Jacob Usher
Note from the editor (Brian): You may have noticed that we don’t always post the blog the day it’s written. This is partly because we don’t always have service where we camp. We’ll keep doing our best to post them as soon as possible.
A big part of our routine each day is packing and unpacking camp. Particularly packing up in the morning since that’s usually when I am grumpiest. After the second day, I reorganized my bags so that my system was mostly complete. Tent and sleeping stuff in the left pannier, clothes and food stuff in the right pannier, and other items I need more often through the day in my handlebar bag that has become a saddle bag.
I was having a hard time remembering which pannier was which (you’d think it would be easy right?) so I tried to remember ‘right for random, left for tent.’ If you’re paying close attention you realized that that was wrong. I realized at lunch that same day, but now it is easy to remember. At some point my packing became pretty dialed. I know where stuff belongs and packing takes less effort each morning.
We woke up at 6:15 this morning, electing to skip breakfast to get down the road faster. Our goal for the day was an 85 mile ride with a mega climb at the end of the day to Grangeville. It was barely 40 degrees, wet, and the bathrooms were closed. It was a good morning to be able to pack quickly.
Usher, packed up and ready for the cold
Yesterday was a tough day so we all started pretty quiet, just hoping to make a lot of progress. We passed through Meadows valley when I realized I wasn’t recording for Strava (horrifying). The sun started to come out and we followed the Little Salmon River into a steep winding valley where it rushed over small water falls.
Michael and Friend ride along the Little Salmon River
My fingers and toes were blocks of ice, but the views and easy down hill riding made up for it. I was excited when the trees started to thin because I knew the roads would be dry soon and I might warm up.
The sun peaks out late in the morning
We decided to push on to Riggins before stopping for breakfast. The Little Salmon River gradually became the Salmon River and the trees turned to grass which turned to brown rock. We were all craving a breakfast at a diner but a man doing road work told us that the diner in Riggins closed down just a few weeks ago. Instead we ate breakfast at a nice park along the river. He did, however, recommend Red’s in White Bird as something like ‘the best breakfast I’ve ever had.’ It was also around this time we decided to cut our day short of Grangeville because of some aches and pains. Conveniently this puts us in White Bird for the night and made the day much easier.
Michael pounds some honey during a quick break
As the day went on, we found ourselves sharing the road with the occasional semi-truck. Some had double trailers and we even saw the elusive triple trailer! One had 90 bails of hay on it. We had a wide, nice shoulder for the majority of the day making the traffic not so bad.
We crossed into PST again (as if the time zones hadn’t confused us enough already) and the Salmon River now became the Lower Salmon River. We pushed against a moderate headwind into camp arriving at 4pm Mountain Time or 3pm Pacific. We are staying at a nice campsite tucked beside the river with a great view of the valley.
An early finish gave the group time to play a game of Euchre at camp
Tomorrow we have a mega breakfast and a mega climb waiting for us.