Day 30: Middlewood Hill to Battle Creek Campground - 25 miles
I read my book on Lewis and Clark and they described how they crossed the Bitterroot Mountains in 6' plus snow drifts. Much tougher than I am! I can cope with almost any heat but the cold is a different story. And to think that they only wore elk skin moccasins and didn't have the modern amenities of life like goretex and down. Supermen.
I woke Sean after 8 and we emerged to a very dark sky which held out for more rain. I had muesli for breakfast but the metal pot I used to eat it from was so cold it hurt my hands to touch it. Sean thought that we weren't much above freezing and I had to concur.
We eventually broke camp and packed our damp tents onto the bikes before pushing them up to the road. The soil was soft and sandy so it was a hard push to get up the embankment but we made it. Once on the road things weren't a lot better: the rain had turned the unsealed surface into a soft, mucky track which was very difficult to ride through. There was one saving grace; there was no longer a headwind.
Off we cycled and we enjoyed a short downhill run. We we unable to gain much speed due to the higher rolling resistance of the surface, and the need to keep control. It was also very cold on exposed skin and Sean, who was wearing shorts, showed that he was a lot tougher than I am. My fingers were numb in my gloves; I don't know how he coped. He said that only his nose bothered him, probably because his legs had lost all feeling.
Unfortunately, we had a lot of rolling terrain to cover and so the cycling was very hard work. In spite of this, we didn't warm up too much and at one point Sean decided to stop and put some warmer socks on since he could no longer feel his toes. My feet were OK but my fingers were not. I solved the problem by 'rotating' them so that one finger was in the palm of the hand getting warm while the others were subjected to the cold. It actually worked, although it made handling the brakes on the bicycle a tad difficult at times.
Sean stopped for some food and I took the photo below which shows the state of the road and the terrain ahead of us. Neither were very inviting. Even the few vehicles which passed us had problems with the mucky surface on the road.
We made very poor time and averaged only about 5-6 mph, in spite of the downhills. This was not only due to the higher rolling resistance, but if one went too fast on the downhill there was a real chance of losing it and sliding out in the muddy surface. I should know, I almost did it when I got fed up with my relatively low downhill speed. Thereafter I was more prudent.
After about 13 miles we crossed a cattleguard and Sean had a problem: he had broken his rear pannier carrier. The aluminium had sheared off the same way as mine had. The only problem was that the shear was just above the bolt so this made my solution of a splint impractical. Just to make life terrible, as if it wasn't bad enough, it started to rain on us, there was a cold wind, and there was nowhere to take shelter.
I thought of a solution to the problem using two carrier brackets that I had saved from my broken carrier. I have this habit of hoarding things (much to my wife Lis' dismay) and when I trashed the carrier I thought that these could come in useful so saved them. Little did I realise that it would be the next day that I needed them.
After straightening them with pliers and using a longer bolt that I had brought we me (just in case ...) I sandwiched the carrier frame between the two brackets and put in a couple of bolts to hold it in place. It was perfect. For added support I used some cable ties, and as a testament to how cold it was the plastic on the ties broke off without needing to be cut. That's cold. The end result was super strong and (almost) guaranteed to last the rest of the trip.
A digression. Early on in my marriage I found a car aerial by the side of the road. It had excellent tensile properties and was very 'springy'. When I came to save it Lis criticised me to being a hoarder. About 6 months later her mop broke and the aerial was tailor made to fix it. Since then she has been more muted about the apparent scraps of metal and other objects that appear to serve no function. I hope that other wives of husbands with similar picadillos will also be indulgent ... you never know when they may come in handy!
Unfortunately, I was extremely wet and cold by this time and I felt myself going hypothermic. I hopped on my bike and peddled up and down the road to try and keep warm while Sean put his gear back on the bike and then we continued. It was not fun.
We were, however, approaching a major change in the cycling: Medicine Bow National Forest. For the first time in quite a few days we were going to have trees! Yes, there were trees in Rawlins and Pinedale, but there were none between the cities and all we had seen was barren desert. Suddently, we found ourselves with Aspen and other trees lining the wayside, many with golden leaves changing as winter approaches. It was great.
I was feeling very unwell because of the hypothermia and so I told Sean I needed to stop. I put on some more warm clothes and gobbled some energy bars while he had a can of Chef Boyardee for lunch. We were sheltering under a large tree in the forest and it was nice to be out of the rain. Shortly afterwards, the sun actually came out for a few minutes, so I stood there like a sun worshipper trying to absorb as much solar radiation as possible. Yes, quite pathetic, but I *really* can't take it when I get too cold.
It was soon time to move on and we endured a number of steep uphill and downhill sections before we reached 'Aspen Alley'. As the photo below shows, this is a one mile section of road where the aspen trees line the road forming a canopy. Just lovely.
The day was warming up a bit, it was probably about 10 degrees, but the on again/off again showers made it impossible to be comfortable. Sean was obviously not doing well as he was dropping further and further back. We left the forest and there was some open farmland we passed, with lots of 'No Tresspassing' signs. Friendly folks. I saw a heard of antelope and they ran ahead of me along the highway. One male and about 6 females, they were beautiful creatures.
When I reached the main highway, and the end of our unsealed road travels for a while, I parked my bike and waited for him. After some time he came up looking pretty done in and announced "My spirit is broken". I could empathise, we had had two horrible days.
I took his bike and parked it while Sean sat by the road to recover. We talked for a while and I spread out the map to look at our options. It was imperative to get him settled and so I suggested that we take a side road to a nearby campground that was only about 3 miles away. Alternatively, we could go 13 miles on the highway, mostly downhill, and try to make the nearest town where there was accommodation.
After a break Sean felt ready to proceed so we cycled off. When we came to the campground turnoff we decided to go there and had a steep two mile descent to the valley with Battle Creek at the bottom. The road was not the best, but at least we were not ascending it. The valley was lovely with tree lined hills as the photo below shows.
There were some hunters at the campground but we found a site OK and pitched our tents. The late afternoon sun dried them out, along with our clothes and other gear, although there were frequent short showers so one had to be vigilent. I cooked up a pasta and rice dinner and the combination of rest, sunshine and warm food put us both into a better frame of mind, particlarly Sean. We went over the various options for the next few days, as well as where Sean would end the trip. With Steamboat Springs 1-2 days away that is the most likely spot, as it affords a good opportunity to wind down a bit before returning to NZ. The other option, Silverthorne, is a further 120+ miles, almost all of it uphill, and is less desirable. We will see how Sean feels in the next day or two.
The last two days have been very difficult, but when cycle touring one has these days. The irony is that two years ago I suffered from hypothermia when caught in a rainstorm outside of Steamboat Springs (I checked into a motel when I got to town and couldn't hold a pen to sign the registry ...) so this area seems to be cursed for me when it comes to the cold, wet weather. Very inauspicious as I will soon be in the high rockies, with mountain passes approaching 12,000'. Let's just hope I'm up to coping with the cold.