Thursday, June 28, 2012

Day #11, Mountain Home to Twin Falls


I was up so early this morning my bike GPS had its nighttime black background when I started to ride at 6:00am, which must have been before the official sunrise for Mountain Home. We had 98 miles to do today, much of it up hill or on chip seal paved roads. Both slow you down, but chip seal can rattle your whole body as your bike moves atop the oil base with a gravel topcoat. You know it slows you down when you can only manage 16 mph on a downhill. I rode in a group for the first 29 miles but rode pretty much alone the rest of the way, with occasional periods when someone would ride with me for a few minutes as they caught and passed me. You have lots of time to think out there on the road. I think most of us have got over the race mentality of trying to do your mileage as quick as possible. You just end up waiting at the hotel in wet clothes for your room to be cleaned or your bags to arrive. We passed through an area filled with dairy farms today; there must have been at least twenty. Our route also followed the Snake River for part of the day, and passed the site of Evel Knievil's attempt to jump the Snake River Canyon back in 1974. At the end of the day, I was so fresh, that I rode a mile past the hotel and then back to get to the one hundred mile mark for the day. We had dinner tonight at Golden Corral, three plates and I was full. Looking forward to a short ride on Friday.


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1 comment:

  1. Joel: intersting that it was important to get a 100 on a 98 mile day--- think about your trip often and how good it must feel to know you are into it and have handled some pretty long rides-- good luck in the next few days-- I enjoy the descriptions-- how many riders and what observations would you make?

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