MS Ride Day 1 part 1

Joe Vandal’s Perspective - To the “Y”, Burgdorf Y that is

Why do we have to get up so early? Sourdough pancakes do sound good for breakfast but 6:00 is early. Guess Deb, Steve and Bill want to have everything digested before the time the ride starts. Guess I will go back to sleep up here above the TV. I had to sleep up here since Lucy (one of Deb and Steve’s dogs) wanted to play with me. I don’t think I would have been able to handle the trauma.

After devouring their breakfast they started getting dressed in all of the tight fitting clothes they could find. Bill wore his Vandal Club Cycling jersey and the bike shorts that he got from the MS ride last year. I dressed the same way I usually dress and it is not tight fitting clothing. Bill then put me on the strap of his Camelbak water pack so that I would be able to watch where we were going on the ride.
Deb, Steve, Bill and I rode over to the starting area at Alpine Village at about 7:30. Other riders were already there and more were filtering in. As we wandered around the parking lot we met Lori from the College of Education. They had a pretty neat rack of new Trek road bikes that Bill and Steve went over and drooled over. I got a few questions about why I was riding along. Bill said that it was for the fun of it. I started to wonder what fun it was going to be riding along hanging from a strap. I would suppose it would be easier than trying to ride the bike myself.
With about 5 minutes to go everyone gathered near the starting area to listen to final instructions for the ride. All I remember was: right, right, right, left, left and follow the motorcycle. 10, 9, 8 … 2, 1, GO! Right, right, left, OOPS! Motorcycle heading back the way we came. A lady drops her bike in the middle of the road and Bill heads through the dirt to bypass all of the chaos. The motorcycle gets back on track. Bill and a few others fall in behind him.

It sure does feel nice to have the cool air flowing through my beard as we head out on the ride. This part will take us past the airport and then across Highway 55 to Spring Mountain Ranch. There is not very much traffic so we do not have to wait very long at the light to cross the highway. Spring Mountain Ranch is a subdivision in McCall near the golf course. It is a nice area to ride in since it allows you to bypass the downtown area in order to get to the eastside of the lake. Our first destination was the Tamarack Bay Condominiums. This is where we were going to turn around and come back into town before heading up Warren Wagon Road to get to the Burgdorf Y. We made it to the turn around and headed back towards downtown.

Riding on the road through the forested area on this side of the lake was pretty neat. Bill rides this way whenever he rides around the lake. There is are few up and down sections along this route so it gives you a pretty good work out and you can get some good speed.
As we got near downtown we stopped at the first rest stop at Gravity Sports. All of the rest stops had a Hawaiian theme to them. Bill had a half of a banana at this one and then we were off again. As we made the turn back onto Highway 55 by the Hotel McCall we could hear cheering. It was Pam (Bill’s sister), Victoria and three other ladies sitting at the opposite corner. It was great to have somebody cheering for you as you rode by. Kind of made me think about the Tour de France and how loud it must get.

We rode on towards Warren Wagon Road with the shouts still ringing in our ears. We made the turn onto the road and made our way towards the “Y”. It was at this point that I realized that Bill sings and talks a lot as he rides. Never really sings a whole song, just kind of skips around and mixes them up. I can see why he rides alone. We were making pretty good time as we made our way alongside the lake. It is amazing the number of house and cabins that they have along here. Bill was following a couple of guys as we came to the first gravel area, (It seems that during the spring there was some washout damage in several spots along this road). As they got almost on top of the gravel area they almost stopped and Bill had to swerve around them to make it across. The bigger tires on his mountain bike made it easier to navigate across the gravel.

The lake sure looked pretty as we rode towards the north end of it. I should have taken some pictures but Bill had the camera in his back pocket. We came to the next part of the road that was gravel and it ended up being about twice as long as the last time Bill road along here. They had to fix two areas so it looked like they decided to do both of them together. We ended up riding on the left hand side since it was smoother than any other part. After making it through there we came to the second rest stop. We decided to wait here for Steve and Deb.

Bill grabbed some extra snacks to keep his energy level up. They had a nice variety of snacks for the riders. Since Bill was the one doing the pedaling I really did not need anything for the ride. Steve and Deb made it to the rest stop and rested for a while. After they got what they needed we took off. We made it to the third area for graveled road and made it across it just fine. Steve was in the lead with Bill behind and Deb behind him. All of the sudden, Bill had to stop to throw something off of the road. Deb asked if there was anything wrong he replied that he had stopped to throw something off the road. He then followed Deb up the road. Soon we decided to pass her to start the little climb to get to the Upper Payette Lake. This area is so beautiful. The river flows on the right side of the road as you ride along. Trees and brush all around you. Sun just starting to warm everything up. What a nice day for a bike ride or to be attached to someone who is riding a bike.

I noticed as we passed the lake that the road started to get a little steeper and wondered if I would need to get off to help push the bike. Bill seemed to just keep going with much resolve. It was as if he had done this before. He started singing and talking again and I wondered if this helped him. I guess I would have to ask him later. We continued on passing a couple people as we trudged up the incline. Bill mentioned that this was not as bad as the climbs that Steve and he did during the Three Summit Challenge. As we got near the Secesh Summit, Bill lost his watch and had to turn around and go back to get it. Velcro is good but when it goes bad it does not hold up to well. After getting the watch we finished making it to the summit where Steve was waiting. We decided to stick around for a little bit to see if Deb was going to make it.

After a while Bill and I decided to take off towards the “Y” and Steve would wait for her. The trip down the other side was awesome. We reached some pretty fast speeds and I felt pretty sure that Bill had everything under control. We made it to the Burgdorf Y with no issues and turned around there.

To be continued…