July 1 Twin Falls to Burley, Idaho

Jump this!

The shortest day of the trip — 39 miles — turned into a sight seeing adventure as we ambled along the Snake River.  We started by watching the BASE jumpers parachuting off the Snake River bridge, just outside of town.  The bridge is 486 feet (148 meters) above the river.  Idaho laws make it illegal to attach anything to a bridge which pretty much eliminates bungee jumping.  But there’s no law saying you can’t jump off a bridge. (Hey, this is America!)  So, jump they do … with glider parachutes.  They jump, execute a quick turn, and land just over the trees on the river’s edge. We saw six people jump. Some do tricks — double back flips — others pull the cord as they leap. We chatted with

An eligible bachelor

a half dozen young men who were re-packing their chutes for another jump.  (Apparently, they jump all day long when they have good weather).  I asked, “How many of you guys are married?”  That provoked gales of laughter. Finally one young man sheepishly confessed that he was engaged and that his jumping days might be nearing an end.   The young men’s culture seemed to have a lot in common with kayakers (Utah), rock climbers (Colorado), back country skiers (anywhere in the West), surfers (California, Hawaii), and canyon hikers (Arizona).  They all seem like young Peter Pans who are too busy being busy to worry about growing up.

We then took off toward Burley.  Along the way, we gazed numerous times at the fabulous canyon carved by the Snake River.  We also stopped at Shoshone Falls which were very pretty but seemed more like a general industrial zone because of all the hydroelectric equipment in the area.  If you could mentally edit out the power lines and industrial sheds, it made for a very pretty picture. Unfortunately, a camera can’t edit it all out so you see the picture at the right.

The road to Burley followed the Interstate and wasn’t terribly interesting.  More agricultural fields; more irrigation equipment; more large trucks.  More important: lots of friendly people who waved and/or gave us the thumbs up sign as we mosied along. Probably the most interesting thing we saw was a crop duster working the fields near our hotel in Burley. Tomorrow is a longer day — 88 miles to Pocatello — so it’s nice to have slower- paced sightseeing day today.

Day’s distance: 45.2 miles (72.7 km) — 39 to Burley; 45.2 miles with sightseeing detours
Average speed: 15.1 mph (24.3 kph)
Day’s climb: 1,150 feet (350.5 meters)
Total distance: 844.3 miles (1,358.8 km)