I slept in and waited until about 9 before I rolled out of Grangeville. That little hill in the distance is White Bird Summit. It's actually
not very little.

They tell you to watch for a lot of things around here. I think I'd be much more likely to encounter fire than ice.

Now that's a good sign that I'm near the top of the climb. It's a pretty good deal when you exchange 3 miles up for 8 miles down.

I think Rock can watch out for itself.

Remember that dinky little hill. This is what it looks like on the other side.

I took a break to let the sweat dry on my jersey so I wouldn't get cold on the descent. You know, there might be ice.

I actually used the brakes on the way down so I wouldn't get blown off the hill. After all, I am loaded now.
And I stopped a couple times to look at the view and read the historical markers. Here you can see
the original highway route down from White Bird Summit with all the switchbacks. I wonder if that would have been a more
exciting descent. 

Interesting fact: There are three runaway truck ramps on this hill.

Finally at the bottom. The road followed the Salmon River all the way to Riggins. So I took a bunch of pictures.

Within a couple minutes of starting this morning I passed a touring cyclist coming the other way. We didn't stop, but I think it was a guy I briefly talked to in Astoria.
 Turns out I am now on the Trans-America bicycle route--the most popular touring route in the all the land. I'm actually heading west on the route,
so the riders passing me going the other way are eastbound.

I passed two other guys headed east after the White Bird descent.

And I caught up to a westbound rider. This dude was heavily loaded and was all over the road. When I passed him we said "hey" to each
other but there was no place to pull over and talk. So, I pulled over a little bit up the road, but the dude rode on by. And then
he put the hammer down and I didn't catch up to him again until he stopped to take a picture. I rode on by.

Anyway, there was this river and I took a lot of pictures as I rode toward my comfortable hotel room in Riggins.

And it took me an extra hour because Riggins is just across the line in Mountain Time. It's just across the bridge and around the corner.
Tomorrow is a much longer run through the Salmon River valley. Expect more pictures of water.