Today is typically the hardest day on the tour. The ride was
scheduled for 92.8 miles and 8900 feet of climb. The ride takes us over the highest pass on
the tour at 9666 feet. However as I am
on the comfort tour I took the van to picnic at 48.0 miles. I was accompanied by Ken T who is nursing his
ankle tendonitis, Ron the other Canadian who is concerned that one knee may be
bothering him and Auzzie Bob who four years ago wrote in his riding journal
that this was the worst day of his riding career and never ever again will he
do this ride. My excuse is I am just too
lazy to do it having ridden it twice. The
four of us lay about at breakfast drinking coffee and nibbling the remains of
the breakfast buffet until Greg was ready to go.
On the road we had a firsthand view of how the ride is
managed with the vans coordinating where the riders are and how everyone on the
ride is accounted for. It is an excellent system and really
comforting to know that Greg is totally on top of where everyone is.
I was in the passenger seat up front so I got a great view
of the first part of the ride and how there is 36 miles of increasingly deep
hills and valleys before you enter the canyon which takes you up to the Powder
River Pass. I was more and more glad
that I had sagged as I saw how deep the valleys were and how steep the road up
the canyon was.
At picnic bikes were unloaded and we set off. It would have been nice to have feasted on
the delicacies laid out but the mosquitos were so ferocious we had to get out
of there fast. Picnic was about half way
up the major climb of the day so we still had some serious climbing to do.
Luckily it was only about 10:00 am so it was still cool. This was a bit of a trade off as the
mosquitos were out in force and they could fly faster than I could ride. I was being eaten. At one point I wiped my hand across the back
of one leg to brush off the mosquitos and came away with 6 of them and everyone
was bloody. I think I must have had 20-30
bites across my shoulders. It was just
tingling.
Bob, Ron and I got to the summit, and grabbed a couple of
pictures and hurried on. After the
summit there were a series of 7 climbs and 7 descents before the big decent
into Buffalo. The climbs were all in the
1-2 mile range with the descents in the 7-9% range. Ron was right behind me and a deer ran out
and crossed the road right behind me but I never saw it. The final decent into Buffalo is about 12
miles long and very very scary. It is 7-12%, very winding, narrow and the
shoulder which is nice enough was covered in sand. A cattle van had passed just in front of us
and sprayed the road with manure which added to the “is it slippery?” and the
scary quotient. At one point I had three
trucks with trailers behind me before I could find a place to get off the
road. Glad it was over would not cover
it.
Ron, Bob and I got into Buffalo about 1:30 pm and rolled
into a local cantina to have some beer and nachos. After which we headed up to the school, only
to find that the hot water was not turned on.
Greg quickly organized a van shuttle to the local YMCA where I had a
very nice shower with lots of hot water. In the meantime the school maintenance
man showed up and got the hot water on. Great work on the showers!
Unfortunately I forgot to pack my camera to day and although
I took some picture with my phone I have no idea on how to transfer them to my
lap top. If I figure it out I will post
them later. __ Sorry
Terry
3 comments:
Yikes, today you survived an attack by man eating mosquitos, and dealt with cattle trucks in the mountains. You are tough and street smart hitching rides. Way to go!
BTW, you can email pictures on the phone to yourself.
Mountains, manure and mosquitoes - can’t get much better than that. Sounds like a wise decision to take the lift at the beginning of the day.
Better you than me!
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