Day 55, Saturday, June 14
This was one of the toughest days of the trip. We have had much longer days, and days with more climbing, but none were quite like this.
The day started like most. We got up around 5:30 and were on the road shortly after 6:00. We did not make it very far, less than one mile to the Maverick for their exceptional coffee.
We paralleled I-86 on frontage roads for a few miles until we reached the strangest section of our entire route: we had to get on the interstate. Fortunately, you are allowed to ride a bicycle on the interstates in Idaho. I do not know why.
We only rode on the interstate for a mile when we took the exit to the Massacre Rocks Rest Area and followed a trail into Massacre Rocks State Park.
After that we were back on frontage roads for a while. There were some climbs, but none were too bad. Then around mile 29 we diverged from the interstate on Old Highway 30 and entered the most remote country we had been through.
The 100-mile stretch between Casper and Shoshoni in Wyoming was remote in the sense that there were no amenities. But people did live out there, and there was a lot of traffic.
This 20-mile stretch of Idaho seemed much more remote. There were no amenities, nobody lived there, and there was no traffic. You could see for miles, and all this miles were filled with sagebrush and the occasional cattle.
The temperature climbed into the high 80s, I think, and there was a strong west wind. Of course they was nowhere to get relief from the sun. It was difficult physically, but mentally it was the most grueling stretch of road we have ridden.
We did finally make it civilization. We had lunch at a deli in Rupert, them rode a few more miles to our camp for the night. It was an RV park on the edge of Heyburn, run by a very nice veteran, Arlen, who has owned it for 20 years. It was mostly long-term renters, so it was a little weird for us. But the tent site was grassy and shaded, there was a laundry, and the showers cleaned off the road grime.
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