andy reagan only the interesting stuff

Gorgeous desert to mountains along the Salmon River

Stanley

It was Kristen's 21st birthday, and we were on sweep together! After stopping at a diner in town and singing happy birthday to her, and Alyson who's birthday it also was (although she got slightly overshadowed bc it was Kristen's 21st haha) with everyone at the diner helping and two candles in two pieces of pie.  It turned out being one of my very favorite days of riding, although slow we made it a lot of fun and it was hard not to have fun on her birthday haha.  We spend almost the whole day going into a headwind, uphill beside an awesome river, the Salmon River.  It's become an attraction for rafters recently, although the only thing going on there back in the day was a silver mine about half way there.  It was in a nowhere town of 29 people, and had a really cool museum that we spent some time at.

At the diner, b-day girls!

Their bikes in the AM

Tried to capture the oasis around the stream in this desert gulch near the host we left

A bustling metropolis

The museum there

The scenery changed from desert river to pine forest river, which was awesome to go through, and it was just really beautiful riding.  10 miles out from town, we stopped at a hot spring that went into the river and that felt great.  It was long day for only 62 miles when we got into town at 4:45PM, but neither of us minded.  Perhaps the best moment of the day, maybe the week or even the whole trip, was turning one of the many corners through the valley next to the Salmon River we had been climbing all day, to see the landscape open before us to the skyline of the Sawtooth Wilderness Mtns.  Stanley claims that is has the best mtn vista in the west...and they may be just right.  To top it off, we camped out on the side of town close to the mountains, the only thing between them and us was a field and some trees.  I slept in the hammock, and the stars were out of this world as well.

Hot springs!

Desert canyons to an oasis

Challis

It was another long day through the desert to Challis, with roads that disappeared into the horizon.  The whole day we battled massive headwind, with one gradual climb and a great descent.  By far the coolest part of the day was the Grand View Canyon that we passed through.  Approaching the canyon it looked like we were going to run straight into a mountain, but actually descended through it and the views were epic. We stayed four miles outside of town, up a big hill, and they Living Waters Retreat Center which was like an Oasis in the desert.  Before climbing up there, Mark and I waited for Zach and got some good calzones in town.  When we got there, next to the stream, I pitched my hammock and took one of the best naps ever.

Lunch below the second highest peak in Idaho, we passed the highest later

Entering the Grand View Canyon

The Atomic City

Arco

The town is famous as the first to be lit by atomic energy, and oh boy do they pride themselves on that.  We came in to catch the first night of their annual Atomic Days celebration.  On the way there, we passed and took a tour of EBR-1, the first power-generating nuclear reactor in the world.  The whole day biking was through desert, and some buttes, and is where the Idaho National Laboratory is located where they do all the nations nuclear research (over 50 test reactors or something).  That's where most everyone in Arco and Idaho Falls work.  Coming into town, we stopped our third pickle joint on the trip, this one being the "Pickle Place" for atomic burgers.  They made their own seasoning, and the beef was local somehow, one of the best burgers I've had on the trip.  Also their high school, Butte, were the pirates.  Their sign read "Home of the Butte Pirates" hahaha.