It’s Monday. Time to get back to the grind stone.
I don’t know if my parents knew something I didn’t or not. They fed me the biggest breakfast I have had in a long time. Cereal, toast, grapefruit, eggs, sausage, juice! Wow.
We headed off to Ennis, the exact point I left off over a week ago. No cheating the cycling gods. The weather was nice too. Sunny and only the slightest wind. And I was off…. to continue the journey.
The first hour went by easily. Easy pedaling and I felt great being back on the bike saddle. But something was nagging at me in the back of my mind. What was it?
Shortly after a brief stop in Cameron I met these two cyclists. Jay and Stan. They were really happy cyclists! They were cruising going toward Ennis. Later I met two more cyclist and they were really happy too. Going toward Ennis. It finally hit me. They were enjoying a monster tailwind! The ever so slight wind I had noticed at the beginning of my ride had turned I to a howling gale and I was going the wrong way!!
So my day was going poorly but I had to concede the wind to those going the other direction after they described the awful winds they had encountered in Wyoming. It seemed only fair that I had to suffer for a day so they could recover a little bit.
My pace was down to about 7-8 mph in the headwind. By the time I was able to turn out of the wind, my legs were too fried to really enjoy it. Plus I had to climb up to Earthquake Lake. Ouch.
Earthquake Lake is an interesting story. Tragic but interesting. In 1959, there was a huge earthquake that brought an entire mountain side down across the Madison River and a campground. Around 28 or so people died in the event, but the resulting lake that was formed due to the damming of the river still exists today.
Luckily, the campground was now only 4 miles away and it was mostly downhill. Thank goodness. I considered riding a few more miles to a small resort on the lake for some dinner but opted for coking on the camp stove instead. The end to my day came quickly after that. I was certainly hoping for a better day tomorrow.
👍