June 20, 2019
Day Eleven: Emmett, Idaho to Thirteen Miles Northeast of Lowman, Idaho
I was riding before 6:30. It was chilly. I wasted some of the expensive Nutragena sunblock I prefer by slathering some on my arms - my arm warmers never came off all day.
I'd been worried since the beginning of the trip about a ten-mile, high-traffic, narrow-shouldered section of busy highway that I'd have to ride this morning. I'm extremely careful with my route selection in general, and usually go to great lengths to avoid riding with heavy and/or fast traffic. The route I'm following is helpfully color-coded based on traffic count, and this was one of the few longer "red" sections. I'd spent some time yesterday puzzling over a way to avoid this section entirely, and thought I had gravel alternate. Ultimately I abandoned that idea because I couldn't be sure that Shalerock Road was open. Some googling revealed that it had been underwater as late as April of this year. I did shave off a few miles of the busy stretch of highway by taking a less direct route out of Emmett.
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As I'd feared, the six-or-seven miles on the highway was terrible - heavy truck traffic and a minimal shoulder. Several times I pulled off onto one of the occasional wide spots and let the trucks pass me. I'm a pragmatic cyclist, and will pull over, ride on sidewalks, and do basically anything to stay safe.
I was happy to get off the highway and onto zero-traffic Montour Road, and then onto several miles of gravel that stayed on the opposite side of the Payette River as the highway. At times I could observe the busy highway across the river.
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The gravel road led me the small town of Horseshoe Bend, although first I had to take everything off the bike and make a couple of trips carrying stuff in order to get through a closed bridge. The authorities REALLY do not want anyone using that bridge: The barrier was awkwardly high, and there was not enough room to slip through it on either side.
I stopped at a restaurant in Horseshoe Bend for a really good veggie omelet, then walked outside to find that it was noticeably chillier, and the skies were dark. A couple of old ladies came out, and one said "the sky looks nasty", while her friend said "I hope it rains so I don't have to water my garden." I glared at the second lady as I put on my rain jacket, which I would not remove for the rest of the day.
I rode through town and turned onto Harris Creek Road, which started off paved and then turned to dirt. I noticed a few signs announcing a road closure in the next few days, for something called the "Idaho Rally."
The dirt was fairly hard-packed and easy to ride on, although there were occasional soft sections. Also, there were intermittent wet areas that were explained when a couple of large trucks rumbled past me spraying water. Why?! I'm sure there's a good reason for this - maybe to keep the dust down? - but it was annoying.
At one point the cracked bottle cage that sits low on the bike near the front wheel finally broke completely, so I stopped and spent some time figuring out what do with my "auxiliary" water bottle. I ended up just strapping it on the rear rack with Velcro.
Around then I encountered a guy in a beat-up old Subaru, stopped on the side of the road. He was "scouting" for his team for the Idaho Rally, which he explained was a car race that apparently involves racing at high speeds up these rough dirt roads. "All the big names will be here!" he told me, then quickly listed the names of of some of the drivers, none of which I recognized, of course.
I suppose it would be like expecting him to have heard of the late Mike Hall, or of Lael Wilcox, famous names in ultra-endurance cycling. The only race car drivers I've heard of are named Earnhardt, and I suspect the only cyclist this guy has ever heard of is Lance Armstrong.
He did give me some good tips about the road conditions, so I thanked up and continued up the dirt road.
I saw a few more old Subarus with Rally decals, and briefly talked to one young driver about the event. He was able to give me directions that prevented me from taking a wrong turn, and a mile or two later it finally started to rain, just as I pulled into old mining town of Placerville, population 53.
I parked my bike on the porch and went inside "Donna's Place" to find a surprisingly well-stocked store. The soft-spoken clerk was friendly and let me sit at a table in the back to warm up. This was not a convenience store with small packages of snacks, so I bought a large-ish box of peanut butter cookies and consumed about 1,200 calories in ten minutes.
A man who had been mowing in the tiny park when I arrived came into the store and introduced himself as the mayor, and confirmed my route out of town: More dirt for ten or eleven miles.
It was uphill on rougher dirt out of Placerville. After a few miles I started to descend.
After the dirt I turned onto Banks Lowman road for 22 miles of curvy pavement through a canyon. This was scenic but intimidating. The sky would occasionally clear, and then I'd turn a curve to see that it was black. It sprinkled a few times, but nothing more.
I arrived in tiny Lowman and walked into the store. The guy there, who was getting ready to close for the day, was friendly, and gave me two pieces of good news: It was twelve miles, not thirteen, to Sourdough Lodge, my destination for the day; and it was not too much of a climb.
I bought a few snacks and rode out. The sky was much darker now. In a few miles it started to rain. It was cold. In a few more miles it started to hail - small, but it stung. I rode through four miles of that and arrived at the Sourdough Lodge, which was a dump, but my tiny room (so small I had trouble getting the bike inside) had a powerful heater. After a long, hot shower I got cleaned up and walked to the crappy adjacent restaurant where I foolishly ordered mozzarella sticks, and for $8 received four overcooked little sticks on a sad piece of lettuce.
Back in my room, I found an interesting show on the Idaho public television channel about the River of No Return Wilderness, then went to bed.
Today's ride: 90 miles (145 km)
Total: 857 miles (1,379 km)
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