A huckleberry shake, a view of a majestic peak ten miles away, an actual restroom at a state highway rest area, potato fields with all manner of irrigation devices, a quick descent on a forested hillside. Every element of a ride on a given day finds some place of significance in our memory whether we’d like it to or not. It’s important for us to reflect on and collect all of these elements, no matter how small, that we can during each and every day of this adventure. Welcome to Idaho, the Gem State, and our fifteenth overall.
Ride Overview
Mileage: 90.7
Elevation: +1584’/-3531’
General Direction: Turn left out of the campsite onto westbound U.S. 191, cross into Montana at mile 11.6, transfer to U.S. 20 in West Yellowstone at mile 14.2, and cross into Idaho at mile 23.5, continue on this road for the route’s duration until mile 88.9, turn left onto North 7th East in Sugar City and follow this road to the stayover.
Points of Interest: Madison River, Rocky Mountains (Sawtell Peak, Bishop Mountain, etc.), Henry’s Fork - Snake River, Teton mountain range (facing east)
Tales of the Trail
Dark sky was all we awoke to as Jaylen and myself cooked 36 eggs for some breakfast sandwiches. Our long ride began as ordinarily early as ever, with the now familiar addition of tearing down our tents and a fun ‘slow race’ organized by Sam Rosner. As the sun rose behind Yellowstone Park, we were given still magnificent, but slowly fleeting views of it as our time in Wyoming came to a close. We passed through our second bonus state, Big Sky Country itself, for about eight miles, allowing us to exit the national park and make some turns through the town of West Yellowstone. Montana had both the cutest little state sign and, in addition to being our fourteenth state, quite the beautiful stretch in its own right. A roadside rest area immediately after passing into Idaho began our first large descent.
Montana’s cute little sign. :)
. . . and Idaho’s.
The route continued to flow straight through forests and fields, and mountains near and far took their places in the background. Today we had two restaurant stops - one at Happy Anglers in Last Chance for some caffeinated beverages and sandwiches, and another at the Frostop drive-in in Ashton - home to delicious burgers and huckleberry shakes! Prior to the second of these, we made our way along one more ridgeline and eventually descended it at a 6% grade average. Near the bottom, suddenly, a flat agrarian landscape opened up before us, a bit reminiscent of Illinois. It was so interesting to witness and ride into this sudden change, and a continuing theme of valleys and fields with distant desert mountains will be present throughout the whole state. We even saw a few old friends in the form of the Teton range, this time looking at it far off to the west, with Grand Teton itself appearing much more shark tooth sized.
Kathryn and Emily enjoying some huckleberry shakes at Frostop.
The final portion of the day continued on a torn up but manageable U.S. 20 all the way into Sugar City. A few of us opted to make the day a century as others began to shower and run some much needed laundry. We are staying at Sugar-Salem High School and witnessing a gorgeously pink sunset over town. Looking forward to another longer stretch into Arco.
Okay, this is actually sunrise the next morning, but it looked kinda like this.
Cyclist’s Corner
Today’s Rider: Jonathan Boudreaux
How are you today? Doing well! This ended up being one of my best days of riding despite the arid and hot conditions, and I honesty have really enjoyed all of Idaho and its near-constant combo of mountains and fields so far. It felt special to ride through the tail end of Yellowstone, a bit of Montana, and to just see the stark contrast between desert mountains and potato fields after our descent today. Felt really great to complete another century with a few more miles at the end with Sam M, Sam R, Patrick, and Paul.
In your opinion, what makes a good I4K teammate? Someone who is kind, empathetic, and not just hard-working but driven to complete this work in any sense of that word. We work hard to complete this feat on what can easily be a tight schedule contingent on so many factors, and having someone to just be able to share a conversation with or provide some helpful words of encouragement can change the scope of one’s day tremendously. Speaking to the quality of being driven, one way in which someone can really shine on this team is through working hard in ways that others may not always see, and without expecting gratitude or anything in return.
Where was the best ice cream you’ve had so far? That’s a tough one given how much we eat, and I have to give credit to Kathryn here for describing the ride in one sense as an ice cream tour of America, but I have to give it to the Farm House Market in Yuma, Colorado. I haven’t been the same since I had that salted caramel Oreo and split a half-pint of it with Ed and Jaylen.
The best shake of the ride for me was actually on one of our rest stops today! The Frostop drive-in in Ashton, Idaho offers a huckleberry shake, quite good on its own - but this one had whole huckleberries inside. Incredible.
How have you improved in handling the bike during the ride? I’d say I’ve improved in a lot of ways on the bike. One area I struggled with on training rides was looking behind me for long enough to see cars because I thought I would tip over if I looked for too long and I couldn’t quite get the road in view because of the edge of my glasses. Practice and the sheer longevity of the ride has fixed that, and I also feel completely comfortable taking hands off to point out hazards or grab my bottle. This has also sharpened my quick-thinking skills in terms of all the unique situations we run into on the road whether for navigation, hazards, or something else.
If you could snapshot one favorite or at least special sight, place, or moment in your mind that you’ve experienced on the bike, what would it be, where was it, and on what ride day? Another very tough question, there’s so many that I and everyone on the team can pick out. If you’re gonna make me pick (oh, I am), one moment, almost more of a sensation, was during the day we rode through the Vail Pass on the way to Eagle, Colorado. I was with Sam M, Adam, and Emily, and we were going down a descent multiple miles long on a bike path. It was just the way that the absolutely massive mountains surrounding the pass seemed to raise themselves up as if slowly getting out of a chair. It was an incredible sight combined with the feeling of whizzing down that descent and one I will never forget.
In ten words or less, how will you remember this ride when we complete it? Everything and nothing, and the everything and nothing in between.
Please visit the rider profiles page on the website to learn more about this year’s riders! :)
