Grateful for Clouds

Finally settled in for the night, knowing that I have a plan for the next few days, I wait to feel sleep creep in. The darkness is interrupted by my cell phone ringing. I expect it to be one last call from Linda, but when I look at the little window, I am delighted to see the name of my workplace neighbor and one of my all-time favorite people, Chie. "Hello?" "Um, who is this" "This is Kevin, so nice to hear from you." "Thomas? Who is this?" "This is Kevin. I'm in Idaho. Where are you?" Laughter... Apparently she meant to call someone named Karen. Close but no cigar. I am wondering if she remembers I am on vacation because I think she says something like "I'll see you tomorrow." Which doesn't make sense either because tomorrow would be a Saturday. Not a dream, but entertaining.

Huge change in the weather today. I rolled out of town at 6:00 am, still fairly dark out because of the ample cloud cover, and made a quick stop at the Post Office to drop in a bill and an article for Theo I came across in the Lewiston paper the day before. It was about 70 degrees, even this early, but very comfortable. The route out of Lewiston takes me across another bridge, and then along a separated path that parallels highway 12. After a comfortable ride along the highway, I come to the junction with Highway 95 southbound. Big decision time. The Adventure Cycling map says that they do not recommend following highway 12 to Kamiah, due to lack of shoulders and heavy truck traffic. They recommend a longer route down 95 and then across the prairies to Kamiah. What makes it a hard decision is that highway 12 to Kamiah is pretty flat, and the "Lapwai" alternate has some climbing. A lot of climbing in fact. They advertise a near absence of traffic and decent shoulders, so after the stress of holding the white line for so much of eastern Washington's highway 24, I decided to try it out. If the big climb does me in, I can make it a short day and camp at Winchester Campground, located on a lake just after the monster hill. The distance differential is pretty big. Highway 12 to Kamiah, 68 miles. The Lapwai alternate worked out to about 87 miles. I headed out to 95 take the long way.

Today was almost entirely within the Nez Perce Indian Reservation. I read that the Nez Perce were the nicest, most helpful tribe to Lewis and Clark.

A short distance out of Lewiston, in the tiny town of Lapwai (place of butterflies) I stopped at a little diner for breakfast. I sat next to three native women at the counter and they immediately struck up a conversation with me. They were alarmed when I said I was headed to Missoula. "Honey, you're going the wrong way!" I explained the whole detour scenario, and they still seemed doubtful. I am suggestible enough that this starts to build doubts in my own mind, but I wasn't going to double back now. After breakfast, almost as soon as I got rolling, it started to rain. First time for the raincoat I had been portering along all this time. It was so warm and the rain so light, I almost didn't need it, but I kept it on until the drops abated. The shoulders were wide but strewn with debris. Just before the diner I heard a pop and then thump-thump-thump. I looked at my front tire as I rolled to a stop and a big screw was protruding out of the tread. I carefully unscrewed it,waiting for the hiss, but nothing. The tire was holding. I have had good luck with my Specialized Armadillos. I just hate flats, so I am OK with them being a little slower rolling.

Eventually, there is a right turn off the highway to start "the climb." It's called Winchester Grade Road, and it is about eight miles of tight switchbacks, uninterrupted ascent, inclines from 5 to 7% and in a few short places, even steeper. This would have been a killer in direct sunlight, but it was exciting to look back at each turn and see how much higher I was. The roadway was super smooth, so very comfortable to ride on. At about 3500 feet it levels off and the prairie component begins. Rolling high plains, almost zero traffic, but pretty rough roads. And, I notice that my front tire is losing air after all. I pump it up again, and find that it is good for about thirty miles each pump-up. I'll fix it tonight.

While I had cloud shelter for much of today's ride, the sun broke out at times in the prairies, and it was really nice. My legs were pretty wasted from Winchester, but I elected to keep going to Kamiah. There were numerous times where I would start down a huge hill only to see an equally long re-climbing of that elevation loss coming up. Finally, about nine miles from Kamiah, the road takes a steep, continuous descent to the little town. I am really spent, but I look forward to a short thirty mile leg to Lowell tomorrow, and a longer leg the next day.