Today's blog will be short and rather blunt. The ride today, and this is no reflection on America By Bicycle- Lord knows they were not even incorporated when this part of the planet was installed, was the most boring time I've ever had on a bike. Problem is, if you're going from over there to over here, you come this-a-way. The ride started at 5:30AM, before the sun had risen, and lasted until
nearly 4:00PM for me and my group. The ride was basically flat, trending up for the first sixty miles and then down for the last sixty. I think we climbed all of 2,000 feet in 120 miles, so I guess that qualifies as flat- certainly no climbs in relation to what we saw a few days ago. The weather was clear in the morning with cumulus clouds building towards afternoon, temps warmed to the low 90's, and we had a headwind most of the way. I was converted into jello by the ride end, though having finally taken a shower and rested for an hour or so- I actually feel pretty human. Mind you, this ride was our ninth straight day of riding and brings this leg's total mileage to over 700. I'm in new territory as far as stressing my body and though I really am tired, nothing feels broken- legs, hands, butt and feet all seem in working order. However, I am starting to notice a really deep tired feeling settling in- it must be the cumulative effect of all of the miles ridden, staying in 18 different hotels, rushing around every day getting stuff done and getting shortchanged on my sleep by just a little bit every night. Twelve hours sleep sounds about right to me.The scenery never changed today (one exception was Hell's Half Acre- I'll show you a picture in a minute), it was open range with rolling hills the entire way. The foliage (that I could recognize- I'm sure a botanist would fill pages) was sage brush, a few small cactus and some occassional grass. Lean pickings for the few cattle, sheep and antelope that graze it. I did read and hear that wolves are doing well for themselves here, having expanded from their original stocking location in Yellowstone Park (200+ miles to the northwest). The ranchers want more freedom to kill wolves they deem to be predators (one local said they kill for sport- I'm not so sure about that one) and the tree huggers want them to have less ability to act. I'm with the ranchers- I suspect that most ranchers are too busy to go wolf hunting unless its having an economic impact on them and I think ranchers are more important than wolves.
The ride was the longest I've ever done, by far the most boring scenery and most of the group I rode with agreed.
I just hope that this isn't a portend of things to come- though I suspect that South Dakota (next on our agenda) will have a lot in common with today. Our route today was Hwy 26, a two lane road, with a fairly decent shoulder (though at times the cracks were awful) that we tried to stay on. The traffic seemed pretty heavy to me and there were a bunch of big, fast moving trucks rolling by. No time to be riding double and a double pace line was out of the question- just too dangerous. A couple times today we had to correct careless riders for not calling out when passing (seems many have gotten lazy about this). One riding buddy thought pulling up beside me and riding with no hands was OK- I quickly disabused him of that- but we're still friends, I hope.The one interesting spot- a place called Hell's Half Acre- is a geological wonder- I can't explain what it is, but it is a rock canyon that just appears in this 360 acre section in the area we were riding in today. Got a few good shots for my loyal readers.
We had three sags today- all of them were in simple pullouts along the road since there was really nothing in the way of facilities along this route. The one place I saw today which had any facilities at all was a small store where I had a cold Diet Coke and a Nestles Crunch. Found an interesting posting in the Men's room which I took to heart.
At our first sag stop, Will (he's the heroic one that drives the triple) was heading out behind the van to take a leak and as he crossed the cattle guard he heard something rattling, looked down and saw that he was about to step on a rattlesnake. Yikes!! Actually, we saw any number of dead rattlers on the road- some of them were pretty healthy looking (I thought you said they were dead).Anyway, it's 4:30 now, I'm waiting in my room for the hotel to move me to a room that has a functioning air conditioner (temps headed to high 90's tomorrow) and I'm figuring on vegetating for the next 36 hours or so (tomorrow is a well earned rest day). I believe that our ride stats through the second leg (Astoria, OR to Casper, WY) are:
Total Miles: 1318
Feet Climbed: 46,715
Days Ridden: 17 out of last 18 Days
Average Miles per ride: 78
