Into the wind

Right now I'm in Jackson Hole WY, I had to go off route to stop off at a bike shop for some emergency repairs. I'll get to that part later.



I crossed the Basin! Here's what I have to say about it: Its empty, its windy and its cold. Right before leaving Colorado, I stopped at this B&B place to refill my bottles. The owner told me she gets a lot of Great Divide Riders coming through this place, though they mostly come in July/August. She was very nice, gave me some carrots and some bread and we chatted a little about the trail. I told her I was headed towards the basin but was unsure whether or not I was going to cross it, since I didn't have a GPS. Then she told me "yea heading in there without a GPS isn't a good idea, the basin is really empty and you wouldn't want to get lost out there. All the riders who have come through the basin though have great stories about it, especially about the wind". Once I left Rawlins and headed into the basin without a GPS, I understood what she meant about the windy stories.



The wind DID NOT STOP. It started at right after sunrise, kept going throughout the day, took a break at sunset and then howled some more all night. The first night I slept there, the wind was so strong it blew down my tent, with me inside. I actually had to use all the stakes to re-pitch it and make sure it did not get blown down again. Trying to fall asleep that first night was something as I watched my tent being blown and battered by the wind; It held firm though. Furthermore, the wind blew in a eastward direction. Not good for me considering I was going west. I faced a headwind for a good 100 miles of the 140 mile crossing. When facing a headwind I managed an average of 6 mph, when the wind was at my back, I averaged 13 mph. Quite a difference. It was quite frustrating at times and the worst part is there is nothing you can do about it. Cursing at the wind out of sheer frustration, as I did many times didn't do anything. Pleading with it didn't work either. Nope, all I could do was pedal.

The first day I pedalled well though, I didn't get lost and covered nearly 80 miles. Saw 5 vehicules the entire day. Empty. The second day was a bit thougher as the temperature dropped to 40 and the rain started to fall. It made for one cold ride, but I was able to cover the last 40 miles to Atlantic city, where I finally encountered civilization and was able to warm up and recover (80+40=120; I covered the first 20 miles of the basin the day I left Rawlins, overall it took 2.5 days).

Furthermore, my worst fear came true. The bike broke down in the middle of nowhere. Somehow my tire ripped which caused the inner tube to leak out like a tumor. This happened when I was 30 miles from the nearest major road/city, not a good spot to be in. To fix it, i used some athletic tape I had in my first aid kit to bandage the tire so that the inner tube would have no chance of escaping. To my surprise it worked pretty well and lasted 100 miles till atlantic city where I was able to retape it. I ended up re-taping the tire every 50 miles or so until I got here to Jackson Hole, where I was able to buy a new tire and put a permanent fix to the problem.

This breakdown showed me something. Always carry duct tape. It allows for quick and efficient repairs.

I'm going to be headed up to Yellowstone later today and then back up into the mountains and forests of Montana within the next week. On the lighter side of things, I have less than 1000 miles to go till Canada.