Saturday, July 25, 2009
Saturday. New meadows to Cambridge, Idaho 52 miles. Easy ride. Two minor climbs, the rest down hill. I was able to average 15.1 m.p.h. which I think is a new personal land speed record. Ralph paid me a very, very nice compliment during the ride. At the beginning of the trip I was by far the least experienced and probably the least prepared physically. It was quite apparent that everyone else trained longer and harder than me. Ralph observed that he was very impressed with how far I’ve come relative to speed, strength, stamina, and form. Made me feel great.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Friday. white bird to new meadows 58 miles. Today completed 4 days of riding in Idaho. Every mile without exception has been beautiful. About 80% has been adjacent to one river or another. I’m going to let the pictures tell the story. See below. One little story I must tell though. I was in a bar after our ride yesterday trying to rehydrate when a middle aged woman walked up to me. I had my “Boopah” jersey on. She wanted to know what the significance was so I explained. She went on to tell me that her children address her father as “boopah”. The small world stuff continues.
clarification........."screaming down hill" is what a long steep hill is called not the way i ride down them. i go down very cautiously, stopping often to cool my wheels.
clarification........."screaming down hill" is what a long steep hill is called not the way i ride down them. i go down very cautiously, stopping often to cool my wheels.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Thursday. Syringe, id to white bird, id. 60 miles. The ride started with a quick down hill 16 miler to kooskia and second breakfast. At that point we turned south away from the river we’d been following and started up the Clearwater river valley. We climbed about 2000 feet over about 25 miles through completely different terrain than we’ve had since entering Idaho. Softly textured hills with few trees. We reached a large plateau cover by farmland. Wheat as far as the eye could see. I had cell service part of the day so some pictures will get posted, but some will have to wait until tomorrow. From the plateau around Grangeville another minor climb that offered spectacular view, then a screaming down hill into white bird where we’re camped next to the salmon river. Before the ride I spent about one hour in Idaho looking for potatoes. Now after a few days in Idaho it seems that every road is built along a beautiful river. Today’s temperature reached 98, but now at 7:45pm it’s down to around 75 with a low expected in the sixties. We’ll do some climbing tomorrow and should have cooler temps at the higher elevation.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Wednesday. After the early start we rode 72 miles to syringe, Idaho. A delightful ride flat to slightly down hill. The whole route followed the lochsa river downstream with each side bordered by high forested hills. Had a delicious piece of marionberry pie at lunch. They explained that it’s some combination of two different types of berries. I didn’t really pay attention. Hopefully I’ll be able to post some pictures of the beautiful scenery we’ve encountered in Idaho over yesterday and today.
Tuesday. We rode out of Missoula in very heavy morning traffic. It was a bit frustrating as we back tracked 13 miles to lolo. It turns out that Missoula is a spur and not really on the route. The map took us there because it’s adventure cycling headquarters and I have to admit it was a nice place for a rest day. From lolo we gradually climbed from 3100 hundred feet to 5200 feet over 30 miles. At the top of lolo pass we entered Idaho. I will post picture from today and tomorrow as soon as I have cell service again and can get all the pictures from my phone to the laptop. It was then a fast down hill to our camp ground right next to the lochsa river. This was a very rustic camp site, but probably the most beautiful setting that we’ve spent a night. In the woods next o the river. It was dark, quiet, and cool. Perfect sleeping weather. The only problem was waking up very early. We’re now on pacific time and our bodies were left back in the mountain time zone so most of us were up before 5:00am. Total miles 58.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Monday. It’s been a very relaxing layover day in Missoula. Slept in until 6:15am. Had a great leisurely breakfast at perkins family restaurant lingering over several cups of coffee without being concerned about where to dump the excess. Keeping to a long standing tradition we were hosted for a cookout lunch and tour of the adventure cycling headquarters. They took an official group photo which gets posted somewhere. While in downtown Missoula I bumped into Patrick and Virginia(pictured below). This is a father/daughter team that we first crossed paths with back in carbondale, Illinois and have seen occasionally ever since. They’re breaking off the route so they can visit glacier national park so we won’t see them again. Adventure cycling was founded in Missoula in 1973 and has been a major advocacy group for all aspects of bicycling. I’m sure their efforts alone have made Missoula one of the most bike friendly communities in the country. Bikes and bike lanes are everywhere. Now I must correct an important error in the data. When a mentioned the completion of 3000 miles a few days ago and with an apparent 1300 miles remaining donna astutely pointed out that the 3000 miles were ridden in just over 9 weeks and the remaining 1300 miles would be ridden in about 2 and a half weeks. As it turns out she was absolutely correct. The 3000 mile mark was correct attested to by my garmin. The daily number of miles are correct, but the total printed on our calendar(4305) is not. From july 16th when we reached 3000 we will have 1031 left for an official grand total of 4031. I will report my total as calculated by my garmin.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Sunday. Darby to Missoula 64 miles. We continued down the bitterroot river valley all day so a very easy ride which we needed as the miles this week totaled 336, the highest five day total on the trip. It was a week of riding in 5 "on the bike" days. it was a ride many would refer to as a "no chain". that's a lance armstrong way of refering to a day of riding that is effortless like the pedals are going around with no chain or resistance. Definitely a pretty ride with the bitterroot mountains to our west all day as we rode mostly north to Missoula. I was able to get a cabin for myself at the KOA so it’ll be nice to be indoors for two nights with a rest day tomorrow. There’s an outback steakhouse within walking distance so that will definitely be dinner one of the nights. Tomorrow the group will make an official visit to the adventure cycling association headquarters for picture and other festivities.
Saturday. Jackson to darby, mt 75 miles. First 18 miles level to slight downhill. Stoppen in wisdom for second breakfast. To my great surprise and delight the british open was on tv. Very exciting watching tom Watson at 59 years old compete for the open championship. I guess there’s hope for us old guys. Out of wisdom started a gentle uphill that eventually got a bit steeper as we approached the summit of chief joseph pass and our last continental divide crossing so all the peeing is now headed to the pacific for the rest of the trip. It was then downhill all the way to darby. Part way down we came to an intersection that we were turn right. When I looked to the left not a 100 feet away was a welcome to Idaho sign. It was a bit of a surprise but after looking at a road atlas made sense. We officially enter Idaho in a few days. Not a killer ride but the cumulative miles take a toll. We camped in darby directly across the street from loggers day activity, which has to be the beig event of the year. All things logging going on from axe work to chainsaws so it was pretty noisy. Then a band played in the evening so it was not a great sleeping night. We’re down to much lower temperatures and it has been reflected in the much warmer days like around 90, but once the sun sets it gets cool enough for comfort.
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