7-28 Tuesday

Brownlee Dam to Baker City, OR - 82 miles

Wow, another blessed morning of Don's Diner, whipping up pancake after power packed pancake. Big day today... we have finally crossed into our final state... Oregon, wow! We could literally see Oregon from our campsite, right across the river.

We made the cross, and almost instaneously did Amanda, Daniella, and Kristen got flats. Apparently by the, "Welcome to Oregon" sign there were these plants with burrs in them that stuck into their tires. I dont know why the guys were lucky but it made for an interesting morning anyway. More incredible views today, from the mountains to the high plains, and back to the desert.

It was almost hard to appreciate the views of the day as our heads were drooped down over our handlebarbags trying to ignore the heat. I felt like a slug for the final 20 miles between the heat and the headwinds but I finally made it into Baker City.

A special thanks to Dustin's mom for sending a box of goodies, the chocolate chip cookies were awesome. We stayed at the Mtn. View Holiday Trav-L-Park por gradis, Thanks so much Carrie!! Man I love showeres at this point, feeling like I scrubbed off a year's worth of road grime.

7-27 Monday

New Meadows, ID to Brownlee Dam - 75.31 miles

Another day of high temps well into the 90's and interesting terrain into the desert. The first half the day was mainly downhill, a long slow sloping grade. Not much to report during the middle of the day, except for the views. Incredible spanses of desert and dry mountains.

While riding, we had the company of millions of locusts that made crunching noises as we rode over them.

I also found an Idaho license plate that is the newest edition to my bike... sweet. We road along the Snake River until the end of Idaho. The river turned into a resevoir where we camped at the bottom of the damn at McCormick Park, one of Idaho Power's Hells Canyon Recreation Facilities just past the Brownlee Dam.

We enjoyed the cool river and lounged by the tents the rest of the day. Once again, the stars were epic!

7-26 Sunday

Grangeville, ID to New Meadows, ID - 89.39

We awoke this morning to thunder storms and the pitter patter of rain on the tent. It was only temporary and nice to listen to for a little while before we crawled out of the tent and were greated by another famous Don's Diner special... pancakes... my favorite. The ride started with a climb to the top of White Bird Hill Summit at an elevation of 4,429 ft.

We cruised down the side of the mountain range all the way into White Bird at 1,518 ft. The rest of the ride on the day was through the Salmon River Canyon, where at one point Chris and I decided to go to the beach... quite literally.

We've been cruising along these gorgeous rivers for days now so we bring along our bathing suits just in case. Unbelievable that this exists in Idaho, very relaxing before we got back on the bikes for another 40 miles! The rest of the day was a climb up to 5,020 ft. into New Meadows.

On into town for endless rootbeers at Subway and soccer and frisbee with Dustin at our campsite, Dorsey Warr Memorial Park, where I also enjoyed some wifi from the tent, awesome.

7-25 Saturday

Grangeville, ID to New Meadows, ID - 89.39 miles

It was a nice cruise into Kooskia where, as we were informed at the restaurant yesterday evening, the town was holding their annual Kooskia Days.

Chris, Dustin and I each had a quart of chocolate milk and a burrito at the local gas station and then pushed on. Other stuck around for the parade. After a 3,000 ft. climb along the Middle Fork Clearwater River Chris and I pulled over for a dip in the river. What a life I'm living where I can just pull over from biking on a hot summer day and take a dip in a cool, clear Idaho river. Thankyou!!

On the road again brought us into Grangeville. Milshakes and Burritos at the Zip Trip and blogging in the city park... I love it! The Grangeville Chamber of Congress hosted a spaghetti dinner for us at the senior center. Incredible!! Thanks again Jeff for helping us raise that money as well as Bev Frost who has MS donated paintings to be auctioned off and the money donated in our honor... Wow!

The dinner was amazing and the company was great. Sleeping in the town park under another blanket of stars.

7-24 Friday

Lolo Hot Springs to Lowell, ID - 94.4 miles

Another big day today on all fronts; new state, new time zone, good climb, killer downhill all afternoon... lot's happening. Woke up to thunderstorms which were loud but brief so it was nice to lay in the tent as the rain poured for a little while. By the time I crawled out of the tent it was partly cloudy and time for a hot shower... RV parks are nice like that. Another 600 feet brought us up to the top of Lolo Pass and across the state line into Idaho... no potatoes here though.

After we took our pictures in front of the sign, we headed across the street to the visitor center were we gratefully drank free hot chocolate and wifi for a few minutes before heading down the mountain. The downhill was sweet, check out dustin's blog for this day to see a sweet downhill video, I took one also but his is better.

We cruised along the Lochsa River all day and at our first stop we ate peach pancakes, (thanks Don & Will) and on top of that I slammed another triple decker. At the end of the day we enjoyed milkshakes at Ryan's Wilderness Inn Cafe thanks to Kevin's Grandma Betty!! The Clearwater National Forest Wild Goose Campground was full so we camped Rambo style on the roadside about 3 miles past Lowell. Thank goodness I didn't get any poisen ivy. The stars were amazing!

7-23 Thursday

Missoula, MT to Lolo Hot Springs - 46.2 miles

Can't thankyou enough Sue Gelber for the rooms at the Days Inn last night!! Sleeping in this morning was a bit unusual and felt odd but we were at ease for at noon we traveled to the Adventure Cycling Association headquaters.

What a welcoming, they were very happy to see us, as we were with them, especially they offered us free ice cream. We took the full tour and heard some great stories of some of the original Transam stories. Then off to the back to have our pictures taken for the wall of pictures in the foyer of all the riders taking the journey this summer. Thanks again for the hospitality and enthusiasm Adventure Cycling, we'll see you next year.

Coincidentally the local news was doing a story on cycling in the area and they happened to interview a couple of us, check it out here! Thanks Jake! The rest of the ride was a climb to Lolo pass. We rode by the only confirmed camping site of Lewis & Clark. Had a blowout with 3 miles left to go. Long day, head wind most of the day and man was it hot... the bank said 101 degrees. Camped by a stream, great views.

7-22 Wednesday

Hamilton, MT to Missoula, MT - 52.51 miles

What a weird setting to waking up in, a bowling alley. Dustin and I were ready to get in a few games, but we figured we better get on the road. Quick stop at McDonalds to hit up the value menu. Road with Chris for a while and then he got a flat. 93 is a scary road and if I can avoid roads like that till the end I'll be a happy camper, doesn't look like much here, but it was something awful.

After we reached Florence we turned onto a bike trail for a few miles, back on the busy road, and on into Missoula. Last night while at the bowling alley, we recieved a tweet from a woman named Susan Gelber. We've never met her before as she had only been following our tweets. She said that she had bought up 3 hotel rooms at the Days Inn in Missoula. Unbelievable!!!

Thank you so much Susan. So I took advantage of a hot shower and some wifi to catch up on my blog. Tomorrow we head to the headquaters of Adventure Cycling who manages the route that we're taking across the country. It'll be neat to meet them and get some free ice cream.