Day 25,
Plenty of pictures;
plenty of miles in Beautiful Idaho
Today I took a lot of pictures as there
were so many pretty views and other interesting opportunities.
So, as already mentioned earlier, the
night was extremely bad and I didn’t get enough sleep. The major problem was
the strong wind, that could break the tent fabric or
the assembling sticks.
I waited until it became fairly bright
and headed further north-east on Hwy 95.
The next town was Council, 20 miles
away, passing through two little villages, Alpine and
The wind was blowing from the rear left
and helped me to pedal. The sky had no clouds and it was warm.
As I entered Council, I immediately
stopped at the gas station and got a hotdog. Then, few blocks down the road,
was some kind of community building with public internet access. I checked
e-mail but computers were extremely slow and overly protected, so there was not
much use in them anyway. Then I rode down the road to the downtown, which
consisted of a little square and a street with few stores, barber’s shop, etc.
On the square, they had some kind of
auction today, to help raise money for some good reason, I forgot exactly.
There was a donated bicycle with automatic shifting mechanism, and I was
curious to see how much it would sell for, but didn’t want to wait until
the auction would start.
I stopped by the grocery store and
bought a drink with few bananas.
In two miles, there was a ranger’s
station, where they had free maps of
After Council, in about another hour,
the vegetation started changing dramatically. Mostly fields with burnt grass,
which they refer to as high elevation desert, changed to pine forests.
At one turn, I rode by the sign
informing about entering
Then the road started going uphill but
for some reason I was full of energy and knew that by this time I have
already covered good distance today.
In 20 minutes after the climb, I saw an
old car parked on the shoulder of the road. When I lined up with the car and stopped to ask if the guy, which was looking under the hood, needed any help. I
actually worked as auto mechanic before and like to think that I have basic
understanding in what’s going there ;). The guy’s name was Terry. He actually
was in a great mood and before talking about the car, he asked me usual
questions about the trip and the bicycle. The car, was
an older
The surroundings became extremely
beautiful and this was finally the first time in the real forest with old trees
around. (Refer to picture “Green Bicycle Green Water”).
In about one hour, the road turned east
and became more leveled. The forest outside was occasionally cut for lumber.
In about one hour, I rode into New
Meadows. A wrecked semi-trailer was standing not far from the road, so I rode
closer to take a look. The guy that was working around it,
told me that it’s been there a while and now he is towing it away with this new
red truck.
New Meadows is
also a little town with half a dozen shops and stores to both sides of the
major street, Hwy 95.
I walked in the grocery store and got a
bottle of cold milk with donuts.
After lunch I walked to the gift shop
and talked to the lady there, that was selling an old sword,
from Civil War, if I’m not mistaking. She wanted somewhere around 75 dollars
for it, but couldn’t sell it for a while due to lack of tourists lately. She
said she really wanted to try E-bay as there are plenty of collectors that know
the value of such a sword.
She took the picture of me near the
Indian statue and answered few questions about the road ahead.
According to the lady, there should be
a huge downhill in another 5 – 10 miles if I was going to stay on 95. For the last several miles, the road was
going directly east and in few miles after New Meadows, 95 was turning sharply
to the north while state highway 55 continued east through the mountains.
I stopped by the post office and went
to the Laundromat across the street to fill up the water bottles.
When I walked out of the Laundromat,
two guys around 30 y.o. were
getting back in their beat up vehicle. One of them sitting at the passenger
seat, asked me – Where are you going? , in the same manner, shortly, I replied
–
In this case, I obviously added to their anger, but at the same time, these guys were just extremely psychotic and with quick temper. All this shows that no matter how careful you are, there are still people out there who can get offended or aggressive for very little reason. This of course also applies to them being in the driver’s seats. For that reason I was looking back for few minutes after getting on the road again. This is a second hostile encounter on the trip so far.
So, after the nice rest, lunch and some
sightseeing, I got back on the road. However, in about 5 miles, the mountains
started and this was not what the lady was telling me regarding to as straight and
then downhill. For few miles I was trying to see if there were any signs
indicating what highway this was, but there were no signs. I had a feeling of
going the wrong way, because road also started east and even some to the south,
which is definitely not where
Luckily, in few minutes, a rangers truck was passing in the oncoming direction and after I waved my hand, a lady driver in the truck stopped and backed up to align with me. I asked her what route I was on, and indeed, it turned out I stayed on 55, instead of turning left on 95. I thanked the lady and had nothing else to do but pedal 5 miles back. The wind was severe head wind here and I was going very slowly. When I reached the intersection, there was a pretty big gas station, where stopped to fill up the water bottles some more.
By this time it was 15 minutes after
three. In another 15 minutes of riding on the straight road with strong side
wind, I stopped near the coolest sign I’ve seen so far. J The
45th parallel. Of course I had to take a picture of it, for the records.
J
Oh, by the way, I saw a tow truck with Terry’s car right before getting back on 95.
Before leaving New Meadows, I wanted to
say that this is the area with extremely extensive variety of natural wonders. Here
is how it is described in the chamber of commerce brochure:
Come visit
There were also information signs describing wildlife that habitats in the area and rich variety of plants that grow in this sunny and moist environment, creating plenty of resources for livestock farmers.
To this point, I have ridden 60 miles today and the next town – Riggins, was another 30 miles further. I really wanted to finish this day with good distance and started pedaling hard further down the road, going among nice peaceful meadows. J The wind, meanwhile, turned to almost back wind and was now actually helping me. Soon the downhill started and for another hour or so I almost didn’t have to touch the pedals. This is a very amazing experience, just rolling down the majestic scenery between the mountains, smelling the sweet wild flowers and feeling the rewarding cool breeze on your forehead. J
By about
I bought few burritos with soda and made a nice lunch at one of the tables at the numerous cafes in the town. Then I went to the local park, that was near the river. It was peaceful and green, but featured a clear sign – No overnight camping. Then I found out where the school was and went to check it out. There was a great spot on the porch of one of the school buildings facing the mountain with nothing further, making it completely hiding from any views, and of course there wouldn’t be anyone walking there during the night, especially because school hasn’t yet started. This is where I decided to put a tent later on tonight and went back to town to explore some gift shops and look at the disco club.
Today – 88 miles, total – approximately 1000.
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