We were planning on trying to wake up early to escape the heat, but it was 7:00 before we were both up. Danny was up first, and the result of him saying "Marc" was me jolting awake and nearly falling out of my hammock.
We decided to find breakfast on the road, but it still took 45 minutes for us to stow everything and get on the road. The intersection of the bike trail was only a few miles away, and we were looking forward to riding next to the river.
The "bike trail" turned out to be nothing more than an old railroad grade with the rails and ties ripped up, and there was no way we could ride on the fist sized rocks that were left. Looking for some time to construct an alternate route and get some food, we went another 3 miles and stopped in the town of Washtucna. As we crested a hill and the town came into view, I pessimistically observed, "dude, there's nothing there." Danny replied, "come on, I'm sure there'll be something." We descended a hill and there was a gas station, complete with an attached convince store. "Okay", I said, "I guess we'll be alright."
"I wasn't going to say I told you so"
Moments later, with a grin, "I told you so."
I bummed some hot water from the slightly surly shopkeeper, and after some oatmeal and coffee we had decided on some different roads to get us to Pasco.
We once again had a wonderful tailwind, and rode hard for 20 miles or so. I'm probably in the best shape I've ever been in, and being able to work so hard, yet also realizing that my body can do it for a long time, feels amazing. The skinny tires, short wheelbase, and tall gearing that makes Danny's bike unsuitable for climbing is perfect for going fast, and the miles desert miles hummed away under our tires.
As we cruised along, a road construction crew came into view. This was fairly unremarkable, we had passed a similar crew a couple of days earlier, and I had even begged a quart of ice water when all I'd had to drink in the last 4 hours was tepid gatoraide. We braked to a stop for the sign man, and it took me a coupe of moments to realize it was the same black guy who'd given me the water. After an enthusiastic "hey, how's it going man!", he let us through and we kept pedaling.
The temperature was getting hotter and hotter, by 11:00 it was probably 100 degrees. Our route would take us on a road that paralleled a river, the snake river if I remember correctly. We both had every intention of jumping in at the soonest possible opportunity, and we're looking forward to the cool water as we descended down into the river valley. After miles of downhill and a quick ride parallel to the river, we stopped at a nice state park. After parking our bikes and removing various articles of clothing, we tiptoed over the hot sand and went out to the end of the dock. We looked at each other, then down at the water, both wondering the same thing. "Dude, do you think we should check how cold it is?" Pause. We both look at each other and say "naw".
"Okay, then you jump in"
"how about I count to three?"
"1... 2... Three!"
And we both jump. The water felt like it was 32.5 degrees. Arguably, both of us came out of the water faster than we got in it. I, always pulling some useless fact out of my head, babbled about shock and passing out and drowning. All Danny could manage was to say "Oh, oh, COLD."
We were now no longer hot, and wandered back up to where we had deposited out bicycles to figure out what was next. One thing led to another, and before we knew it we'd convinced ourselves that it was simply too hot to ride, and had broken out some food and tied up our hammocks. As soon as I climbed into my hammock, I realized I was quite sleepy, and started fading fast. Before I was completely gone, we decided we were going to have to wait for things to cool down before we could ride. With the matter settled, I fell quite asleep.
*writing truncated due to already being long enough and me being like a week behind*
We hitched a ride with some crazy person who was fishing for sturgeon, 8 foot behemoths from another time period, and ended up in some town, were Danny spend $7 on a burger and the shopkeep kept bothering customer about more fries. It then became unbearably hot , and we waited till way too late to start and had to be picked up by some big dude Danny met on the web.
July 3
Basically, we spent the whole day holed up in a Starbucks wasting time. The weather forecast called for 117 degree temps, and I was honestly concerned about the safety of riding in that weather.
After approximately 3 hours, were both thoroughly fed up with doing nothing. After focusing on riding, day after day, for so long, doing nothing was not fun.
Toward the end of the day, Danny, who had been handling where we were going to spend the night, informed me that the woman he had contacted didn't actually have room for both of us. This left me in a bit of a pickle, and I scrambled to send out lots of lodging requests. Fortunately, a woman responded within a matter of hours, and even invited us to the community pool that she was scheduled to oversee for a few hours that evening. An hour or so later, she pulled up in her 15 passenger van, which was partially filled with kids, and we threw our bicycles into the left over space and climbed in.
We spent the evening swimming, eating pizza, and chatting. After a bit, Danny got picked up by the lady he was staying with, and an hour or two later the rest of us headed back to the family's house. They had a couple of perfectly spaced trees for me to tie up my hammock, and after the temperature cooled down, I was pretty comfortable
No comments:
Post a Comment