Lots of Smoke

We rode into Missoula, MT about a week and a half ago, only to find that some mail that we had been expecting had not yet arrived.  We opted to wait for it by driving south to Salmon, ID to spend a few nights, and doing a little bit of riding there and back.  We had anticipated riding all the way back to Missoula, but the smoke from the forest fires was terrible - far worse than any smoggy day in LA in the 1970s.

One of the better smoke days - there should be three chains of mountains visible in the distance.

So we drove back to pick up our mail and were once again on our way.  We were passing through an area of spectacular scenery, but much of that was left to our imaginations, as smoke was a problem for several days.

More smoke on the Clearwater River, descending from Lolo Pass.

It rained lightly on the day that we reached Lewiston, ID, and that helped to clear away much of the smoke.  It is still a bit hazy, but a vast improvement over last week.

View overlooking Asotin, WA and the Snake River.

We rode from Asotin, WA to Enterprise, OR on what has to be one of our favorite cycling routes.  The roads are good, the scenery is awesome, and there is very little traffic.  The highlight of the route is dropping into the Grande Ronde River Valley about mid-way.  There is a 13+ mile descent down Rattlesnake Grade, matched with a 10+ mile ascent up Buford Grade.  This was one of the spots where we had considered vacationing during my competitive hill climbing days, and it would have been a perfect training site.

Buford Grade.

We ended up camping in the Grande Ronde Valley.  There were a number of Washington DFW campsites, but they all required a Discovery Pass.  We didn't have one, and had no way to purchase one, so we drove all the way to Troy, OR for an awesome free campsite next to the river with shade and plenty of green grass for Lana.  It was fortunate that we had to drive so far out of our way, as on the return trip we saw five mountain goats and countless deer.  This area is on our list of places to return to in the future.

We are camped south of Enterprise, OR at Hurricane Creek Campground.  We will be spending two nights here before heading on, in order to get laundry done and to make sure we are well stocked, since it may be a while before we are in a town of any significant size.