last night i was too tired to update the blog after waking up at the unseasonably early hour of 6am, for the sole purpose of avoiding the wind and rain, only to head straight into it (thanks weatherman!). the first twenty miles out, we hit rain, a strong headwind and hail before we stopped for breakfast at smiley's ranch and to dry out for a bit, hoping the rain would let up. no such luck as we climbed to the top of galena pass (
8768'... not that i'm counting) through the inclimate weather. the descent from the top was especially challenging since i left my full length gloves in the car... i had to stop every mile to warm up my frozen fingers. We were able to warm up again at galena lodge at the base of the steep descent, where they had a fire and crowded dinning room full of father's day brunchers.
From there, it kept raining all the way to ketchum. phil made the rounds at all the bike shops, getting various adjustments and work done on his bike. When I caught up to him, it was sunny and blue skies. I stripped my rain gear and we enjoyed the 11 mile slow descending bike bath to hailey, which looked to be straight out of a real estate brochure for multi-million $$$ getaways complete with riverside views and golf courses. was very lovely.
pics of the day are mostly gray, due to the rain... sadly no great highlights as we traversed incredibly scenic country, but here are a couple:
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| could not figure out what type of bird this is, but it's cool lookin' |
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| coming up galena pass in the rain |
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saying goodbye to the salmon river valley
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| the trees seemed to weather the storm much better than i |
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| self portrait at the top of galena summit. ready for the freezing cold descent! |
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| coming into ketchum, blue skies over the wood river |
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today we head through the craters of the moon national monument over to arco, id. should be a more mellow ride with better weather. we meet up with my friend zeke tonight, who will join us on to jackson hole.
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