June 6, 2023
Day 7: Idaho Falls to Rexburg
Today I could easily pedal directly east from Idaho Falls to Swan Valley. Instead I will detour north to Rexburg to see the northern capital of the Mormon Belt.
Today's route is short and flat. I got on the road at 9:40 after a long phone call.
My route north out of Idaho Falls stays along the Snake river on back roads. It's a great way to get out of the big sprawling city. Most other roads are much busier. The route stays close to the river but has surprisingly few river views. I stopped at a county park to see the river from one of two plastic floating boat docks.
Today has the usual irrigated farms and canals in a wide flat river valley. I'm nearing the end of my wandering in the valley. Tomorrow I will start threading into the mountains.
During this tour I have seen surprisingly few railroad tracks and trains. I almost missed getting a photo of this train because it accelerated very quickly. I have never seen a train with 2 locomotives pulling only 7 cars.
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I appreciated that most of today's route is very flat. That allows today to be more-or-less a recovery day. I had a gentle north headwind in the morning and a gentle south tailwind in the afternoon.
Today's high temperature was 82F, the warmest day of the tour. It was warm enough for me to want ice in my insulated tea bottle, but Le Ritz hotel had no functioning ice machine. I couldn't get ice from a convenience store because I didn't pass any on my way out of Idaho Falls. Roadside convenience stores are quite rare in the Mormon Belt. They mostly sell things like cigarettes, beer, coffee, and candy that Mormons don't buy.
I grew up hearing "Aggie jokes" that make fun of Texas A&M Aggies. I learned about "Mormon jokes" in 1992 during my first tour in Utah. One common joke theme is that Mormons never drink alcohol when other Mormons are watching, but do secretly indulge when no Mormons are watching. Your beer is safe if you are with two or more Mormons, but your beer might mysteriously disappear if you are with one Mormon. I doubt this is genuinely common, but every stereotype has a kernel of truth. It's a well known fact that peer pressure is far more prevalent in Mormon society than in the U.S. as a whole.
Today I noticed a traffic pattern that I have seen on previous days as well. Traffic is extremely light on north-south roads that parallel I-15. Traffic is noticeably heavier on east-roads that connect to I-15. Traffic is heaviest on the few east-west roads that cross the river. There aren't very many bridges.
I crossed the Snake river twice today. The flow appears to be huge. Snow melt is still coming down from the mountains. The flow is noticeably bigger than where I started in Twin Falls, where much of the flow had been diverted into canals upstream.
Rivers generally get gradually smaller as you travel upstream past various tributary streams. Here the Snake river gets bigger as I go upstream because canals take away more water than tributary streams add.
Today I saw several amazing stone farm houses. I appreciate that yesterday and today I am finally seeing farm houses. Most of Idaho's irrigated farms were established in the early 20th century when truck farming was becoming the norm. Farmers built houses in town and drove a truck to the fields. This area must have been settled when farmers needed to live close to the fields.
Of course every farm house is extremely tidy and surrounded by green irrigated grass. That's the Mormon Way.
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During this tour I have seen several abandoned grain elevators. I find them to be very photogenic. They are a common sight throughout the western U.S.
Today's route passes through the tiny farm villages of Lewisville and Menam. They are quite tidy but do have a couple of abandoned buildings that are rare in the Mormon Belt. Mormon tidiness standards require old buildings to be renovated or torn down, not left to decay. Especially in towns.
In the village of Menam I stopped to look at a very nice recreational path that goes along Main street, then along the irrigation canal. People were using it, mostly mothers with young children.
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North of the village of Menam I had the first views of Menam Buttes which are volcanic cinder cones in the middle of a wide valley that doesn't look volcanic at all. 60 miles west of here is a 20x50 mile area of lava in Craters of the Moon National Monument. These cinder cones are quite far east, but are probably related to the volcanic activity that created Craters of the Moon.
Both cinder cones have large craters. The south cinder cone (on the right in the photo) is privately owned. The north cinder cone is public property and has a trail that climbs into the crater. The trail is difficult because the volcanic sand is extremely loose and deep.
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Today's second Snake river crossing is very close to the cinder cones.
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I could have stayed in the flat farm fields, but I climbed 200 feet at 4-5% grade to cross the saddle between the cinder cones. That gave me a closer view of the north cinder cone and a good view looking down on the valley.
During the descent I had my first views of Henry's Fork of the Snake river just before it flows into the Snake river. It is wide, shallow, and braided. I saw this river farther upstream in 2013 during my Florence-Missoula-Salt Lake City bike tour. I won't see much of the Henry's Fork during this tour.
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A few miles west of Rexburg I crossed the Henry's Fork for the first and last time. A huge swarm of cliff swallows flew around me.
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After crossing the Henry's Fork I continued east on ID 33 with moderate traffic. A 5 mile straight and gentle uphill grind from the river to Rexburg. I'm getting close to the Grand Tetons.
I arrived at the Quality Inn in Rexburg at 4:30 PM. I could have gone past the motel to see downtown, but I didn't bother. Same for Brigham Young University-Idaho and the Rexburg temple which are 2 uphill miles ahead. I will see them tomorrow.
Dinner was at a terrible Mexican restaurant nearby. I wasn't in the mood to go farther to find something better. Today is my 62nd birthday. I had a nice ride but this was my worst motel stay of the tour. Street racers zoomed by two sides of my corner room until 12:30 AM when police sirens drove by at incredibly high speed to chase the racers away. Once it was finally quiet, the humming noise from an illuminated Super 8 sign outside my wall drove me crazy. I called the front desk to ask if they could turn off the sign. They said no, but I could have a different room. So I packed up all my stuff and moved to a different room at 2:45 AM. That room was very hot and the A/C would only run for 5 minutes at a time. It took 2 hours to cool the room, with frequent manual intervention to coax the A/C compressor to start.
BYU students follow a strict Honor Code that prohibits drinking, smoking, and premarital sex. Most forms of rebellion are prohibited with zero tolerance. Tonight I learned that obnoxious fast cars are one of the few available outlets of rebellion for spoiled rich Mormon college students.
Distance: 38.4 mi.
Average Speed: 8.5 mph
Ascent/Descent: +467/-292 ft.
Today's ride: 38 miles (61 km)
Total: 281 miles (452 km)
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