Day 27---highest climb of the trip, the 1000 mile mark, Bellevue to Smiley Creek

55.6 miles, 6:27, 48 miles of climbing, 8.6 mph, highest elevation of trip, Galena Summit, 8701 ft. passing the total 1000 mile mark.

After my nice rest in the Sun Valley area, it was hard to get going today, especially since I knew I would climb constantly for 48 miles, the first 42 relatively gentle (2200 feet) and the last 6, hard climbing (1500 feet). 

The first 26 miles were mostly along the Wood River Cycleway, passing hundreds and hundreds of mansions and McMansions.  That Idaho has allowed this kind of strip development for so many miles is really a shame, and it makes the ride around Lake Tahoe seem like more of a wildnerness ride (more than half the Tahoe shoreline is preserved).  This is what happens with the lack of growth controls, and poor zoning.  And this morning the traffic was tailing back for 20 miles as the workers were heading up to Ketchum and Sun Valley.  At least Aspen got a car pool lane when they widened their highway.

Oh Idaho, Idaho, red state living on the taxpayers in blue states.  There is a big water battle going on between the Mormon farmers on the Snake River plain and the rich folks of Blaine County.  Seems like the Big Wood River is getting used more and more for watering laws and golf courses, and in Idaho, water for farmers is enshrined in law.  So the farmers are trying to take the water.

Grossly subsidized water, as it turns out.  Who would have guessed that Idaho uses 60% of the water for irrigation that much larger California does?  And pays about a tenth as much for it?  And produces only one eighth the value of farm products? Who subsidizes it?  The big bad federal government that everyone hates here.  Hmnm.....how do you spell cognitive dissonance on such a grand scale?  Why are the federal taxpayers subsidizing marginal farming operations in a state that regularly goes 65% GOP and rants and raves about the waste in Washington.  Oh Idaho, you need a good spanking from the federal government, just like the farmers did in California.  And these farmers hardly produce anything (potatoes and alfalfa being cheap crops), so their political and economic power would be quite small.  Let's save the Idaho salmon!

Finally breaking free of the suburban sprawl at mile 26, you enter the Sawtooth National Recreation Area.

What the Wood River Valley looked like 30 years ago



A quick stop at the Visitor Center to get a map, figure out the water stops for today, chat with the lovely volunteers, and eat my first sandwich.  The rest of the ride was really lovely, classic Idaho mountain scenery, but the Highway 75 corridor seems heavily developed for a National Forest, with many summer home colonies, at large camping areas, and a lot of roads.  Turns out this part of the Forest was full of mines in the 19th century, so it's a challenge to manage the land.  (As I learned from the Bethina and Frank Church Scenic Overlook interpretive signs).

At mile 42 the big steep part of the climb started, and I was really starting to flag, despite having eaten a ton of calories.  Seems like you can't get enough carbs on a day like today.  Then my back tired started losing air, and wobbling, so I had to stop and change tubes.  Didn't find the leak on the road, and when I did find the leak at the end of the day, it was in a funny place on the inside of the tube.  Probably damage from the old wheel....tube discarded.

Rolling through the mountains

A lovely spot to change a tube



I noticed some smoke on my climb, and it was starting to affect my lungs, along with the altitude.  A bit later the wind shifted to the south and the smoke cleared a bit. Turns out there's a big fire northwest of me, and it's been burning for a couple of days.

After changing the tube, it was another 35 mins or so to Galena Summit, at 8701 ft, the highest I will be on my bicycle on this trip.  It was great to be at the top, but I was still feeling pretty tired.

The top!

A short mile down, and you come upon the overlook dedicated to Bethina and Frank Church.  Frank Church was a liberal Democratic Senator from Idaho back in the 50s, 60s and 70s, and one of his main legislative achievements was saving this part of Idaho from development. He is the only Democratic ever re-elected to the Senate from Idaho, and served for 24 years. As you can see from the pictures, he was very successful in preserving the Sawtooths, and it's nice to see him honored in this way.  (Some of you might recall that he also reined in the CIA and FBI in the 70s, after their last set of egregious abuses of American civil liberties).  All in all, I felt like it was a great tribute to a remarkable man and his wife, who continues her work in conservation (and she's a Michigan alum!).

What hath Frank Church wrought (nary a house in view)

 



20 mins of descending into a stiff headwind convinced me that going the additional 24 miles to Stanley was foolish, and I stopped at the Smiley Creek lodge.   All the rooms and teepees were taken, so it's a camping night for me.  Nice showers, a nice restaurant, and WiFi!  I'll be asleep early tonight, as I have a long day tomorrow too, about 80 miles down the Salmon River to Challis.

Days 25 and 26---Sojourn in Sun Valley, lap of luxury

The last two days have been lovely, hanging out with Tami and Skip, being in a comfortable house, with fridge, pantry and all the comforts of home.  A nice bedroom and bath room to call my own and people and dogs for company.  A great break from the string of lodgings on the way here, and a good place to rest, recuperate and gather strength for the next 500 miles through the heart of the northern Rockies.

Yesterday we went up to Ketchum, which has been completely transformed from the town of my memories (in my early 20s).  Gone are the dropout, alternative young people----they've all aged like me, and look suspiciously like me as well!  There doesn't seem to be the 'young vibe' that Ketchum had in the 70s and 80s (much like Steamboat, Park City, and Aspen when Hunter Thompson was mayor) but it's also not as over the top as Aspen or Park City.  This weekend was the mountain biking championships so there were lots of fit mountain bikers in town, spanning all the age groups.

In 1978, when I hitchhiked here to see my grandparents (Sun Valley was the family summer home, the desert being too hot) there were lots of hippy vans, people camping out in the woods, and funky shops in Ketchum.  It was a perfect spot for the long haired, hitchhiking, living in his tent grandson, and I really enjoyed the couple days I spent here on my way to a commune near Coos Bay Oregon.  On the morning of my departure, my grandfather wanted to drop me off at a good spot to hitchhike (with some trepidation I might add), so we headed down the hill from Sun Valley into Ketchum.  He dropped me right at the dip in the road as it crosses the Big Wood River (the bridge is still there, but due for widening shortly) and within ten minutes I was on my way in a hippy van!

Looking around town, it's clear that Ketchum has really become just an extension of Sun Valley---an extremely affluent bedroom community, where you can commune with nature, but have all of the luxuries that you have become accustomed to living on Lake Washington, or one of Portland's leafy suburbs.  This is not Tahoe, where you see lots of backpackers, climbers and other folks living on little money: the younger adventurers here are all well scrubbed in their expensive outdoor clothing.  I saw not a single dirtbag in my time here.....alas.  Perhaps they will be seen in higher numbers in Montana.

Last night, I caught up with an old friend from high school, who left her career as a research physicist in the mid 90s, and moved to Hailey.  Hailey is about 12 miles down the valley from Ketchum, and is a bedroom community for many of the people who work in the better jobs up the valley.  It's gotten cute like Ketchum, with a nice little downtown, but has a much more local vibe.  Marcia is now a math and physics teacher at the local high school (which is 30% Latino, predominantly the children of the service workers here), and is busy raising an almost 14 year old daughter.  It was fun to catch up, we hadn't seen each other in 30 years, since she was a grad student at Stanford, and I at Berkeley.  It's always great to find out that your cool friends are still cool, and that the desire to do good in the world still burns strong.  Marcia was one of the few feminists at our high school, in the very conservative community of Bloomfield Hills, MI back in the mid 70s, and she became a teacher because of her strong commitment to equality and justice.  We reminisced and laughed, and generally had a good time, and I was sorry to have the evening end.

Today was a chill day.  Tami and Skip made pancakes and bacon for breakfast, and we had lots of yummy summer fruit.  It was a great day to hang out, and I watched Wimbledon, read the Sunday New York Times, and took a nap.  Later I walked into town, and got the fixings for dinner, and I got to cook for the first time in a month!  How nice to have a fully equipped kitchen, and I made a yummy mushroom pesto, and steamed vegetables with lemon.  Perfect carbo loading for tomorrow's big climb.

Tomorrow it's into the mountains, not much connectivity, so if you don't hear from me for a day or two, it's because I'm camping or someplace remote.

Day 24---from small town to jet set, Fairfield to Bellevue, ID

38.3 miles, 3:05, 12.5 mph.

It was hard to get to sleep early in Fairfield, as the big fireworks display started just before 10 (about an hour and a half after the big thunder/windstorm blew through) just after a really spectacular sunset.

Since the town is so small, each of the fireworks shook the house, so I went out on the front porch to watch.  They must have shot off between 125-175 individual fireworks, and it was a spectacular display.  No crowds, and since the high school football field was only a block and a half away, I had a better than front row seat.

I finally got to sleep around 11, and got up around 7. It was nice to sleep without air conditioning for the first time in 10 days, and the morning was blessedly cool, in the upper 50s. I quickly ate breakfast, packed and was out the door by 8.  It was pretty sunny, and the air was heating up quickly, but I had a mild breeze for the easy ride to Bellevue, which is about 17 miles south of Sun Valley, but part of the larger Sun Valley community.  I made good time across the prairie and then more lava desert, before heading up the valley of the Big Wood River, which I will follow for more than 50 miles, up to Galena Summit, at 8700 feet, the highest point of my ride.  The road is lined with hayfields, framed by golden, barren mountains, with the higher Sawtooths in the background.

The first glimpse of the higher Sawtooths, and you realize why they're called that:

 

I arrived at Skip and Tami's place in Bellevue just after 11, and it was nice to be with family, and have a real house to stay in for a couple of nights!  We spent the day hanging out, meeting the horses and checking out their property.  All the while, the private jets were heading into the Hailey airport, a couple of miles north of here for the big Allen and Company investment banking conference that happens just after the 4th here every year.

Tami made a great homemade dinner of chicken paprikash, fettucine, cucumbers and fresh lettuce salad from the garden.  Betts Simon, Skip's mom, joined us for dinner, and we had a great time telling old family stories and catching up.  I stayed up the latest so far on this trip, almost midnight!  And another night of no air conditioning.....

 

Day 23---Small town 4th of July, Mountain Home to Fairfield Idaho

57 miles, 6:08, 3500+ climbing, average speed, 9.3 mph.

I left the hotel this morning around 5:45, and immediately started up the first of many climbs, this one the longest at 2000+ feet.  Surprisingly, it was almost cool out, around 75 degrees, but as I started climbing I heated up quickly, and then, much to my dismay, the road rolled three or four times across the volcanic plane before actually beginning the sustained climb.  The road veered to the northwest, directly into a 15-20 mph headwind, and the climbing was slow and tedious, through the same, fractured volcanic landscape that I've cycled since just outside of Redding, almost 700 miles ago. Up and up I went, finally gaining the summit, only to roll up down several hundred feet over the next ten miles or so.  The sun was starting to heat things up, and I was dreading the last, steep, 600 foot climb.

I watered up at the Little Camas Inn around 10, which was an hour before opening, but I had spoken with the owner the day before and she said to just use the outside spigot when I got there.  She arrived to open up for the day just as I was leaving, and I could tell she thought that cycling in these parts was not something she'd be interested in doing herself!

The final climb was hot and steep, but thankfully the sun was partly obscured by high clouds.  It was also a pleasure to see the first granite of my trip, some of which looked climbable!  After so many days of volcanic rock, it was nice to see some good old granite!

 

 

 

 

 

The last climb

 

 

The first granite seen in hundreds of miles.

 

The descent into Hill City was enjoyable, but hot, and I had a good tailwind to push me the last ten miles in Fairfield.

I had originally planned to stay at the motel here, but when perusing warmshowers.org while I was in Boise, I found a couple in Fairfield, Randy and Laura Shroyer, who regularly put up cross country cyclists (US 20 through Idaho is a very popular cycling route).  I called Randy yesterday and he was very gracious and said that I should stay with them.  They manage a friend's empty house here in town, and they use it to put cyclists, so it's a bit of a cyclist guest house.  Just this year they've hosted quite a few cyclists and it was fun to read their comments.  Some of them had even passed each other in Nebraska!

When I pulled into town, there was a small sign in one of the intersections on Main St. about the Chamber of Commerce 4th of July picnic in the park, to begin at 3, so I put that on my agenda for today.  After I went to the house, and stretched (and fell asleep trying to relax my right hamstring), showered and got rehydrated, I headed over to the park.

What's that?

Small town 4th!

Being the obvious stranger in a small town (400 in town, 1000 in the whole of Camas County) had both its advantages and disadvantages, and I experienced both.  Some folks were very interested in hearing about my trip, and experiences, and eager to share the details of life here in a small town.  And others were a bit insular, and not interested in talking at all.  It soon became clear that a small group of folks, centered around the owner of the local store, were the ones who really kept public life alive and well here in Fairfield.  They have good size events here almost every other week all summer long (a kids fest, fun run, rodeo, county fair, 4th of July picnic and fireworks, street fair, etc) all organized in a community about the population of two or three blocks of the Elmwood.

A fun hat brought home from Baja

The people here are a mixture of old Idaho families, a few retirees (from California of course), and people who ended up here from love, family connections, or economic opportunity.  A number of people commute over to the Sun Valley area, which is the big economic driver in this part of Idaho (Blaine County, home of Sun Valley, has more people now than the surrounding three counties, and tilts the area democratic).  Sun Valley/Ketchum is about 50 miles away, and Hailey, which is the largest town, is about 40 miles away.

Camas County itself is about half the population of the 1920s, like so many rural counties in America, and doesn't seem to have benefited as much as communities closer to Sun Valley.  However, there has been significant growth in the past 40 years, with the population growing 40%.

 

There are 30 kids at the high school

Downtown Fairfield

After spending a couple of hours at the picnic, I walked around town, found some internet access, and had dinner.  I went back to the picnic briefly to partake of some delicious home made baked goods (part of the fund raising for the fireworks), and came back to the house to write and get ready for bed.

I then received a visit from the local newspaper owner/reporter who had been told I was in town, and we had a nice chat for a few minutes.  He promised to send me the article he's going to write about the Shroyers and the cyclists they've been hosting.
. 

Day 22---on the road again, a visit to Walmart? Boise to Mountain Home, ID

49 miles, 3:58, average 12.4 mph

The dice came up snake eyes (since I'm on the Snake River of course :)  and I got out of the hotel about 20 mins before sunrise this morning.  And the sun didn't come up, it was blocked by clouds!  Yay!  What luck.  I did have a bit of a headwind as I climbed out of the Treasure Valley onto the slightly undulating Snake River plain.  The plain was laid down as successive lava flows of the last millions of years, and much of it is also old lake bed, from the time that the lava blocked the Snake River and formed Lake Idaho.  When the dam broke, the theory is that it formed Hells Canyon, which is one the deepest canyons in the world.

The Federal Way out of Boise has a lovely bike path for most of it's length past the Boise Train Depot.  There were the odd runners and bike commuters heading into town, and they all waved in a friendly way.  Towards the end of the Federal Way, you come upon two miles of Micron Technology's campus, and lots of people speeding to work.  The bike path is gone at this point, but there is a good size shoulder to ride on.

After about 8.5 miles you come upon the freeway, which is the only option for 30 miles of the way to Mountain Home, unless you want to go 15-20 miles around.  In the heat, not a great idea....

I-84 has a nice shoulder, a fair amount of traffic, and one awesome, new rest area, which is also a historic marker for the Oregon Trail.

I-84 looking west back towards Boise

The highway designers in their wisdom killed off the old roads and put them all in one!

Mountain Home was 30 miles on the freeway

 

As I pedaled along across this barren lava plain, I thought, "well if I were with my family on a wagon, with all our animals and earthly possessions, maybe this would be more interesting."  And then I thought about the nice air conditioned motel awaiting me after my day's ride.....

 

Those early pioneers must have been really desperate to spend so many months crossing what I've cycled in about a week.  Either that, or someone really sold them a bill of goods about how easy the trail would be.  This is harsh country, even in a car, and it's been interesting to think about what kinds of suffering those folks endured, especially when they were regularly attacked as intruders by the local indigenous peoples.

 

After the rest area/historical marker, I picked up a bit of a tailwind, and the road leveled out.  I made really good time into Mountain Home, and I noodled around town to decide where I was going to stay.  Sadly, the architecturally wonderful 50s motels looked like they were used more often for trysts for the nearby Air Force Base, than by real travelers, and it was back out to the freeway village for me.

 

I stopped for a bit at the lovely city park, and ate my delicious wrap purchased at WinCo Foods (a large, employee owned grocery store based in Boise, more about them later) then stopped in at the Sherriff's office to inquire about water on tomorrow's ride (a quite desolate 58 miles to the little town of Fairfield).  Dropped into the Visitor Center (out in the freeway village of course) where I was welcomed quite warmly by the three women working there.  Apparently they'd never had a cross country cyclist stop in, and they were full of questions.  One of the women even asked if I would take her out to see my bike setup!  Armed with a little more local knowledge, I settled on the Mountain Home Inn, which at $75 a night is a bit overpriced for this part of the world.  Turns out that all three hotel/motels at the interchange are owned by the same company!  Those evil monopolists are everywhere!

 

Since it was still quite early, and I needed to go shopping, I considered my alternatives:  there was a local grocery store in town, as well as an Albertsons (headquartered in Boise by the way).  However it was now 96 degrees, and it was a decent slog 3 miles uphill from town.  There was a brand new Walmart Supercenter right here in the freeway village....

 

Now many of you know that I was on the board of Equal Rights Advocates for many years, which is represents the lead plaintiff in Dukes v. Walmart, the largest sex discrimination lawsuit ever filed in the US (and which the Supreme Court said was 'too big' for a class action lawsuit----this court would have said the same thing about slavery I'm sure).  So I haven't stepped foot in a Walmart in at least ten years, and can say that maybe once or twice, stuck somewhere in middle America, I had to make a purchase there.

 

So I decided I would do my little shopping at Walmart (which totaled about $8) and nosy around the place for bit, to see what it was like.  Here's what the walk to Walmart looked like:

Notice all the pedestrian and bike friendly improvements?

 

 

Well I was in some ways pleasantly surprised.  They've clearly cleaned up the look of the stores from what I remember, and made them more modern and clean lined.  Still not nearly as nice as a Target, or the local big box competitor, WinCo Foods, but there was a deli (with Italian prosciutto!), a bakery (but no bagels), and a lot of nice looking produce.  Not what I was expecting.

 

No wifi---all of their competitors I've encountered on my trip have free wifi in their stores (Safeway, WinCo and Target), and surprisingly, higher prices than their local competitor, WinCo Foods.  Also, less ecological packaging, for example, the wrap I bought, along with most of the pre-made deli sandwiches, were put into plastic clamshells, rather than recycled plastic wrapping.

 

You also felt like they didn't trust you as a customer.  My hand basket had one of those plastic security things on it, and the self checkout kept saying that I had put an unauthorized item in the bagging area.  I've been using the self checkouts most places, and this is the first time I've had that problem.  I mentioned to the cashier, who had to unblock me a couple of times, that I felt like Walmart didn't trust me, and that I wouldn't be back.  She laughed and said that until she started working in retail she never knew people stole so much stuff, but that she understood how I felt (she seemed to be a lonely Democrat here in Elmore County, but as it turns out, it's about the state average here.  Obama only carried two counties, the homes of Sun Valley and the University of Idaho.  Some of the rural Mormon counties were over 90% for Romney, check it out here http://www.politico.com/2012-election/results/president/idaho/)

 

However, given that Walmart's prices were higher than the local competition, and the way they seem to treat their customers, you have to ask, why would you shop there?  It's not surprising that their stock has been a dog for the last ten years, their business model is stale, and clearly their competitors have learned enough to beat them at their own game.

 

Another interesting thing I discovered yesterday in Boise is that Idaho taxes groceries. one of the very few states (probably all Red States) that does.

 

'Nuff said about that....tomorrow is the big climb, up at 4, out the door at 5 to beat the heat.



Day 21--- rolling the dice in the morning

After another day super hot temperatures (105) but right now it's almost ten degrees cooler than at this time last night.  Tonight's low should be low enough for me to make the next 45 miles to Mountain Home, which involves riding 30 miles of shadeless desert on the shoulder of I-84.  From what I've heard from local cyclists, it's not a very pleasant ride, but there's a chance of a decent tailwind.  I'd be super happy if I got to Mountain Home before 11.

I've rested, read, worked, and looked around downtown Boise a little more today.  Napped too, so I feel ready to take on the challenge tomorrow morning. Wish me luck!

Day 20, Rest day and a decision to make

As I look out my room tonight and see the dark, rainless clouds roll in, all I can think is 'geez, they're going to trap the extreme heat and raise the humidity'.  When I set out to do this ride, I hadn't really thought much about extreme weather events, other than that I might have a day or two now and again where I might have to wait out the weather.  Five days now of 100 degree temps, with at least two to three more, after three days of a winter storm just a week ago!  Last night the low was around 80, and it would have been much too hot to ride onto Mountain Home today.  I'm worried that tomorrow morning will be more of the same, forcing me to do something foolish, like ride anyway, or feel stuck in Boise for another day.

I slept a lot last night and took a nap this afternoon, and my body is feeling fully recovered from the stress of the last few days of riding in the extreme heat. I'm peeing normally again (as of last night, despite drinking gallons of liquid, I had only peed three times from 6 AM to 8 PM).

I noodled around downtown Boise this morning, had breakfast at a great local place, Goldy's, and generally checked out the scene.  There is a lot of construction going on, and it looked very prosperous, with no empty storefronts.  Quite a contrast to a lot of the areas I've been in.  Being Mr. curious economist, I googled the unemployment rate for Boise, 5.3% in April.  Lots lower than Idaho, which was 6.2%.  The other nearby states are: Utah at 4.7%, Montana at 5.5% and Wyoming at 4.8%.  Idaho is still more than 3% higher than the pre-recession rate, but clearly hasn't suffered like its neighbors on the coast.

By noon, it was almost 100, and time to retreat to the coolness of my room, where I watched today's stage of the Tour, and took a nap.

My nice cool, spacious room.  Note the easy chair and ottoman!

This afternoon I caught up on some Shanti work, and other emails, and bills.  I had a nice meal at Bar Gernika, which three of my Boise connections had all recommended.  I had a spicy lamb grinder, which is a bit like a philly cheesestake, with thin slices of lamb, pepper jack cheese, mushrooms and jalapenos, and a bowl of dipping sauce.  Basque croquetas accompanied the sandwich, and they were little fried balls of creamy potato and chicken flavor.  Topped off with Basque rice pudding, I'm feeling well fed tonight!

I'll post a status update on Facebook tomorrow morning as to whether I'm staying here or heading out tomorrow.