Day 11--Mountain Home, ID to Twin Falls, ID

Day 11—June 29, 2006—Mountain Home, ID to Twin Falls, ID—97 miles—2450’ climb

When we left the hotel this morning after a good breakfast at AJ’s, the sky was gray and cloudy and it was raining lightly. No one minded the cloud cover, least of all me. In fact many of us were thankful. Not five miles out, the sprinkles quit sprinkling and all doffed and stowed their shower caps and rain jackets. (Riders use shower caps over their helmets in light rain and to cover their saddles when off the bike.)

While the sprinkles quit, the sprinklers did not. As far as the eye could see, field after field of sugar beets and potatoes were being irrigated, the large rolling sprinkler systems looking like dinosaur skeletons. Irrigated fields are green; unirrigated ones brown in this area of the country. In one vast field a lone field hand in a red shirt hand-hoed rows of plants. I hope he just wanted to get a head start before the heat of the day and that many others were going to join him. If not, his task was akin to emptying a pond with a thimble.

Jim set up the first SAG Stop today in the town of Glenn Ferry. Just as in years past, the gnats were gnasty. When I left the SS, my legs were dotted with gnats that had stuck to the sunscreen I was wearing. Shortly after SS#1, riders climbed up King Hill and then had a three-mile swooping downhill before eventually turning onto a little used frontage road (see photo above) which takes them along the top of the bluffs to the little town of Bliss, ID. Here many stopped at a convenience store for a cold drink or strolled across the street to a rock shop, the owner of which was a nonstop talker. At one point, after learning that I lived in OK, he asked me to look at him. He stared into my eyes for 30 uncomfortable seconds and then told me that yep, he could see Cherokee in my eyes. Not. I grew up in upstate NY. What he saw may have been my Dutch-Welch ancestry but certainly not Cherokee.

After turning onto the Rte. 30 Scenic Byway, riders rolled off the plateau and down to the river, stopping at an overlook which overlooks the green (irrigated) valley far below. They also stopped to read about the fossil beds in the area and then climbed back up to the plateau again and enjoyed watermelon and other tasty snacks at SS#2, which was set up this year in a Community Park.

Most of the last third of the ride today was on small farm-to-market roads lined with stockyards. Riders’ speed increased by 3 mph when passing these. They also faced one detour. Road crews were patching sections of road. Both bicycles and vans found that they could ride through the detour, however.

This was a near century day sandwiched between the trip’s two shortest days: 50 miles yesterday and 38 miles tomorrow. Tomorrow’s 38 miles will fly by as riders form teams to take part in the day’s scavenger hunt. Check in tomorrow and find out which team was the most creative.

OVERHEARD ON THE ROAD TODAY:

* “Why is there a detour here? Can I go straight?”

*  “This is Justin, my SAG set-up assistant. He’s 10.”

*  “Wow! What a view!”

*  “When are we going to get to that sharp “V” on the elevation view?” “Don’t worry, be happy. It’s the bridge over the Snake River.”

SHOW & TELL: Several saw antelope in the roadside sage today and many cottontails and jackrabbits, too. There were also several road-killed snakes and birds, one of which was a screech owl.