Goodbye Montana, Hello Idaho

It stormed off and on last night with periods of rain and gusty winds, which interrupted our sleep. I was not fully rested when six thirty came around. So I layed in my sleeping bag and procrastinated the start of the day. Finally at 7 am I crawled out of my tent and tried to shake of the moisture off the rain fly as best I could. At 740 am we pedalled out of our upper red rock lake campground.

The environment was still and I struggled to get comfortable. It just takes a while for the body to get going in the morning.

As we rode towards red rock pass, our 6th crossing of the continental divide, the mountains became more rugged and the sagebrush was replaced with pine trees. After a steep push we finally came to a flat saddle, and there in the middle was the sign. A line was drawn down the middle and idaho was on the left and montana was on the right. We finally had crossed out of montana and into idaho. 13 and a half days and 695 miles!

The descent down the idaho side of the continental divide was beatiful. Lots of aspen groves and fragrant pines. The dirt road eventually let us to a vista of henry's lake. It was all good until we hit island park. The place  was a zoo, and the 4th of july tourists were the animals.  It had been so quiet and peaceful the last 5 days. All I wanted to do was to get out of there.

The escape routes provided by the ACA maps we follow were difficult,  and I wanted something easy given the state of my Achilles,  so we opted to take route 20 down to the national scenic byway (47) whuch joined again with the main route. Mistake. 20 was full of campers and trailers with little to no shoulder. We grabbed off-road frontage paths when we could. It took 15 miles of stress and aggravation to finally reach 47.

To make matters worse, I saw a dead young eagle face down,  wings spread.  It was a sickening site.

It was SO nice to turn off onto the 47. Again peace descended as we wove down the road towards Targhee National Forest. 

We stopped at the 1-mile cutoff to Mesa Falls and hid our bikes and hitched a ride down. Well worth it!
Huge and dramatic. Wouldn't want to go over them but I'm sure someone has.

We hitched a ride back up the road to our bikes and Doug forgot his helmet when we jumped out. He's bummed about it. I tried to cheet him up. It's just a helmet and easily replaceable. I think he's just mad at himself.

A half a mile down the road we found a nice campsite with water, picnic table, and a flat tent site.  It was nice and sunny when we got here but the clouds are building and I think another thunder storm is imminent. I hear rumbles in the distance.

I got bit on the bum by a horse fly today and it HURT. Once it got a bite it just wouldn't leave me alone.  Followed and pestered me for 10 minutes.

The weather has been much more pleasant today, not nearly as hot. We rode about 65 miles today.  Tomorrow we cross into Wyoming. 

14 days and 743 miles.