Day 1:  80 mile ride on the northwest side of Boise.  The tour got us out of downtown (where all the rides depart from) via a motorcycle escort for the first 5-6 miles.  Although it was stop and go for about 20 minutes, it gave the 500-team pack the right of way.  It felt kinda cosy being handlebar-to-handlebar with other tandems and recumbants.  Everyone was talking to each other casually with the usual questions (Where you from?, Nice Tandem!, Do you know the route?, Are we going the right way?).

After the road opened up, we started picking our way through the more casual riders.  Soon things were spread out with groups of ~10 or less.  The terrain was flat with very slight rollers.  Perfect for no-brainier tandeming.   After a few uncertain rights and lefts, through fields of green alfalfa, we made a turn south to Middletown City for a lunch stop.  It was a bit early for lunch, but we took a break anyway and had a couple sandwiches. 

After about a half hour break, we started off in a northerly direction toward a ridge of hills.  We quickly (purposefully) caught a four tandem group that included Patrick and Lynn from Tandem Cycle Works of Denver.  They’re the one’s we bought our Co-Motion from!  They were putting a good paceline down, so we soon joined in on the rotation.  Soon we were up and over the ridge, and screaming (read: burning the brakes) down the other side.  The route took us east along the Emmitt foothills of the ridge to the next climb back towards Boise.  We noticed apple and cherry orchards along the way.  The pitch wasn’t too bad, maybe 5% grade, and we broke away from the group early.  Soon one team on a Sovereign slowly passed us about half way up the 2 mile climb.  We kept them within a few seconds, and when the top was close we poured the gas on and passed ‘em. We regrouped at the top, with the Sovereign team saying we have an advantage being from high altitude (I wore my Durango Wheelclub jersey throughout the tour).  Great for the egos (Ha!)!

The rest of the ride was high speed back to the city except for one great rest stop about 10 miles from the house.  The Powerade, chocolate chip cookies and butt relief were great!

Sunday: 70 Mile ride:  This ride put us on the south side of the Boise River.  Early in the ride we took a detour off the primary route up a climb to the Birds of Prey Interpretive Center.  We toured the Center’s many HUGE birds. This is the first time I’ve been so close to these impressive eagles, hawks, and owls.

We even had a question and answer session with one of the parks birdkeepers with a massive brown eagle, perched on her arm, not ten feet from us. Pretty cool and informative.

The rest of the ride was more of the same as yesterday.  We played rabbit to a group that we passed about forty miles in.  We noticed them gaining time on us against a headwind., so we tried to stay away for about ten miles before they caught us just before the next rest stop.  Oh well, not bad, considering they were trading pulls with three other teams!  They stopped, we didn’t, we were ready to get back to town and off the saddle.  Tonight was a good night for our hosts HOT TUB.  Oh yea!

Monday: Choice of Boise Greenbelt cruise along the Boise River on a bikepath, or up Bogus Basin road, climbing to the local ski area.  Hmm…Let’s go for it!

Thirteen miles and 3500’ later, we were at Bogus Basin ski area , eating lunch and enjoying the view and the elevation.  The way down was a twisty screamer, and Jeanne was making full use of the drum brake.

Altogether we rode about 40 miles. 

The Northwestern Tandem Rally is a great weekend getaway that’s inexpensive and not too hard to drive too.  We slit the drive into two stopping over in Salt Lake City.  Our first ride for the weekend was a quick 25 mile out-and-back on Antelope Island on Friday.  It was a good ride to stretch the legs.

Until next time,

Keith and Jeanne

Farmington, NM