The one and only time during this trip that we returned to a state happened today. Welcome back to Idaho, Illini 4000! We were only gone for 4 days, but we come back having experienced the United States like we have never seen it before and are individuals that have grown beyond what you knew before. To us, Idaho also changed. There were mountains, but nothing as close as we had observed during our first foray into the state. Now, Idaho was a much flatter state as we followed the Snake River Basin and we are learning about what this area of the state has to offer. So far, for bike riding, it is great! Downhill all the way!

Ride Overview

Mileage: 91.0 miles

Elevation: +1,586 ft. / -3,534 ft.

Points of Interest: Exiting Yellowstone National Park, Montana State Border, West Yellowstone, Idaho State Border, Harriman State Park, Frostop

Tales of the Trail

Before we could make it out of the campground in the morning, all of the teams on the road, including those in the van, had to make a stop at the campground shop to pick up some cans of the Old Faithful Root Beer. The price and taste made this popular last night and no one wanted to leave without getting some more. We stocked our cooler and then, finally, were able to carry on. The fringes of Yellowstone National Park were still pretty just as the central areas were. Through the forests and down the Madison River we rode until we made it to our first landmark of the day: the Montana State Border. Our route barely touches the state, but we do end up catching just the corner, so we can claim to have been to Montana! The first rest stop, a small café in West Yellowstone, was even in Montana to really make that statement true. For this occasion, we will give you a Montana border montage:

After Montana, Idaho came up quickly. There was a tough, short climb to enter the state, but progress was moving so steadily for those riding that they carried on through and the only one to get a picture at this border was Cole in the van.

Unfortunately, this was about the point that the road started to get quite busy too. The ride from here was much more stressful through the day and tiring due to the continuous traffic along the road. After that climb into Idaho, at least we were given the grace to have a slight downhill the rest of the day to counteract the traffic. Before the second rest stop, in the van, we met a pair of cyclists from England who were riding the Great Divide and very excited to see the result of the England versus Argentina World Cup game today. The man we talked to even said, “if we win, I’m going to Denver as quickly as I can to make it back home for the final!” The rest of our riders on the road were moving along very well and still had high spirits when arriving at the second rest stop on the day.

Some days, we seem to just catch one bad break after another and today was one of those starting at this second rest stop. Rain started to fall from the sky and quickly brought everyone to layer on their rain jackets. Rain also means that the cars from the heavy traffic have a harder time with visibility, so more effort has to be put into making sure we communicate and keep everyone in our riding group safe. Additionally, we all, always, get covered in sediment any time there is rain because the particles just stick to us when they get caught in the spray from a tire. The nice thing about this rain is that it did not last all the way to the third rest stop. Pausing halfway through and giving a chance to dry off, the rain paved the way for the next interesting event: a traffic jam.

As the riding groups were waiting along the side of the road with the van at the third rest stop, they started to see cars in the direction we were traveling back up and stopped moving. What could this be? After asking others in their parked cars along the road, we caught word that a massive accident had happened a couple miles away and that no one was being let through. We hoped that the drivers involved were alright and decided to wait a little longer and see if anything happened. As cars stayed still or turned around, we sent one of our groups out for reconnaissance. A couple miles up the road, they reported that even cyclists weren’t being let through and that someone had been told things would be cleared in 30 minutes about an hour and a half ago! The next decision was to wait a bit longer and see if anything was going to change before we might have to consider a shuttling situation. Now, things started to go right for us. The road was opened with one lane about 10 minutes later and our group ahead called to tell us. The second group rolled out and the van followed suit. Everyone made it through pretty easily at this point since most of the crash appeared to have been cleared. That part of the road was followed by a nice, long descent into the last stop of the day.

At Frostop, a drive-in that we had heard about from past Illini 4000 teams, we all pulled off to enjoy some food and a couple of their famous huckleberry shakes. The stop was definitely great and the food and fries were amazing, so too the huckleberry shakes. I don’t know whether this is a placebo from being in Idaho, but something about the fries here also tasted better, as if the potatoes were more fresh or something. Last on the day was the bike ride to Sugar City.

Arriving at the stayover, we found we would be sleeping in the band room of the Sugar-Salem High School. This was going to be so fun! We met the Assistant Principal and a local reporter who just so happened to drive by looking for stories and interviewed a couple of us (lookout for something in the Sugar City news). There was pizza and a bunch of cookies that had been given to us and critically, critically, there were multiple washing machines to help everyone catch up on the laundry we could not do during the last couple of days while camping. This was going to be an ideal stayover.