Quote of the Day: "It was a 5 1/2 'Freebird' climb".
We are going into Hell's Canyon today it is supposed to be beautiful in spite of the name.
Had a great sleep last night at the Halfway Motel but somehow my legs are feeling belligerent this morning - stiff that is - no joint pain but just muscles saying "why are you doing this to me ........ again??
I think this may have to do with the incredible climb out of Richland at the end of the ride yesterday and the a short plunge into Halfway in which your leg muscles get cold while your upper body works to hang on and not loose control as your attention is diverted to the incredible beauty and strange sights, strange at least for this easterner. My hands get numb from the descent because I don't dare take my hands off of the hoods where the brakes are, in order to assume any other hand positions on the crazy designed handle bars I have. It is a 1400 foot climb out of Richland in about 3.5 miles with the ave grade between 7 - 8 % with some parts being at 9.5.
So I'm soaking in the tub - something Sandrine did last night - while she scouts out coffee and breakfast in town.
These were our very friendly and accommodating hosts in Halfway. We were in the newer section of the motel and it was very nice. We were given a break on the lodging due to the charity aspect of our ride. Thank you very much folks!!
Excellent breakfast and camaraderie at Nella's Kitchen:
These our our local trip advisers that I mentioned in yesterday's blog. Gave us good advice. Notice the design of the ceiling joists - they are welded together different types of rebar as designed by the gentleman on the right.
Awesome gluten free quiche.
Local Presby church.
Sandrine's purchase to try to address the foot pain that occurs from the constant downward pressure on our feet as we pedal. They didn't last long - maybe 2 minutes:
Very helpful sweet lady at the general store that helped me find a very special Velcro thing to create a parking brake for my front wheel. I will explain this later.
Funny sight as we pulled out of Halfway. Stuffed animals at the starting gate:):):)
Another type of fence post to create additional strength in the fence line:
I haven't been able to find anyone to explain the reason for the whole assembly being up off of the ground on this style corner post:
Lake at Oxbow - think we are in Idaho but not sure at this point:
They're back!! Our now stalkers (we are convinced) Tom and Dawn were camping at the very nice Oxbow camping area. We stopped to find water, which is always a concern, and they pulled in behind us coming back from an exploration trip. They invited us to their campsite for some refreshment.
Nice lady from Chicago reading I Corinthians in the shade:
Road a bit rough out of Oxbow to the Brownlee dam.
Wild plums along the way:
Rest stop before the climb up the Brownlee dam.
Brownlee dam:
View from the top of the dam:
S curves along the upper lake:
Very nice rest stop on the lake with cold water!!!!
We are in free range country:
This is my selfie of my concerned look as I waited 40 minutes for Sandrine to make our last summit of the day. This was a very long non-stop 6 mile climb of 2000 feet. I couldn't even take my hands of of the handle bars to drink. I developed a new metric called the "Freebird" on this climb. It just happened that at the beginning of this climb that the song Freebird came on my iPod. I started using the iPod yesterday as Sandrine and I get separated on the climbs and I could use the rhythm to motivate me up the hills. I replayed Freebird 5 1/2 times to reach the summit. It was the live in Atlanta version that is 14:23 minutes long. So that was 78 minutes of straight climbing.
I send two drivers down to look for her and help her if need be:
We hand a nice gentle 13 mile glide down into Cambridge to our hosts Bob and Lesley that had dinner waiting.
The Usual Disclaimer:
And finally please remember the cause - soldiersbestfriend.org I will go into this in more detail and perhaps some level of haranguing later on, but for now here is the link .... and an additional link for donation SoldiersBestFriend - Donate Please :):) As you donate please enter my name in the appropriate spot so the folks at SBF can tally the results to encourage me and let me know WE are getting something done TOGETHER. Oh and I would be a lot more comfortable if you use the "honorarium" option vs the "memoriam" option - you'll understand when you click on the link:):). I will be inserting this call-to-action in all of my blogs so I hope you don't mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment