Day 71 - July 13 - Cottonwood, ID to Lewiston, ID - Two Old Guys Take On A Continent

July 13, 2023

Day 71 - July 13 - Cottonwood, ID to Lewiston, ID

I Fell Into a Burning Ring of Fire

Ed’s Story

Woke up about 10 PM last night to the sound of light rain on my tent. It wasn’t supposed to rain. I looked at The Weather Channel and it showed a green raincloud over us. Then it started raining harder. So I just went back to sleep. When I got up in the morning everything was dry.

What a day and what a ride. I think this was the last morning that will be quasi-cool. I wore my blue fishing shirt over my jersey for about 20 minutes and then took it off. The sun came up and it started warming up.

We were climbing ever since we left Cottonwood. Not only were we on a constant elevation gain, we also had hills that went up and down we had to climb.

We passed several little towns and ended up stopping in Winchester. We wanted to go to the bar and kitchen. Unless they do not open until 11. We ended up going to a convenience store to get orange juice and a morning snack.

This used to be the home to the Hatfield and McCoys, until they made up.

Did they name the town after the rifle or the rifle after the town? We didn’t ask.

We had very little climbing after Winchester. By the time we got there, we had already increased the elevation by 500 feet and were now at 4000 foot elevation.

Several miles after Winchester, we started a massive windy, curvy, scary steep descent. There were no guard rails between the road and the thousand foot drop off to the side. One mistake and you’re flying into the atmosphere. Needless to say my brakes were used the entire way down.

It was a beautiful sight from the top as you’re looking down into the valley. Some views of the landscape are also shown.

This shows the curvy route from Winchester and the elevation drop during the descent.

By the time we got to the bottom we had dropped 2800 ft in elevation from 4000 ft to 1200 ft. But wait there’s more.

If you look at the elevation profile above at about the 75 mile marker, you’ll see that as soon as we got to the bottom, we started a 700 foot climb over 4 miles ending at 1900 ft. The higher we got the steeper it got. When I got to the top, John was actually in the shade. He learned his lesson from yesterday.

We then started another long descent to Lewiston. Suddenly we have to turn right and lo and behold there is a very steep hill in front of us. The road grade actually got up to over 9%. We were tired, it was hot, there was no way we were going to ride up, we both walked our bikes up the hill.

We entered Lewiston on the walk up the hill.

The orange profile shown on the GPS is real. On some climbs, the surrounding hills give a false impression of a high grade This one was real.

Once we got to the top we started another long descent to downtown Lewiston. I guess we were in the suburbs earlier.

It would be interesting to know how much those houses are worth.

Did I say it was hot? Well it was. We felt the sun and the heat all the way up the 700 ft climb. It cooled near the top but once we got toward the bottom again, the heat returned.

We made it to the hotel and checked out breweries. The are not as many in Lewiston as you might think. The one near the hotel no longer exists and has been converted to a sports bar. It doesn’t reopen until 5 pm.

We found the Wrangler Bar and Grill just a short walk from the hotel. We were shocked to find out they still allow smoking in bars here. Luckily they had a non-smoking area. We both had a beer with chips and salsa.

Dinner, as yet to be decided will either be Mexican or a pizza.

Tomorrow is a rest day. Need to wash clothes and mail a package home. We hope to see the Guardian’s of the Galaxy 3 while we are here.

Until later, happy resting.

John’s Story

It rained for a good while last night at about 10:00 PM. By 11:30 everything was bone dry again. It is a very sere landscape here.

As we left Cottonwood on US 95 the shoulder was in horrible shape. Between the traffic lane and shoulder was a rocky, irregular crack several inches wide and deep. It would be dangerous to try to change from road to shoulder and back, depending on traffic which we often do when the shoulder is good. We ended up riding slowly on the crappy shoulder for several miles. It eventually improved somewhat and finally became rideable at normal speeds. It would have been a much longer day if it had not become rideable.

Small canyons cut through the Camas Prairie where basalt is exposed.

Almost columnar basalt. I will find a good representation eventually.

The railroad reached the Prairie in 1908. There are a number of old trestles still spanning the canyons, though the tracks have been removed.

It doesn’t look like this homestead has changed much since 1908.

At the summit of a climb waiting for Ed. You can see that the usual reward of going downhill after a climb is not in evidence. It was up some, down a little for the first 23 miles.

We saw some fields labeled Winter Canola and Spring Canola. Apparently they flower and mature at different times of year. To confuse things further, winter canola is harvested in the summer and spring canola in the fall. Winter canola yields 20-30% more than spring canola (thank you Wikipedia).

Lesson in Politically Correct Marketing: What we know as edible canola oil is a recent development (in historical terms). The plant from which canola oil is derived is rapeseed, or rape, which derives from the Latin word for turnip, rapum. Rapeseed oil before modern edible cultivars were developed was generally not considered safe to eat because of its high content of erucic acid, which is damaging to cardiac muscle of animals. Once cultivars with levels of erucic acid low enough to be considered safe to eat were developed, it wasn’t considered PC to market it as rapeseed oil due to the negative associations with the word “rape”, so the name canola was adopted. “Canola” derives from “Canadian oil, low acid”, as it was developed in Canada in the 1970s. End of Lesson in Politically Correct Marketing.

When we stopped at the rest area just before Winchester I chatted with an elderly woman about our trip. Her conclusion: I’m glad I’m not you. Sounds like something my sister Dorothy would say.

The big drop off the Camas Prairie north of Winchester is called the Winchester Grade. There were award winning views from the top and all along the way down, though to enjoy them you had to stop. Taking your eyes off the steep, twisting road while sailing down could have spelled disaster. As Ed wrote, there were very precipitous drops at the edge of the road without any shoulder or guard rail.

From the top of Winchester Grade, on a clear day, you can see forever. Those brown fields below are half a mile lower than us.

I tried to get Ed to lay off those brakes for a more dramatic video, but I couldn’t talk him into it.

Road to the left of me, road to the right of me. Somehow they connect once I get down there.

I sought wisdom from the lamas while on the ride down, but I found the wrong kind, of llama that is.

It was in the 50s this morning in Cottonwood, and probably got up to perhaps 80 degrees today. That’s at 3,500’. By the time we dropped all the way to Lewiston at 745’, the temperature was 92. The next three days it’s forecast to be 96, 101 and 104 degrees here, before dropping off for a day or two. We truly fell into a burning ring of fire, after all the great weather we experienced through Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and the rest of Idaho. We’re considering alternatives to camping once we leave here on Saturday.

We did find a cold beer in a bar and grill across the road from the Quality Inn. And then another one at the tap room of the big hotel a block away. Unless we go out to run errands in the cool of morning tomorrow, if there is such a thing, we likely won’t be riding our bikes around Lewiston. Not only will it be HOT, but this place is built on the steeply sloping hills leading down to the Snake River.

Mexican food for dinner then back to the hotel. I’m excited. Four nice pillows on my bed.

Today's ride: 60 miles (97 km)
Total: 699 miles (1,125 km)

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Jane ChimahuskyEd was hugging the yellow line a little too closely going around that curve… he needs to leave more space for idiot drivers coming the opposite way!
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9 months ago

Ed ChimahuskyTo Jane ChimahuskySafer in the center and believe me , you could see almost all the way down….only had one oncoming car and saw them in plenty of time.
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9 months ago

Kelly IniguezI vote for the motel room on the hot days. You can't recover if your core temperature is too high.
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9 months ago