Just a nice ride

August 26th - Swan Valley, Idaho
Mileage: 128.94 km
Total mileage: 1198 km
Ride time: 6:34 hrs

Nice ride from the Mud Lake area to Rexburg. Straight road with gentle rolling hills. In between you leave the irrigated area and travel through the genuine desert.

I admired the desert with the blue mountains in the background. This desert area rolls gently for miles covered with sage and a small woody plants that blooms yellow. Among the brush is sparse clump grass, burnt yellow and gone to seed.

This is land that has never been touched by man. Land that has changed over time only as the earth has changed it. I know why certain people fall in love with the desert. To stand in the middle of it is like total escape...freedom. Akin to watching a wild horse run, or a loaded touring bike with everything you need in the world on it.

At Rexburg, the irrigation and the beautiful crops began again. We took an out of the way country road through Archer to Ririe. Very peaceful with no traffic.

I got a flat tire just our of Archer. A small razor like rock went right through the tire, slim liner and into the tube. The slim liner box guaranteed this would never happen. I fixed it and we went on.

From Ririe we began climbing. Quite an elevation gain with beautiful views of the Snake River and the approaching Rocky Mountains. The climate must change up here because the irrigation seems to end. The crops in these foot hills continue to be beautiful.

We dropped into the town of Swan Valley. Very pretty. Appropriately enough, we camped at the rear of the Sadddle Sore Saloon.

(Since today is Kim's official retirement day, he got to pick where we camped and what was for supper. We stayed in the tent and had Kraft dinner with fixings for supper. A bottle of nice wine for dessert. Anyone surprised??)