Swan Falls Dam

Sunday morning’s ride was, shall I say, uneventful. If you call head winds, tail winds, 54°- 90°F, going down a steep hill, zigzagging back up that steep hill, running over a snake with my bike, and heading back home uneventful. Hmmmm.

We headed out a little after 7:00, 54°F out. No leg or arm warmers because I knew that I would get warmed up shortly. But during that short amount of time, my teeth were nearly chattering. Within about 15 minutes, I realized that I felt warmer. Due to little traffic on a Sunday morning, we were able to ride in the smooth tire tracks in the middle of the road and not get so jittery by riding on the rough chip seal. The ride felt really great and we were keeping a good pace.

We turned south on Swan Falls Road and I don’t know what happened. We were either in some sort of head wind or the rolling hills were HUGE rolling hills. Possibly some of both? There was one hill that we went down and I told Allison, “I don’t think I want to come back up this one.” In hind-site, it was a short hill, just steep.

As we drew nearer to the canyon where we were to drop down towards the dam, I started feeling a little apprehensive for not only the decline, but mostly for the climb back up and out. Finally, we got to a hair pin curve and I looked up and saw the sign that has a truck pointed down hill (grade sign)-though it didn’t say what % grade. This is the first ride that we’ve been on where we had the grade warning sign. (Gulp) We stopped at the sign and Brad took pictures of our backs as we looked downhill. Then, we all turned around and put on frightened faces, and he took another picture. Then, down we went. This hill felt so steep that I didn’t feel as though I could relax and enjoy the descent. I kept riding my brakes, and at one point, came to a complete stop. Finally, once I did let the bike go a little, I got up to 33 MPH in a short moment and was still gaining speed, so I put on the brakes again. I learned that when going down a decline like this, it is best to be in the drops position so that I have a better grip on the brakes if needed-not to mention better control. When we made it to the bottom, we were greeted with a gorgeous view of the power plant and Snake River. We rested at the bottom, ate snacks, refilled our water bottles and started heading back to the bicycles. About this time, a guy got into his truck and as he was getting ready to pull away, he was watching us get ready to head back up the hill. I stuck out my thumb and asked, “Can I get a ride?” He just smiled and drove away. (Sigh) I tried.

Up we started. Three of the four of us had never done this ride before and we all made it to the top, no stopping. I zigzagged all the way, because that was the ONLY way for me to get up. I would look down at my speedometer every once-in-awhile and notice that I was going anywhere from a lightening pace of 3.7-4.2 mph. I started to think that I could walk the hill faster then I could ride it. Then I realized that I had bike shoes on and that wouldn’t be any fun. I would start thinking about stopping for a break, but then realized, if I stopped, there’d be no starting again because the grade was too steep. Then I started taking inventory of how I was feeling. I wasn’t breathing hard. I was tense. My legs felt like they were getting a work out, but didn’t feel like they’d give out, so I just kept pedaling. I rounded a corner and saw that Brad was there videotaping me coming up the hill. He was cheering me on (he and Cheri are fabulous encouragers), and I said as I was going past him, “3.7mph BABY!” as if that were something to be proud of. The speed may not have been, but the fact that I made it up the hill, without stopping-the first time? Yes, I’m amazed at what I can do today compared to 2.5 months ago. Whew!

Once we got back on flat ground and had a little break, we all took off and next thing we knew, we were maintaining an 18-20mph speed-and we weren’t drafting. What an amazing feeling! It was as if whatever was holding us back just disappeared and we were FREEEEE! I was watching the road in front of me when I saw something that looked like a rusty spring, sort of stretched out. I was coming onto it too quickly to swerve around it, so I went over it. Right about the time I got over it, I realized what it really was (shudder, shiver, willies up and down my spine and legs for about the next 5 minutes (and as I’m recalling this)). Allison was riding right beside me and asked, “What?” My response, “I just ran over a snaaaaaake!” (shudder) Ack! Eeeeeeew! YIKES! Blech! It was dead, thankfully, but now I have the heebie jeebies again.

When we turned north onto Swan Falls (the road that has the big rolling hills) we ended up with a wind that wasn’t a head wind, but all of a sudden, I was struggling to maintain 15mph. Then came the short but steep hill. This knocked me down to about 6 mph, and when I got to the top, I had a hard time bringing my speed up. I think at that point, I had “bonked” and needed some energy food. I stopped, ate and drank and felt the energy come back. Back on the bike and the rest of the way back to Brad’s house (where we started from). When we got back to the cars, Joe mentioned that we had just done a tough ride, one that a lot of cyclists won’t do. Then he proceeded to tell us that a lot of cyclists won’t do Bogus Basin, Hill Top, Old Freezeout Road, or Swan Falls Dam because they are difficult rides. Ok, so now I feel justified for feeling tired after this ride.

I finally found a website through Google that told me a grade for the road down to Swan Falls Dam. It said something like a minimum grade of 8%. So, I don’t know what the average grade was.

There has been talk that next week, we’ll see Idaho City on bicycle. I have just about wrapped my head around that one. It’s bound to be a gorgeous ride.

50 miles, 3 hours 43 minutes. 13.5 mph Average Speed. 33.9 mph Max Speed Total Miles on my bike: 511.