My Love/Hate Relationship with Mountains

Ok so I am quite frustrated right now because I just wrote ¾ of this blog post and then it got deleted.  All I want to do is go to bed, but I know that if I do I will never get this done soo....here we go all over again. 

Friday: We left from Twin Falls and headed to Ketchum, Idaho.  Ketchum was supposed to be the most beautiful place we’d ever seen.  Everyone in Twin Falls was telling us that it was “God’s country” so we should be very excited for what we were about to see.  It is true that it was beautiful.  It had a “Banff-y” feel, (I mean there was a lululemon so I couldn’t HELP but think of Canada) but the mountains were half the size and...there was nobody there.  As soon as you left the city of Ketchum, you hit Sun Valley.  Again, this was supposed to be the most beautiful resort area in all of Idaho.  Perhaps it was, but compared to Banff/Kananaskis it was subpar in my opinion.  It was really just a bunch of condos and mansions on golf courses.  Not exactly what I call “getting away from it all”.  Nevertheless, we had a great day of riding.  We began to see the Sawtooth Mountains and they were stunning.  Dad and I even had a chance to ride on a bike path for part of the day which reminded me of Fish Creek Park in Calgary so that was a nice change from the highway riding that we normally do here on a daily basis.  We had a great dinner at an Italian place in town, and finished the night off in the hot tub which felt great. 

Mom's attempt at an "artsy" shot.  Love it.

On the bike path!

Beautiful lilac trees that I couldn't stop smelling!

The beginning of the Sawtooth Mountains...

Hot tub!

I couldn’t really enjoy the evening, however, because Dad kept telling me “You’d better rest up because tomorrow....well it’s just going to be a killer of a day...”.  Great.  I love it when Dad says things like that.  NAT.  I didn’t sleep very well that night because I was nervous about the uphill climbing that we would have to do the following day to reach the summit.  It also didn’t help that I have heaviest breather #1 and #2 sleeping next to me. 

Saturday: We got up the next day and were ready to face the dragon.  Ketchum sits at an elevation of 5,100 and the Galena summit had an elevation of 8,701 so we had quite the hill ahead of us.  The first 40 km went pretty well and then we got to the steep part.  And when I say “steep”, I mean “working as hard as I can in my lowest gear and moving at a pace of 6 km/hr”.  AKA gag me with a jagged spatula.  Anyone who knows me well knows that I love the mountains.  But, I tell you, in that moment I was cursing the land formations over and over again because I was so sick of moving at such a slow pace and feeling like I’m dying.  This 6 km/hr pace went on for about an hour because we had about 4 miles of mountain to climb before we reached the very top.  It didn’t help when Dad and I were passed by a group of serious road cyclists who looked as though they were racing each other.  There’s nothing more encouraging than people whizzing by you on their bikes while you simply try to breathe.

This is the moment when I wanted to shoot myself in the foot.  NBD.

 Eventually, we DID make it up the summit and I have never. been. happier. The mountain range was stunning, but it was much easier to appreciate from the top. 

So happy to have reached the top!

The whole family!  Minus my four siblings.  

End of the day feeling good!

The positive side of reaching a summit is you get to go down the other side!!  Oh my land, I have never smiled so much while biking.  The 6 miles down was absolutely glorious and then it just kept going downhill slowly for what seemed like forever.  We went 30 km in about 45 min so yeah, we were going fast and enjoying it.  The last few hours of riding that day were the best hours I’ve ever had cycling.  The scenery was absolutely amazing.  We had moved from the mountains to trees, the Salmon river, smooth, paved roads without traffic, the wind at our back etc. etc. making it one of the most enjoyable afternoons of my life!  I felt like I was high.  Of course, I’ve never done drugs before, but if I DID, I think that’s what it would feel like.  It makes me want to tell people that do drugs to stop it and just go on a bike trip!  My mind was completely zoned out and for the first time ever, the bike riding didn’t feel like work at all.  I was also making a music video in my mind the whole time and, I don’t want to brag but, it was amazing.  We did a total of 130 km and I ended the day a very happy girl! 

Sunday: Today was also wonderful.  We were starting in the middle of nowhere along the Salmon river which was fine by me!  Before we began, we stopped at the hot springs that were randomly located on the side of the road.  Dad explored, and I did a dance routine.  It just made sense at the time.

  

You can tell in the video below that I was very energetic this morning.  Today was a day of singing, that’s for sure.  I think in the entire day I went from singing my own music to Motown to Elvis Presley (?) to the Sound of Music.  Who am I?  Mom captured this lil’ diddy on the video camera before we started the day.  For the record, I was trying to change the words to this song to make them about cycling, but I only ended up changing one line and Mom kept thinking that I was just getting it wrong.  Oh gosh.  Enjoy the randomness of the Odegard family.

Our great day came to a halt when one of Dad’s spoke broke.  This does not sound like that much of an issue, but it is.  It actually involves about an hour of maintenance to fix because this particular spoke was on the back tire on the side of the wheel where the gear was so...it definitely needed to be fixed.  Instead of trying to help Dad, I did what I do best-entertain!  I set up a little spot beside him on the side of the road, played a fake piano and sang my heart out much to my Mother’s delight.  I was loving it. 

But, when heard Dad say “You piece of junk” to his bike 10 times under his breath, I knew it was time to be quiet and actually help him.  

We got everything fixed and were on our way!  Then, the man on the motorcycle came.  (Skip over this next paragraph if you don’t want to hear my rant).

Ok so Dad and I are cycling along on our merry way when this guy (probably about 56 years old with a mustache and long hair) on a Harley Davidson is driving in the opposite direction of us and while he passes us, looks me dead in the eye and yells “GET OFF THE F***ING ROAD!”.  My thoughts: Firstly, sir, why would you say something like that?  Here I am, this non-threatening blonde girl trying to ride her bike up a hill on the shoulder of a secondary highway and you, the big man on the motorbike yell at me.  You know, what I could’ve used were some words of encouragement like “Go girl!”.  That’s what my Mom says when she passes in the car and it always helps.  Instead, you yell at me and think, what, that I’m going to ride off a cliff to satisfy your wants and desires?  Secondly, why the foul language?  I mean, honestly, did you not think that I would understand the message you were trying to get across if you had not used the F-word?  So unnecessary.  And rude.  Finally, why in the world would YOU care?  I am riding on the SHOULDER of a SECONDARY HIGHWAY on the OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE ROAD from you.  Have I really impacted your life so negatively that it would warrant such a reaction from you?  Why don’t you focus less on me, someone using my own physical strength to travel from Point A to Point B and more on the 20-something brunette sitting on your bike behind you squeezing you oh so tightly.  I bet you guys are in love.  Why waste your energy yelling at me?  Oh WAAIIITT...I forgot.  You’re a MOTORCYCLIST.  You OWN the road, right?  Man, I guess I didn’t get the memo.  Maybe you guys should have meetings or something to make sure us ignorant cyclists don’t go where it may inconvenience you.  Dipstick.

But don’t worry.  I didn’t say any of that.  Instead I just smiled and waved!  I didn’t see him smile back at me, but I’m sure he wanted to.  Then, I started singing Beyonce in my head and all was right with the world!  We went 110 km today and tomorrow we are hoping to make it to the Idaho/Montana border!  Three more days of hard work and then a rest day! Woo hoo!!

A

 

 P.S We celebrated Mother's Day with some strawberries (in the shape of a heart, might I add) on the side of the road. Gosh, I love my Mumsie!