PowerCycle

06/10 Apparently I woke up on the wrong side of the air mattress this morning. By the end of the day I’d lost track of how many things were annoying me. While I was packing up my tent a woman comes over and we start talking about my trip. I get to the part about when I expect to get up there and she says something like, “Well you better get a move on.” I didn’t think much of it then but throughout the day it kept weighing on me how close to winter I’m going to be cutting it by the time I get up there.

So that pretty much set the tone for my day. Anything that could possibly slow me down was cursed at several times. More than anything it was the wind. I just freaking hate it. I knew full well that I’d have headwinds virtually the entire time so its an easy thing to gripe about. I don’t know the exact numbers but I expect that almost all cross-country riders go west to east just to avoid the constant north-western winds. From my Google searches I could only find 2 other people that have ridden from Florida to Alaska which makes me feel a little better knowing that there are at least 2 other crazy people out there. To top it off I pinched a nerve in my neck and its been driving me nuts for a couple days. I finally broke down and took a couple Tylenol. At least one of my aliments could be cured.

Something else that was eating at me for the last 2 days was just this feeling of sluggishness I’ve had. My legs feel after 5 miles like they normally do after 40 miles. For some reason I think its the new back tire but I’m not sure. Its definitely not as frictonless as the Travel Contact model. It could be me too. I bought some vitamins in Wisdom. Maybe that’s the problem?

Anyway, left the lodge at 9am and ran across the street to the cafe to have some breakfast. Food was great. Took off heading north. Rode through the Big Hole Valley, through the town of Wisdom and then started heading west on Hwy 43. Big Hole Battlefield National Monument sits right next to the road so I stopped there. This is another thing that annoyed me today. One of the other women I was talking to today told me about a den of foxes that was right next to the monument. So for 18 miles I’m all excited thinking I’m going to get some great shots. There were no foxes!!! OK, maybe there were but I sure didn’t see them. I hate when people tell me about something and then I don’t see it. Just don’t tell me. Next time that happens I’m going to cut them off and tell them I don’t want to know. I can’t be disappointed if I don’t know what I’m missing.

After leaving there was a fairly easy climb over Lost Trail Pass. Off to my left I noticed a sign welcoming me to Idaho. I don’t think my route takes me through that state so it was too hard to resist. I rode the 100 feet to the sign, coasted past it and officially made Idaho the 14th state I’ve ridden in on my tour.

The campground here is perfect. It’s a mile off the road and there’s no one else here. Its also $4 cheaper than the other state-run CG right across the street. I had to trade deadly creatures though. The place close the road had warning signs about rattlesnakes everywhere. This place has the same for bears. I was able to dump $4 in change into the fee envelope along with the 4 one dollar bills so I’m a little lighter now.

GPX Track