Day 1 Earth Day: Wicked Winds and upstream

April 22, 2022

Weiser River Trail

"We are not going to make it to Mundo Hot Springs today," Patrick says. We've been fighting a headwind, cycling upstream along the Weiser River and an uphill gradient. By this time, we have ridden about 11 miles of 42.5 miles. It seems fitting that we are fighting the wind on a training ride for the Great Divide since our journal is titled "Wicked Winds and Wild Roads".

Today started with us finishing organizing our gear and food for the ride. We take care that our 3 cats (Tashi, Ocho, and Miles) will have food and water. They'll be fine for only two days, when we go out longer, we ask our neighbor to check on them.

We kind of invited ourselves on this weekend's group ride. Everyone meets up at the trailhead in Weiser by 2pm, Earth Day. There are 8 of us. Jon is having back issues and will be driving their van to Cambridge. He will take stuff people don't want to carry on their bikes. We give him our food for camp and larger towels to use at the Hot Springs. Dave, the group ride organizer, has made Chili for the group's dinner tonight.

By 2:40pm, we are off and into the wind.

Mileage: 16 miles

This is a training ride for us, so we have packed as we will for the Great Divide starting in a month (minus more food). Everyone else are bike packers. So, no surprise, they leave us in the dust. Rhonda at about 7 mi, turns around to see how we are doing. We reassure her we are fine, just slow.

The trail surface varies but our bikes are doing ok. It's the wicked wind that gets us, on a railroad grade, it's demoralizing to feel like we are climbing a steep hill. The scenery is beautiful following the Weiser River. The mile markers are made from RR spikes.

After we pass another trailhead at about 11 miles, we decide that it's no use to continue to fight the wind. We enter a canyon that is beautiful, the hillsides covered in yellow. Patrick starts looking for a camping spot. 630pm we set up camp protected from the wind.

One of the few short sections that was muddy

We are looking for a camp spot near here and find one just around the curve

Sheltered from the wind, setting up our new Nemo tent

We have our emergency meal for dinner but neither of us feels like pulling out the stove and cooking. Instead, we eat salami and cheese with crackers and bread.

We fall asleep listening to coyotes howling off in the distance.

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