STATS
- Day: 7
- Day Mileage: 71.6
- Total Miles: 387.2
When I crossed into Idaho, I crossed into mountain time. When traveling by car, seemingly not a big deal when it’s just one hour. Turns out, when on bicycle and your seven hour cycling day turns to eight and you don’t get to camp until 830, set up by 9, cook dinner until 930 and then finally off to sleep by 1030…. all that makes for an early morning, not fully ready to get back on the bike. However, I did.
I had a big climb early in the along the seemingly rolling mountains of Idaho. It was going to be one of our harder days in terms of elevation ascent, but it was manageable. The first half of the day was fairly straight forward and somewhat downhill into Cambridge after the initial climb out of the park. Once in Cambridge, James and I had coffee and able to catch up on some internet items. It wasn’t before 12:30 went we knew we had to get on the road to beat the heat.
It was a good ride into Council where James and I had lunch from a market. We each had a corn dog and some jojos. I had a cream soda and was ready to go after. We iced down our waters knowing we had another 25 miles to go until camp in New Meadows. It was another long day and we were both feeling it. The climb out of council was tough as they all have been but we had a slight downhill before an 11 mile gradual climb leading us to our destination. It was through a dense forest where we felt the first signs of humidity of my trip. It was quite gorgeous apart from a few big rigs being assholes but that’s par for the course each day. Finally, after such a long day we were descending it not New Meadows.
It was my first city park sleep in New Meadows and we made camp right after a big cheeseburger and drinks at a local joint. In the park, we met a few other British cyclists who were on their way west to Astoria. I had sink shower number one before heading to bed. It was around 1130 when the sirens went off as we were near the fire station…. that was terrifying and then 30 minutes later, it began to rain. Nothing heavy, but the wind from the evening finally brought in the rain showers. I was able to test out the tent and all seems to be in working order. That’s all good to know going forward.