Day 29: Rawlins to Middlewood Hill - 30 miles

What an abominable day it was ... and to think we travelled only 30 miles. Why was it so bad? Because we had two of the three things cyclists hate most: headwinds and hills (there was fortunately little traffic).

The day started off inauspiciously since when I looked out the hotel window the flag across the street looked like it had been overstarched; it was standing tall in the opposite direction to where we would be travelling. This meant that we were going to be subjected to some of Wyomings famous winds, and that it would be head on for much of our trip. How strong was it? The radio reported 25 mph which isn't bad, except when you've got to cycle for quite a few hours into it. But I get ahead of myself...

We went across the road and had breakfast at the same restaurant as the day before. My staple, pancakes and orange juice, but today they were slightly underdone which made a potentially excellent meal quite mediocre. After we returned to the hotel Sean went to the market to buy some food while I tried the bike shop again. The rack I got the previous day was less than ideal, and I was still hopeful for scoring a proper one. I was in luck since they opened at 10 a.m. and after waiting for Sean decided to head over.

They had exactly what I was looking for in stock and they even let me put it on my bike in their workshop. Much easier than at a hotel room. It wasn't quite as good as my previous one, but at least it hasn't suffered from 1200+ miles of abuse, and this only on this trip. The owner was very friendly and he told me that they get a lot of business since Rawlins is on both the Continental Divide route and the Trans-American routes. I told him he should put the hours of his shop in the window so at least we desperate cyclists would know how long we had to wait.

With the rack installed I went over to the motel to collect my bags and Sean was sitting outside. He got delayed at the market when his hydration pack began leaking water everywhere. After I collected my bags we headed off into the wind through downtown Rawlins.

Sean needed some more food so we stopped at a luchbar and had delightful bagels. I wasn't very hungry but I figured that I may as well stock up now since it would be a while until my next meal. Good call. The food was excellent as was the berry smoothie that I washed it down with. The place seemed very trendy and, to me, seemed out of place in a town like Rawlins. The owner was very friendly and I wished him well with his business as we went out to continue our trip.

We headed south out of town and after a short run next to the interstate we were onto Route 71. The day was overcast but the wind was the problem. It was due to a storm moving east from Utah to Colorado (they showed it on the news the previous night) and it was unrelenting. Coupled with the hills that we had to ascend, it made for very hard cycling. There is nothing more soul destroying than being on a flat road peddling like mad and only doing 6 mph; unless it is getting to the top of a hill after a lot of work and having to peddle like mad on the downhill to get up to 13 mph. Wow.

The area we went through was desert and it was very bleak. Sean commented that he was certain that George Lucas had used this area for filming the arid, wasteland that was the home of Luke Skywalker in Star Wars. All we needed was one of the famous dust storms and the picture would be complete. There were some lovely mountain ranges, as the photos below show, but it really was a difficult ride through unrelenting terrain so we didn't find much to admire.

 

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The one saving grace was the fact that the road was paved, since this at least made the going a bit easier. However, this came to the end at the bottom of what the map called a "steep 6 mile climb". Great. So we braced ourselves and began climbing.

When I am presented with something particularly unpleasant, like a 6 mile climb on an unsealed road into a 25 mph headwind, I can find hard to maintain a positive frame of mind. It's OK for the first few miles, but eventually it wears thin. I usually get around this by trying to 'zone out' and focus on other things. My body then goes into an 'automatic mode' and I can go on for quite a while without really being too bothered by the hill. I often sing Christian hymns or try to think about complicated theological concepts, or engineering problems, since that distracts me. This day I sang 'Abide With Me' repeatedly (it has a verse "though darkness deepens" ... very appropriate) and 'Guide Me Oh Thou Great Jehovah ("I am weak, but though art mighty ..."). I also tried some integral calculus which I'm hopeless at; anything to stop me from feeling sorry for myself.

Unfortunately, Sean didn't have such coping mechanisms and I heard him ahead of me shouting. Finally, he threw his bike down and gave it a good kick. I could empathise as I felt the same way, but I wasn't going to give in. Sean commenced to push his bike up the hill while I continued on, lost in my thoughts (as much as possible).

Eventually I reached the top of the pass which was the Continental Divide (7,965') and I sat down to wait for Sean. The weather ahead was not looking very good, but we still had quite a way to go. Sean cycled up and, after taking the photo below, told me that a local had stopped and advised against going any further since there was a bad storm across the valley. Since he had no intention of travelling on we decided to camp near the summit by a grove of aspen trees.

 

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Sean's call was a good one since the rain started as we began pitching our tents and it got very cold, very quickly. Sean tossed me a tin of 'Chef Boyardee' for dinner as we each scrambled into our tents. I snuggled down into my sleeping bag to get warm which was not easily done, but eventually I could feel my fingers and toes again and after changing into my thermals and dry socks I felt a lot better. After my scrumptious dinner I listened to the radio as the wind and rain buffeted my tent. It was a very heavy storm and I'm thankful we weren't caught out in in; rain even found its way under my fly and into my sleeping area! The rain continued through most of the night and it was an interrupted sleep, but at least we were relatively dry and not outside.

On to the next day ...

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