Day 3 – June 20, 2001

Tremonton, UT to Malta, ID

90.19 total miles
12.38 average speed
9:10am departed Tremonton
7:45pm arrived in Malta
7:12.11 total ride time
221.17 total trek miles

            Our readers might notice that our intended destination for today is not the one to which we actually arrived.  It is not hard to know the reason, for our target mileage for today was a trifle over one hundred twenty.  That was an extremely optimistic, as well as a rather inane, goal.  Our weakness fixed that oversight and very soon we realized our bodies would not carry us all the way to Burley like we first hoped.  So we settled into the idea of traveling “just” to Malta.

            We rode to Snowville on Interstate 84 over enormous hills.  In Snowville, people began to come up to us and ask what we were doing and several of them gave us money.  We probably received about one hundred dollars while lunching there.
        Then it began.  The ride from Snowville to Malta was excruciating.  The road was meticulously straight, with a gradual uphill slope for twenty or so miles.  The map indicated that there was a town on the way called Stravell, so we kept a look out for it.  Our attention was futile, however, and the town didn’t exist.  It was a disappointing circumstance, which Jake dealt with by laying his bike down and sitting down in the middle of the road to await his fate.  Unfortunately, a car passes only once every couple days, so Jake would have had to wait a long time.  Bad luck.  Better luck next time.

            We went on.  Slowly.  When we finally arrived everything hurt, but we were welcomed in Malta by some of the nicest people we have yet met.  A friend of my sister had agreed to help us and he knew people in Malta and that was that.  We were treated royally, showered in the church, fed incredible amounts of food and slept on the public baseball field.  I should mention that the town is home to a whopping 171 people.  Needless to say, we were glad they found space in their little place for us.