Thoughts, so far- Seaside, OR to Lolo, MT

Well, right now I'm on a side trip (car) in West Glacier, Montana, and will give some thoughts as well as some facts on what I consider the first leg of the journey.
Day 1, 5/31/09: I was dying to get started; I had no clue on what it would be like riding some decent distances day after day; what would traffic be like? how would the weather affect me. I had no clue what to tell Theron and Anne, my intrepid support. Well once I got going, I figured everything would reveal itself. It was a cool Pacific morning about 57 degrees; there wasn't much wind but what there was, came from the right direction. Seaside is a tourist town for Portland, so this brought about a lot of traffic returning home from the weekend. There was a good shoulder, so really, only the noise bothered me. The scenery was beautiful (see photos), though the areas of clear cutting left huge open swaths on the side of mountains.
Distance: 96 miles; Total Ascent: 8281 ft.

Day 2, 6/1/09: This was a shorter ride that would end in Hood River OR/ White Salmon, WA with another visit with Tom and Sherry Brown. The ride was along the Historic Columbia River Highway that took us up and around and back down incredible vistas including Multnomah Falls, and Crown Point.
Distance: 60 mi.; Total Ascent: 4306 ft.

Day 3, 6/2/09: This was a tough day. We left White Salmon heading east (duh!) along the Columbia River. It changed from moist, then arid, and finally a high desert environment. After 20 miles of no wind it changed to a good brisk head wind. It was a wind that if I didn't pedal going downhill I would have slowly come to stop. Now that's inertia. It became pretty hot and I was going through 2 bottles every hour and a half. Also there were no service areas for over 80 miles. This leads me to wonder how the un-supported riders do it (at least in places like this); my hat goes off to these special breed of riders. The scenery was wonderful; dams, trains, barges, vineyards, windmills, bluffs, and of course the constant and always changing Columbia River. I stopped riding in nowhere, about 30 miles from Umatilla, OR.
Distance: 80 mi.; Total Ascent: 3633 ft.

Day 4, 6/3/09: From nowhere to near Walla Walla, WA . Hot, headwind, no towns, more beautiful scenery. Walla Walla is a handsome old western ag-town with a progressive flair. It is also home to Whitman College, a top tier liberal arts college, as well as home to the Walla Walla sweet onion. The Walla Walla sweet onion is the west-of-the-Mississippi version of the Vidalia sweet onion.
Distance: 81 mi.; Total Ascent: 2231 ft.

Day 5, 6/4/09: From near Walla Walla, WA to near Clarkston, WA . It was hot with a headwind, but not as bad of a wind as before. Clarkston sits on the Snake River with Lewiston, ID on the other (eastern) side. Clarkston is the more working mans' town, with river commerce and smell of paper mill in the air. Lewiston is slightly more upscale offering different varietys of water activities in the famous Hell's Canyon on the Snake River. This riding segment to Missoula (Lolo) basically follows the Lewis and Clark Trail. So it is no wonder why it follows rivers most of the way. Rivers were a key to their journey back then, and are important today in commerce and water sports. In this area of Washington/Oregon, grain farming has been virtually omni-present, and it's been the barges on the Columbia and Snake that move these commodities.
Distance: 75 mi.; Total Ascent: 3714 ft.

Day 6, 6/5/09: From near Clarkston, WA to past Lewiston, ID. Easy day; the wind and heat were not much of a factor. There was something of a different presence we were now entering, that not of Lewis and Clark, but that of the storied, often tragic history of the Native American. In eastern Oregon/ Wshington, Idaho and Western Montana, it was the Nez Perce or "Nimiipoo", as they had referred to themselves. We were talking to this very nice pharmacist who told us about Chief Joseph who was, with several Nez Perce tribes, persued by the U.S. Army. Apparently several young braves killed a few whites (an isolated incident). This was soon after Custer and Little Bighorn, so the U.S. of A. over-reacted and sought the whole Nez Perce nation for internment. This over-reaction was strongly felt by a majority of the U.S. public. Chief Joseph led the tribe in evasion with the hope of re-settling in Canada. Actually this "Indian War" was bought on by a somewhat lengthy and complicated sequence of events, consisting on treaties made by some Cheifs and tribes, but not by other Cheifs and tribes, combined with the inevitable encroachment of the white settler. There were 2,000 US troops and only 750 Nez Perce including warriors, women, children and hundreds of Appaloosa horses. Chief Joseph held them at bay and entered into Montana. There he would have easily made it to Canada except for the fatal mistake of thinking the U.S. would lose interest, (understandable, considering the relative insignifgance of the original offence and the public dislike of the Gov's over-reactionary policy), and eased up a bit too much. 40 miles from Canada, they were surrounded and in a heart wrenching decision, Chief Joseph surrendered (women and children had, of course, been slaughtered). The Nez Perce were sent to St. Louis, several other places and then finally back to Idaho. During their exile, half the tribe was lost and no children survived birth. This was the last "Indian War" in the U.S.. The Nez Perce, before this, prided themselves as having never killed a white man. They were peace loving, regarded as highly intelligent, and were instrumental in helping the white settlers moving into the western territories, starting with Lewis and Clark.
Distance: 40 mi., Total Ascent: 1663 ft.

Day 7, 6/6/09: Past Lewiston, ID to Kooskia, ID. Enough of my whining of head winds; today was a full blown tail wind and I enjoyed, appreciated, and loved every second of it. When I started this trip, I was well aware there would be climbing, after-all I was starting at sea-level and ending at sea level and there were nothing but hills and mountains in between. When you ride a bike, there is no such thing as a flat road. I was also well aware there would be a head winds a-plenty all across the country. Let me put it this way, if you have a tail wind of 7 mph and you are going 15 mph, voila, you now have an 8 mph head wind. Well this day it was a strong tail wind; it was fun and allowed me to get some serious miles in. Interestingly enough, along the way I stopped to read one of the many historical usually pertaining to Lewis and Clark, and it was making note of a steel railroad trussel that was too high to be built of the usual wood (this dated back to 1906). It expanded Lawyer Canyon. "Lawyer" was the name the white settlers named a certain Nez Perce Chief, because of his linguistic skills. When the 1st white settlers came through (the sign didn't say if it was Lewis and Clark, but did say they predated the missionaries) Lawyer learned English. By the time the missionaries did come, he helped them translate the Bible into Nez Perce. (Interestingly enough, the 1st missionaries were Presbyterian; the Catholic missionaries followed a few years later). Also, chief Lawyer was one of the Nez Perce Cheifs that signed the treaty that Chief Joseph's father did not, which was part of the confusion previously mentioned contributing to the Nez Perce vs. the US Gov. war.
Distance: 94 mi., Total Ascent:7186 ft.

Day 8, 6/7/09 From Kooskia, ID to Powell, ID. This was an amazing ride along, first, the Middle Branch of the Clearwater, and then, after about 20 miles the Lochsa River. Both rivers were rapids the whole way; but not just rapids, they were rapids that were flowing hard, gushing over rocks, water broiling, churning, roaring. There were constantly hard rolling tributaries entering the river with an occasional 20 ft. waterfall here and there. Further up the Lochsa, there were white water paddlers galore. I later learned this was a popular destination for the serious paddler as well as rafting expeditions. We stayed at Lochsa Lodge, avery accomodating and not too expensive lodge that proported that at one time it was the most remote lodge in the entire country. Now it is much more accessable being only about 60 mi. from Missoula, and is a destination for not only the white water crowd (spring and early summer), but for fisherman, hunter, snowmobiler, and cross-country skier as well.
Distance: 88 mi., Total Ascent: 6553 ft.

Day 9, 6/8/09 From Powell, ID to Lolo, MT. This included a climb over Lolo Pass, really not too bad of a climb, road grade wise, and the wind was from my back. The descent to Lolo was against a strong head wind, but at least it was down hill. Lolo Pass was known for being a traversed by both the Lewis & Clark expedition and the Cheif Joseph getaway to Montana.
Distance: 45 mi., Total Ascent: 3723 ft.