June 27
Day 48. We had no cell service for the last two days. We biked up and over Lolo Pass into Idaho. Then had an all day descent towards our campground. We rode 85 miles. The day started off frigid cold, 35 degs, but felt even colder as we started our descent in the shadows. I was shivering as we cruised down to a lodge to have a breakfast and warm up after 20 miles. By afternoon, it was well over 90 deg to make today one of the hotter (and colder) days we have ridden. Remember the TransAm race… Our bike friend Loic who we met to Colorado ended up finishing in 5th in just under 21 days. Then on todays ride, we met the last place racer of the TransAm, Thomas Camero. He is an 80 year old who is doing this race for the 5th time. He was in excellent spirits and is a great example of how you can participate in a race without the goal of trying to win. It is all about the experience and internal satisfaction while the race provides bit extra motivation. We ended the day at the most beautiful campsite right on the river with its own beach! I took a cold dip. A wonderful day.
June 28
We had a lot of variety on Day 49. We traveled 75 miles and we biked past… two huge rivers, lush forests, a few small towns, a steep climb up to a farmland plateau, some curious cows, across many bridges, under a huge bridge, over a mountain on some gravel, and sped down a massive descent. - A 7 mile long 2100 ft drop at a perfect grade and great road conditions. I was traveling over 30mph for 10 minutes and reached my top speed of the trip at 49.5mph! That was a blast! It got a little hot but overall was a very good day. We camped along the Salmon river and I took another brief, cold, refreshing dip.
June 29
Day 5-0! We biked 75 miles with 3500ft of climbing. The first half was gorgeous, biking upstream the Salmon River. We got to a section of rapids where there must have been 100 people fishing trying their luck to catch a huge salmon. We also saw numerous roadside waterfalls. We broke away from the river and biked up into the forests. We were on a dirt path that paralleled the highway for awhile until it turned into a bumpy double track and decided to go back into the highway. That turned out to be the wrong choice as the highway went past a lumber mill where many large and small logging trucks where busy hauling. We found out many of them are rather inconsiderate drivers which made for an unpleasant 10 mile stretch as the highway quality diminished drastically. We made it over the hill and quickly descended to our rv park in Council to enjoy a cold Dale’s.
June 30
Yesterday was Day 51 and we found ourselves in Hell, the canyon that is. A beautiful yet hellish and unforgiving terrain that makes it hard to imagine how the early settlers/explorers made it through here establishing the Oregon trail. We started the day on a nice yet bumpy 20 mile rails-to-trails path to get off the busy highways. From there, we climbed and descended into Hell’s Canyon with some breathtaking views as we crossed the river into Oregon! We stayed at a nice oasis of a campground and had another river dip to cool off.
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