Aere, Malcolm, and Ardith, in front of our room at the A & B Motel
Day 4 – Thursday, June 17th
Arco, Idaho, to Mackay, Idaho
The night before, in our visit with Tim & Ardith, a good place for breakfast was recommended, and though Tim couldn't make it because he was at work, Ardith joined us for food and more conversation. I was particularly impressed by how one of her kids trained for an athletic competition by jogging to the top of Borah Peak (Idaho's highest mountain).
Aere,
Malcolm, and Ardith, in front of our room at the A & B Motel
Being really beat from the prior day's struggle, we weren't in a big hurry to get started this day. We took pictures, replenished our emergency cash at an ATM, and got supplies at a grocery store.
Ready
to leave the A & B Motel, in Arco
My revised plan for this day was not to push too hard, only making it to Mackay (pronounced: Mack-ee), which would position us well for making it over Willow Creek Summit the following day.
It is 80 miles from Arco to Challis, which is a long way to cycle in one day – especially with a big climb. By starting at Mackey the next day, it would cut the distance to 54 miles, which is more reasonable for a day's cycling with a big climb. There are no towns with food or motels between Mackay and Challis.
Though the weather forecast was still a bit uncertain with respect to storms, the conditions were good for cycling, with a light tail-wind, and pleasant temperatures. At 1:00 PM we finally started pedaling toward Mackay, and the miles again began ticking away as we cycled to the northwest.
On leaving Arco, we traveled on highway 93, which was to take us all the way to Kalispell, Montana, near Glacier Park. It was a good, and scenic road, though often having little in the way of road shoulders. In other places, the shoulders were more than adequate. For much of the way, the traffic was light.
It's a gentle climb from Arco to Mackay. With a tail-wind, it's surprising that our average speed for this day was slightly less than the prior day. We really must have been beat!
At
the Big Lost River
The Big Lost River flows southward down this valley. The “lost river” part of the name comes from the fact that the river doesn't continue flowing over the Snake River plain, but disappears under the lava flows. There are some huge springs which gush out of the walls of the Snake River canyon, near Twin Falls, Idaho, which are thought to be where the river re-emerges.
From the photo above, you can see little 'wisps' of moisture coming down around the valley. Though they don't look like much, we had to shelter for awhile from one such storm.
As we approached the town of Mackay, we saw a motel with a vacancy, but it was more than a mile south of town, with only one place to eat. We continued on to the town, strongly hoping there would be motels with vacancies in town (so we wouldn't have to cycle back to this one).
We arrived in the town of Mackay as it was beginning to rain again, and got a room at the Wagon Wheel motel. For supper, we enjoyed a steak dinner.
A pleasant side effect of going on bicycle trips, is the only calorie-counting you need to do is to make sure you get enough of them.
On this recuperation day, we traveled only 28.4 miles, with an average speed of 7.5 miles per hour.