Cyclists Rule: Jul 31, 2009

Friday, July 31, 2009

Halfway, OR

It might be more than halfway to heaven on earth.
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Richland, OR to Brownlee Reservoir, ID

Via Hwys 86 and 71. 47 miles. After a long, steep climb out of Richland we gradually dropped down into a beautiful valley on our way into Hells Canyon. We stopped for breakfast and to load up on food for the next few days* at Halfway, OR, a neat little town that sits at the foot of a magnificent set of mountain peaks. We found Devon in front of the grocery store loading up yogurts and other disgustingly healthy stuff** (she had left Richland about 25 minutes ahead of us). She took off again while we did our grocery shopping and went in search of a cafe.

We then rode down into Hells Canyon, formed by the flow of the Snake River. By the time we hit the canyon floor the temperature was in the 90s although it was still before noon. We rode up and past the first of two dams at Oxbow and continued up the Oregon side of the river canyon to Brownlee Dam. There we stopped on the shade of a tree at a company town for workers at the nearby hydroelectric plant. Two of the workers stopped and asked us if we needed water or anything else. When we told them of our plans to ride up out of the canyon tomorrow morning one of the guys offered to drive us out in his pickup truck to eliminate the very tough climb. We thanked them, resumed riding across the dam and river into Idaho where we again ran into Devon again. There is a nice campground at Brownlee Dam, operated by Idaho Power Company, but the three of us decided to continue on up river on the Idaho side to another Idaho Power camp site that is closer to the start of the climb out of the canyon which we'll tackle early tomorrow morning. Those last few miles were difficult as it was uphill and the heat was intense. But we took a break where we could find a little shade and rolled into the second campground about 2:30 in the afternoon,*** before the temperature peaked over 100 degrees. We found a great camp site in the tent area, mainly because there wasn't another soul in the tent area. Every other camper was huddled inside his/her RV with the air conditioner full on. We went into the tent about 9:30 and laid on top of our sleeping bags in our underwear sweating like mad. It finally cooled off enough about midnight and we ended up getting a pretty decent night's sleep.

*There is no place to eat or buy food after you pass a small store outside of Oxbow until after you are out of the canyon again.

**She is a vegetarian but seems OK hanging around with two carnivores.

***We crossed from the Pacific into the Mountain Time zone at the border.