Day 11 Halfway, Oregon (population 303) to Cambridge, Idaho (population 328)

Well that was an interesting night for sure! I slept in the shack "out back." On my way to the shack to go to bed,  I saw a large feral cat. That sprang my imagination into high speed. Hmm I wonder why it ran under the shack? Will birds and snakes crawl into my shack? Oh bother! When I finally went to sleep, I slept well. No creatures visited in the night. 

Monday morning. Up bright and early! Lauran gave me a gentle reminder to wake up. As she had already perked a pot of coffee, I was eager to get up and get going. We all bustled about the place packing and preparing for today's climb; almost identical to yesterday's trajectory. Today we hoped to get started an hour earlier to avoid the predicted high heat. We might make all 58 miles if we planned it right. Donning some very strange looking duck billed visors, we set off into the rising sun.

What a fantastic morning. Flying up over hills and down the other side on Hells Canyon Rd. I got a great view of an Elk standing by the Pine River at a point where the road veered away from the river. Stephanie saw a family of otters at one point too.  The air was crisp and clear as we sailed by sleepy farms and wove in and out along the river. Gorgeous views! 17 miles literally flew by in one hour and 2 minutes. 

Lauran and I hung out a bit and marveled at the landscape and discussed our anticipation/ trepidation scale, knowing the ascent at the end of our ride today would be a challenge. We all gathered at Oxbo Dam to discuss the next push through 14 miles to Brownlee Dam. It was a spectacular ride along the reservoir. Tall gold, bold mountains reaching straight down to the reservoir on both sides. Coincidentally there were tons of ripe black berries along the road side. But no time to pick today...we have to beat the heat. We arrived at Brownlee in Great shape. Took some photos of the Idaho state line. Cool! New state, New time zone! 

27.9 miles to go. 10 of them up. Lauran pushed on and I caught up with her a few miles later. The rest of our party chose to be smart and not get heat stroke. I was so looking forward to making it to the top without blueberry cobbler to stop me, that I just kept going. It was getting hot but I was fortunate to be able to stop in a couple of shady spots. Lauran hopped in with the rest of the crew quite a ways up... and now I was alone and lonely on the mountain. That's OK. I saw bear scat, very cool, right?  Plus an interesting pinkish brown snake and lots of gnarly locusts. Keep going. Another bend. Sweat burning my eyes. Stop and refill water bottles. Another 5 miles. Boy that Snake River is tempting. Too bad I have to climb down an embankment to get to it. Hmm better not. Just keep going. Maybe walk between those 2 shady spots. What time is it? Keep going...burning hot in the sun...another bend in the road going up and another and another and the next thing I knew, my friends were cheering and shouting...I'd made it! Wow. I thought I had a ways to go yet! And when I arrived at the parking area, they had prepared freshly cut watermelon for me. As I write this blog I am feeling a bit verklempt about it. Seriously, how sweet is that?!?  

Well, the rest of the story is short: 17 miles to Cambridge, Idaho. Gliding down through gulleys. No real steep spots, but enough to get me to town in 41 minutes. Whew! Thank you friends for your support today. That was amazing. 

To end a perfect day, Lesli drove us to a creek to enjoy the nice cool water. Ahhh refreshing. And Lisa prepared Risotto and Bruchetta and Zucchini and Eggplant..

A perfect end to a perfect day.