Water World

Surprise! I found a Wi-Fi hotspot at the Lochsa Lodge, near our campground by Lolo pass. Tomorrow, we have to climb to the top of the pass, cross the Idaho-Montana border, then zoom down into Missoula. Looking forward to meeting the folks from Adventure Cycling, who are practically the patron saints of cross-country bicycle touring.

The theme for the past couple of days seems to be water! We beat the heat by leaving early in the morning, reaching our campsite at the Wilderness Gateway campground by lunch time, then we went swimming in the cold Clearwater river. “Swimming is an exaggeration. We got wet, and cooled off. And I used up a good bit “camp soap” (biodegradable soap) scrubbing my bicycling outfit, my hair, and anything else that was exposed. It took about 10 minutes for everything to dry. If I can get past this very slow Internet connection, I’ll post pictures. Looks like I'll have to post pictures tomorrow when we get to Missoula. 

Earlier in the day, we ran into about a dozen boy scouts riding from Washington to North Carolina raising funds for an unrelated charity. They all wore identical outfits, rode identical bikes, and carried identical gear. I realized how rag-tag we must look to them, so I told the ride leader that we were the Astoria Irregulars. Ironically, Bryce, who organized our entire ride, had initially been inspired when he met up with the same crew (but a different bunch of scouts) two years earlier, and rode with them for 15 miles near Astoria. Now here we were crossing paths on the road. We get to talk to lots of folks out touring on their bicycles. Amazing how popular it has begun. Anyway, we may meet up with the other group of scouts sometime within the next few days, since our paths are similar for awhile.

Then today, since we only had to ride around 40 miles, we scheduled a stop at the Weir Creek trail and hiked a quarter of a mile to a hot springs. None of the boys had ever been to a hot spring, so it was a big adventure for them. For me, it was a chance to slip into 115 degree water and soak my tired muscles for a few minutes. None of the boys made it all the way into the water … too hot for them, but to me, it felt great! No pictures of the hot springs, because we all left our cameras behind except for Ryan, and he dropped his cellphone, putting him temporarily out of service with a cracked screen and an experiment in drying out the cell phone in a bag of couscous. Soon, hopefully, the phone will be “hot to Trott.”

We’ve been told by a couple of people to avoid Highway 12, but we’ve seen more cyclists than motorists, and it’s been a gorgeous ride so far. We crest the Bitterroot Mountains tomorrow, then start our ascent of the Rockies. Everyone will have tired legs before we get there, but everyone is riding strongly, so I’m sure we’ll make it with flying colors. 

Grampa Don and HOT HOT Weather

Something different today on our Bike Trip America journey. And something similar. Something old, something new, nothing borrowed, something very blue.

To start with, we rolled down a long steep hill from where we stayed last night, right through the middle of Lewiston, across a bridge, then we headed east toward our first stop, Orofino, the site of an enormous dam. It would have been a very pleasant ride, except that the temperature quickly climbed above 100 degrees, and stayed there for several hours. When we rolled through Orofino on the way to our end destination, we saw a time and temperature sign that read 104. Happy to report that everyone was drinking constantly, and there were no signs of anyone bonking. The only riding problem was a tire blowout on Bryce’s bike. He had to climb on top of the GMC Suburban and retrieve one of his spare tires.

At lunch, in a slightly forlorn looking park at the beginning of Orofino, I checked my phone messages, and discovered, much to my delight, that I had become a grandfather. We agreed beforehand that I would use the Welsh name for Grandpa, so from now on, I’m Taidie to our newest crew member, “little” Owen. He wasn’t in his bassinette for more than a couple of hours before he grabbed the side and pulled himself over. By the end of our bike trip, maybe Owen will be strong enough to get on a bike and come join us!

When we finally got to Kamiah (pronounced Kam-ee-aiy), we found small town America! We called the local contact for the American Legion got directions to the Legion Hall, where we were staying. It was a huge, nicely maintained but nearly empty building. The one nice thing about it, it stayed relatively cool in spite of the 100 degree temperatures outside. There were no more than a handful of active legionnaires in the town, and most of them could be accounted for on one hand. There was only one couple in town, the local commander, Ron and his wife Maryanne Funnemark, who took us to their house on the edge of town … the house where he had grown up … and provided a barbeque picnic, while the boys and Maryanne entertained each other with a game of “Lawn Yahtzee,” with 6 inch dice tossed from a milk pail.

Ron was trying to be helpful with our planning for the next day’s route, and called the next door neighbor to help him decide. “How far is it to Wilderness Campground?” “A fur piece, I reckon.” “Will it be hot?” “Seems likely.” After awhile, the neighbor came by to help us more seriously, and provided a lot of good advice for the journey. As a result, we will leave early to beat the heat, and will end at milepost 122 … or was that 3 miles past Fish Crick, which is milepost 138 … We’ll find our way, don’t worry. And maybe we’ll have Owen come navigate for us!

The Legion Hall has two interesting features. A disco ball hanging from the ceiling, and a jukebox. The boys managed to get both working, which made for an entertaining evening, what with Ryan’s strobing flashlight, a large empty building, etc. Now, off to bed so we can depart in a timely fashion!

Not sure when this will get posted, since we are low on options for Internet usage the next couple of days. If worse comes to worse, this will get posted in Missoula on Monday.

Triple Century?

I spoke before about a nested century ride ... anytime you ride a 100 miles, there is a metric century, a hundred kilometers, embedded within it. In other words, you can't get to 100 miles without first riding for at least 62.5 miles. So two century rides today, both in one day. And actually, we could make that a dozen, because there were four of us on the ride, and we are a team.

We started from near Astoria with four riders, and we were taking bets on who would be the first to surrender to the reality of how tough it is to live on the road. My bets are on ... nobody dropping out! Everyone is riding so well, I'm starting to think we could well reach NYC in mid-August with the entire team intact.

How tough was today? From our summer-long itinerary, we had only two century days planned, but a slight change in course made today into a century as well. So it will have been the third longest ride of the summer. The day also included 4000 feet of climbing (and 200 feet more of descending), so we ended at a slightly lower altitude ... going from Walla Walla, Washington to Lewiston, Idaho. We will start correcting that altitude change tomorrow when we venture into the Rockies, headed eventually for Lolo Pass in three or four days. So, the third longest ride, the climbing-est ride of the entire trip, and temperatures climbing toward 100 (see, there's the third century). And we still averaged nearly 15 mph for the day!

Only one thing could make up for that ... a real bed, a hot shower, a home-cooked meal, all provided by the Legion Commander in Lewiston, Ivan Ulmer and his wife Shelly, along with their two young dachsunds, Beanie and Frankie. They have been extraordinarily generous, making the tiredness of a long hot hundred-mile day melt away, and making us anticipate the bliss of a good night's sleep before rolling down the hill in the morning to ride a slow, steady climb towards Kamiah.

My cell phone, while not really broken, found itself doing weird things as it was stashed in the back pocket of my cycling jersey, along with some road snacks. First, the phone posted something to Facebook, giving me the status of "Ooo." I didn't type that. Ignore it. I'm not in pain. But also, the phone's screen went so dim that I couldn't see it, and therefore, took no pictures.

What would the pictures have been? Ryan with a flat tire (first one on the road for the entire trip!!!). A large and vicious dog trying to chase me until I told it to "Go Home!" The dog put its tail between its legs, then chased from a safer distance of about 20 yards. Having lunch in the cemetery entering Pomeroy. And taking a rest break at the top of Alpowa Summit, on the Lewis and Clark Trail, before plunging down towards the Snake River, and the twin cities of Clarkston and Lewiston. You'll have to imagine those pictures, because, for the most part, they were not saved for posterity.

Alas, what is one to do? Guess we'll just have to keep riding, and hope the weather isn't as hot as the weatherman is predicting.

Old Fashioned Travel

Tomorrow we head into the hills and several days of anticipated high temps, combined with 90 miles and over 4000 feet of climbing. We end the day with a fast descent into Lewiston Idaho.

How do you like our new support convoy?

Actually, there's  a Model A Ford gathering in Walla Walla, so there are dozens of these beautifully restored antiques...sort of like me! And our real support car now has real AC, reliable breakz, and a happy driver!

The next 4 or 5 days may be thin on Internet connections, so it will be tricky doing updates. But of course I will try.

Here's a final shot of our other bit of antique transportation, not quite fully restored.

Air Conditioning (Please)

We learned yesterday that early is good in these hotter climes. We only had 54 miles to go from Umatilla to Walla Walla, but still decided to set off at 6:30 after a good breakfast. One rider wanted to ride more slowly than yesterday, so I led out at an easy pace. After a few miles, we again picked up a tailwind, and clipped along at a good pace, getting to the Washington border (22 miles from Umatilla) within an hour. We lollygagged along at about 16 mph, taking a break to get some ice water at a mini-mart, and were approaching Walla Walla by around 10:00 am. Easy riding, but we could see the start of the mountains to the east. After a day's rest, we will be heading into Idaho.

Since we're resting and relaxing, naturally I went for a lazy bike ride into town (we're staying in the Walla Walla Assembly of God church school, which is out of session at the moment ... a gym, air conditioning, everything to boys could want. So anyway, as I said, a lazy bike ride into town, to the Starbucks on the corner of Main and 3rd. I believe I had a cup of coffee in the same Starbucks the day it first opened, which would have been about 15 years ago! I started talking to a couple of men who were admiring my bike, and it turned out that one of them, Mike Harting, had been an avid cyclist until he broke his leg in a cycling accident. He had just gotten the rod removed from his leg, and was proudly showing it off. He now does oil work in North Dakota, so we may encounter him later during ourtrip. You never know.

Mike's buddy, a Basque named Cesareo Texidor, wore a Special Forces badge on his cap. He had been a medic in the Special Forces, twice wounded. Just the sort of person who could benefit from the charity that we are fundraising for. Of course I told them about the blog, and about the group of us riding across the country, and our cause, Operation Comfort Warriors.

You can read more about our bike ride, and help us reach our $10,000 goal by following the "Donate" link on the Bike Trip America site at the link above.

Meanwhile, back to the subject at hand. Air conditioning. We are hoping for good weather all the way ... not too hot, not too cold, not to rainy, not too many mosquitoes. Not too many real early mornings. And for Pat's sake (Pat is our support driver), hopefully the shop in Walla Walla will be able to fix the car air conditioning once and for all. That way, maybe we can all reach the east coast in comfort, knowing that "comfort" is rather a relative term, both for those of us riding bicycles (approximately 1,056,300 turns of the crank), and for Pat, who has to handle the GMC Suburban on the blue roads of America (all those smaller roads that will lead us through the hinterlands).

Lost and Found

We zoomed through the Columbia River Gorge so fast, I hardly knew it was there! After a rustic night camping outside the Legion Hall in Carson, Washington, we had a hot and hilly ride to Maryhill State Park, near Goldendale. Among the highlights, we stopped for lunch at Horsethief Lake park, and hiked down the hill to the near the river's edge, where there are hundreds of wonderful petroglyphs. Missed the cutoff to the lake and ended up at the wrong parking lot, so we had to do a small backtrack to where Pat had already set out our lunch. Let is suffice to say that every mistake we make on the road becomes a learning experience.

The last 20 miles to the campsite were almost unbearable long and hot, except for the finish, a high-speed descent, and the showers at the end of the ride. Here's a picture that Pat took of me enjoying an "adult beverage" while the boys were off having their showers:

The campsite was right on the Columbia River. I was able to post a Facebook update, but we had no Internet, so no blog. 

First thing in the morning (we originally planned to get up by 4 am, out by 5 am, but weary bones need a bit more sleep, so first thing in the morning happened at 6:30 rather than 5), we left camp and started up the hill that we had descended at over 35 mph the day before. By the time we had completed half an hour of riding, we had already climbed over 800 feet, and actually saw the sunrise peaking through stones at Maryhill's full-sized replica of Stonehenge. Then we had another superfast downhill ride, followed by a quick-paced ride out of the Columbia Gorge and into the desert area farther up the Columbia River. It was a long ride, and we knew it would be hot again, so we stoked our inner furnaces, and for awhile, averaged around 25 mph. Over the course of the entire ride, we averaged better than 15 mph. Unfortunately, the Strava app on my cell phone stopped working because the location services would not work in the middle of nowhere, but I have accurate numbers from the day on my Garmin bike computer.

Had an early lunch because we needed to break up the ride into smaller segments, and everyone appreciated the shade of the car, since there were no trees in sight.

Judging strictly by the mileage, we anticipated arriving in Umatilla (pronounce "you" matilla) as early as noon, but the heat started taking its toll, and we had more frequent breaks. Here are the three boys chugging along on a hot stretch of pavement:

Everyone is starting to ride more strongly, and throughout the day, each one of us had our moments of strength, and our moments of fading. But eventually, we found our way across the highway bridge and into Umatilla. Unfortunately, the church where we are staying for the night is on Columbia street, and the GPS maps don't work very well in Umatilla. The map neglected to tell us that there were two Columbia streets, several miles away from each other, and both of them up a tough hill. So what was supposed to be a ride of just over 80 miles turned into a ride of 90 miles and lasting nearly 6 hours. The good news ... riding from the east end of Umatilla cuts off several miles on tomorrow's journey to Walla Walla, where we get to spend two nights! Looking forward to a day of rest and recovery. 

The Garmin says we covered 90.3 miles in 5:54:52 at an average speed of 15.27 mph, with a top speed of 35.26 mph. We burned approximately 5,389 calories today, and ascended a total of 2821.5 feet, partially negated by the 2460.6 feet of descending. And we are approximately 305 miles into our 3521 mile journey. We will sleep well in the air conditioned church hall at the Umatilla Baptist Church, have a good breakfast cooked on a real stove, then cycle through the vineyards and farmlands towards Walla Walla. It sounds so romantic, so French. But we know this ... it will be hot. Voila Voila! (Just teasing a few "Whitties" who follow my blog).

For those who just can't get enough from my blog posts, I urge you to also follow along on Bryce's video journal at http://biketripamerica.com.

Trial By Fire

After two short days on the road, today (just the third day into our trip across America), we were tasked with riding from St. Helens, Oregon, through northern Portland and along the Columbia River gorge to Carson, which barely shows up on the map. It is 90 degrees (about 15 degrees warmer than the second day) and 84 miles distance, plus nearly 3000 feet of climbing, with another 2800 feet of descending. On paper, given that it is only our third day on the road, I think today may have been one of the toughest tests on the road.

We were up by 5:30 am, ready to roll at 6:30. We had a visitor, Cliff, who showed up on his recumbent. He had communicated with Bryce, and said he would have joined the ride if he had known about it earlier. He would have been an excellent addition to the team. Cliff lives in St. Helens, and was going to a cookout at his son's house, which was no more than 30 miles away from our destination. So five of us hit the road, again escorted by a local who knew all the best ways to get out of town, and through Portland.

We saw a dead deer beside the road, then three very alive deer as we zoomed along the highway between Scappoose and Portland, then we cut over the St. John's Bridge, and along a slough that branched off the Columbia River. That is where we stopped to take the picture below, which shows Mt. Hood rising like a ghost on the horizon, on a very clear day! Perfect way to start our ride, in spite of the early hour!

Cliff knew the best route through Northwest Portland, and soon we were on Marine Drive headed towards Governor's Island and our first State boundary, crossing from Oregon to Washington. But before we got there, I was in for a huge surprise.

Another biker asked if the fellow on the recumbent was John. I answered "No," but jokingly invited him along, because we were headed to New York. This was somewhere near the Portland airport. A minute later, a female rider pulled up beside me, and said, "I remember you have a three-letter name, and you're from Honolulu." I was wearing my Hawaii Bicycling League jersey, but still, it was quite a surprise. I looked over, and it was Deb, a girl who had ridden with us on our Monday and Thursday HBL rides a couple of months before. She had been in Hawaii for two weeks, and I think I had been on three rides with her. She was a good friend of John, another Portlander who had frequently challenged us with his fast riding pace. Anyway, for those of my HBL riding friends, who so faithfully helped me ride myself into shape for this coast-to-coast trip, here is a pic of me with Deb, posing where we parted ways as I headed for the Columbia River crossing on the 206 bridge:

We followed an OLD road along the Columbia River, and soon found ourselves being followed closely by a dark van with its lights on. I thought maybe the "men in black," or maybe the police were there to cite us for riding recklessly, but no ... it was the parents of Jonathan, our youngest rider. They followed us into Camas, Washington, where they met us for lunch. I had been to Camas before with my friends Sue and Bob, who coincidentally had seen us off in Fort Stevens State Park three days earlier. 

After lunch, we dropped Cliff, who had ridden with us all day long, then did some serious hill climbing along the Columbia gorge. If you haven't seen this part of the country, it is spectacular, and well worth a visit! Here is a picture I took from the Cape Horn lookout, looking in the direction we would be riding later in the day, towards Cascade Locks, and Carson.

When we reached the Bonneville Dam, we knew we were on the home stretch ... less than 20 miles until we reached our night's destination.

In Carson, one of the Legion members took the boys swimming in the Wind River. Probably not the hot springs they were hoping for, but they seem to have enjoyed it!

Tomorrow will be much different. For one thing, our support driver Pat decided that Annie, our black lab mascot, would not be happy on the trip, due to the stress of constantly changing locales, no guaranteed place to play, and a big daily worry for Pat. So, Annie has been dropped off at her favorite doggie daycare for the summer. Everyone on the Bike Trip America team will really miss her.

Tomorrow will also be the day that we find out how quickly the boys' legs recover from a hard ride! (And the old man's legs, needless to say). But the ride is "only" 57 miles through hot countryside, and we will pass by a forest fire that just started today on the Oregon side of the Columbia River. Extra water, extra wet towels, extra sunscreen!

For another thing, it will be the summer solstice, and we will end the day at Maryhill, where the fantastic museum features a life-sized replica of the original Stonehenge! What a place to spend the solstice! Until later, I leave you with this image from the Maryhill museum website.