July 9 Day 9 Dayton WA. to Lewiston ID. 84 miles 4619 climbing

Before you read this day i must explain that we did not fall off the mountain. we have been in an are for the last 3 days and there have not been service for cell,internet, or regular phone service. we are in Missoula, Montana. so i am catching up.

This ride started out climbing out of Dayton Washington. We started at 7:00 because it was going  to be a  70 mile day. The heat is what we were really wanting to avoid as much as possible.

Chris gave us directions to a road called Tatman  Mountain Road. It was 12 miles out. It was a beautiful road. We went straight down into a valley. Lots of wheat fields. Some of them were ready to harvest and like this one still green. I liked the barn surrounded by wheat.

This bee keeper was tending to his bees when we rode by. I ask him if I could take his picture. I ask what the bees liked in this area. He told me the star thistle. The issue was the star thistle had been infested with a bug and there was spraying that was killing the thistle. He was just trying to keep his bees alive. He was going to ship them to California. 

This tis the bee keepers dog. He came down out of the field to say Hi! and gets a scotch behind the ear.

We finally got to the bottom of the valley. Behind me is where two streams met.

Here are some of the locals. They were quite patient while I adjusted my camera.

Jim and I came around the bend. We both said Wow! When we saw this field. It was such a rich green.

In contrast to all the brown hills around it.

We had ridden so far and Roger, Larry and Suzanne came riding up the road. They said they had gone 4 miles and the road went to gravel. They checked with a fellow on a motorcycle that said the road only got worse. W went back to a KOA and asked the lady inside about directions. The road next to her camp said it was about 3 miles long but turned to gravel as Well and was a very steep climb. Otherwise we would go back the way we came. None of us were willing to do that. So we fueled up and started up the road. It did turn to gravel but it was rideable. What really happen is the climb got real steep. Jim helped me get my bike into my largest gear and off we were. We passed Suzanne who was walking. It got really not. We finally got to the top. Boy was that hard. Suzanne made it up aNd we got her hydrated and fed and started a great decent into Pomroy. Jim was worried about all the others

S when we got to the rest stop we ate. He eventually went back with Mary. They found everybody and got them fueled up. 

We had this really long climb to this summit. It promised to be a 15 miles down hill into Lewiston.

That was fun. The down hill proved to be a little short didn't get us to Lewiston. We were all getting quite tried and cranky. We finally get into Lewiston.but we still had another hard 4 miles with a climb at the end to get to the hotel. 

This was one of the cliffs along the road into Lewiston 

When we got to the other side of the bridge over the Snake River we were welcomed to Idaho

I have to tell you, we have a few people on this ride who have ridden a lot of miles. We all agreed that this was the hardest ride any of us had ever done. We were hot,tired cranky and hungry. A bunch of us went to El Sombrero for some good ole Mexican a food. Tomorrow  60 miles and up early again. Gotta go to sleep now. Good night!