Day 13 New Meadows to Whitebird

Super pumped about today's ride. Not so pumped about the road/traffic/truckers...but ready and willing to give it a try. Today we have 66 miles of a mostly down hill run. The first 35 miles are down hill all the way to Riggens. So let's go! Allons-y!

After an early, chilly start and a few hasty pull overs to let truckers by, the flow of riding just eased away the world. The mist was lifting lightly over creek beds. Cows watched us pass by, slightly bewildered at the sight. Golden mountains stood at attention, waiting for the sun to grace their shoulders. (Speaking of shoulders, the shoulder of the road was wide and clean for the most part. That made pulling over for truckers a little less daunting and the ride more pleasant).

 As we wove our way through the countryside, it was hard to believe that this incredible ride through Hells Canyon could keep going down and down and down for almost 2 hours!  Turn after turn. It was a crazy fun ride. When we gathered at the town of Riggens, we voted to stop for a "quick" breakfast. Mmmmm Something super greasy and salty. Kate's was the place that Lesli and Stephanie recommended, having just eaten biscuits and gravy there earlier in the morning. So, Kate's it was! Well, Kate was a rip. She was the owner, cook, dishwasher and waitress. She talked to everybody in the place at the same time. Kind of a "we're all in this together" feeling. She was all business and the food was great. Thanks Kate for that fun memory! Oh, and she made everything herself, even the English muffins. (Lisa). 

Well after that wonderful meal, we were off to White Bird. We got to see two rafts heading down the Salmon River. That looked fun!  As we continued winding down through the gorge, it opened up and flattened out a bit. Just a few more miles to go and it was getting hot! I stopped at the Confluence convenient store and had a nice cold lemonade, knowing that I only had one more mile up to go. That huge bridge that goes over the town of White Bird was impressive! Which brings us to tomorrow's ride...we were advised to take old route 95 and stay off of the main highway. Phew! That will be a relief.

Once we were all gathered at Sue and Lesli's camp, we inflated the inner tubes that Lesli bought. We floated out into the Salmon River. Ahhh. Now that was refreshing. Once again it was great to gather at the end of the day and be with such good people! 

We are getting the trepidation/ exhilaration scale out for our ride to Grangeville tomorrow...more on that tomorrow!