Sunday, June 8, 2003

Soldier Mountain, Idaho

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We began the day with amazing vistas. Then we had to climb up them on our bikes. It is much, much easier to appreciate mountains visually. South central Idaho is beautiful.

Mark dedicated his ride today to his son, Andrew. 143.

The van in front of mountains. See how flat the land is here. That changed.

Our normal order going up mountains changed a bit today. Instead of Jim cranking up first, today was Bruce's day. He climbed like a mountain goat -- very impressive. Jim was a good team mate today as he pushed Mark up several hills with brutal encouragement.

What more can be said about a view like this?

While the boys expired on a long, 1,000 foot climb, we met a local mountain goddess, Marilyn Kellerman, who says her husband thinks she's crazy for riding bikes up those hills. In our vehicles, we beat Marilyn up the final 800 feet of the climb by less than two minutes. She was amazing! Very inspirational.

See how rested Joe looks? That's because he CHEATS on the hills -- grabs onto the van's side mirror and coasts along behind us, then gently cruises past as we are barely breathing. We hates him, gollum.

A rock. Kind of a pretty rock. But it is actually a rock.

This is all of us at the top of the last hill, catching our breath.. Marilyn arrived two minutes later, sweaty but barely winded. We hates her, also, gollum.

Corporal Bob Bingham, of the Idaho State Police, threatens the boys with citations if they continue to exceed the 65 MPH speed limit. Bruce promised to be good. Jim snickered. Mark is trying to catch his breath.

The last 20 miles of the ride was perfect. A lovely quartering tail wind. Decent roads. Muscles still working. Chugging along. The boys each did 38.7 miles today, with the first half in very hilly country. Joe worked hard today as well, putting in a rough 20 miles.  Despite his little towing trick on one hill, Joe actually climbed the hills with the best of them.  Tricia did 5.66 miles at a good clip. Cheryl pushed us the last 10 miles of the way. Bruce and Jim, riding behind Cheryl, were muttering back and forth because they thought Mark was pushing us to speeds in excess of 20 MPH, but it was Cheryl, kicking serious butt today. Total mileage for the team was 151.1 miles.

Perhaps the hardest ride to date. But we didn't stop (much), even on the bad hills, even if we had to walk the bikes for a while before climbing back in the saddle. There is no secret, just keep moving, that's what we learned today.

Tomorrow, the road to Arco. We aren't sure what to expect in Arco. Everytime we mentioned Arco to anyone in Boise, they sort of laughed, and said, "Arco, huh?" We'll see tomorrow. It should be a good road. It's a short 88 miles to Arco, and with our tight schedule on Tuesday in Pocatello, we will probably shoot for 45 miles each tomorrow on the road to Arco. Hmmm.... The Road to Arco. Maybe get Bob Hope out of retirement for the movie?

Roadies RULE, and children should be hidden from mountain bikers.

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