Buccs/Bucks on Bikes: Tuesday, June 22 - Day 9 - 75.8 Miles

We got our start this morning under beautiful weather. Last night's camping was perfect. The campsite over Brownlee reservoir was very peaceful and the temperature was perfect. We did a little campfire last night and did the whole 'smore thing. I sat out after the boys went to sleep with the family and watched the fire burn out. I would have stayed up a little longer, but I had a few miles to ride in the morning.

Speaking of riding....right out of the campground this morning, was a 9 mile, nearly one hour climb to get out of the valley. It was a good climb to wake yourself up. Just when I was about to get tired, I saw a rider in front of me struggling a little (no, it wasn't Bobby). It turned out to be a man and his wife(?) in their mid-sixties, bikes loaded down with all of their gear, turning over the pedals just fast enough to keep them upright. When I went by, I felt the need to apologize for the fact that I was flying by them with no weight on my bike. The man just chuckled and said, "Hey, I am the one who wanted to do this." I wonder how long it takes for people loaded down like that to do this, with all the hills to climb. It has to take them quite a bit longer.

We spent a good hour or so in riding conditions that were not the most fun....no shoulders and high traffic. It has been a while for that, so we were due.

We made it from the campground this morning to our destination...New Meadows, Idaho, by way of State routes 71 and 95. We are camped outside of New Meadows in a small campground by the name of Zim's Hot Springs. We have mountains around us with snow still on them, so it is pretty cool looking. Hopefully we get another good night of sleep.

I thought we had our first tears today. We had ridden on some crappy roads for quite a while with some good climbs and I had pulled over to wait for Bobby and Kyle. I had just looked at the map and saw that we had 7 miles to New Meadows. When Kyle pulled up, he asked "what do we have left, 4 miles?" When I replied "7 miles" I thought we were going to have some problems. He got a snack in him and quickly regrouped, though. What a trooper.

Kim and the kids stopped in a town by the name of Council to see a museum of the history of their small town. They were not expecting much. They were very suprised. Even Nathan said it was the best thing he had seen yet. Go figure. I think he liked it because it had a skull with a bullet hole in the forehead. It basically showed a history of postal service, doctors, dentists, etc. Kim and the kids were there for over an hour looking at all of it. I was relieved to hear that it kept their attention for so long.

Just one observation that I have had over and over on this trip so far....cows back home pretty much ignore you on bike rides. You can moo at them (yeah, I do that), and they just keep eating or sleeping, or peeing.....nothing....no response or acknowledgement. Here, cows and horses stare you down the whole time you pass them. They follow you like they are security guards in charge of the land they are on. It is kind of weird. It is hard to believe you have lived your whole life without that bit of information.

Well, it is about time to get a campfire going. We have another decent sized day tomorrow with a good climb....We gotta get rested up.