June 23, 2021
Day 49: Enderlin, ND to Gackle, ND
Windy Plains Today
(NOTE; Updated to include the map and filled in the narrative)
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Climbing Today; 1,457 ft Climbing to Date; 73,004 ft
We left Enderlin shortly before 05:00 this morning, hoping to get a jump on what was destined to be a very hard day. BLUF; indeed, it was a very hard day, a dangerous day in the heat and wind. You can quit reading now and just scroll through the pictures and watch the video if you want, or you can wade through the boring details below.
It was a bit cool this morning due to the wind chill. We had hoped the wind would be gentle in the wee hours, but we were mistaken. So wind jackets were needed. I've seen many deer, but usually can't capture them in a photo.
The wind chill was enough to cause the horses to huddle on the downwind side of the shed.
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3 years ago
Waterfowl are abundant in the wetland areas. Many would flee when I approached, and they would fly into the wind (same direction I was going) and just sort of hang even with me cause they couldn't escape the crazy wind.
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Yeah, the flag below tells the story. Today was a hard day. Not just because of the wind, but because it was a long day AND it became very hot in the afternoon AND there were no services for the last 50 miles. Doc and I agreed that today was the hardest day we have had - at least so far.
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I have crossed the east-west Continental Divide by bike 10 times. Now I get to add another crossing on a lesser-known continental divide.
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Note in the picture above that I have the GoPro mounted on my helmet. That's how I roll. The GoPro helps give me more wind resistance for aerodynamic braking, so there's that.
About 23 miles into today's ride there was a City View gas store/restaurant that we knew would be open. The Enderlin Inn had set out some breakfast items late the previous night, so we had bagels and yogurt before leaving. We rode rather purposefully for the 23 miles to reach "second breakfast" and fuel ourselves for the next 50 miles. I have previously determined that I need 1.5 - 2.0 ounces of fluid per mile to get through a long ride, and I left with 120 ounces of fluid total to cover the next 50 miles. It SHOULD be enough, but the weather was forecast to get a bit extreme.
We knew there would be little to no shade along our route, and we were guessing that our best option for a shady stop for a lunch break might be at the James River crossing. And so we pushed on for 24 miles to the James River - we had hoped for a rest stop with picnic table, but what we found was a wee bit of shade down a farm field road near the river. That would have to do, so we set up our picnic by sitting on the ground cloth for my tent. It was so windy that somebody had to be sitting on it or it would have blown away quickly. My lunch consisted of a chicken wrap sandwich and a coke bought from the City View store, and I wrapped them in some clothing in a pannier to keep them at least a little cool. And so we had a quick lunch break - the strong and gusty wind was at least helpful in keeping the bugs away.
The 28 miles remaining to Gackle was a slow death march. We were lucky that the wind continued as mostly a buffeting side wind until about the last 10 miles when it became a headwind. The temperature in nearby towns ranged from 97 to 101 degrees - it was hot enough to cook an egg on the pavement. The low humidity was helpful, but there's no way around it - 100 degrees is hot. For the last 20 miles, we started playing my "mile game." We would ride for 2 miles, then stop and drink some fluid and eat a little bit of candy bar or whatever energy food you had. My Snickers bar had disintegrated into a gooey mess, but that didn't stop me from eating a little of it every 2 miles till it was gone. I was so tired at each stop that I would lay my head down on my handlebar bag for a bit - if I had laid down somewhere in the grass I would have fallen to sleep right there. In the dry heat, my fluid wasn't lasting as long as my calculations indicated it should. So I rationed it, only drinking at every 2-mile stop and calculating how much to drink. With 4 miles to go I drank half of what I had left, and with 2 miles to go I finished it all. I was drinking 100-degree water and glad to have it. When we rolled into Gackle, it really was a shining city on a hill for us.
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We got beaten up rather harshly by the North Dakota wind today. Portal-to-portal, our travel time was 12.5 hours for 74 miles. That works out to 5.9 mph portal-to-portal speed. Honestly, that's faster than I thought we would be able to do. Today's video snippets follow, good night all, I'm a little tired now...
Today's ride: 74 miles (119 km)
Total: 2,556 miles (4,113 km)
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Some of us (me) enjoy all of the details as we like to live vicariously. Reliving your day with you is not boring at all!
I hope tomorrow treats you kindly.
3 years ago
3 years ago