Wednesday 7-28-10
Time flies when you are biking.
Thursday 7-22-10
We made it to Lolo Hot Springs which is up the pass a little. We rode 83 miles over Lolo pass to Lowell ID. It wasn’t quite as bad as Lemhi.

Stopped in Powell ID for a breakfast. A couple of motorcycles were there and left shortly after we got there. As we continued up the rode came upon an accident. One of the motorcycles had slide on some gravel on the rode and thrown the riders off and the cycle landed on one of the riders killing him. Very sad. You never know. It put a damper on the day.

It was otherwise a beautiful ride, with little head wind. Looked for our neighbors house which he lived in prior to moving back to IL. It is somewhere on the road up to the summit.

Friday 7-23-10
We rode from Lowell to Kamaih. only 33 miles. Marta rode with me on the tandem the whole way. Stopped in the middle of nowhere at a house that had a gift shop and expresso bar in it. A pleasant surprise. Had a nice chat with the family.

At Kamaih Marta and I drove up a back road about 19 miles to some falls on the Selway River. Beautiful, a nice side trip.

Saturday 7-24-10
Today we rode from Kamaih to Winchester, only 44 miles, very hot, but not much wind.
The mountains are going away, giving way to open plains full of pasture and some wheat fields. Had a few good hills. Emma rode on “Sunny”, Lynn’s (Marta’s friend in Bozeman) yellow bike. about 20 miles in the heat, luckily only one big hill early on. We ended up cooling down and waiting in Green Creek for Marta. I rode on from there to Winchester. Marta scoped out the Winchester State Park and got Andrew and Cole fishing. They caught I think about 6 fish. fortunately Cole knew how to clean them for the most part.

Sunday 7-25-10
We rode 38 miles to Lewiston. We were into Lewiaston by 11:30 before the heat set in (100 deg F +) About 6 of us left as a group and rode Winchester Rd to the first little town - Cul de Sac. It was mostly a long down him with switchbacks. It was wonderful. The view at the top just outside Winchester a few miles was spectacular. We could see all the way to the out skirts of Lewiston and the plains beyond in eastern Washington.

We worked at mostly staying cool the rest of the day. we stayed at Hellsgate State Park, nice but not as nice as Winchester.

Monday was a rest day and we, Marta and the kids and I went about 2 hours south to Riggins ID on the Salmon river to do some white water rafting. Went down White Bear grade, to get there. Very glad we weren’t biking up it. They had 3 runaway truck ramps going down to give you an idea how long and step it is.

They had several historical markers along the way. Most were regarding the Nez Pierce who got a raw deal from the government regarding the treaties. They were a very advanced and a wise society. One chief was named Lawyer by fur trappers because of his gift for languages and his eloquence at speaking. He knew english before the missionaries arrived, I guess learning from trappers. worked with missionaries to create a Nez Pierce dictionary.

The rafting was okay with a few small class IV spots and several clas 2 and 3’s. We all got a little wet. The river was at about 8,500 CFM (cubic feet per minute) versus 90,000 during spring run off. The Salmon is the longest free flowing river (no dams) in the US, about 479 miles.

Tuesday 7-27-10
We were scheduled to ride from Lewiston to Pomeroy WA about 35 miles. with a big hill coming out of Lewiston to get up on the plateau (about 11 miles long and steep at the end). Luckily it was a cloudy day with actually some rain at the top. We stopped and had lunch and tour at a restored flour mill in Parathway (spelled wrong). It was driven by water and built around 1890. They had an extensive camera collection dating back to 1900 and before. Very interesting. The cost of lunch (very good), was whatever you wanted to give. Marta drove on in search of a better place top stay than what Pomeray had. I started biking thinking we would be staying about 40 miles down the road west of Dayton a pretty historic town at Lewis and Clark State Park. Turns out to be not very nice. The first 25 miles out of Pomeray was down hill and I did under threat of rain in about 75 minutes. My kind of road. Then I hit a big hill, 8 miles with the last 3 a 7% grade. Made it up then down hill for about 5 miles into Dayton. I meet Marta and the kids there and jumped in thew car and started looking for someplace to camp. Ended up about 30 miles down the road in Walla Walla at the Walla Walla Vineyard Inn ($72). Rode a total of 66 miles, with 2 good hills at either end.

Wednesday 7-28-10 today
Spent the day getting Marta and the kids down the road and caught up with emails and the blog. It’s been drizzling out all day off and on. May experience my first night in the tent with rain. Camping out at the fairgrounds, hopefully have a pavilion with a dirt floor (need to stake my tent for it to stay up). Tomorrow on to Umatilla OR.