Day 40

Mileage: 73
Total mileage: 3490

Felt like I was teleported back into Appalachia briefly today.

There was no rain last night, so I got to pack up all my gear dry and hit the road pretty early. It was cool to see the valley I had ridden in the night before, by the light of the rising sun instead of a setting one. Same exact view, totally different feel.

Along the road into Kooskia today I was doing a little climbing with my head down and noticed berries on the road. To be specific, they were cherries. Sure enough, there was a shrub with the most perfectly ripe cherries on it that I've ever seen, growing wild along the road. I had no clue if there was any danger in eating wild cherries, so I limited myself to only about ten...thousand. In truth I stuffed myself on them and then chugged a water bottle so I could fill it with berries for later as well.

In Kooskia I stopped for water at a little pet shop and spent way too long sitting on the floor, eating my cherries and playing with all the cute little kittens running around. They were super skittish, but as soon as my hand turned into a little spider running around, they couldn't help but chase it. Before I left, the shopkeeper gave me the most hilarious advice ever. I told him I was going down what's apparently a really steep descent into White Bird and he solemnly cautioned me that I should make sure to get my bike in first gear at the top of the hill, otherwise I'd burn up all my brakes.

What was funny wasn't the fact that bikes have a freewheel device in the rear cassette that allows the wheel to turn freely while not pedaling, thus making it irrelevant what gear I'm in going downhill. It's the image which is conjured to mind if you imagine that his advice actually applied. In cars, shifting into lower gear forces the engine to slow down on hills because the pistons can only compress the air in the cylinders so quickly; the motion of the engine becomes the brake. On my bike I am the engine. If I tried to go down a steep hill in first gear without a freewheel, my pedals would become a blender, moving at several hundred rpm. The notion that I could somehow gently dampen that maelstrom with my legs to reduce my coasting speed is absolutely ridiculous, hence the hilarity of his comment. Can you tell I dwealt on this for a good portion of the afternoon?

In Syringa, things started to feel like Appalachia again. I rode into a tiny town and had instructions to follow unmarked roads for unspecified distances, which left me staring at my maps for the first time on this side of the great plains. The other thing I noticed was the heat. Despite how far north I am, I'm back down around 1000 feet and while standing around to read my map my cleats started melting into the pavement. Eventually I found my road, named Lamb's Grade. It should have been called Lion's Grade because it was vicious. In a couple switchbacking miles I gained 1500 feet, cementing the impression of Kentucky firmly back into my mind. Every time I looked down to check what gear I was in, a few drops of sweat would drip from my beard onto my frame, a phenomenon I remember well. When I got to the top I wasn't even surprised to see bales of hay lined up in the fields. The endless fields of wheat were a bit of a surprise but at this point I felt like anything could happen and I would just take it.

In Grangeville I finally got Wi-Fi to post my last two entries. At the cafe where I was posting from I met a guy who rode in the original bikecentennial trip of 1976. He was visiting Missoula for the 40th anniversary bash this weekend and he informed me there was a concert in the park. I went to the concert tonight and enjoyed some country music (are you surprised either?) before getting a shower at the pool. On my way to the other city park (where they let cyclists camp) a lady who was selling raspberries at the concert gave me a couple pounds of them that she had left over! It's been a good day for berries. Showered, I'm back in my comfort zone with freshly laundered clothes drying on a covered picnic table and me lying on the grass tonight. Tomorrow I guess I get to go down that hill in whichever gear I dang well please. G'night!