Day 7 (6/11): Misery and company

NWS reports severe thunderstorm activity with heavy rain in NW Montana. This weather in conjunction with the melting snowpack increase the possibility of flooding in the area.

Morning in Riggins, ID and time to go. Most of my kit was dried out and I had again repacked my gear, discarding a couple of items that didn't work or that I deemed too much weight to the benefit that they might bring. As I pushed my bike outside I found Stuart out there doing some drivetrain maintenance and I set forth doing a bit of my own. I found that if I spent a couple of minutes in the a.m. wiping/lubing the chain, wiping off the derailleurs, and (using a cut down toothbrush) cleaning the rear derailleur gears that the bike shifted a lot better and was overall more reliable than if I didn't.

Having done that it was time to roll. As we slow-rolled down to the local C-store for supplies it...wait for it...began to rain. Great...just great - so much for drying anything out. 

yup, more rain

A few minutes in the store for food, etc. and actually did manage a hot breakfast. Stuart had what sounded like a good idea to use some plastic bags to further waterproof our shoes. While it looked like a good idea it didn't really play out all that well and within an hour's ride I was once again thoroughly saturated. 

Down out of Riggins we rode, another downhill that actually wasn't and onward for a few hours following the Salmon River. More climbing and false flats up to and through Copperville and utlimately to the town of Whitebird, rolling through the wonderful (note sarcasm) weather that the day offered up for us. Stuart later noted that this section of the ride was one of the more miserable segments that he has experienced and I could not disagree with him. The only thing that made it even remotely interesting was that because we were skirting the Pacific and Mountain time zones my Garmin would occasionally jump back and forth, time-wise. One minute is was 834 and a couple minutes later it was 737...a bit of amusement in an otherwise soggy slog. On the pizza scale this segment of the ride was below half-frozen Walmart cheese pizza (pretty low).

Sitting in a small diner in Whitebird, we ate breakfast and pondered the next phase of the ride - up over Whitebird climb and down into Graingeville. While we sat, several other racers arrived at the diner - Andrew, the other Scottish racer, popped in for a few minutes and then left (CORRECTION: This was Art, the racer from New Zealand, and not Andrew - thanks to Stuart C. for the corrected info). Konstantinos, one of the racers from Greece, rolled on and sat down for breakfast. As we talked I came to realize that he had taken an interesting approach to staying dry. Somewhere along the way he had acquired what looked like a heavy duty trash bag or plastic tarp and had holed it for his head and arms. I had to admit that it likely worked pretty well and while it might get hot inside that bag it was quite cold at that moment so maybe he was on to something. His prior planning had worked out for him as Whitebird had almost nothing in the way of resources - empty shelves in the store, almost nothing that could be used for waterproofing.

We also found out that Rodrigo, the guy we had ridden into Baker City with, was staying in town while he fixed his bike. He met us over at the diner and we went through trying to figure out how best to waterproof everything as it was just pouring at this point. This was also the point where I realized that I had left my helmet out on my bike and it was now pretty wet...more fun. As I'm trying to get some of the water out of my helmet I look over and see Rodrigo wrapping the front of his bike in plastic wrap...like the stuff you cover leftovers with. He must of seen the look on my face and he simply said "it's what they had" motioning to the local store that I previously noted had nothing of use. I guess you just have to think harder about some problems to come up with out-of-the-box solutions 🤪.

Whitebird is a tiny town situated at the base of one of the more notable climbs on the TransAm. The climb to Whitebird summit is about 12 miles with an average grade of 4.7%. That 4.7 is a bit deceptive though - there are sections that are considerably steeper, especially in the switchbacks, and tops out at around 4200ft at the summit.

entrance to Whitebird climb

 While there is a newer highway that is shorter the TABR follows the old Whitebird climb. Although it's longer it is essentially vehicle-free and does offer some beautiful views. We set off, fully rain and snivel geared up...and then it stopped raining. 

Stuart...not having a lot of fun at the moment

Rodrigo..wrapped in Saran Wrap 😆

I'm serious - we were less than 1/2 mile out of the town and were already stopping to strip off layers as it has stopped raining and was now getting muggy - go figure. By the time we were at the first switchback I was out of all of my rain /cold weather gear and now had a soggy mess to stow and deal with. Oh well, at least it wasn't raining any more.

Relieved of our snivel gear we continued up the climb. It's a long, slow climb...well for me it was - the being fully soaked was really working on my saddle sores in a not good way and my progress was slow. Every couple of switchbacks I'd find Stuart and Rodrigo taking a break and while I emphasized that they should not wait for me I was secretly glad that they were in close proximity - it's a long climb.

dragging my ass up this climb (photo credit: Stuart Campbell)

great views

Stuart grinding up one of the last switchbacks

up near the top

ta-da!

Finally made the top and it was mostly downhill all the way to Graingeville and lunch. So, anyone who followed this year's TransAm might know that we had several scratches from the race due to concerns over driver behavior. I can honestly say that these fears should be seen as justified - I actually experienced an episode of this "ass-hattery" on my approach to Graingeville. 

The incident occurred after I missed the route turn that keeps you on a frontage road while on the descent into Graingeville. Not a real big deal - the main road has a nice wide shoulder and is a long straight stretch of road - easy to see and be seen. I'm bombing down this descent, keeping an eye out behind me for cars. There was one small section of the shoulder that was full of tire-killing debris and after checking to make sure that there were no cars close I veered out onto the road to avoid the debris. As a did this I spotted a truck that had crested the hill and was on the descent...maybe 1/4 mile behind me. No big deal, being past the debris I found an opening in the rumble strip and veered back onto the shoulder. Well, this ass-clown pulls up next to me, starts veering onto the shoulder, and starts reading me the riot act... just screaming at me. If we hadn't been going so fast (5% grade) I probably would have told him what I thought of him but I really didn't want to crash so just ignored him and eventually he drove on. What a jackass...

Rolled into Graingeville not too far behind Stuart and Rodrigo and spent a moment figuring out where lunch was going to be...Subway was the winner. As we moved to go to Subway, Stuart let out an exasperated "puncture!" - he had a flat tire...the 6th or 7th of this ride 🙄...he had some of the worst tire luck during this race (I want to say a total of 11 flats) and was clearly frustrated with the latest issue. We puttered over to Subway for lunch and took a needed break and downtime for tire repair. While Stuart was fixing his tire I noticed a "dollar store" near us and once Stuart was up again we made a quick stop. Unlike last year's debacle the kit that I had for this year's race did a pretty good job overall. Zippers worked, sleep system did what it was supposed to do, etc. One issue that I did have was a tear in the dry liner for my seatpost bag. The bag itself is not waterproof but it has this liner that purportedly will keep your stuff dry. That is, unless it has a tear in it...which mine apparently did. While the tear was high enough for me to be able to wrap the folds of the liner over it some moisture still got in. To combat this, everything inside the liner would now also need to be wrapped in something waterproof. Pain in the ass but still workable and ziplock bags to the rescue! Bought a box of bags and shared them between the 3 of us - solving any future water issues.

Beyond Graingeville this part of Idaho gets pretty sparse...miles and miles of farmland and woods pocked only occasionally by a couple of small towns. We rolled on, handling random short, steep climbs followed by flat to false flat sections of road. As if planned by some mischievous entity, it started to rain again and while not as heavy as earlier in the day was still a bit of a buzzkill and further soaked everything that wasn't in ziplock bags (i.e. me).

looking down towards Kooskia

After bombing down a fairly technical descent..a lot of tight switchbacks that spilled off most of the climb from the earlier Whitebird ascent...we eventually reached the town of Kooskia and stopped for dinner. On the way into town we couldn't help but notice that the river was really flowing and was close to spilling over its banks. In talking to a local we learned that there was a higher than average risk of the town flooding in the next day or two due to the unusual amount of thunderstorm activity and fast snow melt due to higher temps...not a place to hang around.

The next major section ahead was the 100 mile climb up to Lolo Pass and into Montana. As we weren't going to start that climb today we needed to find supplies for the next day's effort and somewhere to hole up for the night and try to dry out. Supplies were easy enough; there was a store right across the street from where we ate dinner and we stocked up on energy bars, tortillas and peanut butter, bananas, etc...things that would travel well and be carb-dense for the Lolo climb.

There is not a lot around this area, hotel-wise, and the first couple of calls were not productive. Rodrigo was looking thru some options and found a guy with a small cabin in the town of Syringa, about 18 miles down the road and still on the race course. I called, and was disappointed when he said that the cabin was not available. However, when I mentioned that we were doing the TransAm race the owner told me that the only reason the cabin wasn't available is that it needed to be cleaned. He would take care of it and was expecting us. Again a great example of good people - the cabin owner...and sadly I can't remember his name...had hosted TransAm racers in previous years and knowing the experience went out of his way to make a spot for us. 

It was getting dark as we rolled from Kooskia towards Syringa and I was very happy with the decision that I had made earlier in the day to plug one of my power banks into my primary headlight so it would recharge - needed the light. By now I was starting to feel bad; the further deterioration of my saddle sores was not only affecting my ability to make useful power on the bike but as it turns out was probably in the early stages of infection which was making me feel ill. The ride to Syringa was a bit of a low point for me and I was greatful when my gps showed that we were under a mile to the turn for the cabin. Near the turn we noticed an SUV coming our way and then turning in the road ahead of us. I was a little concerned...this is the middle of nowhere...until we realized that it was the cabin owner who had been on the lookout for us and came to guide us in. A left turn, 1/4 mile climb, and we were there. 

gas fireplace for drying everything out

very 1970's but no one was complaining...

We set to getting things together for the next day... there's never nothing to do on this ride. Once done, we needed to work out the sleeping arrangements as there were only two bedrooms. I believe that I made that easy for us as I fell asleep in the chair by the fireplace and when I woke briefly at 0200 everyone had already gone to bed 😆

Lolo Pass tomorrow....