Day 15: Lowell, ID to Powell, Idaho. 64 miles

We expected a 75 mile climb starting today over Lola Pass.  The terraine was much better than expected and the river views great.   We had a nice breakfast in the cafe before we left.  Our second breakfast was a picnic at mile 30.  That is the good news.

It started raining at mile 32 and still has not stopped.  We were soaked ( judgement error on not putting on our full rain gear).  Ron had a slow leak in his back tire that we stopped to pump twice.  A low tire makes the hills "steeper".

We stopped at the first lodging in over 60 miles.  It is the Lochsa Lodge.  That was  a good choice. Ron set to work changing his tire.  Two tire tubes blew up prematurely.  They were new but probably defective.  Now we have gone from having 4 spare tubes to only one patched one.  We hope to make it to Missoula to restock.

The warm fire in the lodge and the good food have revived us.  We did not have to camp in the rain and we even have internet.

Tomorrow we will reach the summit of Lolo Pass and be one day ride to Missoula and likely over 700 miles.  Thank you for the comments. We enjoy hearing from family and friends.

Day 14: Grangeville to Lowell, Idaho. 50 miles

PlWhat a difference a day makes!  Today was a perfect riding day.  It was warm, but not too hot.  The terrain was mostly flat, no wind, and lovely scenery.
We had our second breakfast in Kooskie.  We had a subway sandwich two hours later along the river bank.  We reached our destination by 2 pm.
Ron had a thumping from his bike.  He could feel a bump each tire rotation and we both could hear it.  We stopped a few times to "diagnose" but without success. At the Lowell  service station a young man who used to work in a bike shop found a bump on the tire.  Ron says maybe he has wings hidden under his shirt!  We made use of the extra tire we brought along and the problem seems solved.  Over 650 miles for two bikes and no flats.  We are thankful and feeling blessed.  This would have been a nice camping area but we are at a "Wilderness Inn".  After being so cold yesterday we had called to reserve a room.  Tomorrow we are entering a 66 uphill area with no
services so there we will camp and there will be no blog entry.

Day 13: White Bird to Grangeville, ID. 20 miles

We woke up again to it raining outside.  By the time we had our breakfast of instant oatmeal it had stopped raining. Our route was the old highway 95.  Switchbacks with a cold headwind would describe our first 10 miles.  The views were lovely. It took us 2 1/2 hours for that section. By then we had decided we needed a break.  So we arrived in Grangeville and called it a day.  We have a motel with a hot tub.  We also both had 1 hour massages.  We should be refreshed tomorrow.

Day 12: New Meadows, ID to White Bird, ID. 63 miles

We started the day with pastry and good coffee at the espresso shop attached to the hotel.  We also got a 12 inch subway sandwich to go. A biker should never risk running out of food.  The route was one of the most beautiful so far. We were along the Little Salmon River most of the time.  It was forest at first (very similar to OR Wallowa).  By the middle to end of the day we were Hells Canyon again.  We had our second breakfast in Riggins, Idahos white water capital. We did not sample that adventure this time.
It was fun seeing evidence of the mining still going on in this area.   We saw one sign "for sale or lease mining rights".  They must have already made their $$$$.
We stayed at the White Fish hotel in town. It was more appealing than camping in the city park and using the restrooms in the Silver Dollar Bar.  The hotel was old but clean. The room had enough beds to sleep 8 people. Because it was a holiday, the market and cafe were both closed.  The bar had plenty of adult beverages but no food.  The woman at the hotel offered to drive to get us some food (over 1mile back up hill).  So we did not have to do without dinner.
Sadly there was no internet or phone coverage so this is being poster 5/29/12.

Day 11: Cambridge, ID to New Meadow, ID. 47 miles

Last night for dinner we had our favorite camp menu: haystacks.  just when the beans were hot, the lettuce, avacado and tomato chopped, we could not find our sporks.  Since they are our only eating utensils we were concerned.  Ron was ready to eat with his fingers or the spatula . . .luckily we found them before he resorted to that.

This blog will share some unimportant things we have learned.  There are many dodge pickups on the road and even more empty keystone light beer cans alongside the road. We thinks these two facts may be related.

The small stores along the way have a very poor produce selection but a very good jerky selection.

It is a bad sign to see "snow chain up area ahead" or " rough road ahead".  We luckily have not seen " road closed".  Our favorite signs are " downgrade next 10 miles" and "summit".  Ron is still looking for "free beer ahead".

We agree that this trip is not about the number of miles.  Ron believe it is about the number of meals.

We are in a hotel room watching the rain.  Again we were blessed since the rain only caught us coming into town.  Thanks to our faithful friends who are ptaying for our weather.

This was another day with miles of climbing. It looks like tomorrow maybe more flat. . . but we have been fooled before!

Day 10: Halfway, OR to Cambridge, Idaho. 56 miles

After today's ride we are into Idaho and over 420 miles.  we have been riding in Hells Canyon for the last 2 days.  It continues to be very scenic. we almost always have a river or stream alongside.  Today while we were climbing a remote hill in Idaho at about 3 miles per hour, we watched a large black bear cross the road about 50 feet from us.  It paid us no attention.  The weather is still perfect for riding.  we are camping tonight in a small rv park.  We expect to be in montana in about a week.  We are eating and sleeping well.

Day 9: Baker City to Halfway, Oregon, 54 miles

We had a great start today. The weather and terrain were almost perfect. By 9:30 we had ridden 30 miles.  Because of a 6 mile hill and a second breakfast in Richland we didnt arrive until 1:30.  Our last 2 miles were in rain/hail/wind but only a few drops otherwise.  We are in a hotel thankfully.  This is a charming little town.  It is our 37th wedding anniversary and we have the choice of one restaurant.  Tomorrow we will be entering Idaho.
One friend told us when her husband heard we had ridden 350 miles: "it sounds like something the Japanese did to prisoners in WWll, the Baton Death Ride."  Our fun adventure is nightmare to others!
Only one unidentifiable roadkill...we think a rabbit.

Day 8: Rest in Baker City

Quite relaxing!
(Except for some preventive bike maintenance.)

Day 7: Sumpter, OR to Baker City 30 miles

Surprise! We woke up and it was snowing. Thankfully we had stayed in a hotel.  La
st night we had dinner at the Elkhorn Bar, the only place serving dinner.  There was a choice of 42 hamburgers.  The ride today was cold but very peaceful and scenic. not much traffic.  The snow stopped while we were eating breakfast.  We arrived in Baker City before noon.  We now have clean laundry.  The hotel owner is cooking a spaghetti dinner for all guests tonight.  We will spend 2 nights here.  Tomorrow we will not ride, we need to rest.  We plan to go to the Oregon Trail Interpretive exhibit.

Day 6: Mt Vernon, OR to Sumpter, OR 64 miles

We woke up to a dry day.  Since the weather last night had been so iffy that was a nice surprise.  We rode our bikes 8 miles to John Day for breakfast.  The picture is of Ron enjoying all you can eat pancakes.  We then started our journey of 3 mountain passes.  Each were over 5000 feet.  the weather changed often.  We had rain, hail, wind, and sometimes sunshine.  We had to stop often to put rain clothes on or take them off.  We rode an extra long day because motels were not available anywhere close and it will be a rainy night.  10 hours of riding is more than we want to do again.  We have ridden over 350 miles in 6 days. We are due for a rest day which we will take in Baker City. That is only about 28 miles away.
One picture is from yesterday, we had to stop for a cattle drive in the road.

Day 5: Mitchell, OR to Mt Verrnon, OR 62 miles

We had a quick breakfast in camp of maple bar, banana and coffee.  we were on the road by 7:15.  Ron calls our first 6 miles the "hill from hell".  It took us 1 and 1/2 hours to reach the summit.  The rest of the ride was easier and very scenic.  Hopefully our blog pictures will show you the beauty.
We did have a very interesting shoe tree.
We are staying at Clyde Holiday State Park. Our rule is don't camp in the rain.  It is threatening but still quite dry.

Day 4: Prineville, OR, to Mitchell, OR 47 miles

We started from best western after a nice buffet breakfast.  Fran and John rode 15 miles with us. They turned around when they saw a big hill.  The hill wasn't too bad and we earned a nice downhill coast.  Roadkill got bigger with some deer, a skunk, a snake, and some unidentifiable remains.  Mitchell, OR, has had better days historically.  There  is a nice city park for our first night of camping.  There was a thunder and lightning storm at night but we woke up to a dry tent.  As we left this morning a man in the parking lot said "those aren't spring chickens".  Not exactly a morale booster!  We were not able to blog last night because no internet was available.