Day 41: Cambridge ID to Halfway OR


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.  The Snake River has two dams at this end of the canyon, the Brownlee and the Oxbow.

Southern end of Brownlee Reservoir

The border between Idaho and Oregon runs through the center of the reservoirs until it reaches the Oxbow dam.  I crossed into Oregon when I went across the Brownlee dam, which is my tenth and last state in my TransAm journey.  

Oxbow Reservoir

The traffic today was very light, so I had the whole road to myself most of the day.  It was nice not watching for traffic and hugging the white line.  

After crossing into Oregon I climbed up out of the canyon (but not the full 2000 ft).  The net elevation change was about zero, so I climbed up to about where I started the day.  The uphill grades were mostly gradual and less than 4%.  It is surprising how much elevation I can gain pedaling up a 2% grade for miles, and it doesn’t tire me out.  I climbed up onto another wide valley with a line of mountains in the distance.  

The mid- and northwest seem to be an endless series of wide plains separated by mountain ridges.  Tomorrow we will climb up over another pass.  Tonight we are staying in the pine Valley Lodge, which consists of three old timber frame houses that have been connected with decks and walkways to create the lodge.  The interior is decorated with antiques, with multiple sitting rooms and common areas.

It is hard for me to believe, but we only have about 600 miles left, after riding about 3700 miles.  The graphic below shows where I currently am and the profile.  The scale is marked for east-bound riders, so it should be flipped for me.  The blue marker on the profile shows where I am.  





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