Gooding to Mountain Home

The best way to describe today was windy yet beautiful as we went along the Oregon Trail Highway. When we headed out this morning, we had only 63 miles ahead of us between the towns. Those miles though were hard earned as the conditions mentally challenged our group all throughout the day.

We once again biked along the beautiful Magic Valley during the first 20 miles of the trip. There was green all around us from what the farmers have been able to create through irrigating the Snake River. After these miles, we entered a canyon that’s walls surround the Snake River Valley. This brought us into Glens Ferry where we enjoyed lunch while lamenting on the heroics of the Oregon Trail. The town has a State Park commemorating where folk would cross the Snake River along their voyage. It now has become a fairly simple small western town along the highway.

After lunch the wind picked up a lot more as we battled our way throughout and out of the canyon. We temporarily said good bye to the Snake River as we made our way up the hills to get out of the canyon. With the wind blowing in our face, we biked in pace lines to protect each other. I tried to take the lead as much as possible knowing that I would be driving the van the following day. We got passed by a big trucker going maybe 10-15 miles per hour trying to go uphill. These twenty miles were exactly what I expected out of Iowa: brown, desolate and windy. It was a beautiful desolate though where we saw Wind Farms!

The town of Mountain Home is sized around 5,000 people with it having a nice cute downtown area followed with a long strip of the corporate big guns. I obviously preferred the cute stores, but I did not make much time for fun and play in Mountain Home. I was busy preparing for our big meal that the Trip Leaders were cooking up for the night.

Jake, Claire, Kelsey and I with the help of a large donation from my parents were able to spoil the group. On the menu were two unique salads, noodles with peanut sauce, seasoned vegetable/chicken, spinach and artichoke dip. We took a little time to prepare the meal but it was worth the wait for the riders. We even were able to fit some Ice Cream Sundae action in the mix that people enjoyed while watching the Variety Show: skits, singing, talents and interesting presentations. Oh wait a night, we still got some miles to bike until Boise Though!