June 13, 2005

No place to hide.

It was overcast in the morning when we broke camp. We were on the road at 8:30 after getting up at 7:00, breaking camp, making some oatmeal for breakfast, and packing up the gear. That’s a record for us. We descended in the morning from 2,175 feet to around 1,400 feet to reach the city of Minot, a thirty mile ride mostly down hill all the way. We finally found a suitable bike shop for Nick to get a new tire and replenish our tube patch kits. In Val's Cyclery they were very helpful with information about the roads ahead and about where to get items replenished in town. In the shop we met another coast to coast rider named Tom Thompson. He is doing a solo from Anacortes, WA to the coast of Maine. I threw out a couple of fishing lines suggesting that he might want to travel with us but there were no nibbles even when we found that his final destination for the day was Rugby as well. We saw him on the road as he passed us, and then we passed him. We all ended up staying at the same motel and I had a nice chat with him at dinner. Tomorrow morning his plan is to head east on US Rt. 2, ours is to follow the established routes and head south on state Rt. 3.

The head winds were light but still noticeable when we started out in the morning and it got worse from there. The thing about cycling into the wind is mostly psychological. In New England you often ride with headwinds but the roads aren’t poker straight, and going up and down the hills near home breaks things up. In central North Dakota that is not the case. After descending in the morning to reach the city of Minot we basically went due east all day into a mostly direct head wind. Wind speeds picked up to around ten to fifteen miles an hour which slowed our progress significantly. The roads were very straight and flat. On roads like that, with no winds, we could easily ride at speeds of fifteen to twenty miles an hour; we were doing eight to twelve. There was no place to hide. The overcast skies led to on and off rain showers all afternoon which caused us to stop a few times to don and remove rain gear.

Threatening Skies With No Place to Hide

We were trading pulls (when a cyclist takes the lead and the other follows in his draft) every two minutes but that only gained us an average of a mile an hour or so. Nick began to fade in the mid afternoon. I would turn around and he would be twenty yards behind so I would slow or stop and wait for him to catch up. I have been working on him to steady his effort and increase his efficiency. He is making progress but is not there yet. I think today it was more the psychological effect of the winds and rain that an issue of fitness. This was proven when we had about seven miles to go and with the smell of the barn nearby Nick the racehorse could reach speeds of fifteen to eighteen even with the rain and wind.

In the mid afternoon as I stopped to change batteries in my GPS Nick road ahead as I told him I would catch up. I caught Nick when he stopped to investigate a car stuck in the median gully with a driver inside. Nick was talking to the man when I got there. I could smell the hard liquor twenty feet away. A school bus stopped nearby and Nick had the driver contact the Sheriff. We told the driver that we had arranged for a tow and rode on.

We ended the day at the geological center of North America. It was pouring for the last six or seven miles and we decided to get a motel.

Center of North America

It’s been two days of head winds and it grains on you.

Jim

Cycledog (Ride the extra mile!!)

© 2005 - JNS

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