From Idaho Falls to Jackson Hole. A 202km run. Very welcome short haul.
A late start this morning @ 9.16am. It’s really quite cool here and the morning clouds were red. You know what that means. we are at a high elevation, thus the cooler climate.
Our first event was 25km on tarmac to the Sage Raceway, a hairpin sealed track with a chicane half way up the first straight a sharp 180 bend and heading quickly to right hand roundabout then onto the finish line.
This looked straight forward but in reality and the desire to speed, the chicane turned up real quickly after the sharp turn and with as much speed as we could the roundabout was missed completely, mainly because it was on the sand beside the track and unsealed. Not what was expected, nor shown on the diagram. That’s the test I guess. It went by so quickly that another round would have been good.
On to Rail creek, a 58km stretch on tarmac. Nothing worth noting here. We were early but this was accommodated by the days program. It’s a no stress day.
At Rail Creek was the first and only regularity, a 24km course on gravel, of course, with in unscheduled checkpoint and the average speeds were many and varied. We got to the checkpoint and registered, and because of the navigator ignorance, carried on until the end oblivious that the regularity ended at the checkpoint. All the time concentrating until the end only to discover that it wasn’t necessary. No one to check at the end. Navigator error
After that it was a 70km run to the end of day destination.
An easy day arriving around 1.30pm. The rest of the day is to discover Jackson Hole.
Trees are everywhere. It’s easy to see that early settlers chose to construct their house with logs. The trees grow very much to the same height and diameter. Straight as a die. Selection of raw materials is right there then it’s a matter of cutting to length debarking and notching the ends. Easy construction, good insulation and strong. A very neat and simple building system.
We have the afternoon off to check out Jackson. Tomorrow is a 546km day with two regularity’s. Better get some rest while we can prior tomorrow.
gravel travel 