After a boring drive through Wyoming and northern Utah, we met up with some friends in Boise, enjoyed a great dinner (thanks Gregg!), and hit the hay early. In the morning we drove 2+ hours northwest to a cross country mtn bike race, basically out in the middle of nowhere.We arrived just as the sun was coming up. (Early!!)
Despite its remote location, the Silver Creek Plunge XC race had a pretty good showing, and we mixed it up with the hardcore Idaho locals. It began in a campground, way out in the middle of Idaho, and climbed up the surrounding mountains.
The course was absolutely brutal, and can best be described as an "adventure" race. It was only 22 miles, but lasted more than 3 hours. The slow pace was attributed to a monster sandy 2-mile uphill hike-a-bike, and then the steepest, sandiest, most terrifying downhill I have ever seen. (I walked my bike downhill for over 30 minutes, rather than risk my life and go over a cliff!)
Chris and I rode much of the race together, but he beat me by about 10 min in the end, as exhaustion set in. We both ran out of water, the temperature rose to 100F, and riding the last 10 miles to the finish was a death march!
Silver Creek was right by the campground, so we cooled off right away! Those are some nice tan lines!
There were no other women in Expert, so I won! Woo hoo!
We stopped and enjoyed some of the beautiful Idaho scenery after leaving the race site.
Good thing there were lots of outhouses on the side of the road in Idaho. Lots of pit stops on our trip!
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