Past Stanley, Idaho
Miles? Maybe 30
Total miles. Losing track. Maybe 400ish. (Don't have a guidebook that tells me exactly where I am.)
I followed the Salmon River through the mountains all morning. The road was twisty turny with NO shoulders. I repeat, NO shoulders. White line, gravel, fallen rocks. The drivers were great and no one (well,maybe one) got upset with me.
And I had to constantly stop and take pictures. So much to capture! Oh ya, and there were hot springs bubbly up along side the road. I thawed my toes out there:)
And I saw a helicopter carrying a massive power pole slowly lower it into a hole high on a hill. Quite a site! Got it on video. I was worried that he'd hit one of the power lines with it. Not to worry. The power was turned off.
Yup. Got to Stanley I'm time for lunch and everything is closed. Like a ghost town. What's up? Power shut down til 5 pm. And it's 1:00. Arrrgghhh! Do I wait? Do I bike on? How far 'til there's a store? About 50 miles. Really? Ya know how you carry your fears? Well I've kept telling myself I had too much for a biker. Stocked like a hiker. I can always buy more in the next town. Well, not today. But I do have enough to go the 50 miles I decided. Cheese and Triscuits for lunch. Trail mix for snack. Ramen noodles for dinner. And just for Willing and Abal, I'm soaking oatmeal and fruit for breakfast. Oh, better go do it before I forget.
Done. Now where was I? So I decided to leave after a wonderful conversation with a mom pushing a stroller walking in short sleeves, baby in bare arms, and me in long sleeves shivering. They grow them tough in Idaho, she told me.
What a quaint town with unlaced streets and rustic buildings... But mo AT&T service. Another Arrggghhh! I mighta stuck around til 5 if I coulda got caught up on emails and facebook. No reason to stay, so off I went.
Into the strong headwinds I'd been bucking all day. I asked the woman if these winds were usual around here. No. Guess I'm just lucky. And they were quite chilly winds, at least to me. So I'd have my wind breaker on with hood up to warm me and then the winds would stop (they were gusting), and the sun was quite strong and quite warm ... and I'd get hot -hot flash- and there I'd be guiding the bike with my left knee ripping away at the jacket to get some cool air on my body. Another Arrggghhh!
And yet I was biking through some of the mist beautiful part of the country with pine trees scattered across the mountain sides, snow dusting the peaks, weathered rustic zigzag fences along the streams (wish I knew why) and lush grassy meadows...you, just like in the pictures, but I'm pedaling through it. For hours. For days. For weeks.
Yesterday I decided I was being too anal watching the mph, avg mph, total miles and all that...so I didn't let myself look at anything but the clock all day and just see how many miles I did by days end. 38. Not bad. I know: I'm slow.
So today I was trying the same thing, but I did check in Stanley and it was 15 miles. Well, a ways out of town, I look down and there's nothing registering on my computer. So I look to see if the wireless transmitter has pivoted away from the wheel. Gone. Lost it and the post it was mounted on. Arrrggghhh!!! Again? Not my day. One glove jumped ship this morning, but I realized it before biking off. A pink neon plastic flag I've adopted jumped off, but I saw it in my mirror. I didn't see or hear this fall away. I went back about a mile or so, but found nothing. Not to be. So now I don't have to pretend not to look, I have no idea how fast or how far except for the mile markers on the side. It'll be an interesting trial. Have to see if I replace it in Boise.
I'm loving drinking from mountain streams again. That water tastes so good! I brought a Steripen for debugging my water and the first time I went to use it it didn't work. Red light! I guess the batteries lost their charge. Too cold maybe. It's getting quite crowded in my sleeping bag with me and all the gear that needs to stay warm. We fight for space:).
It's getting cold again at night and I'm using my 15* bag. Sure glad I have it. Tonight's chilly already and it's not yet 8:00. And there are patches of snow all around outside my tent. Yup, I'm up above the snowline tonight.
Tomorrow a 10 mile downhill I've been told. Wheee!!!!! Hope it's warm by the time I get to it.
Pedal on, Pedal on
Saddle BagLady
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