Ride Idaho 2010
For those who are interested, here's a run down of what I can remember of an awesome week...
First off, this was a great route. The volunteers did a great job. The addition of a shower truck was awesome (8 stalls for men, 8 for women, and all the hot water you could want.) And a HUGE THANKS to the Reel Theatre for sponsoring it!!!
Aug 7 – fun drive up to Hayden, just north of Coeur D’Alene. This was probably the worst part of the trip. I was up until 2:30 the night before, Jenny basically worked through the night getting the house ready for the kids. Jenny crashed hard in the party van on the way up.
Aug 8 – Start in Hayden. It’s hard to remember everything, but I think we ended up in a paceline and I heard for the first time that I couldn’t keep an even pull. This wasn’t the first time! The only defense I have is that I rode blind – no power meter, no computer, no speed, no HR. Jenny – I need a Garmin!
At one point there was a group including Eric, Nate, Harris, Brad, Jamie, and me. Then Eric saw a group ahead and drilled it to pass them. Does this sound familiar to anyone? Not only did he pass that group, but I think that’s when we dropped Jamie!
Later in that day Eric and Nate missed a turn marker. Harris, Brad, and I took the turn and slowly pedaled along. Eric and Nate sat on down the road, waiting for us to show up. Eric’s GPS even said “Off Road”, but he figured it was just super sensitive – sweet!
The day ended up with a ride into Priest Lake. It was ~67 miles and was a fun day.
We ended up setting up tents in the rain, but the sun came out soon and it turned out to be a perfect day.
I think Jamie ended up offering up assistance to somebody who crashed. I heard later in the week that she was “an angel”. That also got her and Eric moved up to the front of the chow line – pulled pork. Yeah, in general the food was pretty good this year.
Shelley showed up after dinner, and the “Team Reel” group was complete.
Aug 9 – Start in Priest Lake. Go ~56 miles to Sandpoint. I rode that whole day with Jenny, except for a short stint when Michelle got a flat and I stopped (unlike Harrison!) to fix it. We had a rest stop at a wolf preserve, got to ride a really long, cool bridge, and camp at the park on the beach. We ended up eating at an AWESOME restaurant (the Tunnel?) that night, and had fresh fruit and crunchy potatoes for breakfast.
BTW – somebody in this camp was snoring to the point of being ridiculous. Jenny said her earplugs only made it worse, because it cut everything BUT the snoring!
Aug 10 – Start in Sandpoint. Longer day, ~75 miles. Originally they wanted a staged start, then said no. Buy the time Team Reel got moving, they wanted the staged start. So we joined the last 30 riders for the police escort through town. It’s weird, but a lot of folks are up and on the road by about 6:00. Our crew was generally among the later starters.
It started raining as soon as we took off. I think that’s the day we spent a bunch of time on the highway – that part sucked. Plus it started to hail on some folks. Harris executed the world's slowest wheel change at Aid Station #1 and we took off again.
Somehow I got out ahead of Eric and Nate at Bonner’s Ferry and ended up riding the rest of the way alone. I was in a fun groove and felt like I was really moving. The road from this point on was much nicer, the route was beautiful.
Aimee and Nate’s Jamie drove ahead and did a great job collected bags and pitching tents so we had the compound going when I arrived at camp.
Here’s where disaster struck – pulling into camp Shelley crashed on the bridge and ended up with a ton of splinters in her hands. Bad enough that it required a hospital visit, and ended up requiring a night in the hospital. But she came back and rode Fri-Sat – hard core!
There was live music at every camp (I think) and this place had a blues/country band that was unique. The lead guitar/singer/yodeler was missing his right arm above the elbow, but he still rocked a guitar!
Aug 11 – Start in Troy, MT. Rode with Jenny to Thompson Falls. Long day, ~80 miles. Lots of fun downhill. Jenny likes to bomb the downhills with me. I’ll pedal up to speed and she drafts me. When she starts to pass, she’ll yell at me to speed up. On one hill, I was pretty tired and told her my days with her were supposed to be a rest. She corrected me and let me know that my days with “the boys” were my rest days, but when I rode with her I had to pull! On one hill, I was in my 53x15 and tired out. Jenny yelled “Faster!” I yelled back that I couldn’t go and faster. Her comment: “I see more gears!” I love it!
When we were setting up camp it rained for a little while – just long enough for a nice rest in the tent. Unfortunately, it caught Aimee and Aaron on the big descent on the bad road into town and made that a sloppy ride. But the Mexican Lasagna was awesome, and I don’t know how to describe the maple rolls except to say that at one point I contemplated murdering Harris for his…
Aug 12 – Start in Thompson Falls, MT. Awesome day. About 20 miles of uphill right from the camp. It started at 2%, then gradually got steeper. I originally saw Eric ride away, then couldn’t find Nate or Harris or Brad, so I thought I must have somehow missed them. So I took off and got into a nice climbing groove. By the time I realized I must have gotten out ahead of them I was having fun and just wanted to keep riding.
Then a long downhill, followed by a shorter, steeper climb. I rode that one pretty hard as well, it was a lot tougher than the map led us to believe. And then I realized that I’d just completed the last hard part of the week, and wanted to have more time to ride with Jenn, so I turned and rode back to the previous aid station and met up with Jenny and the gang, and we conquered that hill again.
Kellogg was pretty fun. Good dinner, fun playing at the water park, and then a nice Gondola excursion at Silver Mountain the next morning.
Aug 13 – Start in Kellogg. Aaron and I took our turn driving the Excursion. We drove down to Harrison and then started riding back. I was hoping to get all the way to the Cataldo mission, but the crew skipped that part, plus we had a killer headwind, so we only got 15 miles before we met everybody. This ride was on the Trail O’ Coeur d’Alene’s, so it was a beautiful bike path the whole way.
Aug 14 – Start in Harrison. The week is really almost over??? I led a large group on the path by the lake until Nate starting itching for some action and went off the front. I stayed calm, thinking that we’d stay together until the cool bridge. Then Harris went by. Then Brad. Finally Eric rode by and Jenny yelled for me to go ahead and play with my friends…
We had a fairly long, gradual uphill in a park that was awesome. Then we followed that up with a bunch of riding on the highway with rumble strips, not so cool. But with all of the great roads we traveled, I guess a few miles of highway isn’t the worst thing in the world. Would it surprise you that this day also ended up with a high speed finish and sprints to the end (thanks to Nate)?
Ok, this ended up much longer than I envisioned. Now you see why I started this last night and just got back to it today.