen one potato!

He said: Left Riggins about 8, a little bit warmer nights as we hit 90 yesterday and were supposed to hit 90 today (which we did). The road surface we have been on for the past 2 days is oil and stone-with an excess of stone. If a well paved road is like 200 grit sandpaper then these roads are like 20 grit. It really slows the ride. I am tired-falling asleep-it is quiet in the campground-will finish tomorrow. 108 miles.
She said: Left Riggins in the late morning to meet up with Paul in New Meadows. It was a drive out of the canyon, into open ranch land and then back into forest mountains. Will have to post this in the am-the beauty of cut and paste. There was supposed to be a bike shop in New Meadows, and Paul needed some “supplies”-we were told the shop had moved just to the next town (off in a direction we were not headed). As it wasn’t supposed to be far-off I went to run an errand-I would meet up with Paul 25 miles down the road in Council. After a trip through another canyon pass (which was about 12 miles) I came to McCall-a beautiful town with a huge lake-abundant recreation-a bike shop and 2 sporting goods stores. Armed with what I had gone for-I met up with Paul (he beat me to Council by about 20 minutes!) We had thought we would end the day in Cambridge-but Paul still had some steam left in him, and with the prospect of a 112 mile day on Saturday, with alot of uphill-he decided to push on over one more pass. We headed through some beautiful country, one more pass, and down to a beautiful 62 mile reservoir-created by the Brownlee Dam, and back into another canyon. No cell phone service, no internet. Idaho Power runs several campgrounds around the reservoir, and that is where we are spending the night. Lots of campers with boats-prepared to fish for the weekend. We are about 5 miles from the Oregon border so we will be in our last state tomorrow! Amazing. We have decided to do the Florence route instead of Astoria, so we should be there sometime next week. This has been an incredible journey, we have seen some amazing sites with a few still left to see-I am sure.

This was pretty cool.


Back into an open area-it almost looked like Wyoming.

These canyon rides are amazing. No place to pull off-no one behind me, so shot this from the car.

That last push of the day-downhill from here to the campground.

This is where we are staying tonite. Nice, huh?

Home, sweet home.

Day 49-7 weeks! Where did it go? To Idaho!

She said: Took off this morning for Kooksia, ID where we planned to meet up and see how things were going. Finally had cell phone service, but the library didn't open until 11, so I sat outside and tried to get some stuff done. The ride was beautiful, with pretty much the same scenery as yesterday. At the post office in Kooksia I was talking to one of the postal workers about where we were headed for the day. She told me Riggins was in the middle of nowhere-and was not much of a town. Kooskia has a population of 675-much bigger place than Riggins! After we left Kooksia we had an increase in elevation, going up a windy mountain road-the road took a turn and all of a sudden we were in a valley, with farmland all around. Stopped in Grangeville and met up with Paul for lunch. Leaving Grangeville the route put us on White Bird Hill Rd. which was a windy climb for several miles on a very country road. When we got to the top and started down we were once again on a main road which was extremely steep and looked out over what I can only describe as a mountain canyon. You could see the road across the way-it was very high-I am not fond of heights so I white knuckled it all the way down. There were several runaway truck turnoffs and I kept looking in my mirrors to make sure there wasn't a runaway truck behind me! Paul said he was riding his brakes trying not to get going too fast and then he'd see a sign warning you that there was a steeper grade ahead. Yikes! I was thrilled to be at the bottom-it was a spectacular view all the way down, but it was hard to look at while traversing the curves and holding your breath. I found out at the bottom that we are in Hell's Canyon-you can get the geology lesson below. We are staying in Riggins, ID tonite. Hell's Canyon is the deepest Canyon in North America at over 8000' deep. It's deeper than the Grand Canyon. Riggins, population 425, up 2, due to 2 recent births, survives on Sportsmen and Adventure Recreation. Starting in the Spring they have Class V whitewater rapids until mid-September. At about that time, the Steelhead (which is an ocean trout) have migrated up the Columbia River from the Pacific Ocean to the Snake River and then into the Salmon River. That season lasts through the Fall when the Salmon fishing starts and all kind of game hunting. They also have jet boating and area climbing. This area is also the fishing grounds of the Nez Perce Indians who fish for Steelhead and Salmon with nets and spears. We passed through the Nez Perce Reservation today, of which Chief Joseph was probably their most well-known tribal member.
He said: Rode up and down hills. 96 miles.

Thought about trading....but not for long.

One of the many bridges crossing the Lochsa.

The valley we turned into.

In Hell's Canyon

Just beautiful

The explanation

Looking over the edge after the first of the uphills today.

How does the guy in that house get there-couldn't find his driveway anywhere.

Day 48-Any one for a Hi-Dee-Ho Potato?

Yes-We are in Idaho-finally got to an area with cell service late this am-so here is yesterday's posting:

He said: Another sunny day. We have been getting really lucky lately with the traveling weather. Cold start again, but it was OK because I had to climb to the Lolo Pass which is the pass separating Montana from Idaho. We are in our 9th state! At Lola Pass we had to do a reenactment of the Montana welcome because when we entered Montana from Wyoming, it didn’t welcome us it just entered us (like Illinois from Kentucky). From Lolo Pass to our final destination it was downhill or basically flat. So the rest of the day, other than the distance, was unchallenging. It was a nice ride completely alongside the Lochsa River with mountains on both sides. The Lochsa River is like a real pretty wilderness river with a lot of big rocks throughout the river. There are numerous trailheads and hiking areas with toilet facilities and informative history display along the route. The Lochsa is a pretty wide river (at least 80-90’ wide) and in at least 3 or 4 places there were foot bridges across which accessed hiking trails on the other side of the river. If you click on one of Sharon’s pictures you can see the infamous Lochsa Ness Monster! A frightening local legend, the scourge of fishermen and unwary tubers. We had over a 60 mile run between services, no cell phone service here, no internet access…..it is rather remote. We finished in Lowell, ID and as you can see from one of the pictures,(sorry-forgot to take the picture this am before we left Lowell) it is not heavily populated. The sign said WELCOME TO LOWELL-Population 24-the 24 was crossed out and it said 23. The guy at the General Store/Service Station/Sporting Good Rental/Hunting & Fishing Supplies/Souvenirs/you name it told us the bear population outnumbers the human population 10 to 1. We will lock our door tonite. As you can see from the Welcome to Lowell sign the population has been reduced….rumor has it that it is really a bear scoreboard and they are mocking the hunters who get their licenses at the Grocery Store/etc. etc. Café next to where we are staying (that’s how all these little towns work-they are not really towns, someone decides to build a little motel or cabins, put up a little place to eat next door, a place to sell supplies to all the people who are visiting the wilderness-and call it a town) has a sign outside that says “We process wild game”. I think we had some of the processing for dinner. There was a lot of road construction for the last 26 miles or so, which was actually good for me, as there is no shoulder anyway. I got to ride in single lane traffic a lot. More of the same tomorrow to start, but I will be going mostly uphill again with a 3000’ climb over 25 miles, after 30 miles into the ride. So, for the rest of the night we are relaxing in our Pacific time zone heaven where we will watch our one TV station and enjoy our extra hour of sleep. At the end of our ride tomorrow we should be in Riggins ID, where we will once again be in the Mountain time zone. If you look at an atlas of the US you will see that these time zone lines aren’t straight. Go figure. 112 miles.
She said: Another one of those days out in the wilderness without much for services on the route. We met at the Lolo Pass, which had a wonderful visitors center. We met a Native American gentleman who was there with a group of children from the Flathead Reservation. The children are from an emergent school where they are learning their native language and their ancestral history. The kids were off on the trails searching for and digging up medicinal plants. Rode along the Lochsa River-which was beautiful. We are truly IN the mountains today….as opposed to the valley between the mountains. The drive was full of windy roads heading up and down the mountains. It was a long day, and I will be glad to have the extra hour sleep. Made our plans to fly home for the wedding and back to Salt Lake City, UT for the drive home. The pressure is on now for Paul to be done spinning and on the road for the drive to Salt Lake City for the flight. Paul has been phenomenal so far…I am so proud of him, especially when I drive to the top of a pass and see where he has to ride and how far he has ridden.

The scenery early in the morning-leaving Montana.

At the top of the pass-the border between Montana and Idaho

Welcome to Hi-dee-ho!

More history for all you history buffs. We are traveling the Northwest Passage from here.

Looking down from the top of the pass-that's a long way down!

At the Colgate Lick Rest area...waiting for his peanut butter and jelly.

The Lochsa River-do you see the Lochsa Ness monster?

How about here?

Beautiful isn't it? Still don't see the LNM?

Click on this one-I think he might be wearing an orange shirt.

At the Historic Ranger Station. The station is set up like a Ranger Station from the 30's-it closes Labor Day for the season, but these guys were still here.

Check out Paul following the pilot car. The driver asked how fast he wanted to go-Paul said, 20? She said 15-I think they compromised at about 18.

Day 47-Boola boola, we're in Missoula!

We said: Had a 32 mile ride into Missoula, for the most part on a very nice bike path. Missoula is at the end of the lower Bitterroot Valley, so once again it is open, but as we approached Missoula the towns are more populated, busy and you see evidence of more new construction. Missoula is also the home of the Adventure Cycling Association headquarters and the University of Montana. It's amazing how many bikes you see being ridden or in bike racks everywhere. There is a good system of bike lanes throughout the city and people take advantage of it. It was a beautiful sunny day and it always feels warmer than the temperature reads when the sun is out.(Once you get in the high 40's) We met at the Cycling Association, Paul logged in, got his picture taken, a free ice cream and we left for downtown and the bike shop. Dropped off the bike and they assured us they could have it done today. 3 phone calls later, it was ready. I took it out for a quick test ride and it didn't feel perfect, they made some adjustments, but we're kind of stuck and they assured me it will break in and be fine. Here's hoping. Before we picked up the bike at 6, we did all sorts of errands. Sharon got her prescriptions filled, got her hair cut and colored, and Paul scheduled the remainder of the ride and looked up flights for our trip home for our niece Liz and her future husband Carl's wedding. Took a ride around Missoula and the University of Montana. There are lots of trees around the city and no tall buildings to block the view of the mountains. It is a nice city as cities go, but we are looking forward to getting back onto the back roads and small town America. People seem to want to talk to you more there. Even though we took the ride into Missoula separately (Paul on the bike, Sharon in the car) we both noticed the same thing-traffic sped up and drivers were less courteous. Not to mention, you have to sit at lights and deal with city streets. Like we said-happy to get back to the less densely populated areas.

Getting out of the cold weather gear in front of Cycling Association...like the door handles?

On the back stretch.

This is at the University of Montana-there is a trail that winds back and forth across the mountain to the top. You can see the "M" at the top, and if you enlarge the photo, you can see kids hiking the whole way up.

Day 46-Boy were my toes cold!

He said: Was ready to leave around 7 but it was only 37 degrees, so I thought I'd wait and let it warm up a bit. Waited til 8 and when it was 36 degrees I figured I better get going before I got frost on my bike. Had another Continental Divide to go over (Chief Joseph Pass). I'm not sure but I think it might be the last one. Not the last mountain pass, but the last Continental Divide. The ride up to the pass had another big change in scenery. We went from wide open valley to the thickly forested mountain drive. On the ride up the Beaverhead Mountains were on the west and the scenery stayed like that till we reached the peak. By the time we got to the top of the pass it was a balmy 47 degrees. Took off my jacket and was basking in the sun when a guy came over from the other side. Sharon took his picture for him, we got to talking, Charlie was on his way from Astoria, OR to Denver, CO. and was flying home to New Hampshire from Denver. We told him we were from CT-he said "what town"? When we told him Hampton he said, "Oh, that's near Pomfret?" Turns out he works for a company that manufactures wood pellets and they buy chips and saw dust from a forester who lives about 6 miles from us. What's the chance of something like that happening, I mean we had to be coming over at the exact same time, etc., etc. From the pass, there was a 1 mile downhill intersecting another road. When I got to the intersection, I had to go left or right, left would put me in Idaho, but right would send me where I needed to go. I thought to myself, boy Charlie had an easy climb-just a 1 mile uphill. Then I turned the corner and coasted downhill for 7 1/2 miles. Guess it wasn't as easy as I thought. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. We are staying in Stevensville, MT at a motel owned by a couple with an interesting history. 95 miles.
She said: It was another beautiful day in the mountains. Met Paul at the Continental Divide and got my history lesson about the area. Chief Joseph (who the pass is named after) was a peace loving Chief of the Nez Perce tribe. The US military pushed them out of their territory and after a bloody massacre in the middle of the night forced the Nez Perce to surrender. The pass on the road that parallels the route we took is named after the General that led the battle, Gibbons Pass. We are following the Lewis and Clark trail from 1804-1806 and there are historical markers everywhere. Quite interesting. I'm glad I have a road to follow. When I look around while I'm driving through these wide open valleys and huge mountains I wonder how they knew where to go! We are staying in Stevensville, MT tonite, just 26 miles from Missoula- the home of Adventure Cycling Association and the University of Montana. We will be there tomorrow morning and Paul will have his bicycle tuned up, a new cable installed and be in business for the last push of the trip. The owners of the motel we are staying in are from Alaska. They spent 9 years sailing in the Pacific, lived in Australia and New Zealand and then once their daughter was school age, came back to the States, bought an old Historical building and converted it back into a hotel. Pretty cool. Like I said, another great day on the road.

Just after leaving Wisdom-I thought the cloud on the mountain was cool.

Another Continental Divide-thumbs up!

While we were at the pass we heard a very loud bird in the trees-Paul called him Chief Joseph, and he sat there the whole time we were there-didn't quite get a picture of him.

Relaxing at the pass. 47 degrees

Not going to Idaho just yet!

Hanging out in Darby MT for lunch-anybody need an outhouse?-we can get you one!

Longhorn sheep made out of horseshoes.

Beautiful ranches with the mountains in the background all along the route this afternoon.