Rest and test

Day 9

19.90 miles @ an average of 11.5mph, max of 29.7

Total ride time of 1:43'47

Felt better, so I took off from Broken Bow and headed north to Hochatown State Park by Broken Bow Lake, and stayed at the Steven's Gap portion of the park. As soon as I pulled into the camping area, I was amazed. It was absolutely beautiful. Half the ground was slate, while the other half was quartz, mostly rose. It was only about 14 miles to the campsite, but I rode another three back to the gas stations outside the park for supplies, and three back to the site. I arrived long before sundown so I spent a while swimming and skipping rocks around the site. I was continually blown away by the beauty of the place, and was wanting a friend or two to share it with. I guess that goes to show how lonely I've gotten from time to time on this trip.

As the sun began to set, I started reading Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card for about the fifth time. I absolutely love that book, and I think I finished about half of it that night before falling asleep.

Day 10

<6 miles, unknown time

I woke up late and decided to just stay still for a while since I knew that the next campsite to reach was quite a while away, and I really wanted to finish my book, which I did before sundown. Another reason I wanted to stay was the startling beauty of that campsite. I really think I will return to camp there again sometime in the future, as it really isn't far from Dallas, and I would love to share this place with friends. Anyway, after finishing my book, I rode back to the gas stations for more supplies, and as I got back, just before sundown, I was surprised to have neighbors drive up and begin to set up camp. Two good ol' boys from Dallas drove up in a truck hauling enough gear for a small army, as well as two bikes, and two skidoos. I walked up and started talking with them, and they introduced themselves as Arlyn and Scott. I was happy to have met someone else who wasn't afraid of camping without an RV, but even more delighted to have someone to talk to. They shared their beers and hung out with me until the wee hours, shooting the shit and tossing a frisbee around until Arlyn noted that it was around 2AM, at which point we all hit the sack.

Day 11

I checked the weather report when I woke up and found that thunderstorms were predicted for the area, and remembering my experience with the last storms I encountered, I decided it would be best to stay another day. I spent some time reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer until my neighbors returned, and then decided to spend time with them for a while. After an hour or so, the storms rolled in. It wasn't the same sort of brutal rain I experienced outside of Broken Bow city, but I am glad I stayed around the camp so I didn't end up riding in it.

Before the rains, Arlyn had set a fishing rod out in the hopes of catching a catfish, and when the rain hit, he was forced to leave it alone until the storms passed. When he went out to check the rod after the rain, he found a small type of perch had hooked itself through its side next to the bait that was already on the hook. After failing to remove the small fish, he went ahead and cast it to try to catch a larger fish using the smaller as bait. His first cast went short of where he wanted it, so he began reeling it in, and about three yards from the bank, a big smallmouth bass struck it and he pulled it in as the first catch of the day. After this, I started fishing with him, as the fish were still biting a lot after the heavy rain. He managed to catch another fish, a largemouth bass, while I caught two more bait fish, two small bass which wouldn't make a sandwich together. After that, I didn't find any more, but I did find some great pieces of rose and cloudy quartz to bring back with me to my friends back home.

We didn't stay up quite as late this night, but we had a good time, despite raccoons stealing food from the boys' bins, and were able to wake up early the next day.

Day 12

39.98 miles @ an average of 12.2mph, max of 33.3

Total ride time of 3:10'14

After I woke up and struck camp, the boys gave me a ride out of the park to a small diner next to the gas stations where we had a great, filling late breakfast, and then bid me farewell. Following so many days of real rest, I felt awesome, and made great time. For a long while, my average speed was over 13mph, and then I hit the mountains. I slowed down, and halfway up a very large climb I stopped at a dirt road that led off into the forest and found a couple of trees to hang my hammock between. This would be my first experience with real primitive camping: literally just a spot in the woods, never cleared for camping. Having heard of bears in the area, I was kind of spooked with no one around to keep me feeling safe, so I ended up wearing my bear bell while cooking dinner and setting up camp. I also kept my mace at my side, and constantly looked around for glowing eyes after the sun set. Still, I never saw anything come even close, but I still connected my bell to the top of my hammock so I could ring it every time I heard a twig snap, or a branch move. You could say I was kind of spooked. Still, I managed to get to sleep after some time, and woke up some time after sunrise.

Day 13

18.62 miles @ an average of 8.1mph, max of 42.6

Total ride time of 2:17'11

I awoke with my knee hurting again after riding so hard the day before. This day was nearly entirely uphill, and because of the pain in my knee, and the length and steepness of the hills, I ended up pushing my bike at some points, leading to my low average speed. About halfway through the day, though, I was treated to a great downhill section that was nearly four miles long. During this section I hit the max speed for the day, and for my trip so far. It was so exhilarating, I wanted to catch a ride back to the top, just to ride it again, but I pushed on, knowing that no one would want to give me a ride to the top. During the entire course of this ride, I didn't run across a single gas station or stopping point of any type, except for a rest stop which had running water I didn't trust. For this reason, I stopped there for a while to refill my water reservoirs and used iodine to purify the questionable water, which took longer than I thought it would. After this, were more climbs, which led me to the top of a mountain, where I stopped for the night an hour or so before sundown. I tried to get to sleep soon after sundown, but the wind kicked up to nearly 25mph and buffeted my hammock to the point that it was difficult to sleep due to the noise. I finally found a position where I could sleep without too much noise directly in my ear, and slept until sometime after sunrise, but still felt tired.

Day 14

31.16 miles @ an average of 9.7mph, max of 42.9

Total ride time of 3:11'05

Woke up with my knee feeling a little bit better, and ate a meager breakfast before setting off. I do think I'm allergic to something in these mountains, though, because my right eye was pretty much glued shut when I woke up, and I've been sneezing a lot today.

As I left my site, I saw a guy on a triathlon bike powering up the mountain. I said howdy, but didn't see him again as I was riding. Big surprise, he was riding a bike that weighed less than one of my bags. Anyway, the first few miles of riding were incredibly difficult, as they were all uphill, but after a while, I hit the ridge of the mountain, and from then on, the ride was mostly small rises which were more bearable. There were still a couple of hills I had to dismount and push up, but I'm getting stronger, both physically and mentally. I felt like the little engine that could at times, and was chanting to myself "can't stop, won't stop, can't stop, won't stop..." as a sort of mantra. I made it to the campsite I thought of staying at tonight without running into any places to buy water or Gatorade. I rested here for a while and ran into the biker I saw earlier in the day. We chatted for a while, and it turns out he's training for the Iron Man in Hawaii! No wonder he was able to pump up those hills. He found a tear in his tire, and had about 50 more miles to go, so I gave him a tire boot to get him back to his car, and he offered to pay me, but I refused. I figure it will come back to me in some way. Anyway, the campsite only accepted cash, so I went on ahead to Mena, the city a few miles on (14 miles, to be exact). This entailed a few more punishing climbs, but I was rewarded at the end with a five mile coast at 30-40 mph the whole time, all the way into town. Once in town, I found a hotel, got something to eat at a Chinese buffet (bad idea) and went to WalMart for more supplies, and bought more than was necessary. Still, I managed to squeeze it all into my bags, and I'm set to go to sleep and get started again tomorrow. I need to do some laundry at a laundromat if I can find one, but that shouldn't take me too long, and then I'll be back on the road. More camping and more mountains up ahead, but I'm getting stronger, and as long as my knee holds up, I should be making more and more miles every day!

'Til next time, wish me luck in my travels! Y'all be good now, y'hear? Oh, and be kind to cyclists!