WHITE BIRD IDAHO IS AMAZING!

June 13, 2009

GREAT DAY!

I have to give a HUGE promo to the Silver Dollar Restaurant and Bar in White Bird, Idaho! If anyone is anywhere in or near northern Idaho, make sure you stop by and get taken care of by Sheryl. After last night’s dinner we went back for breakfast this morning, and were stunned to find that she wouldn’t take our payment! Thanks again Sheryl! Your HUGE all American breakfast powered us up the pass this morning.

Over dinner last night, Sheryl had told us about today’s bike race, which we all decided to take part in, as it followed a part of our trail up Old Hwy 95. Nick and I wanted to race it without our gear, while Amanda and John wanted to keep true to the “Transamerica lifestyle” and carry all their gear themselves. An awesome local guy offered to carry our gear to the top in the truck – thanks buddy! We hit the race line at 9am with about 80 other riders. The course was 13 miles long, with almost 2500 feet of vertical elevation! It was a long haul, but I managed to come in third place out of the 75 who finished, with a time of 54 minutes, 10 seconds. I was EXTACTIC! Nick placed at 1 hour and 11 minutes, and Amanda and John hauled in at 1 hour 47 minutes – while carrying 70 pounds of gear each! We got pretty lucky that such a fun event just happened to jive so well with our schedule. We have an open invitation to compete again next year……. Perhaps?

From left to right: Nick, Doug, John and Amanda at the finish line for the "Just for the Hill of it" bike race. White Bird, Idaho.



The rest of the day was a 65 mile cruise through the gorgeous Idaho Sawtooth mountain range. The forests are extremely dense here, as logging is not as mainstream as in Oregon. It seems like normal national forest service terrain, but everything is on a MASSIVE scale. Rivers are 100 feet wide and run faster than we can ride our bikes. The mountains are no taller than we have experienced, but they rise out of valleys at monumental steepness. The vastness of the terrain makes me feel meek in comparison to our surroundings.

Our group, following the Lochsa River in Idaho. We're gathering Transamer's.
Left to right: John, Phil, Amanda, Dave (top), Nick (bottom), Doug, Jackson, Heather