Sun Valley to Jackson Hole

July 03, 2010

Sun Valley to Jackson Hole

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Craters of the moon in the wind

Lava and hills

Ibis near Roberts

We left Ketchum in the evening and rode to Hailey and ate at the Powerhouse, which had been recommended for its burgers, and because it was kind of a bike shop/ fit studio/ restaurant. It could have been really cool, but it was really pricey, and didn't feel very cool. Bikey ball caps, and starched button up shirt and $6.75 beer type of place. Not so cool after all. After dinner, we went up Hailey's gravel road, Quigley, in search of something like Corral Creek, but what we found was a trail next to the road to sleep on. Turned out to be just fine, but we cooked in town the next day. The next day was spent at the library, and down by the river. We made burgers on a grill in the park in Hailey with dead wood we found in an abandoned lot, and then decided that we should just start riding. It was about 9:30PM, we were without a great place to sleep, and we were slightly concerned about the heat we might encounter in the upcoming miles, so it seemed

like the thing to do. It turned out to be a great choice, at least as far as the riding was concerned. We had perfectly balmy weather, and rode shirtless to Carey, where we found a fairgrounds that we thought might be a good place to sleep. One thing about Idaho: they like their irrigation. A lot. There was a park at the fairground, which looked like the best place to stay, but over the course of the night, we got to find out that they water not only the grass, but the basketball courts, the volleyball courts, and the play structure, and as a result, we got pretty well-watered. We woke up, to the extent that we were actually asleep, to cloudy skies, and rode to Craters of the Moon.

On the way there, we got to see a line-painting truck and its various follow trucks, and lots of lava floes. The mountains on the way to Craters were incredibly multi-colored and made for quite a nice contrast with the black of the lava floes.

At Craters, we ate fried chicken sandwiches, with chicken that Chris had gotten in hailey on the half-off rack at Albertsons. Then we watched a movie about the park before napping on the lawn next to the visitor center. A hard life indeed. Then a thunderstorm with 45mph+ winds came up and blew a bunch of dust around, and then the rain came. So we decided to leave and head for Arco.

Arco was the first city to be powered by nuclear power, so it has all of these references to that. It also has an RV park where the put-put is free, even if you're not staying there, and a park with covered picnic tables and lights. I made polenta and sausage and stuff there, and then we set out for our night portion. We rode to Howe, and found a park with another covered picnic table area where we slept after we figured out how to get away from the sprinklers that were watering parts of the concrete. The cover was great to have that night though, because it rained quite a bit. In the morning the sun was shining over the fields of Focus alfalfa, and we had a really mellow start to the day's riding. most of the day was spent riding across Idaho National Laboratory land. I guess they do a lot of nuclear research out there, but we didn't see any of that. We did see a badger, which was a first for all of us, and definitely a highlight of the day. We hit major headwinds near the end of the INL land, and they continued after Mud Lake, where we lunched at a waterless park (thank you leatherman, for opening the handle-less faucet). The desert that we had been crossing all day finally ended near Roberts, where things got green and started to get really pretty. We stopped at a market and ate a watermelon out in front. Around 10PM we arrived in Heise, which was supposed to have a hot springs. They were closed, and we got kicked out by a dumbface attendant. We ate on the outdoor tables for a closed restaurant, dodging sprinklers. The tables had plastic on them to protect them from the sprinklers. Idaho loves irrigation. Luckily, we found a good place to sleep down by the Snake River, at the sportsmans access, so what looked like it was going to be a really lousy ending to the day turned out ok after all. It turned out to be our biggest day yet at about 90 miles.

The next day started out with a wicked headwind, and lots of RVs. We were going to go on the 26 all the way to Jackson, because it wasn't as hilly as it would have been to go over Teton Pass, but by the time we got to Swam Valley, we were totally burnt out on the headwind, so we went up toward Victor. Suddenly, even though we were climbing up over a 6700ft pass, the going was easy because the wind was at our backs. The route was even more beautiful that the other way had been, and we found a great swimming spot on Pine Creek.
We arrived in Victor at 6PM, and were going to push on over Teton Pass to go to Jackson, but we happened upon Grand Teton Brewing Company, so we stopped and the folks there told us where to camp (Mike Harris). In addition to beer, they had root beer on tap, which was really good. We even got hooked up with a bunch of fresh greens there because there was a benefit for the local slow-food movement the night we were there. The next morning we got up and climbed the pass: 8430ft. Awesome descent. We got hooked up with a Walt, a local trailbuilder who is on warmshowers, by Andy at the bike shop in Wilson, so we have a great place to stay for a couple of days. All is well.