Vale, OR to Boise, ID: I’m getting out of Idaho
I woke up sore again and resolved to finally get a thermarest today in Bosie. I also woke up to a flat rear tire. Somewhere along the way I picked up a piece of wire from a blown tire. That cause a slow leak which I didn’t find until this morning. So now I’m down to the patched tubes.
The ride today took a lot less time that I had thought it would. Having nice flat-ish roads and little wind helped a lot. I did have a hot burning sun bearing down on me all day and despite applying sunscreen twice, I still got burned, even through my cycling tan.
On riding a bike in Idaho:
Try not to. From what I experienced people in Idaho don’t know what a bicycle is, or how to properly pass someone riding a bicycle on the road. In Oregon at least people gave you a little space, even during busy weekend traffic. In Idaho people seem to give you the least amount of space they can without hitting you. This applies even in the cities/towns. Truck drivers are especially bad. They don’t even move over in their own lane to give you space. They just ride the white line. Boise had some bike lanes, but those weren’t really observed and were really too small.
Don’t even get me started on the campground I stayed at in Garden City (just north of Boise). Needless to say my impression of Idaho has been bad. Plus I have to ride on the Interstate tomorrow… yikes.
On a plus note I did get a REI self-inflating sleeping mat which is amazing. I ended up spending, what I feel like is too much money at REI today. But my gloves were destroyed, and my bar tape fell apart, and I needed that mat to survive, and I needed to replace one of my water bottles, and I am almost out of tube patches. So I guess I did need to spend that much.
