A Mile of Climbing

With this as our last training ride before next week's Utah Cliffs we decided on an endurance ride into the snow covered mountains working more on strength than a century on the relative flat would provide. Since the LT's first century, he has been out-riding me, so I let him decide though Bogus is still obviously snow covered. Ever since our first adventure of a couple years ago which took us over Aldape Summit, I'd wanted to ride to Aldape Summit and catch a ridge road that would take us to Bogus. He suggested that same ride but in reverse, so we wouldn't have to descend the paved Bogus Basin road. "In reverse" makes finding the route more difficult; there's a spider web of unmarked roads leading off the top of Bogus which I didn't think I could navigate, but pilots have excellent map reading skills, and the LT had carefully printed the maps, so I agreed.

As we neared the top, we had a brief discussion about turning right, but the map reader decided the details were wrong, so we continued on. In about a mile we turned around- back to that dirt road which had been plowed but didn't quite match the map. For the rest of the ascent we'd be on mostly dry dirt despite about 2 feet of snow everywhere else. The LT had a flat, and as he changed it, I ate lunch as he warned we had some 800 feet more to climb. I did feel that lunch in my tummy in the next 800 ft climb. We hoped to find our turn off back to Aldape Summit before reaching the top at Doe Point, but that's where our turn out was - snow covered and unplowed. With 2 to 3 feet of snow covering our planned route and unsure how far we'd have to push down through the snow, we reversed course. We'd climbed about 4000 feet. That would be adequate, and our planned route was all downhill from here.


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The LT Descends from Deer Point on the plowed road

The LT still didn't want to descent on the pavement, so those pilot eyes of his caught an unmarked jeep road that descended in our general direction. "You can see the trail there at the bottom of the canyon, it has to lead back to Boise" the LT assured me as we discussed following this obvious shortcut back to Boise. Sure enough, it was a great trail that wound steeply down through the forest with a few short sand traps, some wash outs to make it more interesting, and with no problem rocks- my favorite kind of trail. We were at the canyon's bottom ready to descend trails back to Boise when we started climbing, climbing, and more climbing that required granny 2 or 3 and that occasionally forced a shift to granny 1. Uhm, despite the pilot's map reading skills we'd now climbed over 5,000 feet! "Well, maybe we'll get in our first climb of over a mile" the LT observed. "I guess that's a meaningful goal" I replied, but my legs were still beginning to burn as the LT hoped to get me to climb another 280 feet. At least I'd brought plenty of food. It was time for a snickers.



The LT in front of the Boise Valley just before we'd climbed back to Bogus Basin Road

There was another fork in the road just where the above photo was taken. "Maybe that's the route that takes us back to Boise", the LT observed. He may be right, and I suspect we'll return to that trail later this year to explore, but I had a 6:00 dinner appointment and someone may have been getting too tired for exploration. The descent on Bogus Basin Rd has a couple of climbs at the bottom that brought us to 5351 feet of climbing in about 42 miles of riding. We'll save that exploration for Chief Winn, SGT Bullard and SGT Schumacher, who need to work on their hill climbing abilities.




The LT's altimeter shows 5,351 feet of climbing for the day

First Century for the LT

I'd written the perfect training plan for the LT with 45/50 mile evening rides plus longer weeekend rides so LT Klein would be ready for his first century before we leave for Utah Cliffs later this month. Two problems ruined the plan; April and May weather have so far been like a long continuation of March- wind, rain, or both most days, and the LT has allowed his work to disrupt my training plan for him!

Despite the weather issues, we'd worked our way up to 56 miles last Saturday as we rode to "Pearl" a defunct ghost town which even the ghost has left- only a couple of mine shafts remain of this old mining town. Getting there involves climbing on dirt roads which I believe the LT's altimeter showed 4,000 ft of climbing, so with that success I thought he'd be ready for 75 to 80 miles on the pavement this Saturday as we revised our weekend to eliminate the weekend outing in the Owyhee Mountains due to more bad weather. The revised plan was, he'd meet me about 10 miles from the city center giving him about 80 miles and me just over a century. We'd bring rain gear and tolerate the predicted drizzle. As we were making final plans to meet, he announced the planning was too complicated; he'd start from his home. Well, that would be a ride of about 92 or 93 miles which was just beyond what I thought his training supported. I don't like to set guys up for failure- regardless of what Corrie may say- they might not ride with me again, huh Corrie? But neither do I like to limit their adventures, so with a weather forecast of drizzle throughout the day with breezes of 2 or 3 MPH, we headed out on the wet pavement thankful for our fenders! I threw out the idea that if he made it to the finish he might want to do his first century, and if his odometer showed he'd crossed the 100.0 mile mark, I'd buy dinner.

Within an hour the pavement was dry, and the predicted 2 or 3 MPH winds had grown to steady 10 to 15 MPH winds- consistently in our faces no matter what direction we turned as we headed generally Northwest. At the old country store of Letha, we turn to ride generally southeast. In a rare act of weather justice, the winds were now at our tail no matter how we turned on the return to Boise. The sun was out most of the time, and the predicted drizzle didn't happen. I thought climbing Old Freezeout Grade at about mile 60 might zap the LT's strength, but I was wrong. We sped down the other side with our friendly trailwind and bright sunshine.

I hadn't noticed the LT tiring, but when we reached the city, at about mile 85 the LT wanted to finish on the "flat" bike path which follows the river rather than Hill Rd which has a couple small rises in it that he was now calling hills. The trees along the river reduced the benefit of the tailwind, and the LT temporarily allowed his speed to drop into the single digits until I complained- we'd set 10 MPH as the minimum speed for the finish although the LT may say I set that minimum speed! A small detour up onto the Bench and a ride on up to Broadway Bridge before the return to the LT's apt brought his total to 100.2 miles- we took the photo in a more scenic spot just before reaching his apt. Oh, dinner on me was at the Outback Steak House.

Scott & Doug, I submit that the LT is ready for an adventure on the Utah Cliffs!

LT Klein Finishes his First Century

Happy Cycling for fun, fitness, and transportation

Steve