The 2007 edition of the Twin Rivers Cyclist's Annual Joseph Ride is over. Now you get to look at the pictures and try to forget how tired your legs feel.

Lots of Pictures

Okay it wasn't all like the picture above, but my legs don't seem to remember the flat at all.

Memory is a fragile creature. Witness how many folks on the list below are repeat offenders. Only Jim McCracken,Wanda and Rory are first timers. Doug Goodenough road out to meet us at Bogan's on Sunday. He's a first timer too but didn't get all the way to Joseph.

Corrie, Linda, Mike, Nicky, Debbie, Scott (Wrong Way) Whitely, Dave and Leanne Tibbals, Becky and Chandler Priebe, Karen Breese, Sean and Carol Ellis, Tamra, Helen, and Rory, Lance and Jan, Jim McCracken, Jim and Wanda, John and Carla, Doug Goodenough.

So that's 24 TRCers and friends who chose to ride two weeks earlier than usual. Mike and Nicky can't go on our usual weekend the first or second in Oct. I feared we might find it pretty warm this year but we were blessed with cool weather and even a short shower on the way into Enterprise. Sunday at Boggan's we felt summer sun beating on our backs as we started up Rattlesnake Canyon, but we left the valley floor and found the air cooler as we rose. At Fields Spring we had clouds and a cool breeze.

Several folks said they liked the earlier date because it gave us more light at both ends of the day. I'm sure this will be debated again next year.

That later start exposes cycists to much less settled weather. This time we didn't have push JP into the car to save him from hypothermia. Nor did we have to sag half the group from the top of Bufford because of a downpour.

Still we did have problems. Jim McCracken had decided to camp out rather than take a room. That would have been fine except he managed to forget his tent poles. We don't need no steenkin poles, he said, crawling into his bivouac. Jim also had the only flat tire I heard about this trip. Jim's and accomplished cyclist so he made sure the tire didn't go flat, though, until he was in Joseph with his bivvy set up. Smart guy.

Janet always manages to provide some form of entertainment. This year she almost went too far. Running over a dead snake in the road, she panicked and fell off her bike. I heard the helmet had cracked. She was fine on Sunday and back on her bike. No word from Tamra who received a fair helping of smashed snake guts.

The motorcyclists who had booked up many of the rooms at Indian Lodge turned out to be a tame lot by comparison with the Axe Men on Harley's that Jim and I saw in Winthrop in June. These guys even loaned us a bottle opener for our beer.

By the time we got back from dinner, the motorcyclsts were no where in evidence, there bikes covered in plastic. They did have a barbecue with them suggesting that we might try doing our own dinner next year. The waitress at the STubborn Mule tried valiantlly but we were still 9 pm before we left.

Tamra brought along a year's supply of sparklers which passed out to everyone at the table. It was Lance, however, who made several trips back to collect boxes of sparklers. He had some of the mortocyclists in on the festivities.

Sean and Mike waited for us at Anatone wanting to lead a pace line. A strong north wind in our faces made that a good idea but Those two were having too much fun. We soon dropped off the pace and broke into several groups.

Back at the boat launch I had 95 miles. I usually ride home for that last five miles. But not this year. I was done. Fighitng the wind across the top and back from Asotin and the pickup sitting right there waiting to take me home persuaded me that I didn't need another century today.

Though I might have come up with fewer miles this year, many of us were impressive. Linda made good choices about jumping out ahead and I was always impressed with how far she was ahead. She claimed she was singing songs.

Carol usually rides from Joseph to Enterprise. This year she road down to the boat launch and did most of the route. I guess being a doctor is not so stressful as becoming one.

Debbie's knee didn't keep her from taggin on to Dave Tibbal's pace line from Anatone.

Karen Breese made her only appearance of the year. We missed her at breakfast on Sunday but Dave explained she had left at 6:20. She was sitting on the rock wall at the Joseph Lookout when we got there. She didn't want to ride down Bufford grade so she had had to wait for sag. Oh, and for those of you at Karen's table. The answer is Shiva.

I know exactly how she feels about downhills. I dread those almost as much as climbing Rattlesnake.

Rory was on his first Joseph but never seemed to have any trouble with the biking. He was always hammering off when I saw him. Never looked tired.

And Scott was in top form as "Wrong Way" this year. Not only did we only see him riding in the opposite direction, but he took a side trip to Flora just for the fun of it. Thanks for bringing the pickup and carrying luggage.

We are once again lucky to have had so many willing to make this ride possible. Thanks to Leanne Tibbals and Becky and Chandler Priebe. We had Nicky's support as she drove to Rimrock where Mike and Nicky switched to the tandem. We had Carla as well.

This year we were forced to take accommodations in Enterprise as well as in Joseph. We could have made the sag driver's lives a bit easier by labeling our luggage by destination and distributing it that way to the sags.

Linda says she loves the people on the ride. I guess that explains why we just keep coming back.