A very schizophrenic day with respect to being alone on the planet...
As I climbed out from the historic Ladder Ranch at 7 AM this morning, I found myself in the middle of a basin, thousands of acres in size. Every mile or so, one or two deer would react to this contraption, clacking down the asphalt: some by effortlessly bounding up steep hillsides to get away from the obvious danger, some staring, trying to make sense of the man in a yellow jersey spinning his legs madly. As I flowed by, rabbits retreated from the edge of the road to their warrens. Small chipmunks, tails raised straight up in the air, skittered across the empty road. The sun was casting long, morning shadows, the air smelled of sage.
I rode in the middle of all of this life with nary another human around for miles, I felt blessed to be at that place.
But the afternoon...same dramatic isolation, a totally different feel.
I was in the middle of Wyoming scrub land, sweeping to the vast, open horizon, bald mesas rising from the rolling, treeless sage peppered plain. The wind was just HOWLING and at my moment of lost faith, it was a debilitating cross wind, forcing me to push my tired legs just to make a tiny bit of forward progress. When the cold rain started to needle my face, for the very first time on this journey, I feared being so alone.
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Believe it or not, I've been riding for a week: about 320 miles, 45 1/2 hours in the saddle, 46 miles per day at an average speed of 7 MPH and 6 1/2 riding hours per day. I wanted to do 50 miles per day at 4-6 hours a day, but it looks like that's never going to happen.
Today I rode the longest distance in a day on a bicycle in my life: 74 miles! I wish I could report that I was good for another 25, but I was really dragging as I rode the last mile to this Travelodge.
I had an epiphany of sorts as I spun through the quaking aspen in Medicine Bow National Forest: I should pay more attention to my surroundings and less attention to my riding statistics (e.g. current speed, estimated time of arrival, etc.). Very easy to do amidst the high forests of pines and aspen, *much* tougher when there's nothing but scrub and you're wondering when will this ever end????
I also discovered that my yellow Jersey is too heavy for this warm weather. Halfway up the climb I swapped to my lighter Jersey (with only the chipmunks witnessing my flabby physique) and felt much better.
I topped out at 43 MPH twice today: once going downhill on a paved road, once in dirt. I quickly cut back the dirt speed as the aforementioned HOWLING wind made the bike too unstable.
The HOWLING wind was out of the southwest. It was a powerful ally for the predominately northerly segment I rode today, but there were times when the Road went directly west and I struggled against its relentless force.
For the record, the batteries in the GPS died at 10 this morning. I got a warning beep (never heard that before...so idyllic the riding amongst the aspens) and a message saying that the batteries were low. Five minutes later, the GPS shut down. Not much warning, Garmin. I had spare batteries which I installed under blue skies and we were back in business.
As noted above, I'm luxuriating at the shabby rawlins Travelodge. I've washed all my clothes, have the tent parts drying out and the AC is cooling me down.
Might be a while before I motel...
I'm going to revisit the schedule after I send this and send another update on my plans.
Finally, I look like hell. When I checked into the room, I looked at myself in the mirror and, whoa, do my looks need improvement. Besides the 1 week growth of gray beard, my nose is sun burned (sunscreen blown off by HOWLING wind), my lips are chapped and I have dark circles under my eyes (as much as I liked the Ladder Ranch, their dogs were on patrol all night, barking every hour or so and waking me up. But the piece de resistance were the black smudges on my cheeks and nose and forehead. I had a little chain problem that required me to get my hands oily, followed by the usual rubbing of my face as needed. Comical...
Only met one southbound group of three in the 74 desolate miles I rode today. They told me about all the difficult parts of the route that lie ahead for me. I told them there was no convenience store in Radium.
OK, that's enough swyping on my phone. A plan update to follow.
I hope all is going well for you and your loved ones.
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