Gooding to Burley - July 16th

A great day! Everyone tried to get on the road as early as possible, as the 130km plus several stops would cause us to ride in the hottest part of the day. Setting out I marvelled at the nicely developed farms, extensive irrigation systems and the bountiful crops as result. In addition to the already mentioned crops, we also saw lots of beans and barley. During the first week we saw much hops closer to Seattle. We came a,cross a crop dusting biplane and watched his almost reckless low flying and sharp pulling up at the end of the fields. We also got dusted unfortunately, as we were downwind!
A farmer Ted Millar invited the whole group to stop by his dairy farm for a quick tour and an ice cold glass of moo juice! Lekker!!! His operation is impressive and runs day and night, except for a couple of hours when the whole production facility gets sterilized. 1,700 cows each gets milked 3 times a day, on a carousel that can accommodate 50 cows at a time. The cows are so nicely trained and looked blissfully happy to be relieved of the pressure build up in their huge udders. They walk out calmly and content to the feedlot. The feed gets mixed by an enormous mobile mixer, and 4 cubic meters of feed at a time gets thrown into this mixing bowl on wheels by a front end loader, with the neccessary supplements, before the truck drives along the fence of the feedlot to deliver the rich mixture to the cows, philosophically waiting to put their heads through the iron barred fence to devour the feed. Very interesting!
Shortly after the visit we came upon this enormous canyon, eaten into the earth by the broad Snake River. After some photos on the edge, we crossed the steel bridge that spans this enormous cavity, a popular place for base jumpers. Every vehicle, especially trucks, cause this bridge to move up and down, which I found utterly uncomfortable, as the bridge is very long, and the cycling corridor only 3' wide, and this depth underneath...! To cycle over this obstacle, the secret is to look and focus where you want to go, else if you look at the water hundreds of feet below, you may end up going where you are looking! At the visitor centre we saw that this whole irrigation system in the semi desert was envisioned by one man ... his dream came true and it turned the world for many miles around into a prosperous productive paradise. The bridge was named after him.
Lunch picnic followed at the Twin Falls RCA church. Delicious and highly enjoyed by all! The high point was our visit to the Twin Falls (The Niagara of the west). Stunning, for sure, although the water is much lower now as the irrigation systems draw heavily on it. We had a 2 km downhill thrill to the falls, but thereafter the very steep climb to the top again, many places up to 10% gradient! But it was worth it for sure! The rest of the ride went through lovely irrigation farms and sometimes we were fortunate to receive a spray while passing on the bike. The heat was very intense, and one could feel the sun literally stinging one's skin....even up to 7pm in the afternoon! At night it is mercifully cool and even cold. We kept a fair pace with a 27kmh average, going mostly at 30 to 35kmh. I felt good today and pulled the line along for more than a 100km, with great joy to be able to make things easier for others. Great workout too!

We are all heavily indebted and thankfu ltowards our SAG wagon drivers that stand along the road most parts of the day, mostly without any shade, to provide us with fresh cool water. Life line for sure!!! One of them had a tremendous headache tonight as result of over exposure to this lethal sun for so many hours. We thank you and hope it clears up soon!