Day Nine – Lewiston ID to Hailey ID
Miles: 410
Elapsed Time: 10:54
Breakfast at the Hampton meant an early departure. We gassed up on our way out of town and were in full motion but 7:20. Our first stop today was at Lawyer's Canyon overlooking an old wooden railroad trestle. It doesn't sound like much but its pretty amazing these trestles of which there are many in the area are still in use today after more than 100 years. We stopped on US 95 at a pull over to view the first one, and then took the old US 95 road to go under the Ferdinand Trestle.
Back out on US 95 the landscape was changing little by little as we moved further east into Idaho, the brownish yellow was giving way to the greener areas of the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest on our right and the Payette National Forest on our left. US95 follows the Salmon River as we ran due south. At the start of the run near the town of Grangeville we began looking for Whitebird Rd which is old US95 and we made the turn where we should have exited back out onto US95 and then went north so after some mixed up GPS routing we righted ourselves and got onto the Lower Whitebird Rd and took its hairpin turns down into the town of Whitebird. The road has continued to deteriorate over time, but it is still worth riding and thinking about the way things used to be. The Whitebird was started in 1918, completed in 1921, paved in 1938 and made obsolete when the new bridge and road opened in 1975. The upper Whitebird Rd is now mostly gravel whereas I remember it in 2012 being mostly paved albeit low grade. Anyway the lower portion is worth the trip. US95 hugs the Salmon River all the way down to Riggins and the road is a fantastic ride and should be on everyone's bucket list. Continuing on, the portion of US95 from Riggins to New Meadows is equally good. We broke away from US95 and headed east on ID55 stopping in McCall at the Salmon River Brewery for lunch. The Brewery sits on the Payette Lake and we enjoyed the nice view sitting outside in the perfect mountain weather. We tried stopping at Salmon River Brewery the last time we came through here but it was closed. Since then they have built a new place that is really top notch. ID55 took us due south and this road was also just about perfect. We really hit it hard and found ourselves in Banks in short order. The last time we rode the route we were going north. I don't think it matters which direction, I only know it was good riding. In Banks we again turned to head east on Banks Lowman Road following the Payette River. This road is another gem and we were just enjoying ourselves and eating the miles. We stopped to get some water outside of Lowman before continuing on. On the other side of Lowman we entered the Sawtooth National Forest and kept our eyes on that range which I think even rivals the Tetons. We stopped and took a pic in the same place we had in 2012, but this time with Jim. Our next stop was at Galena Summit which sits at an elevation of 8500ft. Down through Ketchum and into Hailey and we were at our hotel. The ride from Grangeville to Galena Summit is nearly non-stop perfection; highly recommended. Before we headed out to dinner we stopped for a bike wash and had an interesting event at the Shell Station where the hose was outside and seemingly open for anyone to use. This was not the case and after some uncomfortable confusion, and after buying $30+ worth of craft beer they saw things differently. We had a number of spots picked out in Hailey for dinner, but someone recommended the Powerhouse and it was very good with good beer. The wings started it off for us and the Fish Tacos I had were excellent. We went back to the hotel for adult beverages and called it a great 410 mile day.
