Day 56: Three Passes (Baker City to Prairie City)

Total mileage: 72

I'm not sure I made a big enough deal earlier over the fact that THIS IS THE LAST AND FINAL STATE OF THE TRIP! Really it's pretty incredible. 8 weeks in and only a few days from the coast! It's hard to contemplate the prospect of not bike touring sometime soon.

Oregon knows that cyclists exist!

We got a late start out of Baker City because we were leaving from a comfy house, because we had to go grocery shopping, and because I discovered a cracked link in my chain. That and my back wheel is slightly out of true! We couldn't fix the true this morning, but we replaced the broken link.

Our ride took us up and over three passes, each of approximately 1000 vertical feet. The climbing was actually really fun, since none of the passes were too long or too steep. And they were all in the  trees, which was a lovely change from the ride to Baker City. About 15 miles out of town, we had someone pull over and offer us cold water, which always makes us happy!

We were especially appreciative because getting water was a bit of a challenge on this ride. We even ran into a bit of trouble later on when the store we were counting on for water was closed. The owners had left a sign on the door for those looking for drinking water, directing us to a pipe next to the road that apparently spurted fresh spring water. We weren't excited about retracing our steps a mile to get there, but it seemed to be the only option. Sure enough, we found a pipe jutting out of the hillside on the side of the road gurgled a steady stream of water. It was a bit bizarre, but we decided to trust the sign's assurance that the water was safe for drinking.

Top of Dixie Pass (named by Southern sympathizers during the Civil War)

After crossing the third and final pass, we whooshed quickly down to Prairie City. The view along the descent was marvelous (if a bit hazy from smoke) and we stopped to take a couple of photos. Little did we know that the world's largest fungus was only a few miles from where we rode! Even better, the fungus is actually the world's largest living thing (check it out at http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/strange-but-true-largest-organism-is-fungus/). We didn't find out about the humongous fungus until the next day; otherwise, we might have gone looking for it.

Beautiful viewpoint + bizarre oversized wagon monument (I didn't actually take a panorama photo, but I found one on my phone later. Sometimes technology scares me.)

=)

Riding into Prairie City

The mountains in the photos are very hazy due to an immense wildfire raging near Dayville, not too far away. Actually, our hosts (Jimi and Karen) had sent us a message letting us know that they wouldn't be home until late that evening because they were aiding the firefighting effort. We arrived at their house around 6pm to find a note welcoming us inside. Their home was beautiful, with a spectacular view of the mountains. We took our time showering and settling in to the "Bob Marley suite," an excellently decorated room that used to be their son's.

The mural in our room

Even though we couldn't meet them yet, our hosts sent us updates about the fire and let us know what they were up to. Jimi sent us an excellent photo of himself tending to a firefighting plane!

The wildfire (photo taken by Jimi's pilot friend)

Jimi keeping the planes going!

At our host's lovely home

Since our hosts had to be away until late and no restaurants in town were open, we ended up scavenging ourselves dinner from their fridge. They had lots of wonderful food, so it worked out fine! We finally got to meet our hosts (and their son and family!) at around 9:30pm. Even though it was late, Jimi took a look at my back wheel and helped get it back in true. We were impressed by the hospitality they showed us without even being there. We're glad they were out stopping fires, but we wish we had gotten to spend more time getting to know them!

Prairie City at sunset

- Alix

Day 55: Back in the Desert (Halfway, OR to Baker City, OR)

Total Mileage: 60ish 

We had a rather hot, dry, and uneventful trip from Halfway to Baker City. Lots of sandy soil and sagebrush - we figure this is the part of Oregon that Oregonians like to pretend doesn't exist.

We were looking forward to stopping at the Oregon Trail Interpretation Center outside of Baker City, though, since we had both heard good things about it. Unfortunately, no one had told us that the museum was off the road on top of a mile long hill and a climb of almost 400 ft! We decided it was worth it and made the trek up the ridiculous grade. We arrived hot and thirsty and set about getting water/eating our lunch before we did anything else.

When we were ready to look at the exhibits, the kind woman at the front desk let us in for free! This was excellent since the cost was $8 (no student discount) and we didn't actually have that much time to spend there. Alice needed a new cleat for her road shoes and we had to make it to the bike store in town before 4pm.

The parts of the exhibit we did see were pretty cool. Interesting/educational/interactive - everything you would want a museum to be! We thought the massive diorama in the front room was worth photographing.

The dead animals lend a surprisingly life-like quality to the thing

Complete with voice recording of a mother mourning a dead child

After skimming the exhibits, we rode the 8 miles into town and hit up the bike shop. Disappointingly, they didn't have the type of cleat that Alice needed :(  Alix did end up buying an extra derailleur cable and tube, though. If you buy more tubes, you don't get flats, right?



Road into Baker City

That evening, we met up with Luke, our Warmshowers host. He kindly showed us into his parent's house. They had just gone on vacation so we got the whole place to ourselves! It was our first shower in a week - woohooooo! After going to dinner with Luke, we curled up in our cozy beds and went to sleep.

Day 53: (Riggins, ID to Council, ID)

Total mileage: 62ish

It seems that this day wasn't very memorable, since I completely forgot to post about it! The scenery did leave something to be desired, especially after the natural beauty of Riggins. In retrospect, though, several nice things happened this day. Here are the highlights:

1. Waking up along the river in the beautiful park in Riggins and taking our time before leaving (just in time before the sprinklers were turned on!).

2. Being given water on the side of the road by the couple we had talked to in Grangeville! They said hi as they went by and then we found them half a mile later waiting on the side of the road with cold water in hand. They even gave us their contact info in case we ran into problems on the road. This was a really wonderful surprise.

3. Running into a nice guy (at a rather small, sad city park) who had done the TransAm a couple of years before.

4. Charging our phones at the loading dock behind the post office in Council.

I think that sums it up!
-Alix

Day 54: Halfway to Somewhere (Council, ID to Halfway, OR)

Total Mileage: 80ish

Morning: 22 miles of rangeland before breakfast in the little town of Cambridge. We ate outside a drive-thru espresso shop, across from a miscellaneous store covered in viscously anti-Obama posters. We meet some wonderful people at the coffee shop, one of whom owned a trail building company that had done work on the Eno River in NC!

Afternoon: a gradual climb and a nice  long downhill into the Snake River valley. The view over the Brownlee reservoir was one of the mist spectacular we've seen on this trip (or anywhere for that matter). We speculated on what it might have looked like before the dam. The roadsides were covered in blackberries and an assortment of fruit trees. So much fruit that you could smell it warming in the heat before you saw it! We limited ourselves to a couple of sessions of berry picking, so as not to get too far off schedule.

Late Afternoon/ Evening: traveled away from the river into Hell's Canyon area. We found ourselves covered in dust as we moved into a drier zone. Took a siesta outside an abandoned restaurant to avoid the hottest part of the day and enjoyed a slightly cooler ride into Halfway. Halfway proved to be a cute little town, with a nice park to camp in, plenty of groceries (including coconut milk ice cream), and just enough kitschy stores and restaurants to catch a tourist's attention. We still don't know what we were halfway between!

Day 52: Forest Fires (Kooskia, ID to Riggins, ID)

Total mileage: 75

We were a bit sad to leave the town of Kooskia in the morning, after having such a wonderful experience there the night before. So we took our time getting on the road and stopped at a local cafe for a coffee. In retrospect, we probably didn't do much to help the town's economy, since each cup (with unlimited refills) cost only 50 cents. Cheap coffee = yet another reason to visit Kooskia, ID.

Our ride that morning took us uphill on a winding back road. For the first time in weeks, the road was actually steep! We climbed up and up until we reached a rolling plateau covered in freshly harvested fields of wheat. We saw a harvester at work in the distance. Suddenly it felt like we were back in the Midwest.

The morning climb

The plateau: a radically different landscape

 We stopped in Grangeville for lunch after working our way along the farmland grid. On our way into town, we ran into a couple who was eager to talk to us and hear about our trip. They gave us directions to the library, the grocery store, and a funky little coffee shop that they recommended we check out.

The coffee shop was indeed worth a visit. It was cool and cozy, and their iced drinks and tasty muffins were a welcome respite from the heat of the road. Not to mention that the shop was full of friendly people! Alix enjoyed chatting with both barista and customers while Alice for some work done at the library next door. The barista even gave us directions to some choice swimming holes down the road. Alix is quickly falling in love with northern Idaho.

Our afternoon ride had us climbing again, this time at a much more reasonable angle. The road was gloriously shaded and empty of cars, winding through a hilltop forest.

At the peak, the landscape changed dramatically once more. The trees disappeared and we were left with a sweeping view of a deep, dramatic valley. The mountainsides were loosely wrinkled and tan with dry grasses. The descent ahead of us twisted along the mountain's edge, without even a guardrail to protect us from the drop!

At the peak

Riding on the edge!

 Our descent into the valley was both breathtakingly beautiful and a bit nerve wracking. It was long and steep, with numerous switchbacks that we couldn't navigate without slowing down. But, it was also fun, and we both made it safely to the bottom without seeing a single car the whole way down!

We arrived in Whitebird to a smoke-filled sky. Apparently a nearby forest fire has been raging for a couple of days. The plume of smoke it produced blocked out the sun and gave it an orangish hue. We had been riding through haze for days, but hadn't yet seen a fire so close.

The next thirty miles brought us along the Salmon River to Riggins, ID. There we found a tourist town squished between the river on one side and steep mountains on the other. Annoyingly, we also crossed back into mountain time zone! Oh well. We stopped at a lovely riverside park and went for a swim before eating dinner and setting up camp.

Dusk on the river, hazy from nearby wildfires

Day 51: A Small Town that Really Cares (Powell, ID to Kooskia, ID)

Total mileage: 89

Today we descended gradually along the Lochsa River through a beautiful wilderness area. It wasn't totally vacant - there were plenty of cars, a few campsites, and even a historic ranger station, where we stopped to fill up on water. The view was consistently lovely. It looked a bit like this:

A highlight of our day was stopping for lunch at one of the trailheads advertised by signs along the road. The bridge we took across the river to the trail was quite lovely, contributing to the scenery rather than detracting from it.

We ended up climbing diwn the bank and picnicking on rocks right next to the river. As we ate, we watched several cyclists go by! Unusual because we had already seen several that morning. Best of all, we had time to take a dip in the (rather quickly moving) river and sun ourselves on the bridge before continuing on.

View from our picnic spot

Taking a break in Lowell, not too far from Kooskia

We made it within 11 miles of Kooskia when disaster struck! Well, not really. But Alix's rear derailleur snapped leaving her rather shiftless and stuck in high gear. Unfortunately, because Alix plans a lot of things that she never ends up doing, we didn't have an extra cable with us. So we rode the remaining 11 (flat) miles into Kooskia, hoping that we could hitch a ride to a bike shop the next day.

Further inspection of the map revealed that there wouldn't be a bike shop on route for a couple of days, at least. Inquiries revealed that there wasnt one off route nearby either. And riding without gears wasn't an option since the grade the next day would get up to around 8%! We even used a phone book (yes, they still exist!) at the grocery store to see if any of the hardware stores nearby carried a cable we could use. Negative/unlikely. The employees there were very helpful, but basically told us they didn't think anyone in Kooskia would have extra bike parts.

We headed to the city park rather discouraged. We were pleased, however, to find LOTS of people in the park (mostly kids, participating in a game night). The park itself was lovely, too, being located right along the river. A nice place to break for dinner and make plans for hitchhiking the next day!

As we got out our food for dinner, we decided to ask a group of women sitting near us if they knew anyone in town who might be able to help us. It turned out that they were the town's Saddle Club, having a meeting. "Hmm, not off the top of my head," one woman said, "but let me make some phone calls." We waited until their meeting was over and she called a friend in a nearby town who liked to bike.

Four or five phone calls after that, she had tracked down the two people in Kooskia who might know something about bikes. I was pretty amazed by her dedication to the task, and the speed with which you can get these things done in a small town (thank you, Louise!!)! A man named Lucky came over right away to check out the situation. He returned a bit later with a spare cable, but it wasn't quite long enough to fit the bike. He told us that a guy named Greg would probably have what we were looking for. Louise had called Greg already, but he wouldn't be free until around 9.

It was dark by the time Greg showed up at the park, wielding a whole bucket full of cables and tools. After a few tries, we finally found a cable that was long enough! Installing it wasn't a problem at all, and we got Alix's shifting working in no time. We were so, so grateful to him for coming to help us out! And, of course, he didn't charge us anything for the cable. We were totally floored that we could just ride out of there the next morning. To Greg and Lucky and Louise, and all the wonderful people we talked to in Kooskia, ID: thank you, thank you, thank you!! We genuinely thought that fixing the bike that evening would be impossible, but y'all made it happen. You are now at the top of the list of Alix's favorite towns on the TransAm.

Day 50: Over Lolo Pass (Missoula, MT to Powell, ID)

It was so much fun to have Karen, Alice's mom, join us for our first day kn the road! After a luxurious night in a hotel room, we got breakfast at a local bagel shop before heading on the road (thank you, Karen!) Here we are posing on the street in Missoula.

It was a little sad to say goodbye to Missoula (an exceptional town, indeed), but good to get back on the road. The climb out of Missoula took us into Idaho via Lolo pass, a route that Lewis and Clark found to be one of the most difficult parts of their journey west. Thankfully, they've put in a paved road since then, so we didn't have too much trouble. The grade wasn't too bad either, as is typical for all these climbs out west. 

The visitors' center at the top of the pass was well worth a visit - a lovely picnic spot, interpretive trails, a well-done history exhibit, helpful rangers, free tea/coffee/WiFi, and a rather nice gift shop.

Riding over Lolo pass

Alix was incredibly pleased to be riding through lots of trees for the first time in weeks. To make things even more exciting, we came across a special grove of cedar trees on our way down the mountain! They were huge, beautiful, and incredibly old. And there was a cozy little trail leading into the grove so that you could stand among the giants.

Trees at last!

In the grove of cedars

Wild ginger

The cedar bark was a work of art

A path we didn't have time to take

Alix almost started crying because the trees were so magical

After leaving the cedars, we rode to Powell, where we (gasp) paid for canping! It seemed like the thing to do, since Powell was literally just a campground and there wasn't anything else for 67 miles down the road. We ended up sharing the site with two other cyclists and paying less than $2 each, so it worked out all right.

Alice's sister had driven over from Missoula to pick up Karen, so we all ate an early dinner together (thank you again, Karen!). The restaurant at the lodge there was really quite nice. A bit overpriced, but made from scratch and quite tasty all around.

After dinner, we bid Alice's family farewell and headed back to the campsite. Not a bad way to start the final leg of our trip!

Day 48 & 49: Missoula (and farewells)

Darby to Missoula: 72 miles??

Around Missoula: 19 miles

Things we like about Missoula: 

• It's very bike and pedestrian friendly (bike lanes, bike/ped specific bridges, well signed bike paths, conscientious drivers)
• Three very well-attended markets on Saturday mornings (two food, one craft)
• Surrounded by the foothills (with lots of hiking and apparently excellent mountain biking trails)
• Good selection of grocery stores, coffee shops, etc. (And no food tax!)
• Lovely parks, including one with a beautiful, volunteer-built carousel
• A river that people play (tube, SUP, float, surf, etc in)
• The Adventure Cycling Association is headquartered here (we visited right after we got into town for the requisite photo/visit to the cyclist's lounge)

We were on our own for dinner Friday after visiting the ACA headquarters, so we went downtown and shared an appetizer. Then we dinnered picnic style after treating ourselves to groceries at the local nice/natural food store. Olives, nuts, and nice peppery cheese to celebrate our last day on the road together!

Herbed and battered onion rings.

The next morning, we visited the three(!) bustling farmers markets downtown, explored the bike paths in the city, and hung out in some of the parks. Definitely a city designed for living!

Its a thing to sell veggies by the bowl

Quite the bustling market!

Oh, happy carrot!

Huckleberries: the most heavily advertised product in Montana

Free stickers might've been the best part of the visit to the ACA headquarters

"A carousel for Missoula"

We enjoyed a great dinner Saturday night with our host in her backyard. She is an inspiring and energetic woman who has lots of touring under her belt! A pleasure to get to know her, and to sample the fresh berries and produce from her garden.

We were sad to part this morning (Day 50) when Sonja met her airport taxi, yet also exited for our coming individual adventures and, of course, future bike tours together. (Also, Sonja did get a glimpse of the Oregon mountains out the airplane window this morning... Alix and Alice definitely have some excellent scenery in their future!)

Alix hung out in Missoula a bit more today while waiting for her new riding companion to arrive. Please keep following my and Alice's adventures on this blog :)

Day 47: Jackson to Darby

Total miles: 79

Sonja woke up a little early this morning to talk on the phone (in the very cold, ensconced in a sleeping bag!), then both Sonja and Alix had a small snack before biking down (literally, all downhill) to Wisdom for breakfast. We'd heard of this cafe back in Missouri, so we were pretty excited to check it out. Luckily there was only one eating establishment in town (population: 120) so it wasn't hard to find.

If you're ever in Wisdom, MT, we would highly recommend eating there! We had four courses: buttermilk pie, veggie hash browns, veggie omelette, rhubarb pie. The omelette was especially impressive, though everything was really good. (Pies were a bit too sweet, but what else is new...)

Apparently we decided that pie was the most photogenic of all our food

After our extended breakfast, we climbed up The Last Hill (well, last big hill of our trip together anyway). The climb was awesome--fairly gradual, full of diverse trees, sprinkled with some historical signs, and, satisfyingly, another continental divide! 

We went downhill for the rest of the day, though of course there was a pesky headwind.

Ground squirrel attack!

We stopped to swim right before arriving at our host's home. Given how hot and sweaty we felt pre-river and how invigorated and refreshed we felt post-river, the dip was absolutely a good decision. (Then again, swimming outside almost always is.)

We did a few bonus miles on the highway outside our host's house, looking for their road next to the wrong mile marker (oops), but made it there not too late. Plus, once there, we were treated to another river swim, this one involving some pretty sweet log-jumping as well.

We really enjoyed the swim and also the frog catching in the steam on the way there with our new two and a half-year-old friend. (She's fabulous, is a fantastic frog-catcher, and regularly refers to any cyclists with panniers as her "friends.") We had a lot of fun talking with our hosts (Pat and Haley) that evening and eating the multi-course, delicious dinner they created for us. Along with our meal, we got to sample several kinds of mead from the family's meadery! And we enjoyed visiting their garden and watching their chickens and droopy-eared rabbits run around the yard. It was amazing to see how they were creating a home out of the property they had recently moved to. It seems like a fantastic place for their little girl to grow up.

The Numbers

Nearing the end of our trip together, and feeling reminiscent of NPR, we've decided it's time to "do the numbers."

Total miles: 3,341
Days consecutively riding: 48
Starting elevation: about 480ft
Highest Point (Hoosier Pass): 11,542ft
Elevation of Missoula: 3,209ft

Tubes of sunscreen: 8

Bottles of mustard: about 10
Jars of pickles: about 15
Pounds of carrots: about 80

Times crossing the Continental Divide: 9
States we've been in: 10
National Parks: 3

Rides in cars: 8
Times driving: 1 (to see Fiddler on the Roof!)

Bears: 1
Coyotes: 1
Antelope: too numerous to count
Moose: 2
Mule Deer: 1
Bald Eagles: 1

Margaritas: 7
Breweries: 4
Saloons: 1 (but only to charge our phones...) (There were multiple cowboy hats)
Coffee shops: 6
Dark chocolate bars: 3
Slices of pie: 7
Glasses of ice tea: 20+

Bike shops: about 8

Musicals: 1
Swimming opportunities: 10

Flat tires: 0