Travels with Josie

Posts Tagged ‘Holbrook’


Posted on June 24, 2010 - by

Idaho: A hill and two hoots

Great horned owls on a date

Day 21: June 24, 2010

Newton, Utah to Holbrook, Idaho

64 miles

I crossed The Long Divide to Plymouth and made my way to Portage, lucking out by getting ahead of the chip/seal crew on the frontage road, but behind the guy who sweeps the road. It was a sweet rolling ride that put me at 45 miles as I rolled through Pleasantview and followed the signs westward toward Holbrook. A cool cloud cover had burned off and I was getting hot. A foot-long breakfast sub with plenty of salt had triggered a powerful thirst and I drank 85 ounces of water by noon. Sensing the Pleasantview intersection was my last chance to refill, I knocked on the door of an elderly widow and asked if I could refill at her hose. She said No, that water was lousy, and brought out a jug she fills in Logan at her son’s. After discussing thirst in general, she said it takes a 50-50 orange juice mix to slake her thirst, and she brought out a bottle. How could I refuse, so I went for 50-50 in two bottles and hit the road. All that was fortunate as the Holbrook road is a five-mile or so climb to a pass that wasn’t steep so much as persistent. I topped out and pedaled a dozen miles in the sun to Holbrook, where the mayor and constable were cleaning a shady park pavilion in anticipation of a reunion this weekend. I had intended to keep moving toward I-84, but the park was undeniably the most pastoral camping spot I have seen all trip.

Holbrook Mayor Gayleen and son Shane

Constable Arnie said I could camp, and Mayor Gayleen said there were rattlesnakes where I was headed. Who was I to argue? I pitched camp, cooked dinner and watched for over an hour the remarkable courtship of two great horned owls.