Day 15 - An Ironman Ride (June 16th, 2024)

City To City: Grangeville - Powell

Miles: 112

Miles Total: 945

Flats: 0

Video: https://youtu.be/aat_bH8kiLo?si=3srtZcLYDKpqTtqb

Down steep switchbacks

Second flat tire

A wooden bridge across the river

Our campground

Riding along the river and trees

We woke up at 6:30 a.m., packed everything, and ate breakfast. We needed to be on the road ASAP with one hundred and five miles planned.  We could've stopped around eighty miles, but we would have to camp in a national forest without water.   We had some rolling hills before we had ten miles downhill. The last two miles were steep switchbacks with no guardrails, which we weren't prepared for.  At the bottom, we reconvened, and while my dad was talking off some layers, Henry casually mentioned that he had almost gone off the edge because he was unprepared.   

After that, it was eighty-eight miles uphill.  After a couple more miles, we braked for a snack, and the woman in her early sixties said hello to us as she passed on her bicycle.  We got back on the road and passed the woman who had taken a break next to an RV with a man in his early twenties.  We passed each other greeting, and before we were out of earshot, the man hastily asked us if we wanted bananas.  I'm afraid we were focused on getting to our destination and failed to answer in time.  

Soon after, we stopped because something needed to be tweaked on Henry's bike.  We saw the man pass us in the RV, and we hopped up on our bikes.  Soon, the woman, KT, passed us, and we pushed ourselves to catch up.  Once we caught up, we talked about bike things.  

    My dad got a flat tire, so we stopped again.  A thin metal wire from a car tire had punctured my dad's tire, and to get it out, we used tweezers.  After fixing the flat, we got back on and picked the pace up even faster.  At the next rest stop, we saw the man with the RV, and as soon as he saw us, he yelled, "Hey, here's your bananas!"  He held up the bananas and started walking towards us.  After making small, we learned that he's part of a company that supports bicyclists around the world, and since he didn't have anything to do for the summer, he decided to take the job to support KT.  The man, Liam, soon had to leave and said a hasty goodbye.  We ate our bananas, which KT had paid for, and continued.  

We ate lunch along a creek with pine trees on either side.  We continued in the beautiful, windy valley next to the river.  We caught up with KT in the late afternoon and chatted some more.  KT said she planned on going to Powell, and we said we planned to stop at a campground five miles short of Powell.  We stopped twenty miles before our planned destination to fuel up because the uphill became steep along that stretch.  We saw a warm springs sign and debated jumping in, but we had no good way of getting dry.  When we got to our planned campground, we decided we could make it to Powell.  Since Powell was so small and off to a small road, we didn't think it was, so we went past it.  After going about a quarter mile, we realized that small road was probably it because there were no more signs with the name Powell.  We turned around and headed down to the campsite, set up camp, ate dinner, and changed.  Throughout the day, we talked to two people, asking whether it would rain that night.  It turns out that both of them hadn't looked at the weather forecast and had no idea rain was coming.  We went up to the convenience store, bought dessert, and my dad got handwarms for the next day.  We then went to the lodge across the street and went in.  Since no food or drink was allowed in, I, being a slow eater, stayed out to finish my popsicle.  When I went in, my dad and Henry were playing a pool game and talking to KT and Liam.  

Liam and KT soon left, and Henry and my dad finished playing pool while I wandered around and played the lodge's horribly out-of-tune piano.  Then we headed for bed and were allowed to sleep in because tomorrow morning, it was supposed to be chilly.