I spent Memorial Day weekend in Boise, and on the actual holiday I headed out for a big ride with my brother-in-law. We started at 2800″² elevation, and ended up at the local ski area, Bogus Basin- where the parking lot is a mean 6200″².

It was a great ride, until the skies opened up in a downpour and the temperature dropped to 45F. Sensing disaster (and knowing the nearest brewpub was over 3000″² of vertical away), I did the only sensible thing possible. I walked over to a phone booth alongside the deserted ski lodge, tore out the first 100 pages, and wadded the pages up inside my thin cycling jacket. My brother-in-law raised an eyebrow, and I responded that it’s the closest I’ll ever be to a real Tour experience.  (Can anyone confirm that tour riders used to do this… I know I read it somewhere.)  Anyway, I like to think his hypothermic convulsions were much more severe than mine during the decent, but that’s pretty subjective.

[originally posted on ishouldhavebeendutch.dutchmonkey.com]