Kamiah, ID to Whitebird, ID

Miles: 49.56
Total miles: 545.1
Climbing today: 3,791’

It was cool this morning and I wore arm warmers for the first hour or more. Everyone was tired from yesterday and that included me, for sure. It was just hard to get my legs working. I saw a farm with beehives that looked very disheveled compared to the order of the beehives had when we had them. That was kind of the way I felt today!

We left Kamiah and rode along the Clearwater River, which was cool and lovely.

Riding along the Clearwater River out of Kamiah


We have now completed the eastward part of our ride and are now headed south. The ride took us through the small towns of Kosskia (coo-ski) with gorgeous scenery and continuing on the river, Stites, and Harpster. Harpster was a mining town which hoped for a railroad which never arrived. In its hayday, it had several saloons, a hotel, general store and livery. We rode Highway 12 to Kooskia and then took Highway 13 toward Grangeville. This fork in the road took us up a ten mile climb with 5-7% grades.

The long road up the hill to Grangeville, ID

Took this one from the bike during the climb!


It was a very tough climb for all of us. With a few ups and downs, we arrived in Grangeville, ID and looked for a place to eat on the main street as fast as we could! Lunch was leisurely, fun, and filling! However, we knew that another big climb awaited us up to Whitebird Pass. As we headed out of town, we took Highway 95 toward Whitebird. It was a beautiful ride through farms with huge rolling hills in the distance for about 5 miles. We then came to road repair signs and a flag person who was alternately stopping traffic for a one-way, three mile stretch. This encompassed our whole climb. After receiving instructions from her, we began the climb, with traffic going up the hill in a single lane with us on the side. The road looked like it had cracked away, as if from an earthquake. They seemed to be clearing so that they could move the road away from the downhill side. The five of us who were making the climb at the same time slowly made our way to the top in blazing sun. The smell of the pines that the workers were cutting was welcomed!

As we climbed, the traffic from each direction alternated and we finally made it to the top with a glorious view on a pullout where the SAG was parked. Nancy B., the driver today was definitely a wonderful sight. She had the water and Gatorade to refill our bottles for the last 8 miles. We could see the old road across the valley with multiple switchbacks and were glad that we were not on that!

Switchbacks left from the old road

This sign says it all about the old road!

Peg, Anne, and Kathie celebrating at the top of Whitebird Mt.

To the wonderful person who gave Ben the Smiley Face Neck cooler (around my neck in this picture)...I have used it almost every day since the ride began. Thank you for giving it to Ben in his "retirement gift box" and thanks to Ben for letting me have it for the ride! It works like a charm on these hot days and can be rehydrated for additional cooling during the day.

The road going down the mountain

After a good rest and photos, food, and water, we decided that our best bet would be to wait for the flow of traffic to stop on the 8 mile downhill and then we would have the road to ourselves. (Remember that it was alternating a single lane as we did our climb) It worked great until we took a break on the steep descent and the traffic started coming down. The road was rough chip seal so I could not go nearly as fast as I would have liked, even though the sight distance for speeding was really long. (I did get up to 38 mph) We just pulled off to the side while all the cars and trucks passed. (It was scary as it was a single downhill lane with 7% grades and runaway truck ramps at three different intervals).

Peg and I were happy to make a rest stop on the long downhill, 8.2 miles, to take a picture and let the next wave of vehicles pass

We definitely stay in some, uh, interesting places! This was clean, cool, and I slept well..oh, and we had our own bathrooms!!

View from our motel, up towards Whitebird Mt.

Since we were in two different motels a mile apart, the van came to pick us up for dinner. It was Pat’s birthday so we had a birthday cake, and an extra cake…we eat a lot!

Valerie and Pat, the birthday girl..note the WomanTours white dinner chairs, not fancy...years ago on the first long tours, they had little stools to sit on. The resin chairs fit the bill and are quite comfortable! They stack in the trailer each night!

Karina at the town sign before we walked back to Hoots Motel

After our map meeting, Karina, my roommate and the youngest (at 44) on the trip, decided to walk the two miles back to the motel. It was very quiet and when we got to our motel we saw a mother mule deer and her twins come down the hill and through the parking lot. I tried to get a photo but it was too dark! When I returned to my room, Kathie had folded all my laundry! Thanks, Kathie.

There were gorgeous views out our motel window. We will start from here in the morning, since the van/kitchen will come here and Linda will cook breakfast while we load luggage. When we are in two different motels, a mile apart, there are a few more logistics but the walk back from dinner made us realize that sometimes that is not a problem!….no phone service and no internet!