Bear Lake 50 miler

We had a family reunion up at Bear Lake last weekend and I got the ok to ride the week before, so what did I bring? My bike of course! I'm desperate for a new racing bike, but I don't know if I've ever been so happy to be on my road bike. It's 50 miles around the lake and it was great! No issues on the foot at all, and I felt pretty much back to normal in conditioning and whatnot. I rode it in just under 3 hours, a good time for me considering I wasn't trying to ride at 100%.

I took off from the campground at the south end of the lake at 6:30 am to avoid the heat and any crazy rural drivers. I also wanted to enjoy the lovely sunrise

The west side of the lake is good road. Fairly flat and simply wonderful scenery. I'd love to have a house up there! About halfway up the west side you cross into Idaho. Felt pretty cool to say I'd ridden into another state! The rest of the west side were a few cute small towns with populations under 200. Turned east riding on the north end of the lake. The first 4 miles were just perfect road, oh my tush was loving it! Here's the view from the top looking south. We're camping next to those moutains at the other end.

Right at the halfway point there's some kind of old water treatment or hydro-energy plant. The water comes out of it the coolest color blue, almost a turquoise.

The road after that was horrible! Luckily the "pavement" only lasted 3ish miles till I turned south. The east side of the lake is very baren for the first 10 miles or so until you come to a few vacation home areas and campgrounds. It's also very rolling. That is definately going to be the harder section of the Bear Lake Half. Oh did I mention we had a very strong north wind the 2 days prior to this ride so I decided to head out early enough and into the north so I could enjoy a tailwind back. Did I have a tailwind back? Nope! Darn wind turned on me as I turned south. It wasn't horrible though, just a little dissapointing.
Anyway, I think the race will be a great one. Not sure how they're going to do the run though. They plan to run in on the sand, but the water level is high enough that there isn't any beach in some areas. I'd wanted to do this race, but I just won't be healthy enough in time. I did however totally enjoy my time out there. 50 miles really helped boost my mood and confidence.

Oh and I also got to practice some decending, although I didn't do super great. We went on a little hike at the top of the summit between Logan and Bear Lake, and I rode back down into Garden City and back around the lake to camp. So a 65 mile total for the day.

So pretty!

See that lake down there? That's what I have to get down to
Kind of a steep view if I do say so myself....and I do :)


As far as swimming goes, flutter kick still isn't feeling great, but I keep hoping it will soon. I go back in for new x-rays a week from today and should be able to lose the boot then and s...l...o...w...l...y start running again. Cheers for now!