Idaho and Montana

After about 10 tries, we're successful in finding a solid internet connection! We were in southern Idaho in the Twin Falls area since my last blog post, so I will pick up where I left off. As our adventures progressed, we drove from Twin Falls through the Sawtooth Recreational Area, going alongside the Salmon river and visiting some Lewis and Clark historic sites before going into southwest Montana.


A beautiful sunset at Indian Springs trail area southeast of Twin Falls.

This is what happens when you live in an RV and you ride in some wet weather, then you need the clothes again for another ride. The stove is a multipurpose miracle, it heats up the RV, drys out our cycling shoes, shirts, shorts, pants, and mom is cooking our dinner!

Dad and I went for a long trail run at Indian Springs, mom biked along and took pictures. It had been raining with thunderstorms scattered across the sky, and now it finally cleared up!

Southern Idaho's bean, potato and hay fields are behind me as I run down the trail back to the RV.

The weather stayed excellent for Dad and me when we went on an 80 mile road bike ride last Sunday. Even though I enjoy mountain biking more, road biking is still useful for training and I also will be doing some road triathlons this year mixed in with my off-road triathlons. I use a "triathlon bike" which is a different version of a road bike built purely for triathlons. Both triathlon and road bikes are light with thinner tires and wheels so you can cover many more miles faster and easier. But a triathlon bike can be faster because of the steeper positioning of the body on the bike for aerodynamics (as shown in picture above). Triathlon bikes can easily reach 25 to 30 mph on a flat road. This ride was for endurance with some harder effort intervals thrown in for good measure. I probably won't be racing any races that long anytime soon, but without endurance, speed doesn't do any good because I wouldn't be able to go fast for very far. We were very lucky to find a nice 20 mile bike path between Bellevue and Ketchum in Idaho. The area is very pretty, just north of Sun Valley where lots of celebrities and pro athletes own vacation homes.

After our bike ride we drove on. This is the top of Galena Pass at just over 8000 feet.

Crossing Galena Pass and going down the other side of the mountain we saw the famous Sawtooth mountains mentioned a lot of times in Louis L'amour's books.

Now we crossed the state border into Montana. I'm swimming in the Bitterroot Aquatic Center pool in Hamilton, Montana. This is only the second time that I have swam in an outdoor pool since Maui. Most other outdoor pools are closed, but the locals say that summer is supposed to start next week.

I'm swimming with a pull buoy between my legs and paddles on my hands, which helps to build shoulder strength without kicking. In my races its not really necessary to kick while in the swim leg of the race because its a good idea to save my legs for the bike and run.

Yesterday we went riding in the Rattlesnake trail area in Missoula, Montana. They have very nice and smooth singletrack and beautiful meadows. Some really steep and long climbs too!

Montana is a nice place, as far as the places I've seen. Lots of hills, but not quite so high, with green forests and pastures all over.

After over a month of being in the hot desert which is awesome because it is very different from Alaska, I must admit it is nice to get back into the forests and mountains just for a change!

My next race is in 8 days in Farragut State Park in northern Idaho, its an XTERRA off-road race and I'm super excited to get to race on my mountain bike again since XTERRA Las Vegas.