Day 16: Tuesday, July 12, 2005 Excuse Me! I thought we might not have wyfi, etc.  Grangeville is a very nice little city and our Super 8 has wyfi and is really one of the nicest motels we have stayed in. A lovely downtown and today there is a farmers market on main street that made me wish I could cook tonight – but I will have to submit to yet another dinner out!  They have a famous steak house just 2 blocks from our motel so that is where we will be in a couple of hours.

Because we knew we had a hard climb today we made it a point to wake early and get an early start! We were in Mountain Time in Riggins and much to our surprise when we crossed the Salmon River just north of Riggins we were back in the Pacific Time Zone – so we did get a very early start!!! As you can see it is still pretty dark in the Salmon River Valley!

But the sun came along very nicely and we were enjoying the views and the cool temperature.

Once again Steve got underway ahead of us and we were surprised to catch him but the almost all of the first 30miles were downhill and of course the tandem does have an advantage there!

We visited for a bit but then let him go on as I do take frequent breaks!

I was trying to catch the sparkle of the sun on the river and have no ides what the pink is. It was a lovely morning.

I just had to put this in just to show how courteous the logger truck drivers are! See how far over he moved on the road!

Now we have full sun!

That was our view for many of the miles down to White Bird.   That and the Salmon River rushing past.

And here we are at the 15 mile mark—letting all the traffic continue up Hwy 95 toward the top of White Bird Hill, while we head into Nez Perce park area and up the old White Bird road which is a few miles longer but an easier grade and of course—almost a private bicycle lane! Mostly chip and seal too! We spent about 3 hours at 4 ½ mph with lots of little stand-downs!

Before we could start that climb, we had to drop about 100 feet into the little village of White Bird.

and the climb began gradually through this lovely area

and more feasts for the eyes

and if you look really close almost 2/3 of the way up the next grade you will see we actually got that close to Steve again today! That was it though.

now we are up there looking back down from where Steve was

Now we are a lot higher looking way way back down to that place where we left the traffic on Hwy 95, above White Bird

now we have that Highway 95 in sight just ahead and we will finish this day on the shoulder of Hwy 95, back in traffic

another view to the East before we join the highway

and a look at this really remote but lovely homesite

and while we are stopped—why not try a remote shot?

I take every chance I get to stop and look at the scenic points!

so we missed the summit sign and I had to get this photo back downhill a bit – it says 4245 feet but it was placed at a convenient spot to them—not us as we still had to climb to get over the summit

and, once over the top and with only 10 miles to go to Grangeville, this is how it looked to the South

and to the North

and to the South again

and coming into Grangeville

This was just past a lovely 9 hole golf course. We were happy to see the Super 8 was on the West end of town and found it to be one of those new and really nice motels. I walked downtown and bought some wine and chips while Dennis started his time of rest! Later we will walk down to the famous steak house and continue to eat more calories than we are burning!

Tomorrow is a downhill day and so we can sleep as late as we want and just enjoy the ride!