Fall 2013
Denis Kertz, ©2013
Day 15: Mon, Sep 16, 2013 - Vale, OR to Boise
The nearby cafe opened at 6:00 so I got up early for that. I didn't get there until 6:30 when it was still dark. I had a good breakfast of 2 large pancakes, eggs, and a big slice of ham. I lingered over breakfast because it didn't really get light until 7:30 or so.
My big decision
was whether to take the highway or 
On the other side
there was an exhibit for the
I stopped in
Nyssa for a cold drink and then crossed the Snake River to get into
Leaving town, I
wanted to take
I continued on
ID44 for a good ways with mostly a good shoulder and then took
Day 16: Tue, Sep 17, 2013 - Boise ,
ID
Julia dropped me off downtown at Big City Coffee where I had breakfast and browsed the Internet. This turned out to be a good place for people watching. I stayed for a couple of hours and then walked around downtown seeing, among other things, the state capital. Then I took a while to get oriented and walked back home, stopping along the way to shop for some groceries.
When I got home I worked on my cell phone. I tried to use it at the coffee house and it wouldn't turn on. I assumed the battery was low although it shouldn't have been. So I plugged in my charger at home and got nothing. That was a major concern since it looked like the phone had died. Fortunately, I popped out the battery and then the phone worked. Apparently the phone locked up somehow and popping the battery reset it.
Later, I
finalized a route to get from
Day 17: Wed, Sep 18, 2013 - Boise ,
ID
I was upstairs by 6:30 but Thomas had already left for work but fortunately I had said good-bye last night since I knew we might miss each other in the morning. But I got to watch Julia get everybody else organized and off to school for the second day in a row. Then I left at 8:30, leaving Julia only to drop Louis off for school and go to work. Interestingly, both Edward (10) and Bea (5) rode their bikes to school and Julia biked Theo (3) to day care. Only Louis was too far from his school for cycling.
It was an easy
route to get out of town.
While I was eating an Egg McMuffin a guy stopped by and asked what direction I was headed. I thought he was just interested in my trip but he turned out to be a Project Inspector for the Idaho Transportation Department. He wanted to warn me that there was construction on the Interstate and the westbound lane was shut down and the eastbound lane was carrying traffic in both directions. I thought he was going to tell me I would need to find a non-Interstate route to Mountain Home. Instead, he said he didn't think riding the eastbound shoulder would be much fun and he suggested I should ride the westbound lane since it was essentially empty. He also gave me his card in case anyone challenged me but I didn't have any problem. This, of course, was really thoughtful for this guy to do.
Riding the westbound lane was easy with just an occasional large truck hauling asphalt passing by. Based on the westbound lane I was lucky there was construction. The shoulder I was riding on had rumble strips to the right of the white line which eliminated about half of the shoulder, giving about a foot and a half of rideable shoulder. Had there been no construction I would have been riding the eastbound lane this type of shoulder with traffic whizzing by. Instead, most of the time I could take the traffic lane and ease on to the shoulder only when a truck came along.
There was one
problem with riding the westbound lane – it didn't have eastbound exit
signs. So I missed the exit for the
Skipping the
Blacks Creek route eliminated some climbing that I would have had to do
otherwise. This route most likely would
have been more scenic but I was perfectly happy the way things turned out.
It didn't hurt that I had a good tailwind,
the first real tailwind of the trip. I
followed Desert Wind,
My initial plan
was to camp at an RV Park/Campground but I saw signs for inexpensive motels on
my ride into town. After eating at
Subway, I stopped at a
This guy was part of the Indian couple who ran the place. He was difficult to understand and I wondered if he might be a little senile. I got him to give me the password but he wrote down two passwords and told me to try both and he couldn't tell me whether spaces were important or not. It wasn't surprising that he wasn't computer literate but one would have thought he would have figured out what information to give customers to access their WiFi. Fortunately, I was able to figure out the first “password” was the network identifier for the motel’s WiFi and the second “password” really was the password – the motel's phone number. I just tried it without spaces and that worked. Then I wrote this information down to give to the guy so he could just copy it down for the next customer. He seemed to appreciate that I did that for him.
Today turned out
to be an easy day with the tailwind and skipping some climbing by staying on
the Interstate. Tomorrow promised to be
more difficult with about the same mileage but starting off the day with about
2,000 feet of climbing. The reward for
the climbing should be improved scenery on the way to
Day 18: Thu, Sep 19, 2013 - Mountain Home , ID to Fairfield ,
ID
I left the motel
and headed for town and then north on the
I left town just
after 8:30 headed for
The scenery was nice climbing through the hills. After the first turn around a bend I noticed the hills were chocolate. It took me a while to realize they had been charred by a fire and weren't really chocolate.
Around 11:30 I was looking for a place to stop for my second breakfast and finally stopped along a guardrail where I could use one of the posts for a seat. When I left around noon I had covered less than 20 miles and still had a long way to go. Fortunately, the worst of the climbing was behind me but there was some descending and ascending remaining plus one final big climb.
I was surprised to find the Little Camas Inn along the way where I stopped. I thought I might be able to grab a sandwich but they didn't have any pre-packaged food so I just had a cold soda and refilled my water bottles though I was in no danger of running out of water.
After some more
up and down I started the final big climb, a 500 foot, 2-mile U-shaped climb
that had great views looking back down the valley.
When I finally crested this last climb I
still had 30 miles to go and at the rate I had been moving it was going to take
quite a while. Fortunately, the road
leveled off and even descended some so my speed picked up quite a bit and I
broke into the double digit speeds.
At this point I was riding through the Camas Prairie ringed by mountains to the side with huge fields for grazing and wheat. This prairie was more scenic than I expected.
When I reached
I pulled into
Then my thoughts
turned to food. There was a pizza place
where I ordered a small pizza but it looked like I got a medium pizza instead
but I didn't complain. It wasn't the
greatest pizza but it was good enough and filling. There was also free WiFi so I was able to
check email and a few other things. Then
I rode out to the town park and settled in for the night, the first time
camping since the day after leaving
Day 19: Fri, Sep 20, 2013 - Fairfield ,
ID
I got up at 7, packed up and rode back to the road where there was a restaurant next to the motel. I had an okay breakfast of ham and pancakes that were rather expensive, more expensive and not as good as my breakfast yesterday morning. I got a couple of bananas at the store next door and was off at 8:45.
My goal for the
day was to make the campground at the Craters of the
The first 18
miles today continued through the Camas Prairie with huge fields on both sides
of the road, some wheat, some hay, and some pastureland.
The prairie was lined with hills on both
sides and the prairie looked to be about 5 miles wide although it was hard to
estimate that. I did manage to see a
herd of 20-30 pronghorns about 300 yards away and later a group of 3 pronghorns
close to the road.
There was a short, steep climb after 18 miles and then I stopped for my second breakfast at another guardrail where I could use a post as a seat. It was not comforting when I started riding again to see that it was already noon and I had only gone 20 miles out of 70 miles. The math did not look good. I figured another 3 hours to get to Carey at 3:00 and then there would still be 25 miles and 1100 feet of climbing to make before dark. I considered that I might have to stop at Carey although there was no motel there and no campground that I was aware of. However, last night's experience reminded me that small towns often have town parks that are okay for overnight camping. It looked like I might have to hope for that in Carey.
The earlier
short, steep climb seemed to be the end of the Camas Prairie and I rode through
some undulating terrain. When I neared
the intersection with ID75 that went to
There was another bigger 1-mile climb and descent just before Carey. While I was grinding against the wind in the afternoon I kept a nonstop argument with myself whether I should stop at Carey or grind on. I really wanted to make Craters of the Moon campground because it would set up tomorrow as an easy day. I just couldn't convince myself that I could make the campground before dark. Then there was the added question about campsite availability on a Friday evening and whether the park would turn away a cyclist if the campground was full.
When I came to Carey there was a food mart right at the intersection where US20 turned left. I asked inside and was told there was a fairgrounds at the other end of town with a restroom and was told it shouldn't be a problem camping there. That made my decision fairly easy. Though this wasn't where I wanted to end the day I was tired and there was still a headwind and continuing was just uncertain.
So I got some food at this place, initially two small but tasty burritos and then when I discovered this place also had WiFi I settled in for a longer stay and had a couple more burritos. I probably spent close to an hour and a half before I left to find the fairgrounds at the other end of town.
I settled in at the fairgrounds and cleaned up in the restroom. This place even had showers but the showers were locked and you had to call one of several people to get access. Much as I would have liked a shower it didn't seem right to bother someone while I was freeloading as it was. I did manage to rinse out my cycling shorts and hung them up in the sun to dry out for tomorrow.
Day 20: Sat, Sep 21, 2013 - Carey , ID to Arco ,
ID
I got up at 6:30 and was in a bit of a hurry to get packed up because there were sprinklers in the park. I saw them last night and hoped if they went off they would go off while I was sleeping and then the tent could dry by morning. My worst fear was they would go off while I was packing up. As it turned out nothing happened but I was relieved when I was packed up and gone.
I rode back down the road to a grocery store that claimed it had a restaurant but there was no one there in the small grill section so I continued to the Castle's Corner where I ate yesterday. They had a paper menu that listed traditional breakfast meals but there was no cook there either to make the meal. So I settled for my cereal breakfast with real milk.
I left town at
8:30, stopping at the grocery store to pick up some cereal. The first thing I noticed was the absence of
a headwind. I had 25 miles to Craters of
the Moon with 1100 feet of climbing. It
was a scenic route with the road running along the base of the
I stopped at the 
In all I spent a couple of hours at the
monument and it was well worth the time.
When I left at 2 pm I had 18 miles to Arco and it was mostly downhill. The road passed through a huge open area bounded by mountains to the north and east. The shoulder had rumble strips and uneven chip sealing that made the traffic lane more fun to ride. With the wide open vista and relatively little traffic it was easy to ride just to the left of the white line and move to the shoulder when traffic approached. Normally it is a bit of a pain to ride over rumble strips but these strips had periodic gaps of smooth pavement about 10 feet long so it was easy to pick these smooth gaps to move back and forth between the traffic land and the shoulder. On top of this I had some tailwind until the latter part of the road when it turned right and the tailwind became a crosswind which wasn't all that bad because it had a cooling effect.
I arrived in Arco at 3:30 and checked out the accommodations as I rode through town. Near the other end of town were two possibilities and I chose the D-K motel. It looked inexpensive plus it had my initials so it looked like it was meant to be. I was worried about the motels on a Saturday night with the town close to Craters of the Moon but my room cost a reasonable $45 and it didn't look like there was any problem with availability.
After cleaning up
I walked to the Pickles restaurant almost next door for a fish & chips
dinner that was good. As I was walking I
got hailed by two other guys sitting outside their motel room who apparently
were father/son. They had bicycle toured
from
Today was a much more pleasant day than yesterday with the absence of the headwind.
Day 21: Sun, Sep 22, 2013 - Arco , ID to Idaho
It was a chilly morning in the 40s. I rode to just outside of town to a cafe recommended for breakfast only to discover it was closed on Sundays. So I backtracked to town and ate at Pickles again and had a good breakfast of pancakes and ham. It seems these days you can no longer get a good breakfast for less than $10 and Pickles was no exception.
It was still
chilly when I left town at 8 and some headwind made it worse all though it
didn't affect my speed very much. For
the day the route to
Leaving town left
the mountains behind and was basically riding across the northern tip of the 
Much of the route I've ridden from Mountain
Home to
There were no services along this route except for a rest area. So I carried extra water although I didn't think I would need it. As it turned out I never came close to using the 4 water bottles I normally carry. Since it was chilly enough I also bought some milk for my second breakfast. I got to the rest area 2 hours after leaving town and it was a little early for my second breakfast but I didn't expect to find any convenient place to stop along the road and the rest area had a picnic table so that made the decision for me.
The road had rumble strips that could have been planned better. They were offset a half a foot or so from the white line and that cut into the useable shoulder of maybe a foot and a half. That was manageable but when I was traveling faster I took the traffic lane because it was safer and it was easy to see traffic coming up from behind and move to the shoulder. Then after US20 and US26 split and I stayed on US26 the rumble strips were sloppy. They took more of the shoulder and weren't consistently set the same distance from the white line. On the other hand the last 20 miles were much better with a much wider shoulder and the rumble strips were less intrusive.
The wind which started out in the morning as a little headwind switched around some and was partially a tailwind by noon but was a crosswind most of the afternoon. I rode into town at 3:30 and stopped at a food mart for a bite to eat and drink and then stopped at a grocery store for some shopping. Then I found the Motel West which looked like about the least expensive place to stay and got a nice room for $52. It was about twice as big as my room in Arco for only a few dollars more and included a continental breakfast.
After cleaning up I found a Subway for dinner and then settled in for the night. As luck would have it the Chicago Bears were on for Sunday Night Football and my room had a nice TV.
Day 22: Mon, Sep 23, 2013 - Idaho
Falls , ID
The motel had a continental breakfast that I took advantage of. It didn't have any waffle maker so I had a couple bowls of cereal and a couple bowls of oatmeal where these bowls are the miniscule plastic bowls typical of these breakfasts. They also had some great thick sliced bread and some mini-muffins.
Today and
tomorrow are strategy days. The next two
days are projected to be windy and then Wednesday and Thursday are supposed to
be rainy. So I wanted to end up some
place where I could take a layover day on Wednesday and the logical place was
Today's ride was
4 different rides. The first part was
just getting out of the
Once I left the metro area I entered the next segment of the ride. This was large, mostly wheat, fields. These were interesting because they were rolling fields in contrast to the recent mostly flat fields. This combined with the clouds cast interesting shadows on the landscape.
After nearly 40
miles the road descended steeply into the
At the end of the
valley the Palisades Dam create the Palisades Reservoir that was used primarily
for irrigation but also for hydroelectric power and recreation. I thought this might be a drag coming at the
end of the day and with a lot of ups and downs but the ride along the winding
reservoir was scenic and the climbing wasn't as noticeable.
Also what wasn't noticeable was the
wind. The wind had mostly receded when I
descended into the valley and was hardly noticeable the rest of the way.
The same couldn't be said for the road's shoulder. It varied throughout the day. Initially I was happy with the shoulder and then it became chip seal. Problem was gravel covered the entire shoulder including the rumble strips. This helped fill the rumble strips and make them less noticeable if I hit them but also made them less visible and more easily to inadvertently run over them. Moreover the chip seal made the shoulder rougher riding. After 30 miles the chip seal shoulder thankfully gave way to a smooth shoulder. The rumble strips were real but easily visible and avoidable. Then in the valley the chip seal shoulder returned but without the rumble strips.
As I approached Alpine I was expecting to camp at a campground that was a couple miles from town. This turned out to be a USFS campground and it was closed for the season. I was tempted to camp there anyway since I could have easily pushed my bike under one end of the pole gate. Instead I rode towards town and just outside town the Alpen Haus Hotel had an RV Park and they also allowed camping. So I got a tent site for $10 that was okay but a shower would have cost $6 extra because it was part of the hotel.
After setting up I walked to the restaurant at the hotel and found they were just starting their business. I had an okay BBQ pork sandwich and a cup of chili. Okay but nothing to really get excited about. I was at least able to use the WiFi in the restaurant.
Day 23: Tue, Sep 24, 2013 - Alpine, WY to Afton , WY
I packed up and rode the short distance to town. Usually when looking for a breakfast place I look for a place with a lot of cars. The place I would have chosen using this criteria was a place the guy in the Alpen Haus restaurant strongly suggested I avoid. Instead I followed his recommendation and stopped at the Cowboy Bistro, which had nobody there. That made me somewhat uneasy but I had a good breakfast of pancakes and ham so the choice turned out fine.
I took my time at breakfast because it was a chilly morning and I wanted to wait for it to warm up a bit. When I left at 8:45 it was 43F but there was little wind and the sun was out and I figured it wouldn't take too long to warm up.
It was only a
little more than 30 miles to
When I started
out there was no noticeable wind and I hoped to get a good ways to
The first 15
miles were also
There were a lot
of public fishing access points along the way and I spotted one boat on the
Just before 11 I
noticed the wind picking up and then I stopped for a second breakfast at a food
mart in Thayne, population 375, where I had a breakfast burrito. When I resumed riding I noticed the wind was
much stronger and I had a significant headwind for the last 15 miles. This was still much better than a headwind
all day but the combination of gradual climbing and headwind reduced my speed
to about 6 mph.
So it was a grind
the last 15 miles to
I got into town about 1:30 and made a pass through town to check out the services. There were 4 motels according to Google. One I ruled out right away because it had kitchenettes and cabins which would be more expensive than a simple motel room. I found another was really condos being used as motel rooms and I ruled that out. That left the other two options. I called one motel and got no answer and the other said rooms were $77 and it didn't take me long to decide that wasn't my choice. So I rode on to the motel that didn't answer and got a room for $62, much better than the $77. The guy who checked me in was a talker and fed me a bunch of stories about wildlife in the area including mountain lions and snakes. I probably could have stayed there as long as I wanted hearing these tales but the guy was perceptive enough to realize I probably didn't want to spend the rest of the day hearing his tales.
The room was fine and the motel was next door to a restaurant where I ate later.
The big question
was what I would do tomorrow.
Originally, the weather forecast was for rain and thunderstorms tomorrow
but now the forecast was for some intermittent rain but then wet snow Thursday
morning as the temperature was forecasted to drop 20 or 30 degrees compared to
today. So there was the possibility I
might ride tomorrow to
Day 24: Wed, Sep 25, 2013 - Afton ,
WY
I ate breakfast
at the restaurant next to the motel. It
was a chilly and dreary looking morning.
I had hoped I might get away today and make it to
Around 10:30 I decided to stay another day. By that time the sky was looking a little better but not to the south where I needed to ride. At this point I hoped it would rain some more to make my decision look good.
After paying for another night, I walked downtown. On every one of my tours I always forget something and I usually figure that out quickly. This year I didn't notice anything missing and thought this might be the exception. However, when the weather started turning colder I realized I couldn't remember packing up my light pullover. So I checked my bags and couldn't find it. I had enough clothing to make do without the pullover but decided to see if I could find a replacement in town. I found a fleece pullover in a store that was just about what I wanted. The smallest size I could get it in was large so I was stuck with that although I wasn't convinced a medium was the right size either. I wore that pullover as I walked the approximate quarter mile back to my motel.
For the rest of the day I pretty much killed time, took a short nap, read some on my Kindle, and sent some emails. Close to 4 pm I walked downtown again and the weather was actually looking pretty good at that point and there were some blue patches in the sky. I also saw a dusting of snow at the higher altitudes in the mountains.
Day 25: Thu, Sep 26, 2013 - Afton , WY to Montpelier ,
ID
I ate breakfast at the same place as yesterday and ordered the 3 pancakes. The waitress tried to convince me 2 would be enough and that's when I knew I had a good order and it was a good order. Back at the motel I checked the weather forecasts. They seemed reasonable enough given the uncertain weather that I decided to push on rather than sit in a motel for another day.
I packed up more
carefully so that my cold/wet weather gear was easily accessible. For the first time on this trip I wore socks
with my sandals – a thin wool sock and then my SealSkinz waterproof socks. This combination worked for 20F at
I left a little
before 9 while the weather was looking okay in the mid-30s. I had 2 big climbs for the day for my goal of
The problem with cold weather like this is finding the right clothing balance, enough layers to keep warm but not too much to overheat and perspire and get chilled. After a short while I had to remove my light windbreaker to avoid overheating. Then as I started the main part of the climb to the pass I had to put my windbreaker back on.
After 10 miles it was obvious I was riding into some low clouds and I hit some snow showers, which was better than rain since I didn’t get wet. I was surprised when I reached the pass at 11:30, thinking I still had a ways to go. Unfortunately, due to the clouds there wasn't much of a view.
When I started the descent from the pass I kept my speed under control. I didn't want to get wind chilled, the road was wet, my rims were wet with less braking power, and the road wasn't in the best shape for a high speed descent. I kept the bike in the 12-15 mph range.
As I descended I was getting pelted with some rain and became rather chilled. So I stopped and put on my rain gear which helped immediately but I was still chilled. I began to wonder if I would have to stop and throw up my tent and climb in my sleeping bag but I never quite got to that stage. Then as I descended more the rain stopped and I was okay.
It was too bad about the weather because it looked like the descent would have been really scenic.
At about the half
way point I re-entered
I reached the
pass at 2:30 and put my windbreaker on for the descent. The descent through the 
When I reached
the bottom it was only a few miles to
The motel was not well located for food but there was a pizza/sub joint just across the street and that was good enough for me and I had a pizza for dinner. Then when I got back to the motel I powered up my PC and was dismayed to see there was almost no WiFi signal. So I complained to the manager who was basically clueless about WiFi. When I explained that the closer a room was to her WiFi equipment in the office the stronger the signal she let me try another room. It wasn't good enough either but it was closer to another open WiFi signal that worked so I moved to the new room.
Day 26: Fri, Sep 27, 2013 - Montpelier ,
ID
It was freezing or a little below when I left the motel. I backtracked a half mile to a Maverik food mart for breakfast. There was a restaurant with a regular breakfast in town but it was about a mile north and I didn't feel like going that far. So I had a breakfast sandwich and bear claw with coffee. That was okay but it was too cold to eat outside and there was no sitting inside so I had to eat standing up.
I left town just
before 9 heading west. I had to ride
west about 6 miles before US89 angled to the south. I could see that the weather didn't look good
to the north and it didn't look good in my rear view mirror and I saw some
signs the weather was acting up to the west.
So it didn't look good but I never got spit
on. On top of that the wind was from the
northwest so when I turned south I had some tailwind. That meant the only issue was the cold and I
was pretty comfortable with only my toes feeling a little cold.
The road had
little shoulder until the small town of
The first town
along the way was Paris, a small town of 513 that was established by a group of
Mormon pioneers in 1863. These folks
thought they were in
After
As I was riding I
was interested in finding a place to have a regular breakfast. There was a
Just before noon
I crossed into
My plan for the
day was to stay at the south end of the lake, either in a campground or a motel
at Laketown. However, I learned that the
lodge at Laketown was a group lodging place.
I would have liked to continue on to
At this point I
had only ridden a little over 30 miles and would have liked to put in more
miles but the next real place to stay was
After I ate my
breakfast I checked into my room.
Learning my lesson from last night the first thing I did was try the
WiFi and found I couldn't connect. This
was almost certainly because the signal was a little too weak. So I got another room to try and was able to
connect immediately. Internet access is
always nice but it is more important when trying to keep abreast of what the
weather is doing. Tomorrow the weather
is supposed to start warming up back to normal temperatures for this time of
the year. That's important because in 2
days I planned to be riding up to
This was an easy ride. It was flat and scenic with some tailwind and reasonably comfortable despite the temperature. It was a day when you would like to continue riding.
Copyright
Denis Kertz, 2013. All rights reserved.