Just spoken to Brian (07:30 Tues UK time). Having covered a total of 618 miles, he’s just finished riding and was going to have 5 hours off the bike refuelling and sleeping at Halfway (near Mitchell – see map on previous blog). He’s ridden around 15.5 hours today in freezing conditions. The descent after sweating up a 6.5 miles ascent to summit in -4C was particularly chilly. Overall the temperature had been 28-30C in the day.
Brian has covered 203 miles so far today with 10,000ft of ascent. Apparently the race leader has now dropped out with Shermer’s Neck ( an inability to support one’s head as your neck gives up) after just 3 days…. as we said in the first blog it’s a long way and going off too hard is far too easy to do.
Today Brian goes past Hell’s Canyon. At around 7,900 feet, it is the deepest gorge in the United States, even deeper than the Grand Canyon.
Before he passes in to Idaho…. another of those states you’ve heard of but know nothing about…. Well in fact Brian is getting closer to the Centre Of The Universe….
In 2004, the mayor of Wallace, Idaho—a town with a population under 800 people—declared the town as the Centre Of The Universe, complete with a manhole cover painted to mark the site.
And there was I thinking it was Liverpool!
Other useless Idaho’s information :- The Capitol Building is the only one in the United States heated by geothermal water. The hot water is tapped and pumped from a source 3,000 feet underground. Idaho is famous for potatoes, producing about one-third of the potatoes grown in the United States.