Pioneer 400 Day 3
This ended up being my shortest day in time and miles. In my head, I had thought of maybe passing through Idaho Falls, restocking and camping on the way to Lava Hot Springs somewhere … it sort of made sense to me. That’s not how it played out and I believe it was for the better. It was a dry, windy, dusty and warm day.
Sawing Logs vs Logging Operations
The night before I had seen the signs about a logging operation, but had not planned on the 5 AM arrival of logging equipment/trucks. Camped right up by the little stream, I had occasionally thought I heard voices due to the burbling stream right near me. The arrival of the logging trucks and equipment made a very different sort of noise. I had purposely not set my alarm, but a different sort of alarm had arrived. I thought about just getting up and getting going. Instead, I got up and relieved old man bladder and laid back down. I fell back asleep fairly easily (and had generally slept well that night). Despite the clanking and rev of motors in the background, I got some good rest for another two hours. Looking out my tent door around 7 AM, this was how things looked …
Getting Ready to Roll
I slowly got myself ready, eating my cherry pie and snacking on some other food. I also realized I had brought five recovery drink mixes and was fairly confident I would only be comping four nights, so I went ahead and tried one for breakfast too. It went well with the cherry pie and whatever else it was I was eating (can’t honestly recall now). I finished packing up and noticed my rear tire pressure was on the low side. I got out my pump and added some air to the tire. In the process, I noted that I had a broken spoke (2nd or third on that bike’s rear wheel, I ride it hard). I got out some gorilla tape I had with me and taped the broken end to another spoke to avoid rattling (even though I’m pretty sure I did it on day one and just hadn’t noticed).
I got some water from the stream before shoving off. In the process, some cattle showed up walking my way. They paused and stared in my direction and moo’d complainingly as if I was at their watering hole and interrupting their morning routine. They sat and looked around for a bit while I filled water and eventually headed off in another direction. In hindsight, I think they headed upstream from me. Good thing I was fitlering every time I filled up from a stream, creek or similar source of water.
I took this picture of the clearing where I camped as I was getting water. I walked back up to the bike, loaded my water, walked the site to make sure I wasn’t leaving anything, and headed off.
Day 3 Legs
I had always heard that day three was when your legs settled in and were ready to go. My legs definitely felt better at the start of the day. Good thing too, as I would need those better feeling legs despite day three being my shortest day.
Dust in the Wind
It wasn’t really windy where I was yet, but there was no shortage of dust. The roads were torn up and full of moon dust, sand, and dirt. I could hear logging trucks and before too long I could see them too. The roads were barely wide enough for the trucks to get through. A few rolled up behind me in the early part of the ride and I had to step aside to let them through.
I rolled up and down on the dusty roads, having to dismount and walk at times due to how dusty it was. Below, you can see the track my tires left in the deep dust in the road. Also, that morning I had discovered that I no longer had my lube, I didn’t lub my chain as planned and this dust was not helping. My shifting got a little weird at times too and the lowest gear (biggest rear cog) was rather noisy. It seemed to not shift (at least not without fiddling the front derailleur to tweak the tension) up out of my easiest gear when the derailleur clutch was engaged. So, I set the clutch to off and it worked a little better. Most of the time I was in my three easiest gears trying to navigate undulating moon dust.
At one point, I recall sliding a bit and my foot heading for a clump of dirt. Instinctually, I braced myself for my foot to impact it and to try and adjust after impact. Instead, my foot just kicked out a cloud of dust. and I kept going … just not too straight.
After a mile or three more of that, I was on firmer roads and seemed to have escaped the trucks. The ride was rolling, but still mostly up. Near the top of the initial climb, I paused to put on sunscreen, manage water bottles and the like. If I recall correctly, I had filled one of my vessica bottles with unfiltered water and decided to filter that first and mix some tailwind in. My dry bag was a little wet inside, so I turned it inside out and hung it on the one tree I was standing by while I did all of this. As I was getting sorted, my shirt had apparently inched up and exposed my midrift slightly. Enough was exposed for a bee to land there, me unawares of it until it stung me. This is the point in the story where I mention the bee sting allergy I had growing up. Fortunately, as a an adult (I’m much bigger now) and after years of shots, I just have a slightly worse reaction to the sting than most people. I did my best to make sure the stinger was out, which it seemed to be. I took some tylenol or aspirin (can’t recall, think aspirin though) to get ahead of any ensuing pain, finished packing up, and headed out. Later, I would realize the dry bag I had been putting my filter and vessica water bottles in was still hanging on the tree. The bee, as well as all the other things to think about had distracted me sufficiently that I didn’t remember to grab it.
There was a nice long descent and then a bit of rolling terrain. I did see one more logging truck pass me in this area. You can’t see it in this pic below, but you can see its trail of dust.
It was around this time, that I had turned some music on. Since I’d be passing through Idaho Falls (where I could charge up devices), I figured I could afford burning a little more battery. I got into a somewhat stiff climb, but between my day three legs and the song that came on (Beastie Boys: No Sleep Til Brooklyn … don’t @ me, I don’t want to hear it) I smashed the climb.
Warm and Exposed
This whole section was very exposed and it was getting rather warm now. Fortunately, there was one more place to get some water and splash my face. I nearly missed it though as you had to turn just off the road into a turn-out of sorts and then go down the back 10 feet or so to where the water ran through under the bridge. I filtered some extra to be sure I had enough to get all the way in. Figured better safe than sorry.
Less Dust, More Wind
The closer I got to Idaho Falls, the windier it started to get. A ways off, I finally saw some windmills
Not knowing and not having heard any warnings of what the wind might be like in the area, I figured I’d just have to deal with it. It wasn’t long until there were windmills all over.
Thing is, they were pointing in the wrong direction (in my opinon). At this point it was climbing AND headwind and my day three legs were getting taxed pretty heavily. I found myself checking the elelvation to see how much longer before the big descent into IF. I ended up walking one of the last and larger hills, most if not all the way. I took video (not shared here right now) and you can just hear and see the wind cranking the windmill. I was dry, warm, and getting pretty tired.
I eventually crested the hill and started descending into head and cross winds. At one point, I got into an echelon draft of a truck hauling hay. The problem was the truck eventually outpaced me. The other obvious problem is that I was riding rather close to a large, loaded semi on a windy descent. Once I fell out of the truck’s shadow, the wind blasted across me. I wobbled, but I stayed upright. At least I was descending and had the promise of people to talk to, real food to eat and a place to sit down for a few as well.
Getting Stuff Fixed at Fitzgeralds
I made my way through town after the descent to Fitzgerald bikes. One of their workers, a young lady, came out to greet me and congratulate me on finishing. I greatly appreciated her warm welcome and enthusiasm. She noted she had been watching my dot on Track Leaders. I felt a little bad having to inform her I was the weird guy that started in Logan and this was halfway for me.
The folks at Fitz (I’m using that since they’re now calling this ride the ‘FitzJoy 400’ or something like that) were very friendly and helpful. They prioritized me for my spoke repair. That meant disassembling the wheel, fitting a new spoke and getting it all back together. I realized later how I had accidentally overfilled that tire with sealant not long before the trip. I apologized to the mechanic for the likely mess it was.
They offered me sandwiches from their fridge (which I happily took them up on) and I sat there, ate, drank, and contacted some friends as well as my wife. The wind was no joke and I was in no hurry to go slug it out with more headwind that day. I came to discover that the wind was pretty much constant there and that day was a little worse than usual. It was going to be in teens to low 20’s (mph) until the sun went down. The friends I had contacted were friends we knew from the east coast that now lived in IF and a plan started to form.
Catching Up
Over time, I resolved to call it a day, get a place to stay (hotel or if my friends extended an offer, I would take them up on it), stock up, rest, and get out as early as possible the next day to get a head start on the wind. Pretty much, the wind came and went with the sun, so late or early were the best options.
My friends had some timely (read: last minute bind) business to take care of, but were game to get together and extended an offer to stay with them once they had handled said business matter. I hung out at Fitzgerald’s for a little more, walked down the road to get some snacks. I bought some lube made a list of supplies to get and mapped out how to get to my friends’ house. Actually, the other friendly worker at Fitz told me the safe way to get across town and that was much appreciated.
I hit a Walmart on the way over and loaded up on food, including two $0.50 pies that were on a rack that greeted me as I walked into the store. Four of them would have worked too, but that’s hindsight talking. I also got bacon jerky, snickers, protein/energy bars, some candy and other assorted items. The most important of these items, I believe, was the 6 pack of mini-cans of coke. After Wal-mart, I made my way over to my friends’ house. Between a few phone calls and texts, we decided that they would order and I would pay for the food … or something like that. Along the way, I stopped to check my phone. They were going to pick where to get the food. As I read the text about this little BBQ place that “didn’t look like much but had really good BBQ”, I looked up to my right where I had stopped …
They called in the order and since I was there, I just walked in, added my order and paid for it all. They were going to come pick it up though. I was fitted to carry food, but not this kind of food and I just loaded myself to capacity at Wal-mart.
It was a nice night. I got to catch up with friends I hadn’t see in three or four years, eat some good BBQ and slaw. And to be clear, these were friends that had kids our age. Our sons went through scouting together. The wife was a very good friend to my wife. Walt, the husband was also a a close friend of mine. It was good to see and chat with their kids. Their second youngest, who had been co-conspirator with my youngest daughter when younger was much more relaxed and more grown up now. I was having fun on the trail, but this was a really nice addition to the trip. I was and am really glad I took the time to stop and spend that afternoon/evening there. Good friends are precious. While I didn’t want to impose on them, I did pick up the tab for dinner. I got a shower and a good meal and time to relax and be social. It was refreshing. We disagreed (and always have really) on some things. We agreed that we missed many things from our time back on the east coast previously, but that’s life and at least we had a chance to share some time and feel some of what we missed for a few hours.
I put my devices on a charger and made my plan for the next day while there … I had some transfer miles back to Fitzgerald’s and then 97-ish miles to Lava Hot Springs with no resupply (except water)! So, I started sorting and packing my bags. They even let me make some PB&J tortillas out of their pantry while there. Day four was going to be a big day!
Totals
51.3 Miles // 2224 ft climbing // 5:11:46 moving time
NOTE: The above includes tansfer miles to my friends’ house.