Eating Cookies/Not Riding Our Bikes for a Day

Posted from: Stanley, ID. Post written a few days back without cell service.

On day 14 of our trip we are finally taking a rest day at Easely Hot Springs outside of Ketchum, ID. We have cookies, pancake batter, potstickers and a very small box of wine, which is a great start to rejuvenating our poor broken bodies. Since the Wasatch mountains in Utah, we’ve been riding through smaller and smaller mountains until hitting the Snake River Plain, a couple hundred flat miles of cows and potato fields, interspersed with sage brush desert and cows. It’s also full of mosquitos, which has been taxing, but it also means the desert is well hydrated, promoting a wonderful display of wildflowers and a nonstop cacophony of birdsongs. The birds have been unexpectedly thrilling for us. They provide much better entertainment than the cows, which mostly just stare blankly at us, grass hanging half eaten out of their mouths, looking like they are going to charge us and then run away at the last moment. As we grind along through the hot sun, the headwinds, the thunderstorms and the mosquitos, the robins and jays flit around and sing and the hawks and eagles and turkey vultures wait for us to collapse off our bikes and turn into a fine little snack. I’m really into birds now.

We’ve since dragged ourselves out of the plains, ridden through Craters of the Moon (an undulating, barren landscape of old lava flows that bear a striking resemblance to our buttcheeks right now) and ascended into the mountains of Idaho. We are very content to be in the mountains.

We have experienced a lot of beauty, refreshing solitude, and a generous amount of quality time together (turns out we get along really quite well (fingers crossed, knock on wood, 100 days to go, delusional..?). I think we both agree that, besides the bird drama, our interactions with people along the way have been some of the best highlights of the trip. Living in Salt Lake, I was used to mostly being in the way as a cyclist and wasn’t really sure what the reaction to us would be on the road. Once we strapped a silly amount of stuff to our bikes and left the city, folks have been either confused or excited enough by our situation to overlook that we are in their gas station filling up 8 water bottles and shoving 15 ketchup packets into our pockets for later use. Some of our nicest interactions have been:

• A gas station attendant in Blackfoot, ID that expressed exuberant support and told Zoey “oh honey that is so wonderful, but you know it’s all uphill from here!”
• Support from near the whole populous of Arco, ID. A very small town fallen a bit on hard times but full of wonderful folks. The proprietor of Dragonfly Tarps gave us a tour and gifted us very nice tote bags after we barged into her workshop. The lady at the front desk of DK motel gave us two dollars in quarters for free to run extra dryer loads after we walked in drenched from a thunderstorm. Michael, a fellow bike tourer we flagged down on the street, provided much needed commiseration on the troubles of living on a bike and crucially reminded us that we need to take a day off.
• Erica and Ademir at Wild Rose Hot springs whose eyes bulged near out their heads when I told them what we were doing and exclaimed “qué resistencia!” after confirming “Jack, like from the Titanic? Titanic Jack!”
• Caroline and Kevin from Hailey, ID who filled up all our water and gave us cookies after seeing us struggle with campground faucets that had all been shut off.
• Chip, owner of Sun Summit South Bikes in Hailey, who lent the full scoop on biking in the Wood River Valley and lots of excitement about our trip.
• Patty and Tom, first people to offer us cold beer outside Stanley, ID!
• Dozens of other folks in trucks, on bikes, and in gas station parking lots, who have stopped to ask what we’re doing and offer water, prayers and more than one “we are so proud of you guys.”

We are going to start highlighting a piece of gear we really like at least once a blog post. I really like these pillow cases I sewed. They are a very soft flannel material we found at Savers with birds on it, and I like birds a lot now. You can shove puffy jackets or dirty cloths in them to make a very comfortable pillow. And our dear friend Abby Scott embroidered a small J and Z on them so we wouldn’t mix them up. Thanks Ab!