Day 46 - June 9 - Shoshone Falls

"Oh it's such a perfect day. I'm glad I spent it with you."

Warmth, flatness, and Idaho

Today might have been my favourite day so far this trip. The morning was too cold to bike, so I sat in a restaurant, took my liesurely time, and enjoyed an enormous breakfast. In the warmth of the indoors, the sun was shining strongly on the table, reflecting off the cup of tea, glass of orange juice, and glass of water all laid out in front of me along with three plates of pancakes, eggs, toasts, and hash browns. I pulled out my handlebar bag, and started postcarding.

I wrote to friends, to family, to Sarah, but mostly to myself. I flipped through the pictures, mostly of Dead Horse Point State Park and other parts of Utah, and fondly remembered the ride through Utah. So far, it's been my favourite state. I finished eating late, and continued to sip tea until the late morning. As the restaurant was getting busy, I went back to my hotel room, put on some light music, and started packing my things.

With nothing out of place, I left my hotel, and faced the gorgeous day. It was not too hot, not too cold. The sun was out. I was well rested, and it seemed that the asphalt itself was springing me forward. There were light uphills and light downhills, and agriculture the whole way through. Compared to yesterday, this was a metropolis. The best part of it all was that there was no wind.

I enjoyed my entire ride to Shoshone Falls. When my back tire got a flat, I calmly put the bike on its side, and repaired it. The sun warmed, and the breeze cooled, and the flat was identified, patched, and repaired in no time. I even enjoyed the break. At Shoshone Falls, I lingered for a while, and took a bike trail back up the ridge. I normally don't believe anything my GPS says about things that aren't distance, but on that trail, my GPS registered a slope of 16% at the steep points. That was hard, but as with all uphills, enjoyable and rewarding.

The bike trail lead me to the suburbs of Twin Falls, which was my goal for the day. However, looking at my map, I found a campground about 3 hours away that was along the Snake River, was very cheap, and had hot springs. How could I resist?

I took small side roads to get to the campground, and passed through rolling green hills full of agriculture, small barns, and the occasional farm animal. Small streams flowed everywhere, along ditches, between farms, or even through properties. The grass was green, the trees were green, and for a moment I forgot about the rock and desert I've biked through.

And so, after a slightly irritating flat in my front wheel this time, I arrived at the campground, put my bike away, bathed in the hot springs, and sat on a bench by the riverside to watch the sunset and write this blog. You all know the routine by now.

The Image Gallery

I started seeing this airplane criss-crossing the highway, flying really low. I figured it was a crop duster, but holy hell from my angle it looked like the guy was playing Frogger with an airplane.

Now here's the thing with this area. You'd be biking along flat grassy farmland, and all of the sudden, out of nowhere, there's a big bridge and a deep canyon. It's happened to me a few times already that I expect a farm behind the trees, and get a 100m drop instead.

This one had a special viewing area, and the trail to it was quite the desirepath

Here's a picture of this river from the top of the bridge. I did inconvenience traffic quite a bit for this photo.

Of course, I also had to inconvenience the other side as well.

On the way down the canyon into the Shoshone falls viewing area, I saw a cute little waterfall.

These pictures are mandatory.


I should mention that oftentimes when I go to these places that have big picnic areas, and lots of families taking pictures, I also take the time to grab a quick snack. Lean the bike in the shade, open up the helmet straps, grab whatever granola bar is in the bag, and take a facie

You know, for the next picture, you're honestly just better off reading about it by yourself, but in summary, some guy named Evel Knievel strapped himself to a rocket, tried to fly across this canyon, and this was the ramp he used:
On the top of the canyon, I saw this cute little... Not too sure what it is.

I continued biking, and got another view of the canyon. This bridge is famous.

As I've mentioned already, canyons just come by surprise. Here's another one.

My campground was along the Snake River, which meant that I had to bike downhill quite a bit to get to it. When I finally hit the Snake River, I got quite a view.

I'm naming this one "Thornston."

Right in front of my campsite are these lovely waterfalls, on the other side of the Snake River.

Dinner!

My setup for blogging, camping, and enjoying the sunset. Goodnight!

The Map

Today I biked for 113km over the course of five and a half hours.

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