I left the Nelson's house as you probably already know, with my destination being Grandview, ID. That was roughly 74 miles from Caldwell. The first 10 of the ride sucked pretty bad. The road was super narrow, and cars didn't pull off much. I did however ride past a 2 mile long field of solid yellow flowers. It was unbelievable pretty. I took a bunch of photos of that. I slowly started the descent back down to the Snake river. I passed through The Snake Valley Wine region. I should have slowed down to go to a wine tasting but didn't feel like jamming on the breaks while riding roughly 35 mph down a crazy hill. I don't like the thought of that. (I can smell the rubber as I type this.) Overall, the day was just super gradual hills following the Snake river.
I did follow the original Oregon Trail route for 30 something odd miles. That was pretty cool. That have historical markers that are every so often that tell you about what happened in what valley, or which mountains were used to try to find diamonds. I probably stopped at 20 or so of those. They were super cool.
The only exciting thing that happened before Grandview was my farmers tan. After two days of riding shorts and a short sleeve, with long socks and fingerless bike gloves, and a helmet and sunglasses, I am one gnarly looking man. Seriously, I look like a crazy person with this tan. The crazy unkempt hair and beard probably only add to the mystery.
Got to Grandview and asked a cop where the best place to eat in town was. The YBar cafe vs. the MexiGo at the gas station. I decided to not go with the MexiGo. I was thinking MexiNoThankYou. Got a pretty good meal of fried chicken, mashed taters, texas toast, and a salad.
I was going to camp at Trueblood Wildlife Area. Sounds exciting right? It ended up just being a nature preserve for wild birds. I camped on the street side of the TWA, instead of hiking all my stuff over the barbed wire fence (which still doesn't make any sense to me at all, cause birds can't be kept in an area by a 3 line barbed wire fence. Bunch of idiots.
Anyways, talked to my brother on the phone for a little while. He is super excited about his summer job, and is working way harder than any other person I know this summer that isn't selling books. It is pretty crazy. If you know him, shoot him an encouraging text. They mean a lot. (803.431.1958) He would love it.
Around ten o'clock I got this feeling. I wish that the feeling was more cowbell, but it wasn't. I ended up just leaning over my hammock edge and vomiting like a champion. Missed my shoes by a hair. Went back to bed after 5 minutes of the old hurl-fest. Slept like a little baby. It was splendid. Thanks a lot Y Bar Cafe. Oh wait, NOT.
Got up this morning and went to the little local grocery store for food restock. I wish that little stores like that where everywhere. Just three rows of basic needs and groceries. The guy was super cool (huge handlebar mustache), and I think just loved to help me. He was awesome. And he gave me free coffee. Which was also super cool.
Bike 25 miles in the middle of nowhere desert. Pretty boring ride actually. Probably the most boring so far. But I got to Mountain Home, ID by noonish. When I rolled in, it was one little street. I thought, "Crap, another little town, dangit." (Not that there is anything wrong with little towns, but Grandview was pretty meh. You know?) But on that one little street there were 3 churches and 4 daycares. What the junk? Why were there so many of those things that require people. Kept going straight, dropped a little into a small valley, made a lot more sense to me at that point. Mountain View is on the interstate, and is pretty large. Deceptively large.
I went to Grinde's Diner for lunch. I got the "sink burger- everything on it but the kitchen sink." They weren't lying to me, that's for dang certain. Burger, sour cream, 3 kinds of cheese, pico de gallo, bacon, jalapenos, some buns in there somewhere, fries, chili, grilled onions, and grilled mushrooms. I was a little flabbergasted. That was a lot of food. Add that to the peanuts, chocolate fudge, and marshmallow fluff milk shake, and I was pretty full.
Too full actually. I felt pretty sluggish after I ate all that delicious crap. In no way did that give me sustenance for my riding. I started climbing right out of Mountain Home. Climbed for a really long time. Got to the top of this no view road, turned a corner, saw a sign for "Boise National Park." I said, "this is going to be good." (I knew it was because there were one of those semi/steep gradient signs on the side of the road.) I turned on the camera and crushed that hill. All you could see was a crazy beautiful lake, with snow capped mountains surrounding all sides of it. It was spectacular. The going was pretty flat for a good 10 miles after that. Then I started the toughest climb of my trip so far. It took me 40 minutes or so. But the top was also the highest elevation I have hit so far, 5,500 feetish. I am a couple miles down the road from that right now, sitting in sight of a bunch of 9,000 foot snow capped peaks, while watching a death rain cloud slowly march my way. I have the tent up tonight to make it a little warmer. I saw a fox too a little while ago, which is awesome.
"Somebody poisoned the water hole!"
I did follow the original Oregon Trail route for 30 something odd miles. That was pretty cool. That have historical markers that are every so often that tell you about what happened in what valley, or which mountains were used to try to find diamonds. I probably stopped at 20 or so of those. They were super cool.
The only exciting thing that happened before Grandview was my farmers tan. After two days of riding shorts and a short sleeve, with long socks and fingerless bike gloves, and a helmet and sunglasses, I am one gnarly looking man. Seriously, I look like a crazy person with this tan. The crazy unkempt hair and beard probably only add to the mystery.
Got to Grandview and asked a cop where the best place to eat in town was. The YBar cafe vs. the MexiGo at the gas station. I decided to not go with the MexiGo. I was thinking MexiNoThankYou. Got a pretty good meal of fried chicken, mashed taters, texas toast, and a salad.
I was going to camp at Trueblood Wildlife Area. Sounds exciting right? It ended up just being a nature preserve for wild birds. I camped on the street side of the TWA, instead of hiking all my stuff over the barbed wire fence (which still doesn't make any sense to me at all, cause birds can't be kept in an area by a 3 line barbed wire fence. Bunch of idiots.
Anyways, talked to my brother on the phone for a little while. He is super excited about his summer job, and is working way harder than any other person I know this summer that isn't selling books. It is pretty crazy. If you know him, shoot him an encouraging text. They mean a lot. (803.431.1958) He would love it.
Around ten o'clock I got this feeling. I wish that the feeling was more cowbell, but it wasn't. I ended up just leaning over my hammock edge and vomiting like a champion. Missed my shoes by a hair. Went back to bed after 5 minutes of the old hurl-fest. Slept like a little baby. It was splendid. Thanks a lot Y Bar Cafe. Oh wait, NOT.
Got up this morning and went to the little local grocery store for food restock. I wish that little stores like that where everywhere. Just three rows of basic needs and groceries. The guy was super cool (huge handlebar mustache), and I think just loved to help me. He was awesome. And he gave me free coffee. Which was also super cool.
Bike 25 miles in the middle of nowhere desert. Pretty boring ride actually. Probably the most boring so far. But I got to Mountain Home, ID by noonish. When I rolled in, it was one little street. I thought, "Crap, another little town, dangit." (Not that there is anything wrong with little towns, but Grandview was pretty meh. You know?) But on that one little street there were 3 churches and 4 daycares. What the junk? Why were there so many of those things that require people. Kept going straight, dropped a little into a small valley, made a lot more sense to me at that point. Mountain View is on the interstate, and is pretty large. Deceptively large.
I went to Grinde's Diner for lunch. I got the "sink burger- everything on it but the kitchen sink." They weren't lying to me, that's for dang certain. Burger, sour cream, 3 kinds of cheese, pico de gallo, bacon, jalapenos, some buns in there somewhere, fries, chili, grilled onions, and grilled mushrooms. I was a little flabbergasted. That was a lot of food. Add that to the peanuts, chocolate fudge, and marshmallow fluff milk shake, and I was pretty full.
Too full actually. I felt pretty sluggish after I ate all that delicious crap. In no way did that give me sustenance for my riding. I started climbing right out of Mountain Home. Climbed for a really long time. Got to the top of this no view road, turned a corner, saw a sign for "Boise National Park." I said, "this is going to be good." (I knew it was because there were one of those semi/steep gradient signs on the side of the road.) I turned on the camera and crushed that hill. All you could see was a crazy beautiful lake, with snow capped mountains surrounding all sides of it. It was spectacular. The going was pretty flat for a good 10 miles after that. Then I started the toughest climb of my trip so far. It took me 40 minutes or so. But the top was also the highest elevation I have hit so far, 5,500 feetish. I am a couple miles down the road from that right now, sitting in sight of a bunch of 9,000 foot snow capped peaks, while watching a death rain cloud slowly march my way. I have the tent up tonight to make it a little warmer. I saw a fox too a little while ago, which is awesome.
"Somebody poisoned the water hole!"
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