Be sure to check out photographs from the road- we just added photos from Washington, Oregon and Idaho today! See them at our Photoshelter page!
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Category Archives: idaho
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Kamiah to the Montana border
As I mentioned in the last blog post, the landscape changed pretty drastically as we dropped into Kamiah:
On Tuesday morning we woke up feeling good and hit the road early.
The whole day we followed the rivers (first the Clearwater, then the Lochsa). About 30 miles into the day we hit the Cougar Canyon service station, which was the last building of any kind we would see for the next 60 miles. We loaded up on water and continued on.
The Lochsa is famous for it’s rapids and we saw a few brave souls kayaking throughout the day… this photo really give you a feel for just how big this river is at parts.
We intended to ride 55 miles and camp out, but when we hit 55, well, it was 1:30 and we felt good! So we decided to just ride until we got tired, pull over and set up camp.
And that’s how we ended up making our longest day yet- 91 miles. It got a little hilly at the end of the day, but we found a National Park campground right on the river and fell asleep quickly to the sounds of the rushing water.
Winchester, ID to Kamiah, ID
We slept in this morning until 7, but were still a little sore and a lot tired when we got up. We decided to take it slow and try to make it the 47 miles to Kamiah, ID on the banks of the Clearwater River. First though, we had to go through more farm country.
This area Idaho is just about the most classic farm country you can imagine. We were filled with a sense of idyllic Americana as we rode through picturesque farming communities and sprawling landscapes. Alan got this great shot of one community center:
And I nabbed this shot of a great tree with a tire swing:
The day was absolutely beautiful, with cooler weather due to the elevation. But in the afternoon we coasted down a six mile hill to the Clearwater River- surround by big, beautiful pine trees. We’re feeling good tonight so we’ll be up early tomorrow to enjoy some breakfast here at the campground before heading out for a long day. Plenty of photos to come of this new landscape…
Lewiston to Culdesac to Lewiston to Winchester, ID
Yesterday was a very, very long day. We started out in the morning and hit the hills heading towards Culdesac, ID which is at the base of an old grade road that would be our big uphill for the day. After riding most of the way to Culdesac, Alan decided it was a poor decision to ignore the creaking and grinding noises coming from the back of his bicycle and we rode back to the nearest bike shop- about 5 miles back from where we had started the day. You see, after Lewiston, ID there are no bike shops on our route until we cross the mountains into Missoula, MT. That’s about 5 days of riding in the mountains and a chance we weren’t willing to take. So, grumpy at having to ride back and take care of this problem, we rolled into TNT Bikes in Lewiston. There we met Brad who checked over Alan’s bike for free and was so amazingly nice that it was hard to stay in a bad mood. After leaving the shop we got back to the campground where we had started our day and considered just scrapping it and trying again tomorrow. It was 1:30 in the afternoon and about 85 degrees outside.
Instead, we decided to just make a go for it. We had wanted to get to Winchester (at the top of that long grade road) which was about 45 miles from the campground, but we figured that some progress was better than none and banked on having to possibly just pitch our tent on the side of the road somewhere if night caught us. In our newfound determined and zen-like state, we hit the road a second time. Around 4:30 we hit the quick stop at the bottom of Winchester Grade Road, fueled with ice cream sandwiches and Powerade and started climbing the 9 miles. 
The road was 9 miles of switchbacks but the views alone were worth it.
As we climbed higher and higher (about 2500 feet in total) we were able to look back over the dry farmland we were leaving behind and see the transition to land that doesn’t need irrigation to produce crops.
Needless to say, it was a spectacular climb. But by the time we reached Winchester (around 7pm) we were completely exhausted from a 65 mile day. We ate quickly and passed out at a makeshift spot the rangers at the state park let us camp in out of pity (all the regular spots were full because of the holiday). We were asleep by 9.