Lewiston to Orofino

Feeling a bit like a touring rock star now... whilst preparing for dinner tonight had to ask a number of times "what town are we in now?". The speed we're chasing through and different hotels, miles upon miles of highway is a bit disorientating. In a nice way become disoriented, but strange nevertheless.

Preparing to Leave Lewiston

Lovely bit of group riding

Leaving Lewiston I could feel fatigue in my thighs... sure they're strong and all, but also really quite tired.  We headed out over snake river and back on highway 12.  Which has come to be referred to as "the A12" in a transatlantic conflation of road identifiers.  SO anyway we rode along the road.  Various members of the group had been given stark warnings about the safety of the route.   Stuff like "you'll never escape the marauding trucks" "those roads aint made for bikes" "you'll be lucky to get to the other side of town alive"  OK, quotations on those particular phrases can't be correctly attributed, but we had been warned to take caution.  Our trusty rubber ducky would follow the group while we kept as close to the shoulder as possible.  As we rode out of town this precaution seemed a little over the top, but after having been practising group riding the day before it seemed to come more naturally today, i tended to be at the front or the back after various stops and the ride generally seemed to be very smooth.  Yeah there was some traffic, but still nothing compared to the first days ride out to Astoria with Bob.

I 'took the wind' for a while after the highway crossed Clearwater River, which it then followed for some way.  We ended up having a blissfull stop by the river in a well maintained rest stop by the river.  After a bite to eat there was a little larking around in the (FFFFreezing water) and some more photo opportunities and after a considerable rest a leisurely ride into town.  Orofino seemed a little unwelcoming on the way in, but everyone I'e met here has been lovely... it just seems they scowl from a distance.

Without going back and trying to check previous entries (which would be a problem with the internet dropping out every 2 minutes (Damn you P2P'ers and your bandwidth heavy activities) I'd imagine today would be the 6th in a row I've commented on how much the scenery changes... but today probably has been the most stunning... I think the Idaho licence plates calling it the scenic state stand up to scrutiny.  But the highway surface is not any fun on a bike... unless you like that kind of thing, which some of our riders clearly do.

Anyway, hopefully at some point I'll be able to upload the 'movie digest' things that my camera does as they're my new photographic obsession, along with teh fantastic lens lent to me for the trip (thanks El).

OK, off to sleep now, and I'm not sure if i mention it yet but it is my birthday tomorrow.  (yeah, come to think of it think I may have mentioned that) looking forward to a relatively short day riding.  By the way there have been a few conversations of how rides in excess of 50 miles are now just 'short days.  But then we're into the wilderness for a bit of celebration (for me at least) a bit of reflection on the research.  And more appreciation of how lucky we are to be here I guess.