After an easy 2 hour ride through the valley of the Clearwater River, it was time for the first climb of today out of the valley. By that time the temperatures had already climbed to the mid 80's. The climb itself was 1000 ft over very steep gradients. Almost everything above 10% peaking at 15%!. In combination with the temperature the climb was really, really though.
After the climb I got on a large rolling plateau covered with grain fields. Slowly climbing through the plateau, I reached Grangeville before noon. There I decided to get in the shade during the hottest hours of the day, so I updated my blog at the library and had a very elaborate coffee at the coffee house next door.
When I set off again, it had gotten cloudy and hazy, resulting in slightly lower temperatures. Shortly after Grangeville came the second climb of today. The climb was over a twisty back road with gentle grades and simply big fun! The descent over old highway 95 was simply fabulous! Fantastic views and a very fun road with good pavement and perfect grades. Ow yeah, on both the climb and the descend I only encountered two cars on the road.
During the descent into the valley of the Salmon River the temperature had again gone up significantly.
Down in the valley I'm staying at a campground next to the Salmon River. As I was pitching my tent, a guy came over for a chat and offered me a cold beer at his truck, can't say no to that. So after I took a dip in the river, I went over to Loring, a college teacher from Springfield, Missouri. We offered me a beer, some snacks and some good conversation. Afterwards I went back to my tent to make me some mac'n'cheese, with Buffalo chicken this time. As I writing this post I'm about to go to sleep and it still very warm... hopefully it cools done some this night and hopefully I can manage to get up early tomorrow, to get some cool early morning riding.
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