Day 8, June 4

Richland Or. to Cambridge,  IDAHO
70 miles

Thankfully there were far fewer mosquitoes out in the morning.  The day started off with a healthy 1200 ft climb with nice views of the reservoir and surrounding areas. When I took a break mid way up I noticed some bicycle tire tracks in the gravel and thought that maybe one of the guys I rode with a couple days ago had passed late in the afternoon yesterday. Below are two shots from the top off the pass.

From there I rode through a lot of farmland, skirting the town of Halfway.

About 10 miles before the next town of Oxbow I spotted what appeared to be a bicyclist off in the distance but soon realized I was closing much too rapidly on him for it to be a bike. As I got closer I realized it was someone pushing a carrier of some sort (probably the source of the tire tracks I saw earlier).  I pulled off to talk to him and found out that his name was Oliver and he was walking across the country following the transamerica bike trail. He said he was from Europe but wasn't more specific and said he was covering about 30 miles a day.

Just before Oxbow I entered Hells Canyon Recreation Area and I started to get seriously hot. I stopped in a store the for a huge ice cream cone and a few liters of water before heading toward Brownlee dam. The steepest hill I have encountered yet greeted me at the base of the dam. Crossing the bridge at the base of the dam took me into Idaho.

Hello Idaho, goodbye Oregon!

Thankfully it was relatively short. I followed the reservoir for about 10 miles. It was getting so hot that I stopped and soaked my shirt in the water and took to covering my neck with a wet hankerchief.

The real fun and heat started soon after. It was late afternoon and I was facing a climb over a 4100 ft pass.  The picture below was taken starting the climb up from the reservoir.

It took me about 3 hours to cover the next 13 miles since I had to keep stopping to cool off.  Oregon and Idaho were having a bit of a heatwave and temperatures were in the high 90s.  I started to get a pounding headache but relief came soon enough in the form of a nice access point to the creek I had been following. After soaking in it for about 10 minutes and re-wetting my shirt and hair the rest of the climb was much more tolerable.

The descent from there to Cambridge was cooler and much more enjoyable.  I kept hearing a buzzing in some of the trees on my way down and soon discovered the source.  Rounding one corner in the road I found hundreds of 3 inch long insects covering the road. I am not sure but I think these guys were cicadas. They looked like a hugely oversize grasshopper.

Pulling into Cambridge I was quickly found Watertower Park, which was nicely set up for cyclists following the transamerica trail. There were 5 other riders there enjoying a few beers and talking about their rides. I was too dehydrated to partake and instead polished off a quart of gatorade, a can of ice tea and a couple of water bottles along with dinner.