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Published: August 7th 2018
Today was a big day for me! After over 21/2 months, I am finally in Oregon.
The only appropriate comment is YaHoo!!
Today, our hostess Debbie at Elkhorn B&B, fixed us a really wonderful breakfast! It was hard to not over eat!
Bruce and I were on our bikes at 6:15 PST.
It is always tough to get up so early, but once one is on the road, there are very few cars and trucks, almost no wind and the air is cool.
We made great time for the first 14 miles to Cambridge in such fine conditions.
At Cambridge we turned north on Hwy 71 and had a very gentle climb to the Brownlee Summit.
From there we had a several mile descent to the Brownlee Reservoir and rode on the North side of the Reservoir for several miles until crossing over the Snake River into Oregon.
By this time the temperature was approaching 100 degrees. We were sweltering.
Once crossing into Oregon, we peddled on the south side of the Snake River for another twelve miles to Oxbow where our Hells Canyon B&B is located.
We really won’t get
a chance to see Hells Canyon Reservoir because it starts 24 miles north from the Oxbow Dam.
Apparently Hells Canyon it is a great place for many water sports.
Out of curiosity I investigated the reason for the name Hells Canyon!
We both thought it might be because it was so blasted hot here!
Most of the early explorers referred to the canyon as the Snake River Canyon. In 1895 a book describing it as Hell Canyon was published and the name stuck.
There are actually three dams on the Snake River near here.
Brownlee at Snake River where we crossed into Oregon, was the first to be completed in 1958 and began generating power the following year. Oxbow, ( where we are today), is 12 miles downstream and was completed in 1961, and Hells Canyon, 26 miles downstream from Oxbow, was completed in 1967.
These three Dams, and several more on the Columbia River are highly litigated even today in an attempt to restore the Salmon and Cutthroat populations to their former runs.
We did see a sign that described the efforts made by Idaho Power to help restore those populations.
Politics aside, the Snake is a huge river.
Tomorrow we will get another early start on the heat and wind.
Our destination is Baker City.
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Tot: 0.132s; Tpl: 0.022s; cc: 8; qc: 26; dbt: 0.0983s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.1mb
Maria Elena Serrato
non-member comment
Yahoo!!!
Way to go Bob ... Happy that Bob is keeping you company. But why does Bruce have no gear? A light bike and no panniers ??♀️