PACTour Day 6/19 - "Snaking" back into Idaho!!!

Will and Jim protect their iPod and iPhone respectively in Otterboxes.  Jim is currently listening to a bunch of JW's music (lots of derogatory Hip Pop, some Beatles, lots of Red Hot Chili Peppers and mc cris.)  Will is about finished listening to East of Eden.

We spent the first 10 miles on a bike path along the highway.  Man SA needs this stuff.  It was in the 40's today as we rolled from Jackson, WY and Will was bundled up accordingly.

The bike path was hilly and alot of fun.  Great way to start the day.

We rode for 30 some miles this am back and forth across the Snake River.  Didn't see any snakes.  It's always nice to be traveling in the direction of water flow, you can really keep your speed up it seems...

Cowboy Up!! Outlet.  Perfect of our friend Wes.  Side story on Wes, he is in Atlanta and contracted the Belgian Flu.  Now, Wes may be a bit psychosomatic and just the mention of Will and Jim being sick might have caused the transmission.  Our theory, however, is that Marc changed planes in Atlanta coming to the U.S. from Belgium.

Unique entry gate to Afton, Wyoming, 2 deer during the rut with antlers festooning the entire structure

If the days weren't long enough, we coulda made a side trip and visited Matt aka Donny Osmond.

Will looking pekid, refueling at our delicious lunch stop.  Grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches with home made potato salad.  We eat alot of salty food and try to salt everything on top of that!!

Postcard scenery along the way, as expected.

This could be a good sign, or a bad sign, depending if you are about to start climbing or descending....

Trucks on Cheese!!  Every cyclists favorite signaling the climbing is over and the fun is about to begin!!

Particularly good sign if you look and feel like this at the top of the climb...  Notice the trucks on cheese in the other direction, confirming the climb we just did...

The Garmin validates the 7% grade, at mile 85.68 and hey Jim's screaming uphill at 7mph!!

Other data, confirming our current elevation 7596 3132 feet climbing so far, heading south at 1:13 in the afternoon, amongst other things.

After the rides, Jim's man servant cleans his bicycle for the next day...

Ascent view of our ride from Jackson to Montpelier.

Garmin view of the day.  Now you see why Will got fatigued, 2nd part of the ride steady then steep climb.  All into 20mph headwind.

Another Ascent view of todays Garmin data and ride profile.

Fantastic day.  Great route.  Tough day though as we headed into a big headwind for the 2nd half of the day.  Even the descents weren't pedaling.  We rode hard early on in the day to try to get up the road as far as possible before the wind started.

Will was feeling fatigued during the 2nd half.  Probably cause we were steadily climbing and heading into that headwind.   Several of the riders commented that they were pretty fatigued today, so there is probably partly an element of the 700 miles of riding we've done in 6 days involved too.

Jim still couldn't get his heart rate and power up on the climbs, but did a bit better than yesterday.  Coughing less and we kinda forgot about the effect of the altitude.  We were reminded about that when we carried our bags up 1 flight of stairs yesterday and became acutely short of breath.  The sprints really make you winded, Jim took most of them, including the coveted 10 point Idaho sign, then couldn't breath for a few minutes.  He knew the Will was struggling so he figured if he started his sprint way out Will couldn't respond.   Will seems to have command of the sprints that start from around 100 meters out, and easily took the Montpelier city limit sign, which is worth double points (4) as it is the finishing city.  The boys are pretty much tied going into the 2nd third of the tour.

Tomorrow should be a relatively easier day, riding 93 miles from Montpelier, ID back to Evanston, WY.  West winds are expected and we are heading South, so we should at least have a cross wind and not a headwind.

People have asked about Yellowstone Park.  Yesterday about 20 people chose to ride thru Yellowstone Park, unsupported.  They said the ride was spectacular and Jim plans to post a few pics from Cat Berge tomorrow.

Good to see our friend the Hook looking at the blog.  He plans to join us for 4 days of riding starting in Rangely, CO and always adds a spark to the tour.  We lost Cassie Lowe and Steve Born today as they had to go back to the real world (if you can call their home town of Kalispell, MT our starting town the real world...)

Off to dinner now, thanks for reading and all the support the boys get!!