Day Five – Idaho’s Eden

Daily Brief

Highway 30 took us through country bugs, black rock canyons and climbs, by the beach of the Snake River, and all the way into Bliss.

Burley, Bliss and Bugs

Starting out from Burley we decided to take a more scenic route, highway 30. At first the scenery was nice, but it was a tad hard to enjoy as we were constantly running into bugs. There is nothing like looking down to see seven flies stuck on your arm. Thankfully no one swallowed any, although we sure tasted some.

We took lunch in Twin Falls Idaho. The highlight was the conversation about Shaun’s Ski boat, and our plans to use it when we get to California. Let me attempt to recreate the moment for you. Carsten asked Shaun, “How does it fill the back tanks if it’s a waterski boat?”

Shaun answered authoritatively, “It’s a Mastercraft pro star 209”

Everyone “ohhhhhhhhh well of courseeeeee”

Chris “So it pretty much does your laundry too…”

As we continued onwards, there was the usual ups and downs, but what killed us was a black rock canyon. The Landscape looked like something out of a classic star trek show, it was an alien desert scattered with dark black rocks everywhere, like someone just dropped a cargo plane full of black rocks all over the place. As we came into it, the road climbed up, and up, and around the corner into up oblivion. We hit it fast, but it winded us so we had to down shift and take it a pedal at a time. Eventually, after what seamed like forever, we made it to the top. We took the moment to rest and recuperate and survey the landscape and check out the electricity generating windmills.

We were rewarded for our efforts up the long climb up the black rock canyon when later we came across my favorite sign yet. There is nothing like seeing “6% grade next three miles”, especially when it is all downhill. We cruised down the miles in what seamed like moments in probably the fastest three miles we’ve traveled yet.

Continuing on highway thirty we came across the Snake river again, which met at a little beach front at the Snake River resort. We hopped off our bikes, out of the hot sun and into the Snake River. It was so cold that I lost my breath for a moment. Chris decided he didn’t want to risk the wet spandex, a good maneuver - while the rest of us plunged in. We swam around a little, skipped a few rocks and watched the wakeboarders. After that we were on our way again. It didn’t take long to dry off in the hot sun.

The route continued to provide us some nice downhill runs, and Kregg made good use of them. Flying to the front of the line, he cruised down in his rocket red jersey and we managed to keep up. Cruising down highway thirty, it had been taking us longer then we thought to get to Glenns Ferry, so Shaun had us stop a moment as he talked to some locals. We found out that we had 27 miles to go, and it was already late in the day. We realized that wouldn’t be ale to make it before dark so we had to readjust our plans. The next closest town of any size was Bliss. Chris was positive the name was bad news. I called him on it, but he said, “I just say those things to lower everybody’s hopes…for all I know Bliss is the Eden of Idaho.”. And so, that’s where we went, the Eden of Idaho.

“Eden” had a 24 hour gas station / restaurant, two hotels, and an onramp to highway 84. We checked out ‘Eden’s’ grass for camping, but it didn’t look to promising, so we gave into the idea of a hotel. Shaun scouted out both. One was going to give us three beds and a decent rate. The other hotel wasn’t such a decent rate. Shaun was also a little put off by the office being in a room…and the room having a half naked man on the bed, as his wife (giving them the benefit of the doubt) answered the door to barter with Shaun about prices…so, the first hotel was very nice. We took showers and relaxed and enjoyed sleeping in a real bed.

Daily Stats

Distance: 92.37 miles
Time: 5:53
Avg. Speed: 15.7
Max Speed: 34.7

Total Distance: 350.37

P&C Pushups:150