Bend to Boise - Day 7
The highlight of today was lunch at Hell’s Canyon Overlook pictured above. It took some serious work to get there, but it was worth it.
We started the day quite early, rolling out of the lodge at 6:45am. The temperature was a brisk 42 degrees at that time of the day, so I pulled out my colder weather gear: knee warmers, arm warmers, windbreaker, long gloves, and my skull cap. We then had a relatively quick 5 mile ride into the town of Joseph where we stopped to get a very tasty breakfast. The photo above is of the end of Wallowa Lake just before Joseph.
By the time we were done with breakfast, the day was already warming up enough for me to get rid of the skull cap and my knee warmers. We headed out of Joseph east into the sun.
For the next 10 miles, the road was relatively flat with occasional gentle ups and downs. Here is a photo looking backwards at three of my fellow riders.
10 miles from breakfast and 15 miles into our ride, we had a rest stop, mostly for us to shed layers since we were then turning south and heading upwards. Over the next 9 miles, we climbed 1800’. This was a steady climb, averaging 4% with the peak grade probably only 7%. We were often in the shade which was slightly chilly even while we climbed. We repeatedly were rewarded with scenic mountain views off to the right.
The road had essentially no traffic, so we were able to ride side by side and chat if we wanted to.
After our first climb, we had a nice 5 mile descent, followed by 2 mile and 500’ climb, then a long 11 mile descent. On the climbs, I would shed my windbreaker since I was generating real heat climbing. However, for the descents, I would put the windbreaker back on to stay warm. My photographs, like this one, are all taken on the flats or the climbs since traveling 30+ mph descending on curvy roads with the occasional potholes is not the best time to be messing around with a camera.
Finally, we had one more 1800’ climb to get ourselves to the 51 mile mark and lunch at Hell’s Canyon Overlook. Here is a panorama I took of the vista.
After lunch, we had a short descent, a modest climb, then a 18 mile and 3000’ descent down into the canyon. At the base of the descent, we regrouped at a van stop. The van stops provide us a chance to refill our water bottles, reapply sunscreen, nibble on snacks, consume cold drinks, and generally have a brief respite.
The temperature at the bottom of the descent was vastly hotter than it had been at lunch or on the descent which had significant shade. Fortunately, we only had a 10 mile ride into the small town of Halfway. Here is one more scenic view to wrap up this post.
Overall, today was a fabulous day of cycling. Tomorrow, we bike to hell and back - that is we bike into Hell’s Canyon, then back here for the night. We will cross into Idaho tomorrow as we bike on a road on the eastern side of the Snake River. We will also take a swim at the turn around point at one of the lakes on the Snake River. This will almost certainly be a great thing as Hell’s Canyon is usually extremely hot.