Day Four – The Sweet Summit

Daily Brief:

After a beating on day three, we ascend to the Sweetzer summit, cruise on through some of the most beautiful roads we’ve experienced yet, and met the Snake river for the first time.

The Highest Summit

We arose well rested from our trip through Hades on day three, thanks to a Sister Miller and the good Bishop of Snowville who provided a place for us to sleep. We got a decent start on the day, biking off at around 10:00 AM. The start of the journey was a little hilly, but we had some good downhill runs so no one was complaining. Then the road started to turn upwards again, but with a wide shoulder and not too intense traffic, we all just chatted our way up. Shaun and I (Parry) got to talking about everything from desert memories at Philmont, to Snowy memories at Park City, to plans for new memories. Kregg and Chandler were chatting it up as well, and somehow Chris survived our reminiscing. We continued up and up until we came to the top. The Place was Sweetzer summit, the highest elevation we’ve been yet. We took the moment to rest and survey our surroundings. Chris made the comment that there was “No rest for the weary”, and I had to agree, although today’s climb seemed a little more manageable.

After Sweetzer we kept on cruising, and finding an alternate route into Burley thanks to the clerk at a gas station we set out again. The alternate route proved to be a great idea and we came across some of the best road we’ve found yet. Smooth pavement, light traffic, and gently rolling hills with a slight overall descent made our last leg into Burley a memorable one. Once we started into the gently rolling hills we had to let loose, unity was somewhat splintered and I found myself pounding down the road and finding a rhythm that I often enjoyed running cross country. It felt so good, it was like an all new type of freedom.

Arriving in Burely we made ourselves at home on the towns entrance sign (It was surrounded by nice grass, and was great to lay out on.). After just biking in the open country, everyone had their cell phone’s out in minutes and were getting all the updates.

We biked a short distance to a campsite next to the Snake river, and some few brave souls even made it into it, Kregg and Parry that is. After some much needed showers we ate and crashed in our tents. We probably would have slept in the open again if it weren’t for the mosquitoes.

Daily Stats

Distance: 77.53 miles
Time: 5:15
Avg Speed. 14.8
Max speed: 34.2

P&C Pushups: 150