Today was an exceedingly hard day. The difficulty was caused by several factors.
It was 103.5 miles, the wind was howling out of the north so there was either a
dead on head wind or at best a brutal cross wind, there were two major climbs
one of which was over 2000 feet of vertical all at 6%, and to top it all off
the road has a new coat of chip seal making it into a bone jarring ride. I left the camp in Wenatchee at 6:50 am and
rolled into tonights camp at 4:40 PM. So
this means I was on the road for 9hr 50 minutes. My bike computer shows an average speed of
11.7 mph.
I should not be complaining as I managed a ninth spot. Not
bad for an old guy who didn’t train.
There are still a lot of people out there on the road and I can only
imagine how sore they must be. My butt
has been turned to hamburger by the rough road and my shoulders are throbbing
from gripping the handle bars and wrestling the bike in the wind. I know that you are thinking I must be nuts
to do this. However this is what stories are made of. It is kind of like that
Harley Davidson commercial where the old grand father is telling his grand
children about how he wanted to by a Harley but bought aluminum siding
instead. It ends with the line; “What
stories will you tell?” So let me tell
you about….
I had stopped at a store and picked up some chocolate milk
just before camp. When I got in I was so
pooped I had to drop my bike as I couldn’t get off it. So I sat down and drank
the milk on the spot. During the 5
minutes it took to drink the milk a down pour started and I had to set my tent
up in the rain. Perfect. Just perfect.
Happy Trails
Terry
No comments:
Post a Comment