tirsdag 17. juni 2014

Day 6: Idaho!

109.3 km

After a good night's rest I got up to cloudy weather and to my surprise it was quite cold outside with only 7 degrees centigrade. I left Dayton at 8 am and I didn't get far before I could feel a drizzle, that later developed into heavier rain.



The scenery on the way to Pomeroy was beautiful with rolling hills and open prairies and little traffic and my legs were feeling great. I could see a few windmills spread all over the hilltops the first 50 km and after the route turned from north to east I got to taste some headwind for the first time of the trip. 







I stopped at a rest area and made myself a sandwich from some groceries I was carrying, and as I rolled out again I donned my hard-shell rain jacket and pants due to the increasing intensity of the rain and wind. By 11:30 I cruised into Pomeroy, already wet from the weather, I found a small cafe to sit down and get something to eat.

After finishing up a hearty American size Club Sandwich I reluctantly got out and just when I was about to mount the bike, something funny happened. I caught myself in a comatose state. That was the name I had learned for it while in the air force. The state of standing still in wet, cold clothes with your arms partially stretched out to the side, letting your cold clothes only hang from your body and try not to provoke more bodily contact than absolutely necessary. That was when I tried to force myself out of the spiral of negative thoughts and I did so by putting some music in my ears and pedal hard, forgetting the headwind, rain and mileage to the next town, just pedal. Before long my body was heating up and my legs were feeling unstoppable as I stood up pedaling hard up the dreaded hill, and before I knew it I was at the top! Here I saw signs warning trucks to check their breaks and informing of steep gradient. I went head first into the descent, laughing and screaming like a maniac! What a feeling!



As I reached the the river elevation I got to soak in the spectacular scenery along the river into Lewiston and Clarkston, two towns named after Lewis and Clark who lead an expedition through the area to find a way to the Pacific ocean in the 1800s. After crossing the river into Idaho and taking the obligatory state border picture I took out the ACA map (section 6 of the Lewis & Clark trail) and tried to decide wether to push further or not. I desperately wanted a roof over my head tonight because all my cycling clothes were wet and it was raining. Since I had to squeeze out another 80 km from here to get to the next town with a motel I decided to just stay in a cheap place in town. Plenty of other opportunities to go 150+ km and save money on accommodations.





I managed to get a room for just under 50 dollars and pulled off all my clothes and jumped into the shower, thinking of what a blast this day had been. Later I went into town and sat down at a Starbucks with a hot beverage to catch up on some blogging.


1 kommentar:

  1. Haha, poke that mountain! Ser ut som du har det ganske greit!! :))

    SvarSlett