Segment 8: Ride Day 40 - Climbing and garden hose showers

Route: McCall, ID to Grangeville, ID (Grangeville Christian Church)

Distance: 92.5 miles

Riding Time: 6 hours: 59 minutes (6am to 1:30pm – ish… but we changed time zones, so who knows! :-)

Average Speed: 13.2 mph

Max:  35.9 mph

Weather: Cool/chilly this morning. Everyone left in arm warmers, leg warmers, jackets, gloves, etc… but it got a whole lot warmer as we lost lots of elevation and, by the time we were climbing White Bird Hill it was downright toasty! In fact, I nearly ran out of water on the climb up, except that a wonderful couple and their friends gave me an extra bottle of water on the way up. The conversation went something like this:

Them: “Are you doing all right.”

Me: “Whew! It’s a hot one, but I’m chugging along. Why, do I look that bad??” (joking)

Them: (don’t answer the above question… hmm…) “Hey we have an extra bottle of water along, would you like it?”

Me: “Oh, I think I’ll be alright.”

Them: “Ok, well just take it and it will make us feel better.”

Aww, it is so wonderful to have mamas and papas looking out for you all across the country. That water came in awfully handy and was just great for dumping over my head to help me keep my engine cool while I was climbing in the blazing hot sun. There was also a nice breeze/headwind that helped with that too, but the water was just wonderful. Oh, the amazing kindness of complete strangers! Every day I see new signs of it all over. People are good. God is good.

And now for your daily climbing, elevation and population reports…

Starting elevation (this morning): 5013 feet

Lowest elevation today (mid-morning): 1400 feet

Highest elevation today (White Bird Hill Summit - afternoon): 4245 feet

Current elevation (Grangeville, ID): 3399 feet

Population of Grangeville, ID: 3176 people (Love these sweet little towns!!)

Highlights of the Day:

• Breakfast this morning was provided by a wonderful couple from our host church, Joy and Jon, who happened to be up bright and early and were at the church by 4:15am with smiles on their faces and aprons wrapped around them, ready to prepare breakfast for us and do our dishes afterwards.
• Our ride this morning was an absolutely beautiful downhill of almost 70 miles and several thousand feet that followed along various parts of the Salmon River.
• This morning of elation and exquisite natural beauty was followed by a hot, hard climb this afternoon. As we lost elevation this morning and into the afternoon, the pine trees began to thin out and were replaced by what appeared to be completely barren, brown slopes... except for the occasional shrub or bush. And, around mile 73 we started climbing the pass we had heard all about last night: White Bird Hill. And so I spent the next 8 miles after that crawling up the constant 6-8% grade "hill".
• Today's ride officially took us to over 3000 miles biked since the beginning of this trip waaaay back in Savannah, GA on June 8... 3040.82 miles to be exact. Wowzahs!!
• When we got to the host church we realized that there were no showers to be had... unless we paid $3.00 for showers at the community pool. Nope, not happening. So Nicole, Lindsey and I grabbed a hose and a panya (big piece of cloth from West Africa) and headed out behind the church for our very first garden hose showers of the trip. Whew, was that cold water ever refreshing, but it sure felt good to be clean... and to feel a little like rebels besides. So much fun! What a hoot. We decided we would do it again sometime just as soon as we could get away with it. :-)
  
  

Morning bathroom shots... this just so happens to be a really cool bathroom made by some of the guys from the church. The countertop is made from a 3-4" slab of Lodgepole pine cut from the site where the church was constructed a year ago. Beautiful 

Breakfast cereal never looked so good.

Morning devotions and route-talking.

Sunrise on the road.

Those are cows grazing on some of the steepest slopes I've ever seen cows graze on. I can't imagine these guys make it through a lifetime without ever loosing their footing and rolling right on down that hill like rocks on the roadside. Poor critters.

On my way up White Bird Hill... and looking deceivingly confident.

A long climb. Ugh...

It is a very, very, verry good sign when you see the truck on the triangle. Wahooooo!

Some amazing women from the church surprised us with delicious baked goodies, casseroles, fresh fruit and all sorts of snacks to have for supper and whenever we were hungry (which is pretty much all the time).

 

Aaaand... time for garden hose shower to round out the day. Wahooooo! Such a great day! Sooo tired.