Steve's TransAm Adventure

80 miles, 4580 ft ascent / 4945 descent, 7:25 saddle time, elevations: start 3451, max 5267, min 3083, finish 3083 ft.   Strawberry mountain wilderness Today we had a lot of climbing and a lot of miles to do, so we got up at 0430 and were on the road at 0530.  We had pre-staged muffins for breakfast to get quick carb hit and packed breakfast sandwiches for later down the road.  It was cold (40’s) riding through the hills south from Baker City.   After 7 weeks I have outfits worked out for any temperature.  The trick is layering so that you can shed layers as it warms up.  Oregon has developed a network of scenic byways.  A couple days ago we were riding on the Hell’s Canyon byway.  Today our route followed the Elkhorn and Journey Through Time byways.   Our route took us over  three passes today.  The first was over Sumpter pass, which was a climb of 846 ft in 3.1 mile.  After an exciting downhill we began our ascent to Tipton P...

Today Brian and I had breakfast at the Sweet Wife Baking restaurant, which was really good.  They served great pastries and traditional breakfast with a flair.  I then went to the Trailhead bike shop where Devin replaced my chain.  He had never seen a failure quite like mine.  I had the chain checked for wear back in Pueblo CO and it was fine, so I am surprised it went from fine to broken so quickly.  Touring is hard on chains and wheels.  It is not uncommon to replace a chain once or twice in a TransAm journey, and I have heard many stories of problems with cracks in the back wheel (including Brian’s).  Most riders split the weight between front and back racks.  The bike will shimmy on downhills if you put all the weight in the back, and it is hard to manage if there is too much weight in front (the handlebars always want to turn and the front wheel roll when it is stationary).  Consequently, about 60 of the weight of gear is on the back. ...

56 miles, 3954 ascent / 3169 descent, 5:35 saddle time, elevations:  start 2645, min 2164, max 3925, finish 3437.   Pine Valley heading south from Halfway Today we ate breakfast at the Pine Valley Lodge before heading south on our way to Richland.  Every ridge or mountain range we ride over opens onto a large valley with another mountain range in the distance (that we will also cross over).  The route started with a climb of 1066 ft in 4.5 miles, followed by a descent that went on for miles :) into a lush valley and the town of Richland (appropriately named). Two pretty big creeks ran through the valley and fed into the Brownlee reservoir.  It is interesting that although much of the surrounding area is classified high desert, there were no obvious signs of water shortages.  I haven’t seen significant signs of water shortage since leaving Colorado.  In fact, many of the valleys in Wyoming, Montana and Oregon have large rolling or circle irrigation syst...

58 miles, 3386 ft ascent, 4:43 saddle time, elevations: start 2660, min 1744, max 4131, finish 2652. 10th and last state in TransAm journey Today I made pancakes, fried eggs and we had leftover steak for breakfast.  I also made steak and egg muffins for lunch.  We are eating well!  The day started with a climb of about 1500 ft up over a pass.  Pass is over the range in the distance   On the other side I descended into Hells Canyon.  The canyon was formed by the Snake River and gets its name from the surrounding mountain peaks, the Seven Devils.  The latter comes from an Indian legend.   Road down into the canyon I descended about 2000 ft in 7 miles!  It seemed like I would never stop going down, deeper and deeper into the canyon.  At the bottom the landscape was similar to what I had seen coming down from White Bird summit a few days back.  The canyon walls were smooth and covered with brown grass and very few shrubs or trees. ...

47 miles, 1532 ft ascent / 2734 ft descent, 3:43 saddle time, elevations:  start 3851, min 2645, max 4172 and final 2650 ft Another rainy day We started the day with the temperature in the mid 40’s and a light rain.  The rain continued until early afternoon, hence I did not take many photos.  There weren’t any good breakfast options in New meadows, so we decided to stop somewhere down the road.  Around noon we stopped at the Crimson Cafe in Council ID.  I was very glad to get out of the rain and warm up.  Idaho continues to surprise me as the terrain keeps changing.  We rode from grassy meadows to rolling prairie and mesas. Rolling prairie around Mesa ID A light rain continued throughout the day, so i was glad when I reached the cabin we were staying in.  Brian had rented an Airbnb, and it was fantastic. God’s Little Acre on Camp Creek It looked like it was brand new.  The attention to design and detail was apparent.   We went to a local...

35.5 miles, 2346 ft ascent, 3:32 saddle time, elevations:  min 1726, max 383 ft Ascending the Little Salmon River canyon in the rain   Today we planned a short day, which was fortuitous because it rained all day and it was cold (50 F).  You can see me in the photo above wearing my high visibility rain gear.  I don’t have a lot of photos because it is difficult to motivate myself to stop, remove my gloves, move the handlebar bag cover to get to my camera, and take a picture.  About the first 25 miles were a gentle uphill grade of 1 to 4%, and then it leveled out.  The terrain gradually changed from the unique smooth slopes, to rocky forested slopes, to meadows beyond the top of the canyon.    The following sequence of photos shows the transition. Numerous creeks feed into the river, some with cascades like this one. Cascading creek feeding into the Little Salmon River Bicycle touring is a great experience, but there are some downsides.  One is...