Bicycling the Lewis & Clark Trail
Orofino to Lowell, ID

Friday, July 23, 2004
Distance Cycled: 55 miles
Vertically Climbed: 830 feet
Average Speed: 13.8 mph

Today was a fairly easy day. We only climbed 830 feet in 55 miles. Almost all day we continually went uphill again on 1 to 2% grades most of the time. The bad news was that we had the rear chain on our Tandem Recumbent jump off the sprocket twice while we were shifting into the big chain ring. When this happens, the chain is jammed between the big chain ring and the sprocket to the captains pedals. The only way to clear the jammed chain is to loosen all the bolts holding on the sprocket to the captains pedals until the chain is no longer jammed between the two sprockets. It takes time to accomplish this repair. Highway 12 follows the route that Lewis and Clark took and is the route the Nez Pierce also took when they were being forced to the reservations. Because of both events there are lots of Historical Markers to stop and read and lots of places were you can watch the Clearwater. It is beautiful country which we would recommend to anyone.

When we started riding at 6:30 this morning it was cold. An hour later the temperature was still 66 degrees. We stopped for an hour in Kamiah, we all had a snack in the grocery store and then walked up to the Post Office and looked at all their special Lewis and Clark stamps.

While we were at the grocery store Jan noticed she had a flat tire. She took her jacket out of the Pannier to get to her tube. Repaired the flat and started down the road, about 8 miles later a car stopped in front of Ken and Jan. He had her jacket which was left at the grocery store. The people in the store saw the jacket and asked this man to return it to Jan since he was heading east on highway 12. People are really wonderful. We ate lunch at Syringa. Jim had a piece of pie and told them to cover it with ice cream. They did an excellent job. The piece of pie arrived under 4 inches of ice cream. The rest of the crew only had a normal lunch of salad and a sandwich. They just did not know what a great lunch could be. When we arrived at the motel at 1:30 this afternoon, the temperature was 102 degrees.

Our choice of restaurants is limited in Lowell so we will be eating in the one open restaurant. Also there are no phones so we cannot post this until we find a place with phones.