Day 4 – Lewiston, ID 125.26 miles into the US-12 Wilderness of Idaho

Today was an amazing day, albeit painful. I am now nursing some burst blisters on the undercarriage. My large toes, pinkies, and ring fingers are losing feeling to the touch, making typing kind of difficult. The wind was mostly at my back again and the sunshine was a warm mid 70s to low 80s.
I awoke early, 5:00am, which put me on the road at 7am. I could feel my temperament change as I was taking even more pictures and stopping at various sites along US-12. Given I was looking forward to getting into the mountains and through the US-12 which is a fantastic scenic road for Lewis and Clark. I’ve driven part of the 12 in Utah and I’d like to bike it someday. From Lewiston the mile markers for US-12 started at zero so it was very easy to keep track of my progress, and it was all uphill following the Snake, Clearwater, and other rivers I can’t think of the names of right now. The road was in bad condition, which made speed difficult. US-12 is the Lewis and Clark trail which I felt it a privilege to ride along this part of American history. The waters along the way had to be at least 6-10 feet above normal, I took pictures of the river’s extreme violence and the rapids can only be described in pictures.
I met a hiker along the way who was trying to hitch through the long stretch of US-12 to Missoula. He had hiked the entire US-12 in some form or another. He was from Massachusetts and seemed to do this kind of thing a lot. He had been hitching rides for 20-30 mile intervals and was full of stories about his encounters. A nice fellow, I gave him my card which joined a zip lock bag full of other business cards, napkins, pieces of paper, and other items people bestowed upon him in the hopes of hearing from him again. He said he met someone while on the beginning of his hike cycling 50 miles a day from Latin America up to California. Not for me (Locked up Abroad TV)! We had a roadside conversation with my bike in the middle of a lane so we kept it brief. I took a picture of him and was on my way, on my third stroke down someone was already picking him up. Several miles later he and the (cute female with 2 mountain bikes) driver caught up with me, this time with more roadside conversation on the move. He quizzed me if I remembered where he was going, I said US-12. He explained he was heading back home to Massachusetts, and to “check out this girl’s license tag”… Sure enough, a tag I hadn’t seen in these parts… He asked if I raced in the MA area, maybe I will see him again.
There was considerable construction going on around the Lowell area. One stop at a single lane closure gave me the option of putting my bike in the back of one their escort "pilot" construction trucks or to follow it. I chose to follow and motordraft. It was nice, they were obviously oblivious to the danger of a bicyclist riding 2 feet off the back of a truck in a construction zone with loose gravel. I quickly learned to stay in the middle of the tracks. They asked me how fast I would like to go after they explained the last cyclist had to stop for a breather and I said 25mph, the driver looked incredulous, “you know it’s for 2.5 miles?” That's just an interval... She went 22 at first, then I started taking pictures... then sped up to 25 to keep my attention. Then after clearing the lane closure she went to 30. I wasn’t going to pass the opportunity for more easy mileage so I followed until she pulled off. I got some head nods from traffic and the construction workers, all for fun.
Continuing up the highway after 125 miles my knees would not support my cycling habit anymore, so I turned off at a campsite with many places for fires. There are a lot of kayakers here, and none seem too friendly.
Calories today were 96 oz of Powerade, a chicken/bean burrito and some chips/salsa from a Mexican restaurant, handful of beef jerky and trail mix, 60 oz of water, and a clif bar.