Come, Follow Me Program

 We heard something from one of the brethren on ship at one of our Sunday Come, Follow Me discussions that I want to share with you.  He said, "The Come, Follow Me program is the manna for our day."

I had tingles all over when he said that.  Isn't that a wonderful thought?  Just as manna was the daily physical food for the children of Israel, the Come, Follow Me program is the daily spiritual food for us for our day.  

I am grateful for this daily spiritual manna that so blesses my life.  I am grateful for the Come, Follow Me program.

Idaho Biking Trip

 

Each year for about the past 12 years, I have had the chance to participate in a week-long peddle biking adventure. My life-long friend, Doctor Greg Last, hatched the idea a decade or so ago, while on a trip to the Washington DC area.  When he returned home, he visited with me. 

Up until that time, he and I had gone on an overnight backpacking trip in the local mountains in an effort to keep our friendship alive and well. In this visit, Greg proposed that we expand our annual time together from an overnight hike to a week-long bike ride.  On his trip, he had discovered a historic trail, known as the Chesapeake & Ohio Towpath Trail (C & O Towpath).  He suggested that we bike that trail from Cumberland, Maryland to Washington DC, a distance of approximately 200 miles the next year.  We did exactly that and had a delightful time.  Greg kept reminding us competitive, stronger riders that this was a "ride", not a "race".  Thus, we took our time, enjoying the beauty of the surroundings, and had a nice leisurely ride. 

We had such a great time that we decided to plan a similar ride each year, usually traversing a canal towpath or a rail trail or two.  We like to travel about 200 miles on each adventure.  Greg has usually taken the responsibility of choosing the route, and I have usually arranged for the accommodations along the the way.

Since that first year, we have biked the KATY Trail across Missouri; gone from tip to tip on Prince Edward Island in Canada; biked the Erie Canal Towpath from Buffalo to Syracuse, NY; rode the Paul Bunyun & Heartland State Trails in Minnesota; traversed both the Great Allegany Passage (GAP) Trail and C & O Towpath Trail from Pittsburgh to Washington DC; and rode the Greater & Lesser Miami Bike trails between Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio. 

There were two years that I was unable to go. On those two years, the group rode the GAP Trail and the George S. Mickelson Trail in the Dakotas. 

Each year has been different, but each has been an exhilarating adventure for me.  I love being out in God's beautiful creations, sometimes biking by myself and sometimes biking and visiting with friends.  Until this year, I have generally taken the caboose position on our rides, making sure the women and children on our rides know that they will not be left alone on the trail. That role has given me ample time to bike by myself.  That being said, each year I also have had plenty of time to bike with each member of our group and enjoy visiting with each of them.

My main regret is that I am the only member of our biking group that is interested in birds.  Thus, there is no time to spend checking out the local avifauna.  I always keep my eyes and ears open in search of the local birds; however, it is impossible to achieve a satisfying birding experience on a bike, while trying to keep up with the entire group.

This year was different than all the rest, because our leader, Greg Last, was not able to participate with us. He and his sweet wife, Patsy, are serving a mission at church headquarters in Salt Lake City.  Thus, this year I took the bull by the horns, and both planned the trails and arranged for the accommodations along the way. I chose to go to northern Idaho for our annual biking adventure.  The only other leader in our group, Jeff Adamson, agreed with my choices.  Thus, we decided to bike the Trail of the Hiawatha, the Trail of the Coeur d' Alenes, and the Weiser River Trail in Idaho. These trails gave us about 180 miles, which we covered in 5 days, from June 13th to the 17th.  

We usually ride about Memorial Day or early June; however, Tom Morris counseled me that northern Idaho weather is notoriously unsettled until about June 10th.  Thus, we pushed our ride back a bit and started on Monday, June 13th. Now that we have done the ride, I wish we had started two days later, on June 15th.  This is because there was a powerful rainstorm in that area which caused serious flooding in Yellowstone National Park on those days.  Fortunately, it didn't cause dangerous flooding where we were biking, but it certainly did make the local rivers rise significantly; and it caused our first two days to be wet, cold, and rather miserable.  The weather for the last three days of our ride was perfect.

For many years I have heard wonderful stories from others about how incredible the Hiawatha Trail is, with its trestles and tunnels.  Thus, it was the draw that made me decide to bike that area this year. I stumbled on the awesome Trail of the Coeur d' Alenes in my research, and Tom Morris helped me decide on the Weiser River Trail.  I found several other trails near Coeur d' Alene that I wish we would have had time to ride.

We knew the forecast called for some unpleasant biking weather on the day we planned to bike the Hiawatha Trail, and so we were surprised to arrive in Wallace, Idaho the night before and find out that we might not be able to get the necessary tickets to ride the trail.  I knew this trail was popular, but could it really be THAT popular?  We men got up early Monday morning and drove to the site of the only remaining tickets/passes, the ski resort near the top of the trail.  We were the first in line for the first-come-first-served tickets, and so were successful in getting our needed tickets.  The final obstacle was finally cleared.

I hope you enjoy our biking adventure via the following pictures and captions.

This is a picture of the map of the Hiawatha Trail, which we acquired when we bought the tickets to ride the trail. The Trail of the Hiawatha is about 15 miles long. Thus, we rode 30 miles today.

We chose to ride the trail both ways, riding our bikes from the bottom to the top and then riding back to the bottom.  The most direct road to the bottom of the trail was closed and so we drove to the top and then to the parking area at the trail's bottom. As you can see, there was still quite a bit of snow on the ground in the trail's upper section. Although it is hard to see in the picture, snow was falling as we were taking these pictures.

The temperature was in the 30's, and when it wasn't snowing, it was raining steadily. The rain did not really let up all day.  While we were on our bikes, we only experienced rain, not snow.

Scott Seegmiller was our driver and took good care of us in our 15-passenger van.

Unloading the bikes from the trailer.  Scott Seegmiller's sister and brother-in-law, Donnie & Dee Sessions drove their truck and trailer, providing transportation for our bikes and luggage. They were incredibly generous, nice and patient people.

A selfie at the bottom of the trail upon arrival, while I was still relatively dry and warm. You will note way too many selfies of myself.  Please forgive me.  I usually take pictures of the gorgeous scenery without me in it; however, Kay reminds me that she would rather have me/people in the pictures. My attempt to please her resulted in all these selfies.

Our pre-ride picture, just after we had our daily pre-ride group prayer. As it turned out this day, we really needed our prayer. I am not sure I can identify everyone, given our rain gear and the distance we all were from the camera, but I will give it a shot.  L to R: Scott Seegmiller; Sadi & Dan McKeehan; Ken Hinton; Jeff's oldest brother and his wife, Dora; Jeff, Whitney & Derena Adamson; Cindy Evans; Joyce Seegmiller; Roxanna Adamson; Steve Jurca; and Nate, Noah & Pam Adamson. I don't know where Bartt Adamson & Beth Jurca are. They both did the ride with us that day.

Selfie with the Hiawatha Trail map and rules bulletin board in the background. Finally ready to ride.

One of the seven railroad trestles that the trail traverses. 

Traversing one of the trestles, with another one in the background. Isn't the scenery spectacular?

 

A Trestle selfie.

You can see just how wet, yet beautiful the surrounding mountain scenery is. I love the clouds shrouding the mountain peaks.

A picture of myself with my trusty new mountain bike, a TREK Fuel Flex 5. 

I know, I know, WAY too many selfies! But can you tell I was in my element and having a blast?

At this point in the ride, I was in the upper section of the trail and so my picture of the railroad trestles shows them below me, instead of higher than my position.

This picture was taken about a block away from the west portal of the highest tunnel, the Taft Tunnel, that was 1.7 miles long. I was trying to capture both the waterfall in the picture's background and the wooden "Route of the Hiawatha" sign behind me.

Although the wooden sign behind me in this picture looks just like the one in the photo above, this one was just outside the east portal of the Taft Tunnel. You can see the tunnel's east entrance in the background. There were 10 tunnels along the trail, although we didn't go through one because it was closed. The Taft Tunnel was the longest one.  All of the tunnels were much wetter than I had expected. At the ride's beginning I had expected the tunnels to be a respite from the constant drizzling rain, but I was wrong. The rainwater was percolating through the ground and thus dripping throughout all of the tunnels. Some tunnels were wetter and muddier than others. The Taft Tunnel was the wettest. At times, it sounded like there was literally a decent-sized stream of water flowing in the tunnel alongside me. There were many places that the dripping was replaced by a steady downpour of water. I tried to avoid all such spots; however, it was impossible to always do so. We bikers shared one tunnel with the vehicular traffic. That one caused me some serious dread as I considered that I'd have to traverse it a second time. The floor consisted of about 3-4 inches of muddy muck.  I tried to ride in the tire tracks of the most recent motorized vehicle. That helped me avoid the worst of the muck; however, it was not possible to stay in the tire tracks all the time. When you wavered into the oozing mud, it became more difficult to peddle and to keep the bike upright. In fact, on the way back down, one of our strongest riders (Derena Adamson) got caught in the muck and it took her down. Although unhurt, she was a muddy mess from the fall. Another concern for me in that tunnel was that we might meet a bus, truck or car in it. On my first time through, I could hear some vehicles approaching me from the rear. The tunnel amplified the sound of their engines, and so it was rather terrifying. I peddled as fast as I could so I could beat them to the tunnel's exit. I was VERY relieved to leave the horizontal hole ahead of those vehicles. After finishing our ride, I learned that Scott & Joyce Seegmiller and Cindy Evans met a vehicle coming toward them in that tunnel. They had to dismount their bikes into the muck that was deep enough to almost slop over the top of their shoes, and position themselves and their bikes against the tunnel wall while the bus passed them. Scott told me that the bus barely missed running over his toes. As you might imagine, I was EXTREMELY grateful that God had awakened me the previous morning to the realization I had forgotten to pack a headlamp or other form of light. My quick trip to Walmart allowed me to acquire a strong headlamp that saved me in those incredibly dark caverns. As I made my way through those tunnels, I kept thinking how blessed I was to have that light on my head.

My selfie in front of the interpretive sign at the east portal of the Taft Tunnel/top end of the trail. A little more than half of our group got to the top of the trail ahead of me and were waiting for the rest of us when I arrived. As they waited, they became increasingly cold, until they couldn't take it anymore and headed back down before the remaining 5 or 6 members of our group arrived at the top. They passed me as I was taking this picture. I then took a restroom stop and started back down the trail myself. I passed the slower group members as I was going back through the Taft Tunnel, and so they weren't too far behind us. Although I couldn't see to recognize who they were, I was able to recognize their voices as they talked amongst themselves. 

I knew the ride today was going to be wet and cold. Thus, I wore 4 layers of clothing on my upper body and two layers on my lower half. I even wore two layers on my head, feet and hands. This made my trek up the trail very enjoyable. The fact that I started the upward ride dry, along with the fact I was ascending the mountain, caused my upward ride to be very enjoyable. However, the ride down was pretty much the opposite. A wind had picked up, especially in the upper reaches of the trail. That windchill made the temperature feel like it was below freezing. The couple of hours in the rain climbing to the top of the trail caused most of my clothing layers to become wet. Those layers that weren't wet from the rain, had become damp from my sweat. As we descended, the rain continued to come down on our already wet bodies. Those conditions combined with the fact we didn't have to work much to descend the trail, made for some miserable, cold bikers. By the time I reached the bottom of the trail, I was cold and numb over much of my body, but especially at my extremities. It reminded me of those frigid days of biking on my young mission in Japan. As I dismounted my bike at the bottom, I almost fell over because my legs were too cold to work properly. 
Dee Sessions and the others that were there to help us put our bikes in the trailer indicated that all the others had similarly gotten off their bikes.  We were all frozen and did our best to recover in the van and truck while we waited for the last members of our group to arrive.
At the end of our week's ride I quizzed everyone what their favorite section of the week's ride had been. NOONE chose this day's full ride. However, three different people chose the ascent portion of today's ride as their favorite. So, yeah, the descent was brutal.

This picture is terrible because it is taken through a fogged-up van window, but we saw a couple of moose on our drive back to our hotel in Wallace. This image only captured one of the moose.

Preparing our bikes and gear for the second day of our ride. After returning to our hotel last evening, I had taken a shower to clean up and warm myself. I then took my drenched, muddy clothing to a nearby laundromat to prepare them for our second day's ride. I joined Scott & Joyce Seegmiller, Dee & Donnie Sessions, and Cindy Evans for a yummy dinner at a small Mexican cafe nearby to celebrate Joyce's birthday. I ordered a burrito, which was excellent! Both Monday & Tuesday mornings, I ate at the small restaurant/cafe at the hotel. It was only open for breakfast. The first morning I ordered hot chocolate and 2 eggs, hash browns and bacon. The hot chocolate was mediocre, but the food was delicious and overly abundant. I couldn't eat it all! Thus, the next morning I only ordered a ham & cheese omelet with my hot chocolate. When they brought out my order, I was surprised to see the omelet came with another mountain of hash browns. Their hashbrowns were made from cubes of potatoes--not my favorite type. Not only was I surprised by the hash browns, but I was also blind-sided by the size of the omelet. It must have been at least a 3-egg omelet that was stuffed with cheese & bite-size pieces of a HUGE ham steak. I persevered and got through the omelet, but I was only able to barely touch the hash browns.

You can see the Session's truck & trailer, as well as our van and the Brooks Hotel (note the green & white sign) in the background. I felt the Brooks Hotel and restaurant served us well for the two nights we stayed there. However, Derena Adamson told me a few days later that in the middle of our second night's stay there, she was awakened by a drunk man banging on her door. She told him to quit and leave, but when he continued to pound on the adjacent room's doors, she called 911. The police arrived very quickly.  They appeared to be familiar with guy and whisked him off to the local jail.

Another shot of our preparations for our second day's ride, taken from a different perspective. I am walking toward the camera, on the left. As you can see, we had to deal with another day of rain. However, the temperature was about 10 degrees warmer on this day, and it didn't rain on us as much. Thus, despite the fact I took a spill as we started our ride and got my gloves wet, today's ride was MUCH more enjoyable.

Our group picture, taken just after our group's morning prayer and before we mounted up to begin the day's ride. I am 3rd from the right. This was our first of two days riding the Trail of the Coeur d' Alenes. Today we rode about 56 miles, from Wallace to Harrison, Idaho. In my opinion, this bike trail was by far the most unheralded trail we experienced this week. I thought it was incredible. Its surface was asphalt (as compared to the dirt/muddy surface of yesterday's Hiawatha Trail), and very smooth--even for an asphalt trail. Generally, over time a tarmac surface will develop bumps and ridges from the impeding roots of adjacent trees and bushes. It will also develop cracks from the drying of the asphalt. I figured this trail was probably laid the prior year, because there were very few such disruptions to its new, pristine surface. The trail's creators had put in periodic restrooms, picnic tables and even an occasional covered pavilion along the trail. The scenery along the trail was absolutely gorgeous. I got to see a few mammals and a plethora of various bird species as I rode.

Selfie of myself and my bike on one of the many bridges we crossed on this day. The bike trail basically followed the South Fork of the Coeur d' Alene River from Wallace to Coeur d' Alene Lake. It was another day of stunning mountain beauty for me.

A view downriver from the same bridge as shown in the above photo. Although you can't tell from this picture, almost every creek and river we encountered today was swollen above its normal level and sometimes above its banks from the rainstorm.

The upriver view. From the pictures, you'd never know I was having such a good time.

Picture of a drenched Ken & Jeff, taken about halfway through today's ride.

About a mile or two before reaching today's destination, I encountered this young moose. At this point, I was the leader of our group of riders. As I was blissfully enjoying my ride, I suddenly noticed this moose standing in the trail, munching on some greenery alongside the trail. It was oblivious to me. I stopped to consider my options. It looked too small to be an adult. Thus, I was worried its mom might be nearby. I am aware how powerful these animals can be and how aggressive a mom moose can be when protecting its young. I was concerned this guy might not yield the trail to me. I ultimately decided to tempt fate. I pulled out my iPhone/camera and remounted my bike to approach the beast slowly. Fortunately for me, when it realized I was approaching, it decided to vacate the trail and I got a decent picture or two in the process. Also, I never saw the mom moose, and so I got away from the encounter unscathed and with a couple of nice pics!

Posing for its photo in the trees.

We stayed our second night (Tuesday) in Harrison, Idaho. I thought it was a cute little quaint village. I loved the quiet, rural lake-side ambience there. This church was across the street from our hotel, the Lakeview Lodge. It is difficult to see, but many of the windows in the building were stained glass. I found it to be pleasing to the eye.

Our hotel accommodations for Tuesday night. I felt the rooms were way overpriced, but it was the only option in town. Thus, the rule of supply and demand allows them to set their prices wherever they want. I thought my room was well appointed and clean. I absolutely LOVED the view of the lake from my room's deck.

This is a picture of a wall-hanging in my room's bathroom. I liked it.

After settling in my room and taking a quick shower, I went hunting for dinner. When I checked in around 4:30 PM, the lady in the office warned me that the local eateries tend to close their doors early and at any time they want. They didn't have set hours. Thus, I hustled to find a place to acquire my evening vittles. I ended up going to a small mom-and-pop bar/cafe. Actually, when I got there, I found it to only be a pop bar/cafe that night. Mom had already left the premises. It was one of only two real dinner options in town. I happened to arrive shortly after some of the Adamson Families. They insisted I join them at their table, taking the last spot available there. Midway through the meal, Jeff arrived and so I retreated to a nearby table and chowed down by myself. I ordered a burrito. It was less than good. In fact, it was probably the worst burrito I have had in years; but it filled the void in my stomach and so I was good. On my way back to our motel, I explored the main street establishments a bit and found one smaller eatery and a small grocery store. I foraged in the grocery store and was bushwhacked by a pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. I succumbed and enjoyed it while I talked with Kay on the phone in my motel room that evening. 

The next morning (Wednesday), I got up early and went to the other small cafe in town. It was a cafe that also rented bikes. I ordered a croissant and egg sandwich and hot chocolate. The drink was marginal at best, and the sandwich wasn't much better. I made up for it by going to the nearby grocery store and buying a fresh, yummy maple bar. Now, THAT is my type of breakfast. The two posters shown above were wall hangings in that small cafe. I liked them both and couldn't resist taking pictures of them, despite the glare from the hanging light in front of them.

This was the balcony and evening view directly out of my motel room. Gorgeous isn't it? I found the view to be distinctly different with the sun shining on it in the morning than when I took this pic in the cloudy gloom of the evening. Either way, I loved it!

This was the morning view from my room's balcony, looking to the left.

This was the morning view from my room's balcony, looking to the right.

This was the morning view from my room's balcony, looking straight out.

Group picture before starting our ride on Wednesday. They jumped the gun on taking this picture and so I am not in it. L to R: Bev & Steve Jurca, Pam, Noah & Nate Adamson, Derena, Whitney & Jeff Adamson, Bartt & Roxanna Adamson, Dora Adamson & her husband, Joyce & Scott Seegmiller, Cindy Evans and Dee Sessions.

The weather for today's ride was perfect--cool and sunny! Today we rode the last 15 or so miles of the Trail of the Coeur d' Alenes. This section of trail was equally as impressive as yesterday's trail. Dora Adamson & Cindy Evans are behind me in the photo.

Today's section of trail took us along the southeastern shore of Lake Coeur d' Alene. The scenery was spectacular. Get ready for another overload of selfies. (Sorry!)

Selfie taken during one of our group's short stops along the trail. The pond to the left in this pic had a turtle sunning itself on it.

Near the southern edge of Lake Coeur d' Alene, they have built a neat pedestrian/biking bridge over a narrow section of the lake. This photo tries to capture the eastern portion of that bridge. It is far enough away that it is hard to see very well.

Picture of another one of our group's snack stops. We took this stop at the eastern edge of the bridge over the lake that I mentioned in the previous photo. I didn't feel this year's group did as well at stopping to snack and chat together as we usually have on previous rides. I don't know whether it was because Greg Last wasn't with us, our group was too large this year (19 people on our largest day), or whether the make-up of our group just didn't lend itself to such socializations. We had two main subgroups in our riding group this year--the Seegmiller Family & friend and the Adamson Family and friends. I was the odd-man-out. Thus, I split much of my free time with one family group or the other. I enjoyed everyone's company. Everyone was very nice, but our group was not very cohesive this year.

This selfie view shows my bike and the bridge in the background.

One of our group was kind enough to take the photos above and below of me (portrait & landscape orientations) during this stop.

Selfie with my riding glasses on, looking south from the bridge.

Selfie with my riding glasses off, looking south from the bridge.

Joyce & Scott Seegmiller on the trestle section of the bridge.

Selfie at the east edge of the trestle section of the bridge.

Looking northward up the lake from the bridge.

Shortly after crossing the bridge, the trail left the lake shore and climbed gently up the hill to the southwest, away from the lake and toward Plummer, Idaho, which was our ride's destination today. On this section of trail, we encountered this burned-out section of the forest, and this tall bridge over a small stream.

Looking downstream from the bridge.

Looking upstream from the bridge.

The Adamson brothers at the end of today's ride. L to R: Nate, Jeff, Jeff's oldest brother, & Bartt. They are all impressive men. I enjoyed getting to know Jeff's brothers. Jeff has been a friend of mine ever since we started doing these annual week-long rides a decade or so ago.

This is a monument to the fallen servicemen from the Coeur d' Alene Indian Tribe. It was located at the end of the trail, in Plummer, Idaho. I was impressed with how nice this monument was.

At this point in our ride, Jeff's oldest brother & his wife, as well as Steve & Bev Jurca left us.  They had had enough. Dan & Sadie McKeehan left us before starting our ride this morning. We stopped at a burger joint in Plummer for lunch. I relished my burger & fries. They comped me a nice ice cream cone to go with my meal.

After eating lunch together in Plummer, we headed south to Lewiston. The ride was about 1.5 hours long. This pic was taken from the van's widow as we traveled from Plummer to Lewiston, Idaho. I had never been in this part of the state. I was very impressed with its beauty. As you can see, at this time of year everything was green and beautiful. Although this photo shows some mountains, for most of our drive the terrain was just rolling hills. The farmers have tamed those hills and so they were covered with various dry-farmed crops. Most of the crops appeared to me to be rapeseed, barley or wheat. I thought the landscape was pretty and I enjoyed seeing what Moscow & Lewiston, Idaho are like.

This photo and the one below are of Lewiston, Idaho. They were taken from the window of our van as we descended the rather tall bluff above the north side of the city. I was surprised when the rolling hill terrain suddenly gave way to this high bluff overlooking the Lewiston valley.

The river in the distance is the Snake River, just below the confluence of the Clearwater and the Snake River. This evening we ALL went out to eat together. Our group was too big to all fit on one table, but at least we were finally all eating at the same restaurant. Someone selected a nice Mexican restaurant for our dinner together. As you might guess, I ordered a burrito. It was good, but not great. While munching on the chips and salsa, my throat was suddenly attacked by a Jalapeno pepper that was hiding in the salsa. I went into an uncontrollable coughing fit. I had to quickly exit the restaurant and hide in the parking lot while I coughed my guts out. It was not a good scene. After dinner we returned to our Super 8 Motel and I tried to go for a walk. I didn't get very far. My Lumbar Radiculopathy (as my doctors call it), or as most of us call it, my pinched nerve/Sciatica got the better of me and I had to turn around. The pain in my left hip and leg became more intense than I could stand. Thus, I returned to my room and laid on the bed the rest of the evening. I am so grateful that God blessed me with the health and ability, despite my Sciatica pain, to be able to do this bike ride. 

Our group photo just after our morning prayer & before boarding our van & truck for the 2.5-hour drive to our rendezvous with Tom Morris in New Meadows, Idaho, near the trailhead of the Weiser River Trail. It was taken in the parking lot of the Super 8 motel, where we stayed the night before. I was pleasantly surprised at how nice and clean this motel was. It was definitely the best value of any of our hotels this week. It cost us $79 for a 2-queen bed room. The complimentary continental breakfast was a grab-and-go bag, but it was better than I expected. L to R: Bartt & Roxanna Adamson; Derena, Whitney & Jeff Adamson; myself; Joyce & Scott Seegmiller; Cindy Evans; Donnie Sessions; and Nate, Pam & Noah Adamson. Dee Sessions was our photographer.

Thursday about noon. Getting our bikes ready to ride at the Weiser River Trailhead, a few miles southwest of New Meadows, Idaho. Once again, the weather today was absolutely gorgeous!

Scott Seegmiller taking a picture from a picturesque bridge along the trail, with Joyce Seegmiller watching and Tom Morris passing on his bike.

A picture of myself with biking glasses on, taken by Tom Morris, looking downstream from the above-mentioned picturesque bridge.

A picture of myself with biking glasses off, taken by Tom Morris, looking downstream from the above-mentioned picturesque bridge.

Tom Morris on the left and Ken on the right as we rode on the upper section of the Weiser River Trail. Both today and on Friday, Tom & I spent most of our time riding together. Tom did periodically leave my side and chatted with others in our group. Once again, the scenery was spectacular.

As we got to the lower reaches of today's ride, the terrain changed from an alpine stream valley setting to a more open, partially developed landscape. There were scattered cabins and homes, with periodic fields & apple orchards strewn among the rolling hills and the streamside. We started noticing big heaps of bear scat in the trail, just like this. I must have seen 30 to 50 of such poop piles in the trail this day. Although Tom & I just missed the bear, others in our group got quite the charge out of encountering one of the perpetrators that were making these dumps.

This photo shows the terrain we were in when we started encountering the piles of bear scat in the trail.

My buddy, Maddog Morris.

The post-prayer & pre-ride group photo in front of the motel we stayed at Thursday night. After checking into our motel last night, I started my laundry and then Tom & I walked to a nearby Chinese cafe. Most of our group had already arrived and the owner/cook was a bit overwhelmed. Eventually he got to us and we enjoyed a delicious Chinese meal. I thought this motel, although a mom-&-pop run property, was clean and well maintained. It was our second-most reasonable lodging for the week. L to R: Tom Morris; Donnie Sessions; Ken Hinton; Scott & Joyce Seegmiller; Cindy Evans; Roxanna & Bartt Adamson; Jeff & Derena Adamson; Nate Adamson; Whitney Adamson; and Noah & Pam Adamson.

A selfie opportunity at the Midvale Town park and potty stop.

Portrait and landscape orientations of photos of Tom & me along the streamside trail.

Today's trail surface was comprised of very course gravel. The gravel made the ride very bumpy and uncomfortable. We had to be on a constant lookout for the larger rocks in the gravel and had to pick and choose our path. The day was warm and there was little cover or shade. Thus, this was my least favorite day of our week's ride. I saw two snakes on the trail today. The first one caught me by surprise and was stretched out most of the way across the trail. Thus, I ran over it. I don't know what type of snake it was, but it must have been about 4 feet long. The second one was definitely a rattlesnake. I didn't run over it, but I came close. It didn't move or react to my passing and so I wonder if it was asleep or possibly dead. It certainly didn't look injured.

This is our truck driver, Dee Sessions, cooking breakfast for us on Saturday morning. After getting off the trail about noon yesterday, we stopped and ate lunch at a McDonald's Restaurant in Weiser, Idaho. Tom had already left us. We then boarded our vehicles and drove straight through to Idaho Falls, where we dropped all our Adamson friends off. The Seegmillers, Cindy, myself and the Sessions then headed south to Dee & Donnie's home in Ogden. We arrived rather late. Dee & Donnie graciously hosted all of us. They are truly awesome people, just like Donnie's little brother, Scott Seegmiller and his wife, Joyce.

To illustrate how nice Dee & Donnie are, after providing us room and board for the night, Dee took Cindy & I into her work room and showed us a stack of her home-made rugs. She told each of us to pick our favorite and she then gave them to us. In this picture Dee is mimicking Donnie & I as we hold the rug Donnie gave me. I have put my rug in my bathroom. I think it looks great there.

Standing in front of Dee & Donnie Session's Ogden home on Saturday morning, just before heading home. L to R: Ken Hinton, Donnie (Donalyn) Sessions, Scott & Joyce Seegmiller, Dee Sessions, and Cincy Evans.