Hi Pedalers!

I just returned from a fabulous week touring the southwestern part of our
wonderful state with Colleen in the inaugural Ride Idaho tour. What a
delightful week it was.

We had approx. 60 folks doing the full week ride including a newly wed
couple (got married on Sunday and joined us on Monday for the rest of the
week!), and folks from nine different states. Ages ranged from a teenager
with his mom to a 75 year old woman! She was great! More folks joined us
on the initial day, Sunday the 14th from Boise to Payette, and then again
from Crouch to Idaho City and Boise last Friday & Saturday.

For me several things stand out about this ride:

* everyone felt extremely safe considering Idaho is not known for being
bicycle friendly. We had motorcycle police escorts each day patrolling the
route and even performing moving traffic breaks! We felt like a special
racing peloton!

* the organizers, wishing to make a big positive impact, bent over backwards
for all of us, even modifying their "agenda" when we wished. They really
want to make this a premier state tour.

* live music several nights by very good regional bands. We were also
serenaded by Motor Officer Rich on his bagpipe several nights.

* Option to do a raft trip on the North Fork of the Payette River south of
Cascade. Beautiful river away from the highway. We also rented a pontoon
boat and cruised around Payette Lake in McCall.

* the camaraderie of the group was very evident at the completion in Boise
on Saturday. The staff even created a CD from all the digital cameras on
the trip so everyone could share each others photos.


So, if you're interested in participating next year (as we are) mark this
page and check back as the organizers decide on the route and dates for that
ride. They may do the same loop or do it backwards or head over to the
Stanley area. A tour in our neck of the woods is also being considered, but
probably not in the next few years.

http://www.rideidaho.org/


I'll be preparing a laptop photo slideshow of the ride and bring it to the
next Pedaler meeting I can attend. That'll probably be October as I'll be
helping Colleen move up here in mid-September!


-- Jim