Day 10 (6/11): Lewiston, ID; 100 miles

Team Photos

Century rides would be no sweat if they were all like today’s. We roused in the dome at a dewy 5:30 am and set off for Lewiston after some of Ezra’s rooty-tooty fresh and fruity breakfasts (Happy big 21, Ez). Jim, who had provided dinner the night before, came to take some pics of the team shoving off and was nice enough to mail a postcard for me (p.s. send me mail and you get mail back :-) )

The ride started off through some flowing wheat fields (once Walla Walla’s main cash crop) before cruising through the picturesque northern end of the Blue Mountains. We hit our first amazing downhill about 30 miles in which had guys flyin at about 45 mph for nearly 3 miles. Then came our one big climb of the day up to the Alpowa summit (a modest 2785 feet) at about mile 70…but the reward was 10 glorious miles of steep downhill and mild downhills pretty much the rest of the way. Birthday boy Ezra decided to ride along with us for most of the day, on Snowberger’s bike that is ridiculously too big for him. Lunch was a quick crew-chief job with Karl filling in at the summit; the piece de resistance was definitely the cold leftover hotdogs…mmmmm.

We came into town along the scenic Snake River. Lewiston, ID is actually a sister city to Clarkston, WA (the two straddle the Washington – Idaho border). Took me way too long to realize the towns were named for Lewis and Clark, whose trail we’ve been following the past couple days, and apparently we follow it for much of the trip. It was a beautiful ride into town, topped off with the quote of the day from Grant as we ascended an absurdly steep hill right before lodging: “Is this some kind of f-ing joke??” Haha. Total mile count hit 96.99 after a short double paceline for local news.

Lodging was at the Lewis-Clark College arena, a pretty sweet gym. While most of the guys relaxed Ezra and I rolled out to town so I could buy a temporary replacement phone for my lamed-out Razr.

At around 6 we shoved off for dinner and a friendship visit at Opportunities Unlimited Inc., an organization that helps provide jobs and services for people with disabilities. It was a blast with a great turnout; I sat with Tom, whose life changed as the result of a logging incident. We shared some laughs and discovered we both had a love for Lean Cuisine meals. A pick-up game of basketball capped off the evening, with our boys getting rocked by some sharp shooters on the OUI side.

Around 10ish it was time to head for Ezra’s 21st bday celebration. We first walked into a bar called Bo Jack’s only to be told by the locals that “we didn’t belong there” so we walked right on through the back door…haha guess they weren’t psyched to serve 25 young dudes. Right down the street was Boomers, a sweet sports bar where the bartender was vacuuming he was so bored…much better reception. Pitchers and shots all around before heading back for 12 midnight curfew…yay for wakeup at 5 am!