| i thot of another interesting item i forgot to mention about our stay at the steelhead inn near lucile. after supper i was out by the river & noticed some goats in the large yard next door. |
| the little ones in this picture are 4 days old. it was so cute the way they cavorted around the pasture...jumping straight up then pirouetting in midair before coming down, kicking up their hind legs like little broncos. | |
| the woman who lived next door milks the 2 adult female goats....the mother goat in this picture & another mother out of camera range. the other mother had 3 little 6-week-old kids. the mothers produce a gallon of goat's milk per day & will produce more after the young goats are weaned. the woman makes cheese & yogurt from the milk, besides drinking it. the woman's young children played with the goats as if they were puppies. i thot goats were more standoffish. |
| back to today: it was chilly out back of the hartland inn in new meadows this morning. sari & i left town around 6:45. it wasn't long 'til the climb began, but it was never onerous. |
| at about 6 miles into our route we came to tamarack. there's a huge lumber mill on the edge of town. there are piles & piles of logs on one side of the road...all being kept moist with sprinklers that continually spray the piles...then on the other side are neatly stacked packages of finished wood products. the wrapping of those finished products had the word evergreen on it. |
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i thot the swirl of smoke coming out of the smokestack looked pretty against the evergreen trees & the bright blue sky. |
| once up over the crest of the hill we cruised down a gorgeous road. this photo gives you an idea of the green corridor through which we rode; we were in the payette national forest. in the foreground of the photo are some wild roses; there are so many of them growing along the roadways. |  |
| we emerged from the forest into a spectacular valley...made even more beautiful by the tailwinds that boosted us along our route. |
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here's a photo of sari coasting down one of the long & gradual hills that we enjoyed on our way to cambridge. & oh the clouds today! they were a continuing source of awe 'til sundown. |
| the town of council was halfway into today's schedule at 24 miles. debby, today's subaru driver, checked out the town & clued us in on the restaurants when she stopped to check on us outside of town. that saved us time once we hit main street. there were lots of bikes outside norm's cafe, so we entered. but once we found out they had no pie, we used the restroom & left. then we spotted sarah's & gerrie's bikes at the sawtooth cafe across the street. it was cute & cozy inside. even tho' sari & i ascertained that the pies were constructed elsewhere & only baked here, we carefully scrutinized the blackberry pie sitting in the pie case & decided it seemed to have enough acceptable features, so each ordered a piece. it turned out well. |
| visits to the restroom at the sawtooth provided us some entertainment over supper this evening. i recited the text of one of the signs posted in the sawtooth restroom: a man is like a fine wine. he starts out raw as grapes, & it's a woman's job to stomp on him & keep him in the dark 'til he matures into something she would like to have dinner with. |
| it was a much easier riding day than yesterday; everyone got to cambridge by very early afternoon. people did chores & some sightseeing downtown (a block away from our motel). since cambridge has a population of 367, sightseeing isn't a time-consuming activity. it's a day off for patty the chef, so after our map meeting at 5 we walked downtown from our motel (the frontier motel--very nice rooms) to kay's restaurant. it was standard small-town cafe fare. |
| we're planning to get plenty of rest tonight. tomorrow's route is only 58 miles, but we face 2 substantial climbs. we'll ride along hell's canyon to halfway (half.com) oregon.......finally entering the last state of our cross-country tour. |
| Higher quality versions of the pictures from my trip are available here. If you would like copies of the original, full-size photos, or if you would like text-only versions of these daily reports e-mailed to you, feel free to e-mail my son Mark with your request. Stay tuned.... |
