Day 1
After getting out of the house and driving up to the start, I arrived in Logan around 9 AM. I got changed (Joy Ride bike shop back door was open and someone there let me in to use the bathroom etc). I put my bike up on the stand to lube the chain and got changed. As we’ll see later (day 3), I realized I has lost my lube. This may be where it happened, but not sure. I wandered over to the Walmart across the street to get some food. I had some food, but decided to supplement with some bananas, Jerky, A snickers bar I think and can’t recall what else. Wish I had discovered some of those other foods that work well at this point, but alas I had not yet.
I went back over to Joy Ride where they had let me park my bike during my Walmart run. They also were letting me leave my car there for the week. It was helpful to meet them that morning knowing I’d leave the car there for the week.
I finished squaring stuff away, took a pic at the front doors of the shop and rolled out. In the first half mile or so, I had to pause to tighten down some loose stuff, but was rolling in earnest after that. Early miiles were all flat and rolling as I passed through North Logan and Smithfield.
Before long, I was on some dusty dirt roads and eventually crossed into Idaho. The first ‘town’ (if you will) in Idaho was Franklin. I stopped at a convenience store there, used the bathroom, toppped water and thought about buying some tater tots, but opted not to. In hindsight, should have gotten them. Rolled back out and slowly started climbing and riding some rollers. I spotted a couple clockwise (CW) riders along River road (I think) and we waved to each other. Another CW rider came along and stopped on the other side of the road. This was Sarah Mulholland and I would/will see her again later. We chatted for a few minutes and got back underway.
Fortunately, dirt roads came again. This was a pretty and initially gradual climb (if warm and partially exposed) up Hull Canyon (I think that’s what it was called). With fresh legs, good weather, and the nice scenery, I enjoyed this climb. The climb pitched up and narrowed some as time went on. Below is a pic near the top of the climb.
The descent on the other side was fairly chunky and fast. The broken spoke I would find on day 3 probably happened here in hindsight. I think this dumped me out to the town of Mink Creek. I stopped at at church parking lot to check my bearings. There was a youth group gathering for something. One of the adults came over to chat with me. Aside from telling me about his son on the youth Specalized team, he told me there were two other rides that had just come through slightly ahead of me. Just past the church, I topped my water off at a park and got back on the road. The route took me back onto a climb on the road (ID-34 I think) and eventually I caught sight of some riders ahead of me. I caught up to one of them (Mike) at the turn into Maple Grove road. He was lubing his chain and doing some other personal maintenance it seemed. His partner (Andy). They had started at the grand depart themselves and were on their third day. They were on track, it seemed to finish Tuesday late or early Wednesday.
I paused to pee and check some other stuff assuming I’d catch up pretty quick to them. After a short climb (back on dirt now), there was a descent to the Bear River, where Maple Grove Hot Springs is. I didn’t realize it was immediately there on the left at the bottom and they had turned in to get water etc. I turned right according to directions and kept thinking “I should have caught them by now”, but kept plodding along. Rode through a bunch of farm land and such, including Thatcher Elementary school. This picture pretty much encompasses the whole width of the building.
I started to flag a bit. I hadn’t really been eating/drinking suffciiently through the afternoon. I was also having some trouble with RideWithGPS not notifying me of turns audibly. It seemed to be related to the headphones (had a ligtning to aux adapter on my phone with standard wired headphones). Passed a farmer who asked how I was doing and I replied “Doing alright, yourself?". He took an extra second and said “can’t complain”. I suspected that he wanted to complain. I know that I wanted to complain as I was getting tired and had the early signs of cramping if not some outright cramping already. I remembered though that I was here by choice though. Right after that, I realized I had missed a turn. It wasn’t much of a backtrack, but the turn I missed was the one with the 20% grade climb. Yeah, I dismounted and walked it. I kept rolling after that climb, looking forward to getting some sustenance at Bailey’s. Nothing I had was very enticing to eat, but I kept putting down water and eating some here and there. Before getting to Bailey’s though, I had some legit cramps. So, I needed a really stop and refuel. Good thing I got there when I did. I thought they closed at 8, but they closed at 7. I got there around 6:45.
I found a microwave (breakfast) burrito, coke and ice cream sandwich for ‘dinner’. I bought some other food, some of which was more welcome and some less so. I bought my first “Idaho Spud” there. That coke was what I was really needing even if it was 7 PM. Getting to sleep was going to be harder, but it would fix my cramping and energy level problem. I also needed a few minutes off the bike. The lady staffing the store, was very kind to me letting me back in to refill water and use their bathroom even though it was a few minutes after closing time. She didn’t run me off or hurry me. Thank goodness for those small bits of kindness. I had panic bought some other food that I probably didn’t really want or need, but most importantly I got a pie for breakfast tomorrow.
I rolled through some streets, farmland and past homes along the edge of the mountain there and the sun dipped down. I think I heard someone remark from their front yard “What the hell is that”, as I rode by with my blinking helmet and some music on. Then it was dirt road and climbing again. I figured I would make it partway up this climb that night, camp, and finish it in the AM. I should make it to Soda Springs in the middle of day 2. I prayed and hoped for water as I went up and before too long I heard some burbrling. Whether it was a spring (most likely) or otherwise, I just counted the blessing and filtered (too many cattle around to not filter). Now I’d be mostly full in the AM, which was a relief knowing I’d have to finish the climb still.
As I approached 90 miles, my pickiness over a place to camp diminished, but almost (maybe) exactly at 90 I found a good spot just off the road I could set up camp. I ducked in witih my bike and double-checked it. Decent spot for my tent, check. Trees to put up a bear bag, check. No water, but I didn’t expect that to happen til the other side (downhill). I got set up and was close to climbing in my tent when I heard voices. I stopped moving and turned my headlamp off. I did not want to be busted and told to move after just getting everything set up. Then there were two headlamps/headlights slowly coming up with the voices. I realized it was Mike and Andy from earlier. I stepped out on the road to greet them and they explained where we got separated (before we ever got together really). They were ready to keep moving, so the chat was brief. They were planning to push to Soda Springs that night still. Sounded tempting, but I had already set up camp. Were it not for that, I might have soldiered on some more. I told myself and them I’d get to bed and get up early. They and I assumed I’d catch them again as well. So, off to bed it was and day 1 was in the books.
90 Miles // 5931 ft climbing // 08:53:20 Moving Time