AAN Day 10 - Boise to Mountain Home, ID

Daily Statistics:
Mileage: 53.4 miles Average Speed: 18.4 mph
Vertical: 1733 feet Depart: 8:09 AM Arrive: 11:21 AM
Calories: 4045

There are days when riding is even more fun than usual, and today was certainly one of them. We fairly quickly got on the bike path for the Boise Greenbelt, which we took for 6 miles or so. It runs generally along the Boise River, shown below. This was certainly the greenest it got all day.
After we left the bike path, we headed up our only significant hill of the day, where we got some very nice views back towards Boise. This one gives you some idea of what we saw, but doesn't really match seeing it yourself.
A few more miles in, I got connected with Jeff Douglas of Newtown, CT, Mark Weisbarth of Toronto, and Joe Schroeder of Jasper, GA. They had a pretty good pace line going, and when we got on I-84, we had a terrific tailwind. We were keeping well over 20 mph going slightly uphill, and when it flattened out, did several miles at over 30 mph. It was terrific fun. When we got to the SAG, Mark said "How old are you, anyway?" I think I surprised him a little in hanging in there, especially on an uphill where Joe dropped him and Jeff. At any rate, here we are celebrating our good time.
I rode in the final miles a little more easily, because we may not have such good fortune tomorrow, and I would like to have a little in the tank. We did hook up for the final 10 miles or so, but did not get back to the same breakneck pace. Overall, the easiest day so far.