A Long and Beautiful Day

Friday
The ride to Ocholo Lake State park was uneventual: 49 miles on the odometer and 3:52 hours moving time. The sun was out, the road was slightly down-hill, and the wind was at my back. I camped at the park alongside Heather and Jackson, two accomplished touring cyclists from New Zealand who are also traveling the Trans America Trail (at least to Denver where they fly to England to tour there). The two make for very pleasant company. They are faster than I and climb much better but we tend to meet for meals and camping. Jackson participated in the early Ironman competitions and has raced competitively in the US and in Europe. Now a plumber, he tours regularly as does Heather.

Saturday
Eighty miles on odometer with 6:30 moving time.

Sometimes the location of eating/sleeping sites and upcoming climbs make for stark choices. Today was such a day. We began the day with a relatively easy climb of Ocholo Pass ( 1,700 foot ascent) followed by a fifteen mile downhill (and I do mean downhill) spin to Mitchell. There the fun really began as we ascended roughly 2,000 feet to Keyes Creek Pass. Imagine a road with an unending 5.5% grade for over five miles and then imagine me trying to climb same. It was tough going as I watched the Jackson and Heather fade into the distance. Hard going but I had the success of ascending McKenzie Pass to keep me going.

The ascent was followed, honest, by over thirty miles of downhill. The road paralled a riverbed and for ninety minutes I was treated to the sun and wind at my back, a pace of close to twenty miles per hour, and the sound of only my bicycle and the river alongside. Just as importantly, each turn in the road brought forth new vistas: my neck was sore for the watching. It was an afternoon that I will long treasure.

We spent the night at Dayville, where the local church has, as its mission, providing for cyclists such as ourselves: bathroom, shower, laundry, kitchen, Internet, and a dry place to sleep. No place to eat so we had frozen pizza and dark beer. The food along the trip has been disappointing. I counted on wholesome dinners along the way but it has not been the case. Places to eat are few and far between: we pass as many that have been closed than are open. Offerings are spare and feature breakfast and lunch menus. Indeed there are some nice places but not many. I do long for a nice sit-down meal.

Today (Sunday) is a light day as we travel some forty miles to Prarie City where we will fort up in anticipation of a long ride with significant climbs on Monday.