Welcome to Idaho... Adios Oregon

A goofy picture, but I caught Nicolas smiling, so I had to use it

At the end of our 6th day of riding we crossed the Oregon/Idaho state line at the Brownlee Reservoir dam, about 120 miles north of Boise, ID. We are still trying to figure out why they call this area Hells Canyon... it is absolutely gorgeous.  Beth and I rode the tandem the first 57 miles and then Nicolas and I finished up the last 27 miles to the Woodland campground on the lake.  Here is the track from our final day riding in Oregon.

We continue to be amazed with some of the public campgrounds that we have found along the way that have RV hookups.  The Armitage County park outside Eugene was exceptional and far better than most of the for-profit parks we have been in.  The Mitchell City Park and the Depot Park in Park City had good facilities and were a welcome sight.  The Woodland campground is run by the Idaho Power company and I am sure maintaining it is part of their lease agreement for power generation from the Brownlee Reservoir dam.  It was a really nice park and great facility, literally in the middle of no-where.  Again, very fortunate for us to have such a nice place to stay after a long day on the bike.

Waterfall running into the Little Salmon River

Today was our first full day in Idaho. A planned 106 mile day and over 5000' of climbing.   The climbing started first thing with a steep 9 mile/2000' grind out of Hells Canyon Recreation Area.  I did this solo early in the morning to get a jump start on the long day.  Beth and Nicholas met me in Cambridge, ID.  Beth and I road the tandem for another 47 miles and Nicholas road the last 27 miles with me into Riggins.  The last 20 miles into town was a long descent following the Little Salmon river with some great waterfalls along the way.  We found an RV park right next to the river and set up camp for the night.  Here is the track for the day

Tomorrow is a shorter day, but with big climb right in the middle that averages over 9% grade for 7.5 miles (3500' of climbing)... here is a preview of our coming attraction.





A few statistics from our first 8 days (7 riding days) on our adventure:

Camp site on the Little Salmon river