Blake Schwendiman's Blog and Blook

The route that we chose would take us over the Teton Pass with grades of 10%. As we were nineteen, our training for the ride consisted of weekly local rides of 20 to 30 miles and daily rides of 5 to 10 miles. Tracy, my partner on this adventure, also included a daily run in his training regimen.

When the day for the ride arrived, we began at 6:00 a.m. We rode in just under six hours to Victor, Idaho at which point we stopped at the Victor Steak Bank for an omelet. Yes, we ate omelets in the middle of an endurance ride, I know.

We then began the torturous ascent up the Teton Pass. If you happen to have Google Earth installed on your computer, you can get a visual of this by downloading and opening this file. If you don't have Google Earth, you should download it here.

The ride up the hill seemed to never end. I could barely continue in the lowest usable gears on my bike. I prayed for death at least once on the journey up the hill and nearly vomited about three times. It took almost three hours to get to a point about one-quarter mile from the summit. At that point, my parents came up in the car. They had been planning to meet us in Jackson Hole for the evening and celebrate with us. When I asked my dad about how much further to the top, he said he thought it was about three or four more miles. At that point I quit. I couldn't think about that much more.

I put my bike in the trunk and hopped in the car. We rounded two curves and reached the summit in about one quarter of a mile (Google Earth perspective of approximately where I bailed out: here). I was so disappointed in myself. I had come so close to doing something that very few people have done, but I quit.

I've thought about that so many times since then. There are so many lessons:

• I should have trained better. I should have run every day like Tracy did.


• I should have known the area better so I could judge the distance myself (and just simply for safety if we had gotten into trouble).


• I should have been more committed to the goal.


• I should have had enough sense to not eat an omelet in Victor.

But, you can't go back in time with all of the should haves. What I ultimately took from that experience is that I will not allow myself to quit again. That's what this Blog is about. The Agency Delta has been a work in progress for so long and I'm committed to see it finished.