Day 27: Atlantic City to Rawlins - 125 miles

Every bike trip I like to have a 'marathon' day and this was to be it. By the end of the day I had knocked off just over 200 km, with 150 of them on unsealed roads and two continental divide crossings. Not a bad effort, althought I was quite stuffed by the end of it.

It was a cold morning when we started out from Atlantic City, but we had a 0.7 mile steep uphill ride so by the time I reached the top I was ready to remove a few layers. The terrain which stretched out before us was nothing but desert, with a thin strip of the road stretching out before us. We were heading into the 'Great Divide Basin' which is a place where there are two continental divides; the mountains split and create a basin where all the water flows into the middle. The photos below give an idea of the terrain.

 

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The road had a good surface, there was a slight tailwind so the cycling was great. We covered 35 miles in the first three hours. Except for crossing the Sweetwater River, there was no water at all in the area. The map showed a large number of creeks, but all were dry. In some places there were stock watering holes, but they were dry (and there was no sign of stock).

What we saw were large number of antelope herds. I was thinking about the song 'Home on the range, where the deer and the antelope play'. These animals were in herds sometimes as large as a two dozen. They would stand and look at us until we came close and then would zoom off towards the horizone, their white backsides bouncing along as they moved off. They can hit 30+ mph going cross country so we didn't try and catch them!

The trip took us along route 2317 which became a winding, hard to follow, route in places. I was glad that I had the map with the marked turn offs and I stopped frequently to check that I was on the right route. This was such a desolate place that one would not want to get lost since there was no chance of getting water. And the road was not exactly heavily travelled; I didn't see a single vehicle from 10:00 to 16:00.

During the morning the wind was a tail wind, but it changed and later became more of a headwind. It was very hot and dry and it sapped the moisture from me. My mouth and nose were like sandpaper but with 5.5 litres to last me the day it was necessary to control my water intake. I had been in a similar situation two years ago when crossing the desert in Nevada and so I adopted the philosophy of a mouthfull every two miles.

I was ahead of Sean and stopped for lunch after 35 miles and sat by the side of the road reading my book and eating baked beans. I really love the solitude and peace of the desert. Impossible to explain or rationalise but my favourite trips when cycling have been through the desert. I told him that I was feeling really well and that I would like to try for a century -- 100 miles. We agreed to separate and that he would call me on my cell phone when he got to Rawlins.

The afternoon was much more difficult than the morning insofar as we had a lot of climbing, including a continental divide crossing, the road got much worse, and the temperature got a lot higher. After about 60 miles the road turned into the headwind which would have been on the order of 20 mph so the speed dropped accordingly, and the cycling effort increased significantly. Fortunately, this only lasted about 8 miles, but they took almost 1.5 h to cover. We then turned and were given a quasi-tailwind which was a nice change.

The route called for a break at the A&M reservoir and heading SW across the basin on the following day. However, Sean and I had decided to continue eastwards and get to the highway and then head south to Rawlins. There was no way to do the proscribed route without more water, and the reservoir was dry, and I was also concerned about the survivability of my rear rack and my temporary fixit job.

Passing the reservoir the road became much worse; there were loose rocks and sand with lots of corrugations that made for uncomfortable cycling. It was not possible to find a path around the corrugations so it was a case of holding on and bouncing our way along the road.

It was hard to believe that it could get worse, but it did. The corrugations vanished and were replaced by a rock strewn route that had more in common with a river bed than with a road. The photo below is an example of part of the road.

 

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In places the rocks were so large that it seemed impossible they were placed there by a road construction group. My pedal hit one of them and the shock hurt my foot for some time afterwards. The road entailed some steep downhill runs and it was difficult to hold the speed down to the 5-6 mph which was the fastest that one could go and still avoid most of the rocks. Invariably I hit some of the rocks and I was expecting to hear a loud bang as the tyre split and the tube blew. It is a testament to the quality of my tyres that they survived such an arduous ride.

After 10 miles of uncomfortable and difficult riding I reached Bairoil which was a town built to serve the oil industry. I passed a number oil pumps and in the distance I could see various buildings and houses. I cirled the town on the truck route, with the last 0.3 miles absolutely horrible corrugations, before reaching the sealed road. After 88 miles no more unsealed roads. What bliss.

I continued east towards Lamont and then turned south on Highway 287 towards Rawlins. I was hungry and was hopeful for finding a cafe. There was one but it was closed so I cycled on. I reached my 100 mile mark about 18:00 in the middle of nowhere. Since it was only 25 miles to Rawlins I decided to press on and try to make the town.

As the sun was setting the light cast its golden glow over the desert area. It was fantastic and the only distraction was the passing traffic which was travelling very fast and buffeted me, even though I was on the (wide!) shoulder.

The trip to Rawlins was prolonged since I was quite tired having already cycled 100+ miles and I was now going into a strong headwind again. I clicked along at 8 mph until I reached the steep 800' climb to the continental divide crossing. It was pretty tough but I consoled myself that when I got tto the top I would be treated to a good downhill run. That was not to be; I had about 10 miles of ups and downs (mostly ups!) which seemed to never end. But end they did and I revelled in a run downhill to Rawlins.

It was 22:00 and I had been in the saddle for 13 hours with a few short rests. I was absolutely stonkered and couldn't decide on whether to go for food or a motel. The decision was made for me; the restaurants were all closed save McDonalds which for obvious reasons I wasn't keen on. I found a nice motel and crashed. It was a long day but I was very pleased to have made it. I was very wound up and so it took a few hours to get to sleep, but what a great day!

On to the next day ...

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