Longest Ride Yet
Sunday, June 19 was a good ride. We headed from my house out south of town to Swan Falls Dam. Steve and I are both a little competitive, so, whenever we come across a hill we are both killing ourselves trying not to be the last one up. This kind of riding makes for great exercise. Right before Swan Falls you drop down into the Snake River canyon. The drop is about 700 feet over 1.5 miles (a.k.a. steeper than your average paved road). This was both fun and a little scary going down (“are my brakes going to work well enough to me from being introduced to Mr. Canyon Wall on the next switch back�). We got down to the river looked around took a short stretch and headed back up. Poor Steve only has a double (2 chain rings), I have a triple and, this means I’ve got significantly lower gears. This made for great fun since I had gears to climb the 9% grade and Steve did not (although to his credit he did not walk the bike at all). When we got to the top Steve was pretty tired and I was still feeling strong. So intending to break wind for him I took off. Looked back a while later and the poor guy was not quite keeping up. Eventually he got his strength back and we rode home for a total distance of 69 miles and change.