July 13 Update

The internet connections have been a bit spotty, and I've been pretty tired, so I hve not posted in about a week. Here's where I've been and what I've seen.

Pat and Charlie and I are still traveling together, and we will probably finish up together. We all are of about equal ability and we spend a great deal of time drafting. Each of us takes about a ten minute turn at the front, while the other two have a slightly easier time following closely behind. We seem to get along pretty well, sharing war stories and talking about our families. I'm going to miss them when the trip is over.

We got to Missoula, Montana on the seventh. This is a bit of a milestone, because it is the home of the American Cycling Association, the organization that promotes bike touring and produced the maps we are using. Missoula is an interesting town, a lot like Asheville, NC with a mix of hippies and yuppies. It was very hot there, and I was glad to leave the next morning.

On the eighth, we traveled up the Lolo valley, a long but scenic up hill to the pass where we entered Idaho.We dropped down the other side into the Lochsa River valley and camped At the Lochsa Lodge. The next day we continued down the valley to Lowell on the Clearwater River where we stayed in a small motel.

The morning of the tenth, as we were traveling on down river, we stopped to speak to a 67 year old lady who was walking to North Carolina. She was pulling a small wagon and rough camping whenever she stopped. I felt ashamed to be traveling in such luxury. We continued on to Stites where we had the toughest climb we've had since we left Kentucky. After the climb, we traveled over a high prairie adjacent to the Nez Pierce Indian reservation. Almost all of the land was planted in beautiful golden wheat. We rode in to Grangeville, Idaho where we camped in the back yard of a warm showers host.

On the eleventh, we left Grangeville and after a fairly steep climb we reached a pass overlooking Hells Canyon on the Salmon River.  The descent down to the river was about as exciting as it gets. The 8 mile grade was as steep as 7% and extremely fast. The descent was on a major graded road with long sweeping curves. I breaked enough to keep my speed down to about 35, but I could have easily hit over fifty if I had the nerve.

Someone said that Helps Canyon is actually deeper than the Grand Canyon, but not as dramatic. It was quite spectacular, with high peaks on either side and the Salmon River along side of us. We camped that night at Riggins in a nice RV park. Even though it was hot during the day there, as soon as the sun set behind the high peak to the West, it cooled off quickly.

The next morning we had a 40 mile climb up the Little Salmon River to New Meadow, where we ate breakfast. We had a nice chat with the local coffee klatch characters at the restaurant. We got lots of conflicting advice. We moved on and after an 85 mile day, we spent the night in Cambridge, Idaho.

This morning We left Cambridge at 6:00, made a quick 15 mile climb and then had a steep winding descent into the Snake River Hells Canyon where we entered Oregon. We traveled along the river to Oxbow and then turned South and climbed about 12 miles to Halfway, Oregon, a pretty little town with a nice restaurant and a decent motel where we are staying.

We are now in Pacific time and we are leaving for Baker City at 5:30 in the morning. We have only about 600 more miles to go.

Snake River

Bell's Canyon Salmon River

Overlooking Salmon River, Hell's Canyon

Note the population

The Lochsa Lodge