Banks to Lowman Ride

On Labor Day, I went motorcycling with some friends; we did the Boise to Banks to Lowman to Boise loop.  And it put me to wanting to do part of the same ride on the bicycle.  My friend "Woody" told me several years ago that Banks-to-Lowman it was his favorite bike ride; I tried it a couple years ago and wrote about it HERE.

It was great to return... during a week of vacation, I took a day (Thursday 9/19) and did the same ride.  My wife is quite kind to loan me the Wagon Queen Family Truckster now and then, so I can stage such an adventure.

It started out almost cold, and breezy.  In fact, at the first stop I would've been riding immediately uphill and into a stiff headwind, so I drove up the road a couple more miles before getting underway.  It made a big difference.

I rode 31+ miles each way.

The ride to Lowman was lovely in every way.  As I recalled from last time, there's not really much commerce in Lowman, so it can be a challenge to find water.  But there's a highway maintenance shed there; I approached it and found the door open.  Far as I can tell, nobody was there at the time, but there was tap water.  I drunk deeply and refilled my bottles.

The first half of the ride back was almost as lovely.  Then I started feeling the distance - when 90% of your riding is 20 miles or less, I'm sure it helps considerably on a 60-mile jaunt, but just the same, by the end I was feeling like a tired old man.  I was happy to see the Family Truckster come into view up ahead.