As we neared Kamiah things started to become interesting. Once again the air became smokey and we passed several areas adjacent to the road that had burned in the recent past. By the time we entered Kamiah at mile 78 and turned once again on to Highway 12 (called the Northwest Passage Scenic Byway) it was apparent that the situation was deteriorating. Even though it was early afternoon, it became quite dark due to heavy smoke, and ash began falling like light snow. Although I had soloed most of the day, I was riding with several others as we passed by Kooskia and headed towards our destination at the River Dance Lodge in Syringa 16 miles up the road. As we continued through the eye burning smoke and lightly falling ash, we suddenly came upon a group of the lead riders lounging in the ditch by the side of the road.
Sheila, a local resident whose yard we were now sitting in, had stopped the group as she was pulling out of her driveway. Her strong advice was to STOP because there was an active fire burning several miles up the road with lots of firefighting equipment on the road. There was even a rumor that our lodge for the night had burned down. About this time Sheila's husband Nick, the bearded man in the center of the picture, began filling us in on the facts. This was the beginning of our love affair with Nick. He and Shiela were both retired hydrologists from the U.S. Forest Service but Nick was clearly the extroverted one. Over the coming hours his very knowledgeable advice and warm hospitality were most welcomed. According to Nick the lodge had not burned down, it was one of the safest places to be because it was a base for the fire fighters, and it was open just for us and awaiting our arrival. But if we couldn't get there, he would figure out how to house all 30 of us for the night at he and Shiela's place. All of this, while they had their car loaded, pointing out the driveway, ready for immediate evacuation.
I found my place in the ditch and began patiently waiting for whatever came next.
The two Trek Travel vans were busy loading up riders further back who (wisely) choose to stop riding because of the heavy smoke and ash. When one finally did arrive, all the bikes were loaded onto the van, we all piled in, and up the road we went. 
At the site of the fire, traffic and been reduced to one-way and after some delay we were lead in a convoy to the lodge 6 miles further up the road. And somewhat ironically it started to rain - think of wet ash. Although the lodge was in a Level 3 fire zone (it means be ready for immediate evacuation) there were no further problems and our stay was pleasant. We did invite Nick and Shiela up for drinks, which Nick particularly seemed to enjoy. I had a great conversation with Nick about fire, salmon, Lewis and Clark, and life. Regarding the fire - Syringa (where we were staying) was on the southeast corner of the very large Woodrat fire.
Regarding salmon - it takes them a month to swim 500 miles from the coast at Astoria OR up the Columbia, Snake, and Clearwater rivers to get to this point on the MIddle Fork of the Clearwater River. (It took us a week by bicycle.) Regarding Lewis and Clark - they spent 6 weeks here on there return while waiting for the snow to melt so they could go over LoLo Pass. And regarding life - Nick has it figured out!
By the way, we have not had cell phone service since leaving Lewiston and will probably not have it again until we reach Missoula 2 days from now. And, although the lodge advertised wifi, it appears that one short email by anyone of us is sufficient to exceed the available bandwidth. Don't even think about trying to upload a blog post!
Tomorrow we turn left out of the hotel onto Highway 12 and 91 miles later turn left off of Highway 12 into our hotel at LoLo Hot Springs. It will be hard to get lost and should be a great ride!
Steve
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