Kamiah to White Bird, ID

I did not have any cell phone or Internet in White Bird. We are really out here. So to start, here are some interesting signs that I have seen along the way in Idaho:

So now you have an idea of what rural Idaho is like! That being said the people have been wonderful to us and the scenery is breathtaking. We expect to climb alot everyday. Yesterday we left the Lewis-Clark Resort and continued east on Hwy 12. We followed the Clearwater River which meanders between rocky cliffs and forested areas. After 18 miles we headed onto Hwy 13 and began a 5-7% grade climb. The traffic was very light and the road had many switchbacks and went on for many miles. The climb ended in the town of Grangeville. Here I continued my research on the grilled cheese and tomato sandwich with french fries. We enjoyed the rest at the diner before heading out into the heat and onto HWY 95 again. It was difficult to ride on the shoulder which had a lot of gravel on it. At 37.8 miles we had a 7 mile climb at 6-7%. I was a little concerned about the descent on the other side of the mountain with all the gravel and traffic. When we got to the base of the climb we found a construction sign and a flag person directing traffic. This worked to our advantage because they were only allowing traffic to go one way at a time. We climbed pretty much traffic free and the gravel disappeared. At the top we had our sag wagon waiting to refill our water bottles and a gorgeous view. We had a ten mile decent at 4-7% grade. The traffic direction would take about 1/2 hour to go one way because the construction vehicles would lead groups of vehicles over the mountain at intervals, then the same thing would happen in the other direction. We waited until they were going up the hill so no one would be behind us. That gave us plenty of time to get down before the traffic was shooting down behind us. At the bottom we picked up the Salmon River and paralleled it into our hotel, Hoots Cafe and Motel. We were split between Hoots and the White Bird Motel. They shuttled us Hooters to the tiny town of White Bird for our dinner of pumpkin lasagna with spinach and sausage, salad, and cake. The most exciting thing that happened in White Bird during our dinner was an escaped horse ran down what I guess was Main Street. Apparently the horse gets out all the time and goes home after eating the neighbors lawns. No one seemed concerned. Stats: 50.49 miles, 4hours 21min., 11.6 avg., 27.7 fastest speed.

I will write about today in a separate post. Tomorrow we have a much needed zero day in New Meadows.