Day 18

Day 18 is the longest ride of the tour at 120 miles through Wyoming from Dubois to Casper.  Though I had the same average speed as yesterday, 15.7 mph, and the distance was shorter yesterday, I actually felt better today.  The scenery was all the same, open range, but for me, very beautiful.  It made me think of when the West was first settled and even before that when various Native American tribes lived in this area.  We actually biked past a place where the Native Americans ran the buffalo off a ridge.  I only took one picture. 

When I bike long distances, I try not to think about total distances, but rather break the distance down to tenth’s.  So today, I just thought about one-tenth at a time which today was 12 miles.  When I would finish a distance, would focus on the next one.  It is a lot easier to think about  biking 12 miles than 120.  It helped that Kim was here.  I was really looking forward to getting done and hanging out with her.  

Not sure, but I would guess this was our last view of the mountains.  

Tomorrow is a rest day.  Rest days have a new meaning in my life.  

Day 17

Day 17 was very scenic, but a grind because of the detour.  The detour added an additional 20 miles making the total mileage 97 miles.  Without the detour, it would have been a relatively easy day, mostly downhill, but the detour added not only miles but several very difficult climbs as we climbed to the ridgeline and back down several times.  A flat tire made the day longer as did a headwind the last 20 miles.  

The first 25 miles was through red rock canyons.  The first two pictures were of the red rock canyons and the third of the Wind River through the canyon.  The Wind River is flooding and the reason for the detour.  The detour was through open range with amazing views of the whole valley from the ridgeline.  

From mile 40 on it was just a grind.  I kept a phrase running through my mind from my high school wrestling coach -- “run until you can no longer run then walk, walk until you can no longer walk and then crawl, when you can no longer crawl, get up and run.”  After two very difficult days, we were all hoping for an easier day, and the extra miles and climbs were both physically and emotionally exhausting.  Tomorrow is the longest ride of the tour, 120 miles.  At this point I cannot believe I will get up and bike again in the morning.  It will be interesting.

The really good news is Kim drove here form Big Sky and will stay through Casper which is a rest day.  It is great having her here.

Day 16

We were told today would be the most scenic day on the tour.  I am not sure about that, but we did see some amazing scenery.  After leaving Jackson Hole, we entered Teton National Park.  We rode 26 miles through the Park.  If you have never seen the Tetons, they are spectacular.  The first picture is of me at the entrance and the next two are of the Tetons.  We saw buffalo and elk as we road through the Park. 

After leaving the Park, we started our climb to Togwotee Pass at 9658 feet which is the continental divide.  Though difficult, it was not as hard as yesterday.  The next picture is of Karina climbing behind me followed by pictures of myself at the top along with another of me Karina and Jeff.  Notice all the snow.   Like Montana, the snow melt is still ongoing and there were many small streams of running water along with the rivers.  Both the Snake River on the west side and Wind River on the east side are flooding.   

The ride into Dubois was great, basically 26 miles of downhill.

The staff said yesterday and today are the two most difficult of the tour.  For me the most difficult were the 116 followed by 80 over three passes, but yesterday was very difficult.  We just found out that due to flooding the road we were supposed to ride on tomorrow is closed and we are doing a detour of 20+ miles bringing the total to 97.  In a car, a detour is frustrating, on a bike it can lead to naughty words being said. 

Day 15

Wow, seriously, wow.  This was billed as one of the most difficult days of the ride and it lived up to its billing.  The first 36 miles was a climb, the first part gradual with the last few miles being a higher grade.  But it was nothing compared to the climbs that were coming.  We had a slight tailwind the first 16 miles but that changed to a fairly strong headwind once the steeper climbing began.  The headwind was with us the rest of the day.  Climbing a mountain into a headwind is no fun.  All day the views were spectacular.  I am surprised at how much irrigation takes place in Idaho and as result, we rode through green pastures going right into the foothills.  The first picture is from the first rest stop looking back at the foothills we just came through.  The first climb was from about 4800 elevation to almost 6000 with a nice decline ultimately crossing the Snake River before ending at Swan Valley.  

The next two pictures are of a sign for a saloon in Swan Valley.  The are self descriptive.  Coming out of Swan Valley we started climbing again with a very steep grade of 10-12% the first three miles.  Grade is the percent of incline over the specified distance.  A 3% grade is hard work.  A 10% grade will often make a car downshift and truck grind. On a bike it is a combination of your heart racing, legs burning and in altitude lungs not getting enough oxygen.

The next two pictures are of the sign at the summit and looking backwards at the view behind us including the mountains.  We then had a nice decline into the town of Victor which had just finished its Independence Day parade.  We then started the major climb of the day.  We started at an elevation of 5820 and climbed to the Teton Pass Summit at 8431.  The first picture is of me under the enter Wyoming sign, our third state on the tour.  It was a beautiful climb, at least until the last three miles.  That may have been beautiful also, but I was working so hard, I could not look around.  The average grade was 10% with occasional grades of 12-14%.  I alternated between standing and sitting.  I would count pedal strokes or pick a spot and put my head down and bike to it.   After working very hard, I would look up and the sign had not moved.  I have done 11 mountain passes in Colorado plus Donner pass in CA, Mt Rose in NV and Chief Joseph pass in MT.  I could only think of one climb that was comparable - Independence Pass in CO.  

The last two pictures are of me under the sign at the top of the pass and the view of Jackson Hole from the summit.  I have done a lot of mountain descents, but I was nervous along with most riders about this one because Mike said it was very fast and very technical with lots of switchbacks.  Though a few riders let it rip, Lucy hit 48.5, I kept it between 30-40 mph.  Part of it was the wind coming up the mountain.  Gusts can be pretty strong and move a rider all over the road.  

I have often thought biking over a mountain pass is BF Skinner psychology which is the basis of behavior reinforcement.  If taken to the extreme, the theory is that it feels so good to have the pain go away, a person keeps hitting his thumb with a hammer.  Reaching the top of a difficult summit cannot be described, but only felt. It's a combination of relief and exultation.

Tomorrow we bike through Teton National Park.   

Day 14

Though the ride was a little longer than I anticipated, in many respects it was a beautiful day.  It was sunny, light wind and what wind there was, was at our backs.  We were riding in a very green rural area until we got close to Idaho Falls at which time we rode along the Snake River through some very nice developments.  For the past few days, we could see snow peaked mountains, both north and south, in the distance.  But today as we got closer, the contrast between green valley and snow capped peaks was very picturesque.

The ride turned out a little longer because I missed a turn.  Though my family has no respect for my navigation skills and though it was my fault, the trip sheet (i.e. directions) was somewhat misleading and I made a wrong choice.  Mike agreed that it could be interpreted my way and would be changed for next year.  

After whining about the extra miles, I found out one rider fell and it could have been a lot worse.  Four riders where in a pace line, all very good experienced riders; however, when they were getting ready to pass another rider, the lead rider hit his brake forcing the rest of the riders to brake also.  The third rider could not brake quick enough and hit the wheel of the second rider.  Unbelievably, the second rider was able to keep riding while the third rider went down. The rider was bruised, but should be able to ride tomorrow.  This one of the reasons I rarely do pace lines -- something can happen very quickly.  

The first picture is of three of our international riders - Andres, Damian and Jan.  Andres and Jan are brothers from the Netherlands while Damian is from Ireland and joined us in Boise.  All three are very strong riders.  Andres and Jan ride touring bikes, take a lot of pictures, which means they stop a lot for pictures and then coming rocketing by until they stop again.  They are both engineers -- Andres on a leave of absence while Jan waiting to start his new job.  The second picture is of Michael, who is from Quebec and is quite the character.  It is of him at the end of day.  

The last two pictures are of the Snake River from my hotel room.  

Tomorrow will be one of the toughest days of the tour as we climb over Teton Pass to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. 

Day 13 - Averaged 14 mph into a headwind

We biked 86 miles into a steady wind of about 10-15 mph.  This does not seem like a lot in a car, but on a bike it’s like have a bungee cord tied to the back of the bike which is providing extra resistance.  Even so I made pretty good time.  Part of the reason is I hooked into a pace line with Chuck, Travis, Gary and Lucy.  Chuck and Travis are very strong, Gary and I are about the same and Lucy is strong, but she probably weighs about 90 pounds at best, so when she was leading the pace line, it was like a hummingbird leading for geese.

I normally do not like pace lines for a number of reasons -- they can be dangerous if riders are not used to riding together and while in a pace line, all you are doing is looking at the tire in front of you and not enjoying the scenery.  Finally, if a pace line is too fast, a rider can burn out pretty easily.  But going into the wind, pace lines can really help once and awhile.  Mostly we rode through open range land on a country road with almost no traffic.  

The first picture is of Gary, Travis and myself at the first rest stop.  Travis is another amazing story on this ride.  He was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 2008 and is now in remission.  He is doing the ride as a fund raiser and was featured in yesterday’s local paper.  

The second picture is an overlook of the range land and the Snake River running through it.  The third picture is a group of riders riding through a construction zone.  If this had not been a Saturday of a holiday weekend, we may have had to sag around it, but we were given permission to ride through it.  

The last pictures are of me in my ND Candisc cycle shirt and though some think I am vertically challenged, clearly from the last picture I am not. 

Tomorrow is 65 miles with hopefully a tailwind, but will be very hot.  Good preparation for SD, MN and WI. 

Day 12

Day 12 was a very easy day, 38 miles from Twin Falls to Burley.  Most of the riders opted to add extra miles by biking to one or both of the falls.  I understand they are very beautiful, but I opted to just do the ride straight to Burley.  The main reason was my knee was very sore yesterday and I wanted to give it another day to rest and avoid the climb out of the falls.  The first picture is of Russell.  He is retired, 68 years old and from Virginia.  He also has an artificial knee and the other will need to be replaced at some point in the future.  Makes my knee problems seem pretty weeny.

Because of the short day, the staff organized a scavenger hunt on the way today.  The second picture is of one of the teams getting ready to leave.  

It's amazing to me how fast the day goes by.  It begins with breakfast, one of my three favorite meals on the tour.  Depending on the mileage of the day, breakfast may start as early as 5:00am or as late as 6:30 or 7:00.  We load our luggage on the sag wagon.  This is always at a specific time and no rider can leave until luggage is loaded.  This morning it was at 8:00, tomorrow morning it will be at 7:15.  It has been as early as 6:00.  We sign in at that time for the day and riders can leave any time after that.  

There are one to three sag stops on the ride.  Today there  was one, tomorrow two.  They are usually 25-35 miles apart.   We have to sign in at each sag.  This is how they keep track of riders and how spread out they are.  Some days there are also towns, convenience stores or restaurants at which riders can stop.

Depending on the distance, riders may arrive at the destination hotel one to three hours apart.  Speed is one factor, but other factors include pictures a rider may stop and take on the way, and length of time at rest stops.  I tend to take very few pictures, but make up for it in unscheduled “rest” stops.   

Once in, a rider's routine may vary.  When I get in, I try and find some low fat chocolate milk as a quick recovery drink.  Then, part of the new routine is to take an ice bath.  The screams were less today.  Then, I eat.  I go clean my bike, another new routine.  Jeff, one of the staff, has shown me how to clean my drive train every day and the importance of doing so.  Then, I eat again, we go over tomorrow ‘s schedule, I stretch for about 30-40 minutes, write my blog, call Kim, and go to bed.  

Tomorrow is 86 miles and the beginning of six very challenging days.