Day 52, Aug. 6 Apgar USFS Campground to Orofino, ID

We awoke refreshed, or tried to tell ourselves that. A quick breakfast of oats and applesauce got us going, and the chill factor seemed to have mostly disappeared. Our neighbor then told us it had been about 104 in Orofino (our destination) yesterday and was expected to be just shy of that today, so apparently no more chill.

The ride the day previous had been a mixture of hot thick winds coming from the nearby desert, and the cool breezes coming off the river and all the adjoining streams that passed down the mountain to the right of us. Today, it was mostly the hot breezes and quite a bit of smoke from nearby wildfires.

The river continued to get wider and we passed two more lodge towns, Lowell and Syringa, before we made it to a town with a post office. Just before coming to Kooskia, the landscape changed again sharply. The surface of the mountains changed from dense forest to dry grass with a few pines and lots of volcanic rock in and out of the river. Our attention was also caught by these zipline car contraptions that crossed the river to people's property and seemed to be their main entrance to and from their houses.

Kooskia was a weirdly quiet town. The road into town was slightly higher then all the residences so you looked down into peoples homes and yards and RVS. We made for the grocery and sat outside watching the Coors and then Budweiser trucks make their deliveries. Andy got another flat in his back tire, so we changed that, and then hoping to make it the next 30 miles to Orofino before the heat got to much like itself, we got back on the road.

This was also where we decided to separate from the great TransAm and finish our ride on our own route through Washington and down into Oregon. I guess we got cabin fever?

Now on the opposite side of the river, we got to stretch out that side of our necks. Unfortunately the traffic got worse and the shoulders actually dimished. Fortunately the river, now the Clearwater, was absolutely gorgeous, clear showing through to beautiful colored round rocks, and jade looking rapids. Most of the ride continued to be just slightly downhill (like the previous days) and although this is a nice break for the legs, it really puts a strain on your hands. Andy's have been vibrating pretty constantly and my right pinky has been pretty numb for several days.

Many folks were tubing down the river, and I don't blame them, because when we got to Orofino around 3:30, it was at least 100 degrees. We went straight for the library there, where their system was somewhat agreeable, but strangely complicated, and ultimately less than accomadating. After some short blogging and researching our route, we got booted off and went in search of grub.

Everything was closed, except a swanky looking place and a pizza joint, so we ended up opting for the pizza joint. It was a good choice. Salad bar and lots of caloric pizza. Both our throats were beginning to hurt. We chalked it up to the smoke inhalation during the larger part of the day. The ice cream parlor was closed, the grocery store's inventory was 75% alcohol, 10% food, and 15% in random shopping carts stashed about, so we got our ice cream fix from the gas station, now only 98 degrees. We head the few miles back down 12 to another USFS campground Pink House Hole, where we got a front row campsite overlooking the river. After setting up we went to dip our feet in the water. It was too cold for me, but Andy braved it for a bit and looked at some of the literature on the region's logging history. Apparently the whole river would be full of logs that the timber companies would just float down. So full you could just walk across them and men would live out of rafts in the middle of all these dead trees sorting out the log jams.

We read and wrote and stared before going to bed. Andy wondered whether anyone had died of starvation while being captivated by staring at a river. Then bed.