Day 51 Walla Walla, WA -> Grandview, WA

Saturday 10 Sept 2011 2'nd day of the 8'th week.  Day 48 on the Road

 

We woke to the unmistakable sound of a high horsepower engine rumbling outside our room at the Best Western. Looking out the window we could see overnight a fleet of muscle cars and street rods had arrived. Who knew Walla Walla hosts a huge hot rod show on Main Street just a couple blocks from our motel.  Some of the participants had stayed here overnight and already were leaving to secure a good spot at the show.

Some of the stunning machines were definitely magazine quality with perfect paint jobs and enormous engines loaded with chrome. By 7:30 AM they had all left and already were lined up on Main Street.

First order of business after hitting the road was to take a quick look at all the cars downtown. It would have been nice to spend a couple hours checking them all out but we had a 100 mile day ahead of us so a “quick look” down the street is all they got.

Today’s route is completely new and not part of our original planned cross country route.  The reason for the change is the availability of places to sleep for the next couple days. Even being that is know considered “off season” in this area all the rooms are booked along our original route. If fact we actually started to veer off our route yesterday afternoon. We will be staying at a B&B in Grandview tonight.

After only spending 15 minutes to look at 200 cars we headed west to get back on route.  Up ahead we could see a huge fog bank had settled onto the roadway.  The fog was so thick the cars vanished almost like magic as they entered it. We pulled off the road and turned on our lights before we entered the foggy area.  That is when we noticed the smell of smoke. Looking again at the fog just ahead we resized that it was not fog but smoke from a distant wildfire.  Lucky for us we only had to endure the choking smoke for a couple miles as our route turned upwind to the cloud.

It did not take too long for another sticker to find one of our tires and pop a hole in the tube. Tim called out on the radio the dreaded word “Flat”.  We still have not procured any new tubes except the one we got from the two cyclists yesterday so the situation is still critical.  Even if the towns we arrive in at night had a bike shop it would most likely be closed when we roll in at 6 or 7 PM. Hopefully that was our last flat.

During our travels today we spotted a new mower that Team Rider and landscaper Al Nebelung may find handy.  He can get his lawns cut and a ride in at the same time.  We got the guys phone number and he said he will ship it to ya.

This part of Washington is dotted with vineyards and wineries. The climate and soil here supports the growth of wine quality grapes. I have been told most of the wineries in this area only sell within the state of Washington. The wineries we saw are on perfectly manicured estates. With well maintained buildings. It appears they must do well producing wine.

The now ripe grapes fill the air with their aroma as you ride by.  It was impossible to continue to pedal by row after row of bright purple grapes without stopping to sample the fruit. Tim leaned his bicycle against a utility pole and ran to one of the vines and took a small bunch off to sample. Oh were they sweet a simply delicious. We could have eaten a huge bowl full of them but we knew better than to tamper with the vines anymore.  Just a taste for the traveling road crew.

Ken has been snagging apples off of trees since the trip started over 50 days ago. We have passed quite a few apple trees along the roadway with ripe fruit. He hardly misses any of them either.  Hells Canyon road for example was loaded with wild fruit trees at the lower elevations there for the taking.

Washington is apple country. The apples trees we are looking at now are not on public land though. Apples were everywhere you looked. Billions of them.  Bright red and begging to be tasted. Hey didn’t that get Adam and Eve in a jam?? Like the grapes grabbing an apple off one of these trees is stealing.  But they are so close to the road and we only need 3 of them. Our mouths are dry from the heat and one of those tasty treats would hit the spot. Joe held Ken’s bike as he ran to pluck three of the forbidden fruit from one of the roadside trees. After quickly eating the evidence we were happy to see our bikes did not turn into pumpkins and no lightning bolts came out of the sky at us so maybe it was not all that bad of a thing to do. Anyway they sure tasted good.

As you can see from today’s profile the route was a little choppy with plenty of small hills.  We did get as low as 300 feet above sea level today before climbing back up to only 800 feet.  In the back of our minds we all know we have one more mountain range separating us from the Pacific Ocean and the end of our journey. That means we will have to climb to near 6000 feet in the next couple days.

If all goes according to plan the Wild West Tour riders will arrive in Seattle on Tuesday.

101 Miles

2459 Feet of Climbing 

Temperature 65 - 95 degrees

Team Eliminator Roving Reporter Video report fot Saturday Sept 10.

A short film on tire maintenance..

Day 50 Enterprise, OR to Walla Walla, WA

Friday 9 Sept 2011 1'st day of the 8'th week.
Day 47 on the Road.

We woke to perfect cycling conditions the sun was shining and it was warm. First order of business will be to find a tube repair kit or even better a bike shop and some new tubes.  The problem is finding a bike shop may be nearly impossible.  In the past 4000+ miles we have only seen 4 shops and only 2 that were open. Today we had a 100 plus mile day planned with a couple of big climbs.

The crew is nervous because we do not have any new tubes on board.  We were able to patch a couple tubes with our repair kit before we left the motel though.  At least we have something should we have a problem. Most of the time you can get away with a patched tube but not always.  New is always better but when you have nothing a patched tube is great as long as they hold.

Should we have another one of those freak days with 6 flats we will be out of business. Actually we don’t need a freak day just a couple flats and we will be walking the bikes to Seattle.

The towns we passed through are so small the City Hall the Town Library and the Fire Department are all in the same building.

Most towns we go through do not even have a single gas station or even a stop sign.  Take Cottonwood for an example. For sure they do not have a Starbucks, or a Macy’s.  And you can also bet they do not have a pro bicycle shop with the tubes we need.

As we were riding through one of these towns a car pulled up alongside Ken and Joe and asked where we came from and we were headed. The car had a couple of road bikes on the roof.  Cyclist!  Ken told them we came from Connecticut and were heading ro Seattle. He then asked them if they knew where the nearest bike shop was. They pulled over and said Walla Walla had a bike shop but  that was 50 miles away. When they found out we needed tubes they opened their bicycles tool bag and pulled one out for us.

Perrrrfect as long as we have one new tube we most likely NOT get a flat.  If we had no tubes you can be 100% sure we would get a flat.  The cause of these flats is a small thorn that in the southwest they call “stickers” and here they call  ”goat heads”.  They are a cyclist nightmare

Check out this clip on You Tube

We made it through the day without a flat and entered the final state of our tour around 5PM Pacific Standard time. Washington!
108  Miles
5077 Feet of Climbing
Temperature 55 - 95 degrees

  

Day 49 Oxbow, OR (Hells Canyon) to Enterprise, OR

Thursday 8 Sept 2011 Day "7" of week "7" Day 46 on the Road.

The climb out of Hells Canyon was simply beautiful.  We passed huge mountain lakes and many fast moving streams. It seems so odd to be in such an amazing place of beauty and have no cars on the road.  We had the road to ourselves almost all day long.

Normally solitude on the road while cycling is just a dream.  Here it is not a dream it is reality. For nearly 50 miles no cars, no people and….. no water.  By midday the big climbs had started and temperature had reached the mid 90’s. The super low humidity dries your throat quickly as you are gasping for air making the 8 to 12 mile climbs. Soon we were all critical on water and nobody had enough to get out of the canyon.

You really get nervous when you are exerting a lot of energy in high heat and have no water. We decided to pull off the road and wait for a rolling convenience store to come by. In such a beautiful place one has to go by soon.  They always have all you need.

You never heard of a rolling convenience store?  Well let me clue you in should you ever find yourself in the same pickle we are in. A convenience store is an RV.  Oh yea!  They always have water and other goodies.

 We waited on the side of the road for a while and then there it was.  A big Chevy pickup truck pulling a tandem wheeled camping trailer.

Ken tilted his head back and acted like he was drinking water without a glass. The driver spotted the universal “I need water” sign and pulled over immediately. Remember 99.9 % of all Americans are good people and here was another example.  He was happy to pass out some bottles of water to the dehydrated crew.

78 Miles

6634 Feet of Climbing 

Temperature 42 - 95 degrees

Day 48 McCall, ID to Oxbow, OR (Hells Canyon)

Wednesday 7 Sept 2011 The 6'th day of the 7'th week. Day 45 on the road.

Well out in the outer boonies of the outback you will not find any WiFi.  Don’t look for a Verizon store because you will not find one. I did not see any “texters” tapping their phones while walking down the road. With no cell phone towers out here they do not have a need for a fancy iPhone and iPoneys. You will not find anyone who is hopelessly addicted to their Blackberry. Maybe that is a good thing too. Remember when we survived without these items?  Now we are all like puppets waiting for someone to pull one of our electronic strings. Because of this the team has been incommunicado.

The morning when we left the mountains surrounding McCall Idaho it was a nippy 42 degrees.  The mornings in the higher elevations always start off cold then quickly change to hot.  Nothing in between. We start off with every piece of clothing we have on and 5 miles down the road we start peeling it all off.  This is the scenario we have been playing out for a couple weeks now.  By 10PM it is near 80 and by noon in the 90’s sucking every drop of moisture out of us.

Out of McCall we started another one of our long downhill trends.  Other than a few “spikes” we went downhill for over 45 miles.  We wondered “how low can we go” as we went deeper into the canyon towards Oxbow which is just over the border in Oregon. When we reached the river we were just below 1500 above sea level. We have not been there since we were east if the Mississippi! We all would rather stay up high in the hills because no matter what we will have to pay back the “loan” of the downhill with big payments of “uphill”. Just like at a bank if you borrow some elevation you will have to pay it back with interest.

Repayment of the downhill came via some serious installment payments as we entered Hell Canyon National Park.  As you can see from the day’s profile.

Near the end of the day we entered the next to the last state of the tour Oregon. Now let’s pronounce the state correctly or the locals will jump on your chit quickly. it is NOT pronounced Or-e-gone  it is Or-e-gin.

Idaho is a beautiful state with unbelievable sites but after 9 days we were ready to move on.  Wyoming lumped us up with wind,  Idaho tried to poison us with food.  Oregon will love us….. ahhhhh nope. Oregon must have seen the WANTED posters the other states posted for the Notorious Spandex Biker Gang.  Just after snapping a photo at the state line Tim’s front tire went flat. He changed out the tube rolled a few feet down the road and his rear tire went down.  A couple miles further down the road Joe’s front tire went flat and Ken had a tire getting soft.

On the way to the motel we stopped for dinner. After we finished eating and returned to the bikes you will never guess what….yep Tim had a flat!!!

In the morning when we woke up we had another two more flat tires on our bikes! What is going on here anyway?   Now we are out of tubes and that could be a major problem with forward progress if we get another flat.

106 Miles

4445 Feet of Climbing 

Temperature 42 - 90 degrees

No word from the team.  I suspect they are again on the edge of no where with no connection.  News as it comes.

Day 47 Crouch, ID -> McCall, ID

Tuesday 6 Sept 2011 The 5'th day of the 7'th week. Day 44 on the road

Today was payback day for yesterdays freewheeling 50 mile downhill run.  We opened up the morning with a 30 miles of uphill then we reached a high plain where the sun was blazing.

As we did yesterday our route followed a leg of the Payette River.  They difference is yesterday we were riding down the mountain in the direction of the rivers flow.  Today we were riding against the flow and up the mountain.  After careful examination we came to the conclusion "going" with the flow is much easier.

The road up to McCall was busier than what we have been used to lately. For thousands of miles we have been spoiled with traffic fee roads.  Now even having a few cars go by seems like a lot to us. The roads shoulder was a little small but adequate. The sights were not as picturesque as yesterday so you had more time to focus on the fact that you were climbing.  It is better when you can focus on something else.

We did come upon a group of people who were jumping into the icey cold rapids and floating towards a calm pool that they “must” swim into or they would be going for one hell of a ride that may not be as fun.

Sadly an uneventful day makes for an uneventful blog post.
77 Miles
3506 Feet of Climbing 
Temperature 47 - 85 degrees

Day 46 Stanley, ID -> Crouch, ID

Monday 5 Sept 2011 The 4'th day of the 7'th week. Day 43 on the road

We are close to the time zone change and because of that it stays dark until 7AM.
Today it was only 34 degrees as we got underway and we were cold.  Remember we are cyclists and do not have much on for winter clothes when we leave.
How would you like to hop on a bike with not much more than a pair of ladies nylons on and a colorful shirt when it just above freezing?

Before we left we had breakfast at the motel with a couple of young elderlys.
Young Elderlys is a new term for old people that live like they are young…. I want to do that.

Our trip through the Idaho wilderness today was what the ride is all about.
We followed the Payette River all day and the views were spectacular.
The road has been cut into the side of a mountain with the river below. To add to our enjoyment we had a 50 mile downhill run at the end of the day.
You read that correctly 50 miles of downhill.
I do not think we have ever had a downhill that long before.
Of course in the back of our minds as we enjoyed the effortless riding was “what goes down must come up….”

Still we did not let that take away from the fun.

Around midday we stopped for a photo and Joe spotted a bear coming down a hill nearby.
The bear was going down a very steep grade.  “Bear people” will tell you if yu ever need to escape a bear go downhill because they are the slowest in that direction.
Well as far as I could see that bear could easily out run anyone of us downhill.
The temperature rose steadily as the sun climbed higher in the sky.
By 2pm it was a hot windless 85 degrees in the mountains.
The crystal clear river looked even more inviting than ever.
Tim decided a refreshing dip would really feel good so we stopped. He donned a swimsuit and headed down the bank of the river.
Ken was looking for his suit when Tim yelled back his estimate of the water temperature.
Now Tim, Ken and team member Herb had water-skied YEAR ROUND in the northeast for over 6 years in a row a few years back.
All of us are very good at estimating water temperature.
When Tim said the waster was in the 40’s Ken put his suit back in his saddlebag. In the end Tim was satisfied with just getting his knees wet.

We rolled into Crouch, ID a tiny town of less than 200 people but with a nice clean chalet style motel for us to stay.
Just down the road was the Longhorn Restaurant where we ate dinner with another group of Young Elderys.
These people were touring with motorcycles and enjoying life. More good people.

89 Miles
3125 Feet of Climbing 
Temperature 34-85 degrees

Day 45 Sun Valley, ID -> Stanley, ID

Sunday 4 Sept. 2011 The 3'rd day of the 7'th week. Day 42 on the road.  

     

Today we continued north, deeper into the Sawtooth Mountain Range of Idaho after leaving Sun Valley.  As you can see from the profile it was basically one climb up to Galena Pass then a long downhill to Stanley.

This part of the state has big temperature extremes this time of year.  It was a COLD 37 degrees when we left Ketchum.  As soon as that sun cleared the peaks it warmed to 80 in no time.

We came upon the birth place of the Salmon River just past the summit at Galena. This river flows more than 420 miles in Idaho before tying into the Snake River and heading to the Pacific. The salmon that come to these head waters to spawn travel over 900 miles upstream against the current and over 10 dams. You realize what an amazing feat of nature this is when you look at the stream it happens in. 

Once off the summit the river crossed the road a few times.  We stopped to look into the crystal clear waters to see if we could spot any fish. It did not take long to see the huge trout and salmon in the shallow water,  We saw one bright red salmon go down river and many, what we think were trout, lingering behind cover.  Some of the fish we estimated to be at least 24 inches long were in water so shallow the top portion of their bodies were out of the water.

All around us were towering mountains with the jagged peaks that give them their name.  Idaho is truly a beautiful state and a place we would all like to come back to.

63  Miles

3220 Feet of Climbing 

Temperature 39-80 degrees