august 14
day 97
26 miles
total 2,555
have you ever heard of the big hole mountains?
up until today neither had i.
they ought to have been named the sucker punch mountains…
my plan for the day was to finish off the last 2 miles of teton pass,
and then use the journey down to kick off a relaxing and potentially low mileage day.
i have been whipping myself thru the mountains,
and after teton i envisioned a flat idaho….
and a chance to recover a little.
the trip down teton had the teton/yellowstone traffic i expected.
soon after reaching the bottom i took a shortcut around victor idaho.
everything went according to plan
until i started the road from victor to swan valley.
first came a rather innocuous looking climb….
that went on and on….
and on
until it was the equal of monteagle mountain at home.
and from the top revealed that i was running right into what looked like the blue ridge mountains….
the big hole mountains i read on a marker at the top of pine creek pass.
my “easy” day turned into another grueling exercise,
and i ended the day surrounded by high mountains again…
i would have been bitter if they were not so beautiful.
down in the hollers was lush and green with lots of flowing water.
first day in,
idaho is already springing surprises.
i can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings….
but i could live with it if it is not more monster climbs.
laz