A good day to be riding ... (June 16, 2009)

Weather-wise, it was a good day to be riding.

The ride from Mountain Home to Meridian (5 miles west of Boise), was a day unmarred by weather factors. Not much in the way of climbs, either. Actually, other than the traffic in the Boise area, the ride was quite uneventful.

The terrain between Mountain Home and Boise reminds me of the area north of Cordes Junction on I-17.

The highpoint of the ride was time shared with two deer. The first deer I saw resulted in a five minute stair-down. I guess my neon-green shirt is quite noticeable to animals. After the stair-down (the deer won), I rode on ... the deer ran along parallel with the road for about a quarter of a mile. The second deer also ran along for a short distance, but then disappeared over a hill.

The other event of interest was my visit to a REI store in Boise. The ride through Boise, to get to the store, was interesting in that there was a lack of a bike lane for a good part of the ride. Stressful to say the least. The young lady who assisted me at the REI had just completed an Ironman event this past weekend ... boy did she walk funny. Odd how addictive running becomes ... even though she was hurting, she said she thought she could start running again in a few days.

Wednesday's ride looks to be a good one, both in regards to weather and distance/elevation changes. I am now re-thinking the route across Oregon. May go up to the Columbia River, or head directly across the central parts of the state. Will have to make that decision Wednesday afternoon when I reach Ontario, OR.

Wednesday's ride is the second day of week four ... will be over 1200 miles at the end of the day.