I am beat. Tongue hangin' on my lap, wobbly legged, blood shot eyed, stammerin', dog tired. The day was sensory overload in a plus size. Following a 4:30 AM wake up call (in no sense should what I'm doing ever be called a VACATION- no sir), breakfast at 5:30 and load at 6:00, my usual compadres left the hotel and headed out of Idaho Falls along a road familiar to me
from my fly fishing and drift boat hauling times here. In fact we rode by the place I bought the boat some five years ago.What looked to be another treat of a day weather wise, quickly turned on us and a headwind developed.
The paceline tried to tighten up, but riding two abreast was impossible because of the traffic. So, even in spite of our attempts to organize, we had our spandex covered asses handed to us for about 25 miles, where we arrived at our fist sag. The entire group was a bit shell shocked, especially given the climbing we knew we had in front of us.The views began to slowly build as we began inching towards the mountains. Today's ride featured a minor climb from mile 25 to 35, then a more significant bump at mile 59 (which took us to about 5,700')
and then the big climb at miles 70-77 which gained us about 3,000 vertical feet and took us over Teton Pass at 8,431'. The first two climbs were non-events and following the second climb we coasted into Victor, ID at mile 65- I've read that the people who work in Jackson Hole live in Victor because of the cost of living in Jackson. In spite of that I thought Victor (also the name of the town I grew up in in NY) had a nice, non-touristy western town feel to it. Most of us pulled into a small market in Victor 
and took on whatever nourishment/refreshment we thought would get us through the big climb. The mood was tense and somewhat nervous among the riders as the climb facing us would be our most stern test since leaving Astoria- without question.With no more possible excuses for delaying available, the riders began to slowly work out onto the road and headed towards the Wyoming state line.
I don't recall what time it was- probably around 11:30 AM, but it seemed as though we climbed for hours. The road pitched up ever so gradually, at first 1-2%, then a little more until we finally arrived at the Wyoming state line at mile 70.8.From this point, the climbing was difficult beyond anything I've ever done. Mind you the real climbing, the really difficult stuff, started after we'd ridden 70+miles,
so I was anything but fresh. The climb from the Wyoming line to the summit (Teoton Pass) was about seven miles (we'd already been climbing for 5 miles) and it was unrelenting. There was never a leveling off or a drop-just up, up, up. First at 3%, then 5%, then 7%. The weather was getting hotter as we climbed and was probably in the mid to high 80's. With two miles to go and the grade now between 10-12%,
people began to look for ways out. Some sagged (rode the van), some walked, some took periodic breaks and then pushed on and the real lions rode straight through- no stops. I was in the third camp- not strong enough to ride straight through, but able to pause, then keep on riding. The group I'd started with in Victor was now scattered all over the mountain, leaving each of us to deal with this sumbitch in our own ways. The Miller boys were dancing on their pedals all the way up- what amazing strength they have.
Anyway, I finally got to the top and I was floored by the view- it really was a very emotional thing. What a girly man. It made all of the suffering I'd experienced climbing this mountain worthwhile. The views were just spectacular, though my pictures don't do it justice. I waited around at the summit for the rest of my group to ride in and we did the obligatory photo's.
The rest of the ride was anticlimatic and consisted of a pile driving descent and then a 6-7 mile flat run into Jackson. Derek and I decided to stretch out our legs and dumped the rest, hammering into Jackson and the Day's Inn. This seems to be something of a pattern- I get frisky at the last 10 miles. Guess I'm not worried about bonking and still having a big ride left.
I spent a restless night, first dealing with some horrible hamstring cramping , then hotel lobby noise, then a case of the "too tired to sleeps". Our next leg is another very significant climb. In fact, while I was in a local bike shop in Jackson, the guy waiting on me said he thought tomorrow's ride was harder than what we did today. That didn't help me sleep much.
