After a wonderful very early breakfast we set out to climb White Bird pass. Along the way we stopped at the Nez Perce battleground. During this battle, no Indians were killed but 35 soldiers lost their lives. A dog ran out at us and I used my air horn which made it stop. Then we realized a herd of sheep had taken off running also. During the 28 switchbacks I kept wanting to take pictures because it was breathtaking. We've been seeing many dead birds along the road. Recently we've been seeing more dead snakes. When we talked to the Boy Scouts, we compared what we had been seeing along the road. We all agreed that Bob and I probably see more because we are so close to the ground. The other day we saw a whole set of keys. The scout leader figured it was probably a boyfriend / girlfriend fight. Every hour Bob and I switched who had to pull the Burley / anchor up the mountain. Two days ago we rode 50 miles. Yesterday we went 40 so we could start at the bottom of White Bird. The locals had told us it was seven miles up. Wrong! At mile 13 we reach the summit 6 hours later. It was nearing a 100 degrees with no shade. On the way down there was some shade which was nice. Bob was ahead of me and as he rounded a curve he yelled stop! During our 6 our trip up only two ranchers passed us at the beginning. We had not seen anybody else the whole day. So I couldn't imagine why bob was yelling stop. Then I saw the back end of something very large hoping it wasn't an elk. I was very glad when I realized it was a herd of cows. They were blocking the whole road and we couldn't get through. We started riding a little closer to them hoping to get them to move. At one point I must have gotten a little too close and they started stampeding down the road! Then all of a sudden they went to one side and we were able to slip by them. As usual the downhill was great and we were able to finish our ride into Bear Den RV Park in Grangeville. That was the hardest 22 miles we've ever done. We've done a century which is a hundred miles in a day and this day was worse. Since we got into camp earlier in the day, we rode into town and ate supper at 3. Then we went back to the campground, did laundry and went to bed by 7.
We left Canyon Pines RV Resort and headed towards Riggins. At Riggins I got my first espresso of the trip. Yummy! I went to the grocery and amazingly Jana showed up again. They were taking Jared, their son, for college visits in Washington. We visited for just a little bit and then both took off. It was great to see them again! We passed a fresh fruit stand and bought some delicious apricots, plums and cherries. Later we found a shady spot along the river and enjoyed the fruit. The temperature was above 100, we were along the Salmon River, and finally found a place where we could get in. It was sooo refreshing to get cooled down but within a few minutes we were dried off from the heat. Later we passed a ranger station and stood in their sprinkler. As the day was winding down we were riding into White Bird after being in record breaking temperatures and we missed the turn to the campground. It was so hot it felt like a blast furnace even on the downhills. Bob said his eyes were burning. At this point we were past ready to be done so we pulled over and looked at the map again. Ok truthfully, I started to melt down, physically and mentally. Bob said all I could say was "Yack", like from the movie When Mars Attacks. When we Finally got to the campground I didn't even get off my bike and bob went in to get a site. The lady from the campground must have thought we looked awful and brought us two ice waters, then two ice cream sandwiches. Those of you who know me know ice cream fixes everything! We gave them money and they drove to town and brought us back a pizza. We say a Great Big THANK YOU to Swift Water RV Park for taking such good care of us. While I was sprawled out on the lawn another lady, Barb, came up and ask, Are you okay? This is when we met our new camp neighbors Harry and Barb. Everybody there was concerned for us the next day. They told us we should leave very early because of the heat wave and the climb over White Bird Pass. Many cyclist had warned us of this climb. They told us this would be one of the worst of the whole trip. Its has 28 switchbacks and if you put those together it would make 37 circles according to the locals. After getting to know our neighbors we found we had some things in common, like we both like fresh chicken eggs over store bought chicken eggs. So they offered to make us breakfast in the morning. We didn't realize we had crossed back into Pacific time so we thought we were getting up at 4 a.m. . The camping neighbor, Harry, looked out of his camper and said, do you know its 3 a.m.? We had already put the tent away so we weren't going back to bed. Bless his heart, he still made us breakfast. We had eggs, sauteed onions, toast, coffee and cookies. This was a perfect start to a grueling day.
For some reason not everything posted from this day. I'm sure it's something I did wrong. Oh well. When the Boy Scouts realized we had a full size bike pump they were excited. So they pumped up all of their tires and wondered if we would be camping the same place the next night. They were going 91 miles that day so we knew we wouldn't see them anymore. I forgot to mention that the Boy Scouts are from North Carolina.
The Boy Scout leaders made us hot water so Bob and I could have coffee. YUM. That made the start of the day great. There was a big climb starting out of Council. Bob was struggling and had a hard day. (Maybe because of the five small donuts he had for breakfast!) I took the Burley almost the whole day. We call the Burley the Anchor. It was around a 1000 foot climb out of there. Around each curve we thought the top had to be there but it never came. In New Meadows we went to the library to get on the computer to check email. Bob was ready to quit but I talked him into pushing forward because the next town was downhill. HaHa! We saw a beautiful waterfall on the downhill and actually turned around to get a picture. Normally on a downhill we don't stop. Bob was worried about the camp office closing so he called Canyon Pines RV Resort. At this point we had cell signal but lost it soon. We arrived about 10 minutes after the office closed but the owner knew we were coming and waited on us. The relaxing and soothing sound of the Salmon River put us to sleep.
We left the beautiful Woodhead campground beside Brown Lee reservoir. The road was very winding around the mountains and scary because I could look right over the edge. There was no guardrail. The next mountain pass we climbed was 4131 feet. At the summit we learned that a group of Boy Scouts, also biking the Trans Am, was not too far behind us. We saw them at our lunch stop and ended up camping with them at the city park in Council. There are 7 high school boys and 2 scout leaders. Their website is Bikeloud. Org. They are raising money to work with teenage cancer patients. It was fun and interesting talking to them. At the city park there were 13 bike / campers. I was the only female. My guess would be 90% of those biking are men. I have seen very few women. We met a husband and wife from England doing the Trans Am the opposite direction and that is the only woman I've met. We are trying to stay a day ahead of a record heat wave. We heard Portland was a 109 today.
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