Day 13 Burley ID to Pocatello ID

Day 13
Burley ID to Pocatello ID
Miles Ridden 85.7
Climbing 2550 Ft.
Average Speed 15.3
Total Miles 900.1
Miles To Go 2789.3


We got off to another dawn start today. About 50 degrees and cold until the sun warmed things up.  Burley turned into farmland very quickly and once we were out of town there was literally no traffic.

Miles and miles of sugar beets

 The farms gave way to sagebrush and sand and for 10 miles there wasn't a car, house, or cow or any other sign of civilization, When we stopped the bikes, there was absolute silence. In the middle of this wasteland we saw a very large older woman walking down the road with a backpack and two walking sticks. We stopped to talk to her and she told us she was walking from Oregon to Virginia. She had been doing it for 7 years and did no more than three miles a day and only during warm weather. A much stranger mission than our 7 week bike ride.

The route continued to follow the Snake River valley and crisscrossed the original Oregon Trail a number of times. Bikers and wagon trains prefer the flattest route possible.

Trains don't like hills, either

We ended up on Interstate 86 several times when there was no alternative, The road was much "cleaner" than I-84 in that there were almost no tire carcasses on the road which helped avoid the numerous flats we had earlier. Most of the rest of the trip was on very quiet side roads which paralleled the Interstate. The wind was not as favorable as the prior two days but wasn't a headwind so we made pretty good time.

Lots of both along the way but never together

A pretty quiet day, not much in the way of spectacular scenery,  We are constantly climbing, although gently,  as we approach the Tetons and are now at 4,600 feet of  altitude. My father spent time in Idaho with the Army during World War 2. He told me then that GIs were banned from Pocatello because it was such a wild and lawless place. Saw no evidence of that on our ride through town and since the population is now 75% Mormon am not expecting much excitement.

Arlene and Bob, the oldest female and male (63 and 78)