84 miles, 2096 feet climbed, 13.8 miles on the Interstate
Today we crossed over into the Mountain Time Zone. Still in Oregon, but just barely. Tomorrow we’ll cross the Snake River into Idaho on the way to Boise and our first rest day on Tuesday. This small part of Oregon is more a part of the Boise area and therefore has chosen to synchronize clocks with Idaho.
Today was a nice recovery day after two days of heavy climbing. Still we climbed nearly 2100 feet but we descended 3369 feet. The trend was downward, especially for the first half, with our first noticeable tailwinds as well. Some of the route was on Interstate 84 and it was fine. There was at least 3 feet of relatively clean pavement between the rumble strip and the gravel shoulder.
We eventually veered to the east of the Interstate and passed through the small hamlet of Huntington. The day’s biggest climb out of Huntington was rewarded with a screaming downhill–I peaked at 44.9 mph–and our first view of the Snake River. Another few miles on the Interstate and it was back to a road hugging the Snake and eventually leading to Ontario. To this point agriculture in Oregon was about forestry and ranching. Here it switches to row crops.
