andy reagan only the interesting stuff

Idaho Falls Build Day

Build Day in Idaho Falls

We worked with the local Habitat for Humanity, which is getting larger and to aid in their expansion goal of building more than one house a year to aid affordable housing in Idaho Falls, they are focusing on expanding the ReStore as a source of funding.  We spent the day fixing up the new building that they acquired, which was a VAST improvement to the current one.  There was a TV crew there (I don't know the link to the video) but we got to watch ourselves on the news later that night which was cool.

For dinner, the pastor had us over to his house for a cookout.  He had the best set up for a cookout I think I've ever seen...it was perfect with a patio, huge grills and serving places, and it was an awesome meal.  I think I ate three burgers haha.  And when we were walking through his garage to leave, and gawking at his PERFECTly mint 1965 Mustang, he gave Mark, Dave, Jesse and I a ride back to the church in it! The only modification is a hookup for his mp3 player, which he filled with 60's music and leaves in the car.  That was awesome.  And below that, I got the YAWYD stem caps in the mail from my parents!!

Idaho Falls

***I've left the intro intact, but split out the other posts

I first apologize for the lack of updates, I'm loving the west and frankly, blogging has moved down my list haha with the beauty of the country and realization that my days with my awesome Bike and Build group are numbered.

As a state, I really enjoyed Idaho and just today we passed into Oregon.  My most recent tweet was incorrect though, because there is one county in Oregon that is still on Mountain Time...and that's the one we came into haha.  Tomorrow we will enter Pacific Time as we bike to Unity, OR.

Here's what has happened since my last blog:

07/14 Idaho Falls - ID 85
07/15 BUILD DAY
07/16 Arco - ID 72
07/17 Challis - ID 62
07/18 Stanley - ID 62
07/19 Idaho City - ID 90
07/20 Boise - ID 38
07/21 DAY OFF
07/22 Ontario - OR 52

I suppose I'll try to write a little about each!

Idaho Falls

Leaving Jackson, we climbed over Teton Mtn Pass, and Pine Creek Pass, making for a hard day into Idaho Falls.  Over Teton pass, we took the "old highway" which was the original Oregon Trail, was the highway, and has since been converted to a bike-only path.  It takes a very direct route up the mountain, with grade approaching 14% at it's steepest.  The newer highway takes a nice sweeping 10% grade up the side of mountain, of which I was a little jealous going up.  I pushed hard up the climb, and so did everyone I'm pretty sure because there was no other way up haha.  At the top, we could hear the first people up cheering from a half mile away, and we had a big celebration at the top with an arm tunnel, lots of dancing, and the haka.  On the descent, perhaps for our own good, Mark and I got stuck behind traffic which was frustrating to get on the brakes when we could've had our best chance at 60mph.  At the bottom, the whole group stopped and we got world famous (presidents pictures on the walls) huckleberry milkshakes in the teton valley.  They were great.  The second pass was very gradual and little longer, easy to cruise up.  Idaho Falls wasn't a great town to bike into by any means, it had that strip-mall feel, but the awesomeness of our host made up for that for sure.  We were greeted with food, cold water, showers, conversation...and that was great.  They provided us with dinner that night as well.  The four beard-off participants, including myself, entered the final stage of the competition by grooming the beards into some pretty awesome styles that night.

The local brew and my new glass from the night before

Bike and build breakfast...in all it's glory haha, every morning

View from the back porch eating...spectacular

Packing the trailer

And that's a well-packed CUS2010 trailer if I ever seen one

Approaching the pass...scary road signs

Grand Teton stood to the north

And a bike path, yay!

Yup, teton pass

Where it turns bike-only, and goes UP

Look closely and you can see the path we took. It took oregon trail wagon two weeks to cross

From the top!

And our second to last state!

Huckleberry milkshakes....yummm

The magazine they were in as a world famous milkshake. Mentions Ronald Reagan and Clinton coming to get one

So many bikes! We kinda take over

Over the second pass!

Zach gettin some

Derrick leadin 'em up

Aw, Tio, how sweet

Laura

And then a lot further down the road

It was so gorgeous

Kazane was treatin me well

Solar panels!

More beautiful views

And I have lots of pictures of the beards...I'll save those for later haha.

Pinedale, and JACKSON Wyoming!

These past two riding days have been challenging and beautiful, and today's day off in Jackson was great.

Wyoming!

A couple days ago, after a good 5mi climb!

Going to Pinedale, home of the Mountain Man and the Mountain Man Museum, was a 101 mile day and a strong headwind for the second half of the ride made for a long 7 hours on the saddle. On the ride, it seemed as if we came out of the desert into the Rockies again. On our right for most of the day were the Wind River Range of the Rockies, and ahead of us in the distance stood the jagged snowcaps of the Teton Range. It was a Sunday, and we had just missed out on the Mountain Man festival taking place that weekend, but did get to see some PC (Period Correct) horse and buggies leaving town as we came in. Perhaps the most interesting thing I learned was that mountain men (how many times can I type that) didn't actually have big beards like my own, but rather clean shaven so as to resemble their customers, Native Americans.
I spent most of the night doing the group's laundry, it was my turn on trailer crew and with Heather and Jen we did 31 people's laundry from three days in less than two hours. We still got to see the sunset, which was very pretty and by the time we got back, I had just enough time to clean my bike before going to bed for the night.

Coming into Jackson Hole I rode with my team for the photo scavenger hunt, and Sharif was sweep so our team stuck with him and we did a sort of "group sweep."  The ride in came up to the rim, and then down through the Hoback Canyon to Jackson Hole.  It was a beautiful ride, next to the river in the canyon was perfect.  There was a 5-6mi section of really rough dirt/gravel, and it got my bike all dirty after I just cleaned it last night and the headwind coming into town was sooo strong, that canyon was  like a wind tunnel, but after a second 7 hour ride we prevailed.  Our host is the Ambler family, who heard about us through their church and has put us up for four years now.  Their house is beautiful, next to rolling pasture with cattle and horses and right below the Teton Mtns.

So dirty....

The Hoback River on the way in

On our day off, I got to sleep in which was excellent, then take a van ride through the park to see BISON!  Jackson is really cool town with shops and outfitters and a cool brewery and bike store.  I got some cool stuff including a new cycling cap, a glass, a camping hat, and bandanna to keep my neck out of the sun.

Bison!

Look how huge they are...

Yeahh

Kristen under the antler arch in town

Look how far we've come!