Introduction

I guess I should explain a little bit about the Idaho Hot Springs Mountain Bike Route, since that's, ostensibly, what this blog is supposed to be about.. The route is a new one just developed by Adventure Cycling and entails a 517 mile loop through central Idaho starting in Idaho City that passes through over 50 hot springs. The Adventure Cycling link provides more details at http://www.adventurecycling.org/routes-and-maps/adventure-cycling-route-network/idaho-hot-springs-mountain-bike-route/. I'm being relived of the oppressive responsibility of planning this trip, that task being assumed by Bill Hunter. I can not express what a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. It appears that, since I am writing this blog, I am still the CIO of the Sloths, about all the responsibility I can handle. So far it looks like about 40-50 miles per day with a couple of rest days thrown in (unfortunately, Mac is not going on this trip so he wont be around to complain about rest days being for wussies). I suppose I should also talk about the incredible preparation required for a trip of this magnitude. Basically, this is broken into two primary regiments: diet and training. My diet will consist of primarily switching from real IPAs to "session IPAs" (beer snob question: isn't a session IPA an oxymoron? isn't a session IPA just a Pale Ale?). My training will consist of increasing my weekly ride mileage to 100 miles a week from its current zero. As we invariably say when starting these rides, we can always just "ride into shape".