Sherman McMasters: Where is he?

Doc Holliday: Down by the creek, walking on water. – Tombstone

Another 1-hour early start, but with a twist. Today’s actual ride is through the Great Basin and tomorrow’s ride is to Rawlins, Wyoming. There is absolutely nothing at the end of the ride today so the crew will shuttle us to Rawlins tonight and then back to the Great Basin to ride into Rawlins the next day. However, we have the option to combine two days into one.

The Great Basin is noted for strong winds, heat, open range and just about no humans. The schedules ride was 95 miles with 3800 feet of climbing and ZERO paved roads. The ride to Rawlins is another 44 miles with only 1500 feet of climbing and it is all paved road. The totals are 138 miles of riding and 5300 feet of climbing. I thought that I’d see how I feel when I reach the end of today’s ride and take it from there. The one GREAT benefit from doing both is an extra rest day.

The initial ride out of Atlantic City was about as good as my ride into Atlantic City. I took the downhill very slowly was dead last and the we started some monster climbs. I walked much of it and was further behind. The potential to do both rides was looking dismal. However, from then on, most of the climbs were of the Missouri roller variety and I typically do well on those. By lunch at 44 miles, I was just behind the leaders.

After lunch, I was riding well and then the winds came up. It kept getting stronger and sometimes was a headwind and sometimes a tailwind.  Here is a video from two ladies who rode through the area. It gives you a good idea of what it is like. It is funny because I saw many of the things today …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNAFLnoJDRA

I spent a lot of the time on my aero bars but then the trail got very sandy and I had to be careful. I crashed once but it was minor. I think that I only saw 4 or 5 cars the whole 95 miles, but a lot of cattle and lots of cattle poop. The last 15 miles or so, I really hammered, and got to the end before 3:00. That left me over 4 hours to ride the last 44 miles. I ate a little, replenished my bottles and took off.

I rode much of the way with Wallace, who is like the energizer bunny on hills. He had a very serious accident when he was hit by a car 4 years ago and lost some vision. WE made very good time until we hit a 2-mile climb. After that is was smooth sailing into Rawlins. About 1 mile from the camp site, Wallace had a bout of vertigo and almost crashed. He and I walked the last mile to the camp site. I guess about 10 riders did the full 138 miles. It was the most that I have cycled in a day in over 25 years and that was on a road bike. It was an epic day for me and I feel a lot better than I thought I would.

Thanks for reading

Tailwinds

Chuck Hardesty – Riding for The Backstoppers.org