It's 4:00pm on a Friday afternoon and I'm sitting under a shelter at the conservation area at Willard, (just outside beautiful Brigham City), Utah to try to stay out of the sun. It must be crowding the upper 90's farenheit. To my left is the bay to Salt Lake. To my right are towering mountains; quite spectacular to say the least. A bit intimidating also, as tomorrow we have to start crossing them to reach the other side of Salt Lake City, a 153 km ride with a very steep climb right at the end of the day. However, will t0 worry too much about that right now. As it says in the "Good Book," "sufficient for today are the worries thereof (paraphrase)."
This past week has certainly been a little more challenging to say the least. The distances have been quite a bit longer, there have been some significant climbs and the heat has started to take it's toll on just about everyone, myself included.
Yesterday, was probably one of my toughest days to date. We travelled from Burly to Snowville (143km). To start the day we had several dogs chase us. Somehow we all (six of us cyclists)managed to avoid them. Shortly after that, Andy (deVries) touched the wheel of Cynthia (Aukema) who was in front of him in the pace line and crashed while doing about 25km.per hour. Fortunately, he went into the ditch where he fell rather than on the road where his injuries could have been very severe. A couple of bandages for the cuts on his knee, finger and thumb and he was good to go. He is quite a tough guy and was able to continue cycling. God was definitely watching over him and us there. It goes to show how quickly something can happen and how attentive you have to be while cycling. While in a paceline you are literally 12 to 18 inches away from the bike ahead of you. When you are travelling 30 plus km (20 miles) per hour, there is not much room for error.
Shortly after that we had two major climbs in succession. It was good that they came early in the day when the temperature is cooler. After that was endless miles of what I would term desolate countryside with nothing but sage brush and sand. By the time our third lengthy climb came it was already hot and my energy levels were feeling somewhat depleted. By the time we rolled into Snowville at 1:15pm (what a misnomer for a little town in the middle of a hot desert) I was quite tired to say the least. An air conditioned restaurant with ice cold water really helped revive my spirits and energy levels. It was probably my toughest day on the tour so far. Several riders had to be given rides as it was too much for them. One of them, Arnie, an older gentleman whom I've mentioned in an earlier posting, tore his achilles tendon while climbing one of the steep inclines and will not be able to cycle any more. He is in good spirits but terribly disappointed that he cannot continue. He will likely fly out of Salt Lake City on Sunday for home in Michigan. Please keep him in your prayers as he may need surgery.
Corrie, one of our SAG drivers (support crew that wait along the road with water for us) had an unfortunate (although quite funny) incident happen to him. He also has a portapottie hooked onto a trailer behind him for any cyclist that needs to "go." Well, he "booting" it down the road and his portapottie came off its moorings and went crashing onto the highway. You can imagine the mess, not to mention the embarassment.
In another incident (a lot happened yesterday), the trailer which houses the entire kitchen came unhitched (the pin somehow came out) while travelling down the highway. Fortunately, the chains held and they were able to stop without anything serious happening and get it hooked up again. Again, God's providential hand was watching over us.
Wednesday, in contrast to yesterday, was a fantastic day as far as scenery is concerned, while travelling from Gooding to Burly. At nine in the morning we stopped by a moderately large dairy farm with 1700 milking cows. (There are several in the area that are over 4000 cow operations. The farmer let us tour the barns. We watched as they were busy milking on the 50 cow, rotating parlour. It's a continuous cycle, one cow out and another one comes in as the parlour continues to rotate. They milk three times a day and grow as much of their own feed as possible on their 1600 acre operation. Impressive to say the least.
A half hour later we came upon the massive Snake River Canyon (the one that Evil Knevel tried to jump many years ago on his motorcycle. There is a falls farther up the river that we went to check out, known as the Niagara Falls of the West. While pretty and impressive, my vote still goes for the Niagara Falls in Ontario, Canada.
On our way through Twin Falls, we were treated royally for lunch by the Reformed Church there. Subs, chips, icecream bars and refreshments sure did hit the spot. The church there has 1300 members altogether. They have a huge church. On the way out of Twin Falls we passed field after field of potatoes, hence the term Idaho potatoes.
Tuesday, saw us travelling from Mountain Home to Gooding, again much of it very dry and desolate. While uptown in Gooding late in the afternoon, a fire (word has it that it was started by one of the locals burning garbage) started on the edge of town, fortunately downwind from where we were camped. Within half an hour the strong winds had whipped the fire into a racing, out of control inferno that had spread two and a half miles downwind and a half mile wide. Several water bombers from Boise and Twin Falls were called out to try to bring it under control. We were able to get quite close to it and talk to the police, ambulance attendants as well as a couple of the firefighters. We were able to get in a plug for "Sea to Sea" too and handed out several cards. They were very interested in what we were doing.
Overall, I am continuing to do well, getting sufficient sleep at night and staying hydrated during the day. My appetite is voracious. I don't dare step on a scale as I'm beginning to wonder if I might actually be gaining a pound or two. The scenery is spectacular, with something different every single day. This morning, for example, we were biking alongside a deer with a little fawn. How often does one get to experience that. I continue to feel everyone's prayers and support and feel very privileged to be a part of this amazing journey of a lifetime. I hope to continue to be able to keep you updated as possible, depending on availability of internet access and computors. I hope also to put a few pictures on the blog as well, as time allows. Until next time!