Ride Day 93

Today I rode from Winchester Idaho to Lowell Idaho 80 miles and 5200’ of climbing in more perfect riding weather. I left Winchester at 7 AM after a big breakfast at the café there. All the people in Winchester were very nice, friendly and helpful as well as chatty. I had a good night of rest in the city park there for free. I did have a small problem with a seizure during the night but it wasn’t a bad one so I came out of it alright. The only lingering problem from it is a little higher pain level today but I will survive. It threatened rain for most of the day but I only got a few sprinkles that felt good and cooled me down. I had expected an easy mostly downhill ride today but instead I had a day of big rollers that look flat on the profile of my map but are in fact some big hills. The downhill came all at the same time in the morning part of the ride where I got to glide down to Kamiah for 8 miles. The ride in the morning was through fields of wheat and soybeans on a road with a mostly good shoulder. In Kamiah I ran into two other bikers that I have seen a couple times before. They are also heading to Missoula on their first bike tour. They have had some bike problems but otherwise have been doing well. I am sure I will see them again. Today they wanted to go to some hot springs along the road and invited me to go. The only thing that stopped me is the shortest walk was a half mile each way and it is impossible for me to walk that far. I stopped to look and see if I could ride my bike on the trail but it did not look possible so I had to pass on the hot springs. That would feel good right now after all the hard days in the saddle. Riding along the Clearwater River Wilderness area and the Lochsa River also surprised me today because I expected that to be pretty flat but it rolled a lot and climbed in elevation as I rode along it. It was still an easy ride compared to the last few days for me. The river looks beautiful with rapids along most of its length making a nice background sound along with the birds singing and the eagles, ospreys and hawks flying overhead which all together made it a very nice ride. The shoulder of the road is not good but not real bad either. I survived another day on the road. I camped with another biker, Mark, I met at the end of the day in a USFS primitive campsite right on the bank of the river and slept to the river sounds. It was good to have a fellow biker to talk to tonight. Mark is going to Virginia also but he is taking the more direct Transamerica route…more later.