Tl:Dr; Packed up and riding by 8:30. Beaverhead at noon – lots of walking.
Washboard downhill is bad. Washboard uphill is far worse. When the grade of the slope gets greater than 5 or so I’m pretty much walking, which means I walked a lot this morning.
Found John at Beaverhead work station – waiting out the heat seems like a good plan. Plus my stomach is a bit upset, not sure why. Took 2 Pepto l bismol, hope that does the trick.
After waiting out the heat of the day, I got back on the bike and headed out. The Adventure Cycling Association app showed two water sources and some informal camping. I was pretty pooped by 6:30, and the on-route water was looking pretty sketchy. I didn’t really have a choice, so I loaded up my 3l bag and treated it with Aquatabs. There were some houses in the area so I knew I’d be ok if I really ran into trouble.
Camped on a dirt road headed into the forest in a grove that had been badly burned. Got some food going, set up the tent and went to sleep. Middle of the night some large animal (horse I think) was tromping around but basically let me be.
I was feeling pretty down at this point – John had decided to exit the tour that day, my stomach and butt weren’t feeling great, I’d hoped to make more miles, and the water situation had me worried.
Leave a Reply