Day 8: Windswept attractions

I've been thinking a bit more about this tour as a whole. Specifically in two ways: wind and altitude. I'll save my thoughts on altitude for another post.

We've been dealing with a lot of wind. When a cyclist starts yammering on about wind it's almost always a head wind. For several days on this trip the wind seems determined to blow just the opposite way that we want to go, even when we change directions! A straight-on gusty headwind like we had in the last leg of today's 120 mile, 6.75 hour segment from Jackson, Wyoming to Montpelier, Idaho is the hardest to deal with. How do I know its straight on? This afternoon riding down to Montpelier in these conditions there was the sudden strong odor of skunk. Must have been run over. I looked ahead and about a half mile down the road I could see the victim in the middle of our lane! It WAS a big skunk, but still...

I guess its obvious, although I didn't formulate the thought until today, that when the atmosphere sweeps across the North America continent its going to get worked up by the Rocky Mountains. So when we choose a route along those mountains, we should certainly expect windy conditions. Since prevailing winds are generally out of the west, you'd expect roads heading west to have a head wind. However for whatever reason the wind has been coming out of the south this last week and that looks like it will continue.

The first thing that you can do in this situation is try to not let the wind bother you. The ride will take more time but that's not the end of the world: what else do I have to do these days? And then consider that in the movies the stars (those that are well endowed with hair or a nice wig) always have the wind blowing that hair out, rustling it in an attractive way. So I can imagine how suave I am out there. Speaking of which, funny thing happened today. I was riding with Micheline again, just the two of us with me in front, when a pickup truck passed us on a small farm road. It was odd in that he kinda slowed down as he came by and then quickly sped up after he had pulled even. It occurred to me that with Micheline's long hair and my pony tail he probably thought we were a pair of babes, until he got up to me and saw my craggy and bearded visage. Sorry about that! I didn't mean to tease you.

Despite the wind, we had a great ride today along mostly good pavement and with low traffic conditions. It started with a long run downstream next to the Snake River with intermittent valley fog which took the temperature down to 34°.

on a 10 mile very nicely paved bike path:

The river goes through a canyon between the Snake River Range to the north and the Salt River Range to the south which would probably be considered one range except for the cut of the river. Due to a lack of imagination, this canyon is named the "Snake River Canyon" even though there is a much more significant "Snake River Canyon" on the western side of Idaho. So disambiguation is required with "Snake River Canyon (Wyoming)".  I guess its like Gibbs Road back home - every county has to have one of their own.

The canyon choke point, with the Snake River Range on the right:

Looking back upstream:

After exiting the canyon we bid adieu to the Snake and turned south to go upstream along a tributary called the Salt River. Views of the Salt River Range about 40 miles south of the Snake:

Eventually we worked our way to the far end of the Salt River valley and entered National Forest land.

And after a one and a quarter mile climb at average 7% we reached the summit with its plaques:

My arrival at the top coincided with the "big boys" group so I joined in for the wide open 3.5 mile descent. It wasn't all that steep and I had to pedal hard to keep the pace up as our group whittled down to only 3; I believe I worked harder going down the mountain than climbing up it!

PacTour had set up the last rest stop of the day at the state line. Since our route so far hasn't been well endowed with state line signs, I took pictures of both directions. 

Looking backwards:

And forwards:

People in these parts are really into adding stickers to their state line signs.

At the rest stop I didn't tarry long and headed out on my own. When the big boys came by I was able to grab onto the train and ride behind them for a few miles until we hit the final climb at mile 110. Here is that group just powering away from me and from the looks of it having a nice chat while they were at it:

Top of the hill:

It was similar in length and grade as the first climb but harder because the wind kept getting stronger.

Tom P, the strongest (and youngest) rider of the big boys group, has been generating a 4 minute highlight movie every day using his GoPro camera and app.  It's a great alternative to reading the screed above. I can be seen out in front in the light orange/white jersey starting at time stamp 2:50.