Day 70 - July 12 - Lowell, ID to Cottonwood, ID - Two Old Guys Take On A Continent

July 12, 2023

Day 70 - July 12 - Lowell, ID to Cottonwood, ID

And the Hills Just Keep on Comin’!

John’s Story

Flashback: Yesterday while riding along the river a pickup with flashing lights and sirens raced past us. We came upon it a few minutes later stopped on the river side of the road with two other cars. We went on and thought no more about it. Later in camp we heard that a fly fisherman had waded out into the river and couldn’t get back to shore. They sent a raft up the river to rescue him. He was probably plenty embarrassed by the attention.

Johnny and Dave just before they took off this morning to continue their gravel ride to Tucson. They planned to ride up and over Lolo Pass on pavement then rejoin their gravel route in Darby. Johnny’s beard is much longer than my grandson Johnny’s beard.

The Three Rivers: the Lochsa coming in from the lower right and the Selway from the left, and the Middle Fork Clearwater leaving to the upper right.

With the sun at just the right angle this morning, the rock face to our right glistened as though it were wet. I stopped to take a look. The rock is a micaceous schist.

We started seeing lines stretched from bank to bank across the river. They didn’t seem to be power lines, so we suspected they were for hauling things across the river. We came upon a couple doing just that. The small gondola is suspended on two cables and it runs across the river using a golf cart motor. Because the mast on this side of the river was starting to loosen up, the owner poured a new footing around it with 56 yards of concrete, over 200,000 pounds. He said the cables are 30,000 pound tensile strength, and it has been working for decades, but I wouldn’t want to load too much into the gondola. The recreation easements that allow these cables to be strung across the river are no longer granted, and the existing ones are grandfathered in. They do have a back way into the property by road on the other side of the river should it ever fail. The current owner’s father and father's two brothers owned a two mile stretch of property on the other side.

Anyone for a trip across the river by cablecar?

I saw beehives several times early today and wondered what they are pollinating. I did see a few apple and plum trees, but nothing of agricultural scale. I believe there are some wineries in this area, so maybe that’s what the bees are for.

Each of the fence posts separating the road from the field with the beehives had a boot on top of it. Either that or a bunch of petrified, one-legged cowboys are buried upside down along the road.

I didn’t think we’d see the Columbia Plateau basalts this soon, but there they are. There were very tall mountainsides of basalt along the river as we approached Kooskia. I saw some columnar basalt at a distance and hoped to get a closer look.

I didn’t see the columnar basalt in the road cuts, but the National Park Service used some columns to build the monument here. The Heart of the Monster is the mythical creation place of the Niimiipuu (Nez Perce) people.

And now for our horticultural episode..

We started seeing thickets of blackberry bushes along the roadside. If only it were a few weeks later. Perhaps we’ll find ripe berries farther west closer to the coast.

This looks a lot like the wild hemlock we saw in the Midwest and Great Plains. If it is, it has certainly invaded a large part of the country.

If you look closely you can see fruit on the branches. I’m guessing plums.

We climbed what may be the most difficult hill of the trip today, 1,826’ of vertical over 7.6 miles. What made it worse was the heavy logging truck traffic on the road. And these trucks did not always move over to pass us. After the first few, we pulled off the road each time we heard one coming up behind us. That made for a lot of stops on a steep hill. It took me almost exactly one and a half hours to do the climb. We came out on top to find not a lovely downhill on the other side but more hills. We are on the Camas Prairies, and there are no flat spots here. The road is either going up or down, meaning after the long climb we were continuously climbing up and down for the last 15 miles to Cottonwood.

At the top of the big climb I waited for Ed a few minutes behind me and had a chance to photograph one of the logging trucks going by.

Moments later this big boy came out of a farm road right next to me. That tractor is almost as wide as the entire road!

Looking from the summit back the way we came.

Looking ahead to the loess hills of the Camas Prairies.

We were pretty jelly-legged by the time we got to Cottonwood. The last mile was another long hill that did not stop when we got to the Seubert RV Park, but just turned to gravel and steepened into unrideability. We checked in, dumped our bags on the ground, and headed to the Wolf Track Brewery. It was a mile away and down another hill, of course.

The beer was good, and we spent an hour chatting with, from left to right, John the brewer, Bob the local , and Dan the guy visiting his old stomping grounds near where he grew up. John popped a big bowl of popcorn which hit the spot. We adjourned and went across the street to the market to find dinner.

Our tents are snuggled up against the park office, right next to the shower/bathroom. The office will be unlocked all night, so we can stow our food panniers in there. And there’s ice cream and sodas in there, to be purchased on the honor system.

One last shot of the prairie before it gets dark.

Ed’s Story

It’s journal time again. Not much to say about the morning. Typical routine followed. John got up a little bit slower than normal.

And then we were off. The first 23 miles were downhill or flat. We were still following the river.

Our first stop was at Syringa about 7 miles from our campground. Not much to see there but it was a little bit bigger than Lowell however.

We continued riding. As I looked up, I saw a big house at the top of the mountain. I’m glad we didn’t have to climb up to spend the night there. It would have been brutal.

We entered but I don’t recall us leaving the reservation.

After 23 miles we got to Kooskia where we had a coffee and a cinnamon roll. I also removed the last of my outer layers and put on sunscreen. It was already getting warm and there was a big climb coming up in the next half hour.

About 8 miles past Kooskia, we arrived at Kamiah. We bought some orange juice at a convenience store. There was a grocery store next door so I went and bought some bananas.

The next 10 miles aren’t fit to be discussed. We climbed 1900 feet for over 8 miles (yes my statistics are different from Johns) on a road according to Adventure Cycling that was supposed to have less traffic.

The climb was tough enough as it was; however, there was a lot of traffic. The worst were the logging trucks that screamed up at 70 miles an hour (or so it seemed). They also didn’t move over very much to get away from you.

There were many times when I saw a logging truck in my mirror that I just pulled over and stopped. I did eventually make it to the top after almost an hour and 40 minutes.

There was a barn at the top of the hill with the front and the back doors open. John was already waiting for me at the top, standing in the sun. I suggested that he move into the barn. His comment was “what barn”?

We ate lunch and continued on our way. But that wasn’t the end of the climbing. Although the big hill was done, there were multiple smaller hills that still put a beating on the body, especially since I hadn’t fully recovered from the big climb.

It was very warm and sunny. I kept drinking more and more water. Luckily we got to the Seubert RV park in Cottonwood before I ran out.

Alice, one of the owners, let us pitch our tents right behind the office, where the grass was green and level. The office will remain unlocked all night. We will be able to store our food bags in here away from any critters.

There is also a cold water faucet and a Keurig coffee machine we can use.

I was finally able to give the bear spray away. I asked Alice if any other bikers came through here and she said one or two. I asked her if she could just give the spray to whoever is traveling eastbound free of charge, because I didn’t pay for it. One less thing to worry about.

Once our bags were unloaded, we headed to town and the brewery. We sat with the brewery owner and several locals and talked for about an hour.

My daughter Jane was impressed that a town of under 1000 could have a brewery yet there it was.

From there it was to the grocery store, back to camp, set up tents, call my wife, take a shower, and eat dinner. It will probably be another early night, especially after today’s ride.

Tomorrow we ride 60 miles with 2700 feet of climbing to get to Lewiston Idaho. We have reservations for two nights at the Quality Inn. It is another rest day.

Looking at our logistics file, I will probably take extra water with me as there is a potential we can go 40 miles without getting a refill. I do not want to run out.

Until tomorrow happy biking!

Today's ride: 60 miles (97 km)
Total: 759 miles (1,221 km)

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