First, here’s the sunset from last night.
Is that spectacular or what!!!
Then, this morning, we had to have a selfie with our new friends, Russ and Nancy.
I thought we were getting on the road at 8:00, but my phone hadn’t changed back to Pacific Time, so really, it was 7:00! That was great, because we had a long day ahead of us.
We rode through Whitebird (it was very quiet after a night of 4th of July revelry), then started climbing Old Whitebird Grade.
Let the climbing begin!
See the switchbacks up on the hillside? That’s not even all of them.
It’s actually an awesome climb. The switchbacks make it relatively easy, if not a bit long. The total climb was about 12 miles. The alternative was Hwy 95.
The line near the top is the highway…a relentless exposed climb…no thanks!
We had views the whole way.
Hard to tell, but that “grey” on the hillsides is actually blue flowers.
Way off is Whitebird.
Zoomed in, the bridge is the highway we went under.
The entire climb we saw zero cars until just before we got on the highway (for one mile before getting back on Old Whitebird).
Just up the road is the highway.
The worst part was definitely the one mile on the highway, but soon we were back on the old road for the final couple of miles to the top.
The descent down was kind of slow because there was loose gravel here and there.
Whole different terrain on the other side.
In Grangeville, we beelined for the Subway, and lunch. Then we made our way to a grocery store to get food for the next three days.
Our plan had been to get to either Syringa or Lowell. However, the route out of Grangeville to Stites, and the Kooskia took way longer than we expected.
Fields of gold.
Straight, but rolling hills.
Lamb Grade…super steep, and in the process of being oiled…yuck!
When we got to Stites, I thought we went right onto Hwy 13. Fortunately, Doug realized we were supposed to go left. It was 3 miles to Kooskia, and another 15.5 to Syringa. We decided to stay in Kooskia. We are once again in a city park. The map says to camp in the pavilion to avoid the sprinklers. No problem, except three other cyclists (heading westbound) came in too. We moved the picnic tables to the edges and set up four tents (Mark is opting to sleep on top of a picnic table). John, Mark, and Corey are three older guys. They are pretty funny. Mark and Corey are riding from Canyon City, CO. John started riding from St. Louis, and met up with them.
The pavilion tent city.
We’ve had several kids come over and ask us why we have tents set up. One little guy said it was strange. I agree!
We’ll see how far we get tomorrow. I don’t envy the guys having to go up what we came down…
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