Sarah’s 2023 Smoke n’ Fire phone-dictated daily log

Day 1: Boise to Dollarhide summit, 128 miles / 11,400 feet

Rolled out from Carey‘s house at 3:30 AM and lots of people at the start. We were on Greenway trails for a while, which was a nice easy roll out and during that time I realized I hadn’t downloaded the Ride with GPS route completely on my phone. I had started it the day before, but it didn’t finish and I had noticed it but then forgot to make it finish so as we rolled, I kept watching for enough cell signal and kept trying to get it to load. After the Greenway we were on riverbed type crappy roads, climbing up onto a ridge but once we get up on the ridge for the whole rest of the day, the surface was pretty perfect champagne gravel. I felt terrible starting at about mile 49 started to feel like I wanted to pull over and nap like I could fall asleep any second and my knee was hurting and it was pretty windy but beautiful day. At around mile 65 I started to feel better and at Pine Carey and Wendy said they were going to order food and sit for a while so I kept going, I bought a Coke at the store and the guy behind me said to put it on his tab which was really sweet and I just kept rolling and ended up getting all the way to the top of Dollarhide at 11 PM but man the last 6 miles of that climb in the dark, which would’ve been starting at mile 122 for the day was so brutal. I was so tired and it was just a real mindfuck and I could tell my central governor was doing weird things because I kept just wanting to get off the bike and walk and it was a pretty gentle climb. It would be easy under regular conditions, but holy shit I was so tired on that climb I was with Lindsay and Patrick which was nice to have company. I ended up getting to the top first and found camp spots. And then some other people rolled in after Lindsay and Patrick and I didn’t wear earplugs but I should have because they woke me up at 5:30 when they were talking and then rolled out.

Day 2: Dollarhide summit to Pole Creek Cutoff, 65 miles / 4,998 feet

I was super pissed because I really wanted to get at least seven hours of sleep, but I got up. It started with a long descent down off of Dollarhide where the temps were lower down below and I had all my clothing on and I was freezing, including two pairs of gloves and hat and buff and I was so cold. I should’ve put my rain pants on in retrospect just as an extra layer, finally I got out of the valley enough to get some sun. I hadn’t had any sun at all on me on the whole descent so at about mile 22 when I got close to Ketchum I got some sun which was nice. I went to a café, ordered a burrito because I knew I was underfed all day yesterday, and so I inhaled the burrito and also had a 20 ounce dirty chai which hit the spot. I ended up frittering away an hour and a half in Ketchum, which I was a little bummed about but it was all stuff I needed to do like clean the chain and I cleaned my glasses and just charged a few things. It’s crazy how much the time adds up so from there we’re on pavement for a bit and then get to a singletrack trailhead outside Ketchum and that was the beginning of 12 miles of mostly hell. It started with a super narrow single track through shrubbery, hike a bike climbing, and then went along a river for a while that was super crumbly marble rock, and then lots of hike a bike but finally after 8 miles it turned into a singletrack that I actually like which is pine forest dirt surface so the last 4 miles were super nice, but that whole section took me so long and I wasn’t expecting it, and from there we got on the Harriman trail, which was super pretty but wide open space and a headwind the whole time. And I had been thinking I would have plenty of time to get to Galena lodge for lunch before they stop serving at 3:30 because it was 30 miles in 5 1/2 hours which I thought would of course be doable but it wasn’t and I missed it by 10 minutes and as I was racing to try to get there, it started raining so I pulled over to put on my gear and lost more time because of that but I didn’t want to get grit in my chamois so I pulled in to Galena Lodge, wet and cold and there were a few other riders there and we were all just sitting in the silence which was kind of funny everyone was tired. Patrick showed up and said he was going to scratch which is a bummer and I ran into Lindsay in Ketchum and she said she was going to scratch also, so from Galena after having hot tea and potato chips and feeling bummed that I didn’t get real food because I am way under fed today too. I started out on Titus Trail, which was sucking so hard the 1st mile or so had some rideable stuff but since it had rain, there was mud and slippery things and it just got more technical and more steep and the last mile and a half from the top were some of the hardest hike a bike I’ve ever done I think, it was so crazy steep and just lasted forever so you just couldn’t get a break it was so fucking hard and rocky and roots and shit so hoisted the bike up and over shit fucking brutal. I was so tired and then the descent from the top was also technical. Oh, I forgot to mention I crashed on the singletrack outside of Ketchum, I lost balance on the bike and it pushed me to the right down the slope and I whacked my head so I’m betting my neck will be sore tomorrow but thankfully the drivetrain was OK. And so then on the way down the singletrack from the top of Galena, I did it again, but this time I managed to get a foot down on top of a fallen log no less I don’t know how I did it but fuck it was not good and the bike went down on the drivetrain side again, but it seems OK thankfully. So after a few miles of that I got onto a highway for a mile or so and then onto a dirt road which was so nice with a great view of the mountains, and such a nice reward, after the hell of Titus so at the bottom of that I have decided I would camp and make this a short day so I could catch up on sleep and I found a really nice camping area that I thought would be perfect and I was in the process of unpacking my bike and I hear dogs barking, coming closer and closer and before I know it there’s five sheep dogs all barking at me from within about 50 yards and across the street there was a huge flock of sheep and I could hear their bells and I have been thinking how nice it would be to sleep being able to hear sheep spells but these dogs would not give up. They wouldn’t go away so I packed up my stuff and backtracked on the road to an established campsite that I had passed just a little bit before, thinking the dogs would leave me alone there, because it was public land, but they would not go away, and they just barked and barked even after I threw sticks and stuff to scare them. So it was getting dark by this time and I was so pissed and they wouldn’t stop or go away so I continued on down the road and thankfully ended up back on more public land which I’m pretty sure the first site also was by the way and so now I’m in a little grove of conifers and two other cyclists showed up about a half an hour ago and are a little bit down the street I could see their lights. Everything today took twice as long as I thought it would.

Day 3: Pole Creek Cutoff to Elk Meadow, 73 miles / 6,037 feet

Slept pretty great even though the bivy was on a slope so I kept ending up down at the bottom of the bag. Rolled out before the sun was up and it was beautiful nice gravel out into a wide open valley with the mountains all around it was so beautiful but I got to an area that was fucking freezing cold and I was dying for the sun to come up over the mountains to warm me up a little bit and doing Fisher Creek which is really pretty and fun for the most part but definitely some skinny trails cut into steep mountain sides. That was sketch that I didn’t love, but I did it. Yay. That is a really cool area - tons of different ecosystems all in a small space and super pretty views and really nice singletrack. After that was Redfish Ridge which it was a bunch of baby head HAB and climbing so really tough and then came down to Redfish lake and had hotdogs and french fries and ice cream with new friends, Chris, JD and Josh and Gio who is there as well who I had ridden with on and off today. Started to feel a little more human after some food. I’ve still been struggling to get enough calories during the day and I have a big welts on my left butt cheek, saddle sore. I can’t tell if it’s open or a blister but it’s raised which sucks. It’s really painful. I might be able to do it tomorrow morning if I can see in the dark. So after Redfish Lake, there was more climbing on singletrack with HAB, but it didn’t last all that long thankfully and finally got to Stanley and bought a bunch of food for the next few days. Two more people scratched. Seems like people are dropping like flies. I haven’t looked at Trackleaders, so I don’t know where we stand or how many people are left. Today Cori showed up which was so awesome just outside Fisher Creek and she had treats for riders. I was with Gio at the time and she said Wendy who is Carey‘s friend is probably going to scratch. I think they are about a half day behind me. I had hoped to finish this in four days but I realize now that was a pipe dream. Everything takes so long. There was so much HAB today and technical singletrack and it’s just really slow moving, but if I can continue the way I’m going I should be able to finish by Sunday night and I’m happy with that because honestly just finishing this thing. I’ll be so stoked since I didn’t train at all and it’s a really fucking hard race.

Day 4: Elk Meadow to Scott Mountain, 78 miles / 7,439 feet

Today was totally insane so hard. I got up at 5am like a regular day and was riding by 6 out of the woods and onto the highway for a stretch before getting back on more singletrack to start one of the two new sections added this year 16 miles. I bumped into David who had lost his phone and was walking looking for it. Poor guy. So the next 16 miles were just mostly hike a bike. The first part before crossing the highway was just fucking insane. Probably the hardest HAB I’ve ever done and then the descent on the other side was partially rideable, but lots of rocky super steep stuff that just wasn’t safe to ride and also lots of water crossings so on and off the bike, a ton which was exhausting, and then we cross the highway and went over to the Cape Horn climb which was more hike a bike and then almost all hike a bike on the descent as well so I think it was about 7 miles of super rocky shit it was exhausting and then it came out onto a wide forest road which I was so happy for because I could finally ride even though then my ass hurt worse on my gaping saddle sore which I looked at with my camera this morning and it looks just like it did on the Divide, so I tried to bandage it, but the bandage didn’t stick so it was painful all day except when hiking ha ha so I was happy to be back on the road, but there was a crazy headwind and it was starting to get a little bit hot and I was starting to think about water and then came upon Mike and Ashley who were trail angels in Bear Valley with a tent, and watermelon and oranges and Gatorade and it was amazing and I was so happy. From there, there was an awesome smooth gravel descent of winding road down through an old burn. It was super pretty and then I can’t remember what was after that, but then started to climb up to Scott Mountain, which is where I’m camped. I was going to do the full summit and camp at the top, but I came out to a spot where the summit kind of levels off for a while before one last little peak at the end and I found an awesome camp spot so I decided to just grab it. Cori sent a message that Carey scratched at Redfish today.

Day 5: Scott Mountain to #31 Corrals, 82ish miles (?) / 9,600ish feet (?)

Woke up from camp on top of Scott Mountain at 5am even though I’d ridden until 11pm. Kyan and Kris rolled by while I was setting up camp that night and said they were going to camp higher up. I still had 2ish miles before the top but had found a perfect little spot tucked in the trees and decided to call it. I was spent. So in the morning I rolled out and it quickly turned to HAB. It was dark and the stars were bright and gorgeous. I came upon K&K about a mile later, still waking up. I missed the turn off to the singletrack and ended up going all the way up to the lookout parking lot as the sun was starting to come up. It was gorgeous. I backtracked down and got on the singletrack. It was so sketch. Skinny track, tons of rocks in it, hillside cut that I fucking hate, steep drop, then tons of overgrown mature shrubs across the trail. My pedal kept smashing my calves so eventually I Voile-strapped it to the chainstay. Tons of sketchy off-camber stuff to navigate, super steep downhill. It was insane. Not sure how many miles it was. Two or three maybe? Then finally came out to something more like a two-track which eventually turned into a nice champagne gravel road that descended through a canyon for a looooong time (fast miles fast miles!) down into Garden Valley. It was cooooold but I was so glad to finally be making some time since I was hell bent on getting to Boise that night. Saddle sore was still killing me. I didn’t bother bandaging it today since the bandage didn’t stick yesterday. I also knew that there was a lot of singletrack coming down into Boise and I really wanted to get to the top of all that before dark. Or at least past the sketchiest of it during daylight. So when I got to Garden Valley, a guy in a bike kit approached me saying “Hi Sarah!” turns out it was a friend of Kris and Kyan’s meeting them to ride with them and he’d been dot-watching. His wife was there too. Doug and Mindy. I tried to keep it quick there. I knew I had two big buttes/climbs to get up and over before hitting the Boise singletrack. But I had no idea what it would be like and no idea that the first one is called “Mordor” (learned that later). It was a 10 mile climb to the top which went ok but then there were several 2ish mile climbs along the top, each followed by a descent so it was just up down up down and a bunch of steep stuff so I was on and off the bike a bunch. Lots of erosion and ruts to navigate too. So Mordor was really slow-going and I started to feel concerned. It was HOT too. and I was really nervous about whether the store in Placerville would really be open. I also made a mental note to start charging my headlamp by 4pm if I thought I wouldn’t make it to the finish before dark. I stopped in Placerville and the store was open. Bought a gallon of water since the tap water there is non potable (mining), inhaled a hostess cupcake and ice cream sandwich (I’d still been feeling underfed, AGAIN even though the night before I ate a mountain house beef lasagne which was the most delicious thing to me at the time omg so good then had MH eggs for breakfast which I’d rehydrated overnight) and inhaled two Body Armors and bought other snacks. Then I had the best biggest poop ever which made me super happy since my poop regime was all out of whack on this trip too for some reason. K&K&D rolled in as I was coming out of the bathroom. It was hot. I chatted with Kyan for a bit then rolled out to start the climb up Shafer Butte which Kyan warned me would be washboard and hot. The washboard wasn’t too bad but it was very hot. The road was wide and there were cars. It was a low point for me. I started to feel a little dizzy so I stopped and took some salt tabs which helped. The route left the wide road a few miles in and got onto a quieter one which was nice. There was trail magic at that intersection and I had some cheese puff things that were delicious. I tried to make good time but was tired. The ridge road at the top was undulating and super fun and pretty in spots. Then we left that road to get onto singletrack along the top which was fun and mostly not scary. Then back to the road for a bit and at the top of Bogus Basin, I got to the final singletrack just as the sun was going down. I felt scared but tried to push it away because I wanted to finish tonight so badly. I got my headlamp out and put it on, along with my red jacket, and started descending. I quickly noticed it was hard to hold my head up. My neck hurt. I kept having to stop and rest it. I sent Cori and Carey a message saying that I was going to try to push to finish tonight but was having neck issues so it will be slow and “please don’t wait up”. I kept going and my neck was worse and worse. Mostly just when descending. I tried to change my body position but that felt unsafe and off balance. I used a Voile strap to connect the back of my helmet to the top of my hydration vest. This helped somewhat. I got down onto a trail that went on FOREVER (I think it was Shingle Creek) that was fucking scary. Skinny ass track cut into steep hillside with no bottom visible in my headlamp. So much of this. I kept trying to roll through but then would end up picking up speed super quickly (turns out I have a really hard time discerning pitch in the dark) and skid out and almost slide off the trail so I kept wiping out into the upslope side. Lost count of how many times this happened. My bear spray can has a bunch of dents on it - I think from these wipeouts.

I did the math on how much time this was taking and realized it had been about 4 hours and I had started with a full headlamp charge but wasn’t positive how long it would last. And my spare had some juice but I didn’t know how much. To add to this, my Wahoo was running low - 8% - and phone was at like 5%. I plugged my Wahoo into the white Anker battery which thus far had only been used to charge my headlamp and FUCK it was empty. It wasn’t charging the Wahoo at all and my other battery was emptied. I decided I’d have to just let the Wahoo run down and if I came to an intersection, I’d look at my phone to figure out which way to go. I memorized the order of the next 3 turns at intersections and just tried to keep moving. I knew K&K were behind me somewhere (or at least hoped they still were and hadn’t camped). I thought I may have had about 9 miles to go, based on the number of climbs I’d done and referencing a printout that Patrick had given me on the climb up Dollarhide. But I wasn’t positive. Finally, I just started to feel so unsafe and fucked up and wobbly that I started to think I should rest. I was barely even stable on my feet, let alone on my bike. It was approaching 1am. I’d been told there was a technical rocky trail called Mahalo that we’d be going on and I didn’t even feel like I’d be safe walking it (turns out that was bad info). I had no idea how much light I had left. My head wouldn’t stay even-keeled. It was so weird. I debated just laying down and waiting for K&K then following them the rest of the way but then I just started to feel soooo sleepy. So almost at the top of 31 Corrals when I passed a nice flat spot, I decided to just camp. At this point I had 4% left on my phone and my Wahoo had been long dead. I had I think 18% left on the InReach. I decided not to send a followup message to Cori and Carey, thinking that they would have abided my note saying not to wait up and were long since asleep. And I didn’t think to send a message to Irena - or if I did (I honestly can’t remember) - I may have assumed she’d see my dot had stopped or was already in bed. Turns out the three of them were up and texting about what may have happened. In fact C and C waited at the finish with K&K’s wives for me until 2:30. I felt SO BAD when I found this out. A few minutes after I’d laid down in my bivvy, K&K rolled by. I asked if they had any spare battery and they didn’t. I laid there trying to sleep but stressed about how the hell I’d find my way out in the morning. I had contingency plans of asking Cori to message me turn by turn but I knew this would be cheating. I wasn’t sure if I’d have enough phone battery to get me the info I’d need to get back. I thought about just staying at camp and waiting for another rider to come by but it could be hours and hours (I had no idea who else was out there - turns out it was Casey who didn’t finish until we were having dinner later that day). I kept stressing about whether I’d have enough phone battery left to look up where to go at each intersection. But finally just fell asleep. Probably somewhere around 2am. I had stopped riding at 1am.

Day 6 #31 Corrals to Boise, 6ish miles (?), 200ish feet (?)

I woke up with the sun the next morning and felt dread while packing up my stuff. I was exhausted and just felt terrible. As I started rolling though, all of a sudden I realized I could just follow tracks!! So I did that at first and came out to a trailhead with a MAP! I was so happy to see a map because I could memorize trail names better than Right-Left-Right. A guy rolled up on his bike who has done SNF. He wasn’t much help except to be able to read the tiny font trail name in Gaia. It was a gorgeous morning. Cool and sunny. I memorized a few trails and he pointed me in the direction of the first one I needed. It was fun and swoopy with just a few little rocky patches. It was all downhill so I would have struggled with my head the night before since downhill was the worst for my neck. As I got to each next intersection, I recognized the trail name where I needed to go so didn’t need to use my phone. This might work after all! I started to feel happy and relieved and just hoped the InReach would last so I could get my bouncing dot. Then I fucked up though and ended up in a parking lot where I was off route. Turns out I’d missed one trail name when looking at the map (Owl’s Roost). I climbed back up a short ways and got back on track easy enough. Then when the trails came out into town I messed up again and had to backtrack. I had just enough juice left to look up where to go - was down to 1% now! I rolled down 13th street to the finish and heard cowbells and cheering. Cori and Carey were there as well as Laura Heiner and her husband and several other people who I didn’t know - all Idaho Women’s Bikepacking people I think. They gave me a beer and we chatted for a while before Cori and Carey brought me home.