Up at 6 and hit the road at 6:40 this morning.
45 degrees this morning but felt like below freezing. My hands were cold….had to alternate breathing into one then sticking it in the back pocket of my jersey while riding with the other….did that for a good 30 minutes until it warmed up above 50. Have gloves in the bottom of my panniers….will have to dig them out before tomorrow morning. Hands are so stiff from the cold it’s hard to type this note on my phone this morning.
By 8:50 I had climbed above 9,500 feet only to drop back down below 9,000….I know I’m going a lot higher today so must be the mountains just playing with me. Saw my first Buffalo this morning and more antelope. It’s beautiful out here.
9:30am with 27 miles down stopped in Hartsel at the Highline Cafe and Saloon for breakfast. There was a cowboy out front cleaning off tables complete with his six shooter on his side. 74 degrees now and sunny….supposed to get up to 84 and sunny all day.
Left Hartsel headed to FairPlay 16.5 miles away….the road cut through a valley headed North. There was a strong headwind coming out of the north hitting us directly in the face the entire was—it was brutal. Some of the best scenery of the trip yet, but couldn’t enjoy it because it was just heads down, in climbing gears fighting the wind—took 3 hours to get 16.5 miles fighting the wind…strongest headwind yet this entire trip.
Eating lunch at the Subway in FairPlay waiting to see if the wind lets up—footlong turkey sub, chips, and numerous refills of Diet Coke 🙂
Wind isn’t letting up so we decide to push on to Alma a few miles down the road. There is a bike path between FairPlay and Alma—it was nice to get away from the road traffic for a bit. Got to Alma and just about everything in town was closed except for the Al-Mart General Store and the Hoosier Daddy Liquor Store. Rob was disappointed the South Park Saloon was closed—it’s supposed to be the highest (altitude) saloon in the country and he wanted to have a drink there.
We wanted to push on over Hoosier Pass today but the wind has beaten us both into submission. There is no place in town to stay except for one B&B and they wanted $60 each to share a room with bunk beds—no thanks. We stopped at the Al-Mart and the lady said they normally don’t allow camping in their city park, but they make exceptions for cross country bicyclists. So, we’re staying in the Alma City Park tonight and will push over Hoosier Pass tomorrow morning—getting up early to beat the wind….it’s only 6 miles to the top then downhill for a long time.
This could have easily been a 100 mile day, but the wind turned it into a 50 mile day and made us feel like we had ridden 150….no matter how much you plan, Mother Nature can sometimes throw you curve balls—we got one of those today. It was a perfect day except for the wind.
It’s going to be a cold night sleeping in the Park here. We’re above 10,300 feet and the air will have a bite to it once the sun sets. Fortunately, there is supposed to be clear sky’s tonight. I am digging out those gloves tonight—will not have freezing hands tomorrow morning. I made a mistake in an earlier post saying Hoosier Pass was 12,542 feet…it’s actually 11,542 feet. But that’s ok, the wind beat 1,000 feet out of us today.
There are no showers at this city park, but they do have this little pond of water fed by a fast running mountain stream. There have been kids playing in that water all day…I won’t even stick my toe in it…it’s basically snow melt run off from the mountains and I can tell it’s freezing just by looking at it. My shower tonight is coming from a pack of Wet-ones bought from the local Al-Mart 🙂
Still feeling good and strong even with the wind hammering me all day, but living outside for the past month is taking its toll—this is harder than I ever thought it would be—not so much physically, but being without the comforts of home for this long is tough. However, it is shaping up to be an adventure of a lifetime and I’m still on track to finish on my original timeline before the end of July.
