Day 50: Cambridge Idaho to Richland Oregon

Today we crossed into Oregon. It was crazy to think that this was our last Tuesday together. We should have known by now but the ACA groups are very early risers. Although we got up at 6:30 the ACA people were gone. I stopped at a gas station in town to use their bathroom and brush my teeth. There was a slight climb to get out of town. I had fun running over these giant black crickets until one jumped on my leg and caused me to almost crash. I avoided the crickets after that (I should have learned to leave them alone in Kansas). At the top it was a 12 mile descent to the Snake River. About halfway down there was a rest stop were I bought some ice cream. If I’ve learned anything from this trip it’s that ice cream can be eaten at anytime of the day. The rest of the descent was incredible and hands down one in the top 5 descents of the trail.

I got to the welcome to Oregon sign and waited to cross with the rest of the team. After taking multiple pictures and several selfies we crossed into the final state. The first thing I noticed about Oregon was the abundance of berry plants growing along the Snake River. After looking closer to them I discovered they were blackberries. They proved to be an excellent snack later one. The next part of the day was spent climbing the 17 miles out of Hell’s Canyon. I didn’t mind so much as the view of the rocks was great. There was a rest stop place a little ways up but there were a ton of bees flying around so I didn’t stay long. Stupidly I forgot to get more water and was getting a little nervous as I had half a liter left and over 6 miles lift of the climb. I came up on a famer and asked how close I was to any type of town. He told me the closest one was behind me or about 10 miles ahead of me in a town called Halfway (looking at my map I saw that Halfway was over 5 miles off route). Thankfully the farmer caught on my problem and asked if I needed water. He told me he gets lots of people biking that run out of water between the rest stop and Richland. It was cold and the sweet. Despite having as much water as I wanted the last 3 miles were super steep. I took a break at the top and ate the last of my peaches. I didn’t enjoy the descent into Richland as much as I wanted. It was windy and winding and steep and too many cars for my liking. It was strange to see all the cars as I didn’t see any on the way up and I didn’t see any places were a road connected with this one. I wondered where they all came from. Once in town we split an RV campground that gave us an excellent deal. Dinner was the only place in town called Annie’s. After dinner we sat around to watch the sunset, listen to music, eat Oreo’s and enjoy each other’s company.