I dug down to the bottom of my right rear pannier to find something damp and dirty that hasn't seen the light of day since Kansas. With a high of 71 degrees, I wore short sleeves again! Even with on-and-off rain, the weather was amazing. I continued down the same river valley as yesterday. The valley remained narrow, opening only for the occasional field or Idaho main street.
The Nez Pierce Indian Reservation I went through belongs to the tribe of Chief Joseph who I wrote about while going through Big Hole. I visited the site of their creation story, known as the "heart of the beast." They believe that a beast lived in the Sweetwater River Valley that ate all the animals in the area. To put an end to this a coyote jumped down the throat of the beast and cut it up into pieces. The blood that splattered from this victory became the tribes in the plains. The coyote squeezed a few drops of blood from its heart and created the Nez Pierce.
Today I descended to below 1,000 feet for the first time since Kansas. Tomorrow I climb out of the river valley as the water goes south, and I head west.
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