Day 70 - August 12, 2013 - Cambridge, ID to Oxbow, OR

Miles - 40

Total mileage - 1,887

We were totally looking forward to 12 miles of climbing first thing today!  Oh, and to add to the fun, the wind decided to whistle through the canyon we were in directly at us!  And, by the way, the wind in a canyon changes direction with you, so no matter where we turned, it was still a headwind!

We finally summited the climb, met up with the cyclist who had camped behind our motel last night - he had to hurry off because he planned to do about 30 more miles than we had planned - and we headed down the other side at a 7% grade.  Good times!

We stopped at the one cafe on route today for a quick lunch, and then began our afternoon of riding beside a couple of reservoirs.  It was very hot - I don't think where we are is considered Hells Canyon, but it's pretty darn close.

The road today was lined with blueberry trees, cherry trees, and raspberry bushes - the smell was delicious!  I stopped and tried a couple of the cherries...yum.  Mel decided not to eat any, in case they were somehow poisonous - at least one of us would make it out alive!

We crossed into Oregon, the last official state on the TransAm route!  It's a little bittersweet to start thinking about the end of the trip, but it also sounds nice to live normally again and have a little bit of time on the west coast before heading back to real life.

And in true TransAm route style, we had a tough uphill right before we ended our day at the Oxbow dam.  We stayed at an Idaho Power park, with plenty of camping for RV's and tents, and nice restrooms and showers, all for $10.  We were close to the river too - I decided to take a quick dip while Mel cooled her feet in it.  We got to watch a doe and two baby deer drinking from the river and eating near it, just downstream.  Pretty neat.

And I think we had an illegal campfire, oops.  I think there is a burn ban in effect, we had some leftover firewood at our site, so we enjoyed a little campfire before turning in.  It was difficult to sleep because it was so hot, and it sprinkled on us off and on all night.