Day 13, 16 August: Boise to Mountain Home, ID
I can only add that today is as hot as I ever hope to see.
We had some late or erroneous cues which slowed us up a bit. Then climbing out Hwy. 20 from Boise Airport was positively scary: 2-way heavy truck traffic with little to no shoulder and no place for the trucks to give way to us. At the top we decided it was unsafe and called Mark to ferry us a couple of miles to the next turn off the main road.
At about 28 miles we had a choice to make and elected to take the shoulder of I-85 rather than 7 miles of gravel. It turned out to be the right call – it was good and wide, with a heavy rumble strip to keep the cars away (but we didn’t want to hit it either). Ron had a flat just short of our exit off the interstate and walked it up to where Mark changed it quickly (Dave and I grabbed a slice of pie while waiting).
It was well into the 90s as we started the last 20 miles. We went to 5-mile support stops to hydrate, soak down and continue. We made it to the motel just before noon and under 100 degrees.
It continued to climb as we decompressed. 103 officially, local indications were even higher. At one point Mark saw 108.5 on his truck thermometer – in the shade! The wind came up and it was basically a blast furnace just getting to the restaurant next door for a nice steak dinner.
We toasted Craig Reynolds of 7th Co., our first operational loss tribute of the ride, and honored him at quarters. Craig died in an SH-3 crash while on a Combat SAR exercise at Fallon, NV in 1978. I knew him and most of the guys in 7 as they lived “next door” to First Co. Tomorrow we ride for Matt Minahan and Danny Simpson, also of 7th Co.
We held quarters at the restaurant. It appears we’re over the worst of the heat and it will start to cool off, which is not saying much at this point. We’ll continue to get an early start and stay ahead of it as much as possible. 59 miles to Fairfield tomorrow and 3375 feet of climb.
Bill Montgomery
USNA 1973 Ride-2-Remember 
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