The journeys of a family on sabbatical.
Hi! We arrived in Missoula, MT today at about 7:30 PM. It was a long, hot, and hard ride and we are very thankful to be at the Shady Spruce Hostel just a block behind the Adventure Cycling Association headquarters–which we’ll visit tomorrow.
Now that I have some good wifi I wanted to share some of the pictures that were missing in the earlier posts. The following photos go with the June 28 post. Sorry that the pictures are out of order.
We left Council with our eyes on Slate Creek Campground, 81 miles away. It would be our longest day yet; but if we could make it we’d be within 12 miles of the dreaded White Bird Hill. We had a hearty breakfast and set out. The ride would involve a good bit of climbing until New Meadows, but then it would be largely downhill the rest of the way.
We stopped at a store near Tamarack for ice cream and a refill of our water bottles. The man gave us a notebook to add our signatures to the rest of the many TransAmers that have stopped there so far this year. He then warned us about the dangerous–narrow–ride along a stretch of the the Little Salmon River. Apparently there is no shoulder and the semi-trucks fly by at 65 mph leaving us very little room. He even said several bikers have been hit/bumped by them because the road is so windy and narrow. We thanked him, committed it to the Lord, and got back on our bikes.
First of all, let me say the many miles of riding along the Little Salmon River were absolutely gorgeous. I simply couldn’t get enough of the scenery. The river rushed by with canyon-like walls of rocks and hills on both sides and scattered pines everywhere. I wish a camera could capture the full beauty of what we saw.
Secondly, when we reached the section of the road about which the man warned us––the long 2-3 mile windy section in which the shoulder was lined with concrete barriers, leaving us less than 10 inches between the barriers and the yellow line––I prayed for the Lord’s protection and rode on. And amazingly, not one car or semi passed me the entire time along that stretch. I kept flying down the windy hill as fast as I safely could, looking back to keep Rocky in view, and trying to get through it as fast as I could. But not one vehicle passed me until at the very end a pick-up went by and honked–maybe he was just saying hello…
On the way down we found a stunning waterfall we just had to stop and see. So we hung out for a few minutes, took some great photos, and then headed into Pollock. When we reached the small town of Pollock the path turns off the main road and goes through Pollock only to join the main highway again 4 miles later. So of course we took the turn to pass through Pollock. But since I had forgotten to check my many pages of addenda that accompany my map I didn’t see that this side road was closed to thru traffic. Oops! Within 2 miles we came to the reason for the road closure. A section of about 200 feet was completely caved in. There was definitely no way a car could get through–but what about bikes? We had no desire to bike up the 2 mile descent we’d just come down to get here. So we carefully walked out bikes across the cracked, twisted, turned, and upheaved road to get to the other side.
We stopped in Riggins with a half-a-mind to stay at the RV Park. The day had been long, hot, and stressful. I was tired and didn’t really want to go on. But Riggins was 30 miles from White Bird–not close enough for comfort. So we grabbed a Gatorade and corndog and hoped that the next 22 miles to Slate Creek Campground was more downhill than up. Thankfully it was. And moreover, it was along the Little Salmon River the entire way. The ride was breathtaking. We were compelled to stop at a section of the road filled with hundreds of trucks and camper trailers. What were all these people doing!? We learned they were all down on the river fishing for salmon. We stopped and watched a few men fish until one caught a nice sized salmon.
I had lost track of how many more miles we had to go so we stopped at the Steelhead Inn and asked. I was bummed when she told me it was 4 more miles. I was hoping it was only 1 mile more. She knew we were on the TransAM and asked if we were traveling West or East. She then invited us into a room where the fridge was filled with juice and sandwiches and told us not to be shy. We weren’t. We downed two juices each, two sandwiches each, and I used the phone to call Chantry to let her know how far we’d made it.
We arrived safely–and very tired–to the Slate Creek Campground (between Lucille, ID and White Bird, ID) early enough to cook dinner and sleep along the Little Salmon River under the stars. It was an 81 mile day, but praise God we made it. I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t believe the millions of stars I could see. I immediately thought of Ps 8, “What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you care for him?” I thought to myself, “The God who made all those and who knows them all by name, knows me, loves me, and cares for me.” I went back to sleep with a grateful heart and a smile across my face.
Thanks for praying and thanks for following.
Until next time… 🙂
We left Oxbow a bit later than we intended. A motorcyclist greeted us outside the restrooms and we had a long conversation about what we were doing. He was so very interested as well as impressed with it all. You could tell he was wishing he could do the same thing, especially with his kids. It made me grateful to be able to share how the Lord provided this time to spend with my family and especially with two of my sons.
The road out of Oxbow greeted us with a short but difficult climb up to the Oxbow Reservoir where the water was so still that the reflections of the hillsides and sky were absolutely spectacular. Within 10 miles or so we reached the Brownlee Dam, a time change, and Idaho, which greeted us with a beastly climb–the one the campground attendant warned us about. It went up, and up, at a very steep grade. We were told the climb was 13 miles long. But thankfully it wasn’t without some relief. After about 6 miles we reached a convenience store where we stopped for lunch. After lunch I went outside, sat on the sidewalk of the store next to my bike and tried to take a short nap. I was tired from the climb and I wanted to give my food a few minutes to settle. A little later I was approached by a man getting out of his truck with his family. Once again I had the opportunity to share what we were doing and how very thankful to the Lord I was for the opportunity. He was very impressed and wished us well.
The climb to the store had been of medium difficulty, but the real climb was the second half. So after fueling up with food and Gatorade we headed off. It was a challenging 7 more miles requiring many breaks, but praise God we made it. The summit was a delightful sight and another Kodak moment.
The ride down into Cambridge was great. The road twisted and turned as we descended, just like every other downhill. But then suddenly we found ourselves in the thick of something moving across the road by the thousands. Rocky and I were cruising along nicely and then we heard squish, crunch, pop. The road was covered for as far as we could see with giant moving things. And we were riding over them! What were they? They were jumping up and hitting our legs, jumping between our spokes–or at least trying to–as we drove by. They were everywhere! We had to stop and see just what this was all about. As it turns out they were huge Mormon crickets. Apparently they come through every 4-5 years and we just happen to coincide with the timing. They clung to the tall grass like caterpillers. They were crawling across the road like ants. There were thousands splattered by cars for hundreds of yards by the cars. The live ones were canabalistically feeding on the dead ones. And they just kept coming. It reminded me of the Egyptian plague of locusts. It was gross and we couldn’t get out of there fast enough. We got back on our bikes and pedaled as fast as we could though the flood of crickets–as they bounced off our legs and crunched under our tires. It was disgusting.
We cruised through Cambridge and made it to Council, ID by 8:30. Another long day–63 miles. We stopped at the gas station for a Gatorade and headed on to the pizza place for dinner. After an awesome pizza we rode through town to locate the American Legion. Behind the Legion was a very nice park and we were told we could sleep on the lawn near the back of the park. But when we arrived the sprinklers were going and the lawn was soaked. So we decided to pull out our air mats and sleeping bags and sleep on the concrete floor of the gazebo in the middle of the park. What a nice night it was. The cool breeze and open air feel made for a great night.
Tomorrow? A long ride. We’ve got to get as close to White Bird Hill as we can so we can climb it with the strength of the morning.
Thanks for praying and thanks for following. Sorry… I still can’t get pictures to load 🙁
Until next time… 🙂
Looks like I’ve got some catching up to to do since my last post. We’ve had some long days and no wifi so there’s been no way of keeping up to date but I’ll give you the highlights and bring you up to speed.
June 28
We left Baker City, OR early in the morning and headed towards Oxbow, a total of 71 miles. It would be our longest day yet; but that’s not what worried me. Two big challenges stood between us and Oxbow: Hells Canyon and the Richland Grade. Hells Canyon is surprisingly hot (stretching across most of our ride today) and the Richland Grade is a steep climb in the middle of it. We needed to stay hydrated! We made it the 42 miles to Richland without too much trouble. We just kept pedaling and drinking. We found a bench in the shade outside a store in Richland and sat down to have our lunch. The store owner was very kind and talked to us about the TranAm racers who came through a few weeks ago (they average 230-300 miles a day across the entire country!!). He also warned us about the Richland Grade–just ahead of us–and encouraged us, if we could, to bike past Oxbow to Brownlee.
Richland Grade was daunting at first sight. We were biking along and suddenly were confronted by an overwhelming bare hill. I looked up to see tiny cars switchbacking back and forth to the top of it. It was huge and I thought “Oh no.” “There it is boys. That’s what we’ve got to climb,” I said. So we paused for a few moments, in the heat, to tank up on water and up we went. It was 1:06 PM. We stayed together and kept eyeing the next rest stop as we winded our way up. The next mile marker. The next bend. The farthest telephone pole. We leapfrogged our way for the next hour and a half until we finally reached the top.
In another 30 long miles we finally reached Oxbow. It was 4:30. We’d been on the bikes since 6:30. And there was a huge hill between Oxbow and Brownlee that neither of us felt like climbing. We were done. It was a long day in the heat of Hells Canyon. So we opted to sleep at the Oxbow Dam campground, Copperfield Park.
As we turned in Forrest made a sharp turn, unaware he was on gravel, and had a nasty fall. He slid across the pavement and gravel scraping up his right leg, side, arm, and–worst of all–his left palm. My first aid kit’s alcohol swabs had met its match so I went to the park attendant and asked for some more alcohol. They turned out to be a wonderful elderly couple who proceeded to treat us like their own grandkids. She soon came down to our campsite with ham and cheese sandwiches, cookies–to go with our soup–and bagels and butter for breakfast. They let me use their phone so I could call Chantry and let her know where were and they also let us move our tent out of the hiker/biker section to a quieter area of the campground so we could get a good night’s rest. May God bless them!
We slept soundly and were off in the morning by 9AM, heading toward Brownless Summit, which he warned me was twice as bad as Richland Grade. Yikes!
…not sure why I can”t upload photos. Sorry. I’ll try to post some at another time.
Thanks for praying and thanks for following.
Until next time… 🙂
