D19 Twin Falls to Rupert
Mileage 64 including a bit that’s not on the route
Video: https://www.relive.cc/view/vMq5EP9x4Qq
Map: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/92037554?privacy_code=zuXumrNMLOryqpTC
Tomorrow’s Destination: Pocatello
Visiting the Minidoka Internment Camp site was the highlight of the day. If you notice today’s map you’ll see big jog to the north. Minidoka Camp is at the top of that jog. The buildings are nearly all gone. At first I thought “so that’s it?”, but then I saw signage that painted a picture for me. The grounds I saw where pretty big, but then a map of the camp showed that it drawfed the 1.6 mile trail through the remains. The camp is in the middle of nowhere. I can’t imagine 13,000 people living there. The scale of the injustice is more powerful at the site. The only saving grace was a small river that ran by it. I discovered that Frank Kubota who made Kubota Gardens also made a garden there. The Visitor’s Center was closed. Staff were there to supervise window cleaning, but wouldn’t let folks peek in.
Riding in Idaho, at least this part, is a study in contrasts. Part of the day is on a busy highway or next to a busy highway and part of it is super remote and often on gravel roads. I-84 is basically the only route through southern Idaho, so to avoid it, you have to meander and be creative (or your app does and I am running into a lot of problems with the navigation apps). It’s often directing me to take turns through the middle of fields or a ‘road’ that is barely a two track. After talking with someone in Rupert, I think the issue is that the federal government created rights of way that private folks now have easements on. I’d love to be the person who loved the challenge and surprise to deal with exploring unknown backroads, but I’m not that guy. I want to make my planned destination.
I had an option to take Ride With GPS’s recommended option or play it safe and add miles to drop down from Minidoka to a frontage road on I-84. I chose the path more travelled. One of the things I realized about myself, especially when I am by myself is that I don’t like uncertainty. I talked to two guys in a pick-up passing by and they didn’t recommend the Ride with GPS route so I figured they should know. Possibly having to make an unplanned bivy in the desert or by a farm wasn’t my idea of fun. Instead, I put up with the long frontage road along I-84 and then some nice farmland. Along the way I met a guy foraging wild asparagus. He gave me one to sample. Making personal connections is more important to me than epicness.
As I rode I contemplated my destination at Lake Wolcott and the route that would set me up for tomorrow. I looked at the road on Google satellite view. It was two track running between the Lake and Craters of the Moon National Monument which kinda says it all. I punted. I saw a nice historic and reasonable hotel, The Drift Inn, in Rupert which sets me up for a long 78 mile ride into Pocatello, a good percentage of which is gravel. Jonas, who tends bar at Drift Inn, told me he wouldn’t drive a lifted pick-up down the Craters route and that the roads I’ll take tomorrow are all solid. Jonas also managing a grain elevator in the area that’s gone from 9 to 27 employees. Things are looking up in Rupert. BTW - It’s a cool small town. Unlike many western towns, it is built around a square, now lined with old brick buildings on the US National Historic Register. The Drift Inn was once the bank.
I could write more, butt need to get up early for the long day ahead.
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