Day 21: crossing the Big Muddy

Mount Pleasant, iowa across the Mississippi to Pekin, Illinois

Close to the river, the Iowa terrain was broken up ravines - much less cropland, more forest and pasture. Then a steep drop down to the river, and suddenly we're in urban habitat: long towns along the river with old buildings presumably from days when river trade was more important than now. Presently, the riverside is developed into parks and the old buildings are being yuppified. And, of course, the floating casino.

Up the bluffs on the east side and onto near pancake flat cropland in Illinois until we hit a few drainages and then dropped down into the Illinois River Valley.

Quite a contrast with so many more small towns in Illinois than in Iowa.

Abe Lincoln memorabilia seems to be quite an industry: every little park seemed to have a plaque about a speech he gave here, or a still existing set of stairs that he climbed there, etc.

Pekin is known for the Pekin agreement where Lincoln and three other Republicans agreed to not compete, but to serially get themselves elected for one year terms (no viable opposition) to the Illinois House. Lincoln severed his year - his only "elected" office prior to being elected President. Presumably a low-life, smoke-filled room deal that would be condemned if perpetrated by some scoundrel rather than by such a heroic figure.

The bridge over the Big Muddy appears to be an old railroad bridge, with a car deck added over the rails as an afterthought.

Pleasant riding all day, light winds - sometimes helping, rarely hindering, broken clouds, pleasant temperatures.

We often were able to ride through detours on this trip (note the passage through the blockading backhoe). The last picture is the Illinois River.

Currently we've come 2445 miles out of 3415 - less than 1000 to go! In 9 days.

8.5 hours, 230 km (extra when we missed a turn) 139 miles (at least that's less than 140), 27.1 km/hr (16.8), 87 pulse, 137 watt average, 3728 joules, 852 meters climbing (2700 feet or so).

Day 20: Colfax to Mount Pleasant, Iowa

No pictures today, folks. Never got the camera out of the waterproofs.

Iowa turned from really flat to pretty hilly (though smaller hills) today with hardwood forest where it hadn't been cleared for crops. More small towns with a variety of old well-kept, old run-down, and newer homes. The farms appeared to be smaller and family owned - with a homestead on each section. More like southern New England or Pennsylvania farmland. Still all corn and soybeans as the primary crops.

Mount Pleasant has 8000 people, but has the Midwest Threshers Reunion every year and draws 100,000 visitors to see old farm equipment and listen to country music. sorry I missed it.

The day started raining within miles of the start, turned into significant thunderstorms with lots of electricity striking all around, heavy changing winds and heavy downpour for about an hour (no hail), then another couple hours of lighter rain and finally a few hours of sun. It was warm enough to be very enjoyable (at least to me) riding in the rain. Luckily I was at the lunch stop when the worst of the storm hit and just took a leisurely lunch and waited it out.

One epic mudbath construction area - about 50 yards of gooey deep clay well soaked by the rain. Unrideable. If you walked through in your shoes, the cleats became unusable. If you tried cleat covers, they got pulled off and lost in the mud. Socks weren't a good idea. So, most of us opted for what seemed the best choice, shoes and socks off and wade through the mud (felt good slooshing between the toes - apologies to the bard of Wasilla), then wash the feet in a puddle on the other side.

Plenty of climbing over those little hills, and plenty of head winds made it a long day.

9.3 hrs in the saddle (12.5 hr total because of the extended lunchbreak waiting out the worst of the storm), 226 KM (141 miles) at 24.3 km/hr (15.0 mph), 142 watts at 91 pulse, 4264 kJoules.

Epic delightful riding day.

Day 19: Denison to Colfax, Iowa

Hi, kids! Today's words are boring and lethargy. Not sure which came first. The Iowa hills of yesterday became lower and lower and eventually it was just flat. No more terraces. No more contoured crop rows - the rows became straight where there were no contours to follow.

So, it was just head down into the wind for a lot of hours. Occasionally, look up and behold, more corn! Head down, and grind along. And for whatever reason, very little drive to keep going at any pace - until finally, the last couple hours - either the McDonald's milkshake, or a new selection of more energetic iPod tunes (East Village Opera and then some Natalie McMaster celtic) and I picked up the pace and drove home, found a few little hills to ride hard and reeled in a lot of the folks that had left me hours earlier.

Also, started to see more patches of woodland left from way back when rather than plains - looks like this must have been forested back before 1776 or whenever.

Found very little to take pictures of - flatland corn isn't that interesting. A bit of fog in the river valley as we started out this morning. The little town of Coon Rapids had a bunch of sculptures around its golf course and town park. Didn't get much better than that.

Colfax is a small enough town that the only restaurant is McDonald's - I'm getting to believe that McD's is truly America's finest cuisine.

8.7 hr, 219 km(134 mile), HR 88, 137 watts, 25.1 km/hr (15 mph), 3974 kJoules, 964 meters (3000 ft) climbing.

Day 18: Vermillion, SD to Denison, Iowa

Wow, I thought that 85 was pretty hot, but after 3 days in the 90's, 85 is downright cool. Throw in some nice rolling hills and favorable winds for about half the day, and bicycling becomes enjoyable - quite different from the survival sport of the last couple days (I almost got voted off the Survivor island, as many did).

As soon as we crossed the Big Sioux River into Iowa, the topography changed dramatically from flat prairie to rounded hills that had extensive crops (corn and soybeans nearly 100%), and in areas were terraced. These are the Iowa Loess Hills - similar to the Palouse of eastern Oregon and Washington, they are glacial outwash silt that has been windblown and molded into hills and are very fertile.

The hills are up to mostly only 1-200 feet high, but if you go up and down the things all day (on straight roads that just go up and down the hills), you can accumulate 5000 feet of climbing without any real change in altitude.

Talked with a woman in Rickets at one of our lunch stops: town of 1oo people, mostly old. 20 years ago a vigorous community with bowling alley, car dealer, and grocery store - now just old people mostly, including a retirement home. The family farms were all sold to big farm corporations and very few people are actually needed for the farming, so no younger folks left.

Saw something that we hadn't seen since the Black Hills: a curve in the road! Neat.

A few farms still left - they are pretty.

The hills were very pleasant riding: especially the chance to get my butt off the saddle for a climb every couple minutes.

Rather surprisingly I've survived a few tough, long days and now can seriously think of doing EFM (Every Fantastic Mile, or something like that).

8.0 hours, 206 km (128 miles), 25.9 km/hr (16.1 mph), 1755 meters (5750 feet) climbing, 3703 kJoules, HR 93, power 144 watts.

Today was another brutal day, though 2 hours shorter than yesterday: temp 95, heat index 105, head and crosswinds (12 mph into the wind, 15-16 in the cross winds). At least into the winds,pacelines worked well and we were on rural roads, so could echelon in the crosswinds. It was brutal (worse heat conditions than the last 2 days, though shorter), and with people already beat up and tired, the sag vans filled up fast.

I was reduced to putting 10-12 ice cubes in my shorts, and a couple more under a cap under my helmet before leaving each break spot. Then, when possible stopping at quick stop stores between the breaks.

Yesterday the land was flat, flat, flat. Today it was flat, flat, and then a stream or river valley cut 50-100 feet into the flatlands. Made it more interesting. Not much in the line of trees on the flatlands (telephone poles don't count), but cottonwoods in the valleys. Crops seem to be all corn and beans. So much of it that one begins to understand how we feed 300 million people - miles and miles and miles of crops (ready for making people fat on high fructose corn syrup, I guess). Fewer cattle hereabouts.

And big, really big farm machines.

Lots of old abandoned and run down farmsteads (look close in the 2nd picture). It appears that the little house on the prairie has now been replaced by the vinyl (siding) house on the prairie - plenty of those.

And Lutheran churches - with no evidence of anywhere for parishioners to live - just a church in the middle of the prairie with nothing around it for miles.

The river bridges are the Missouri River yesterday.

7.8 hours in the saddle, 185 km (115 miles), 23.5 km/hr = 14.6 mph, heart rate 88 at 128 watts 3390 kilojoules, 485 meter climbing.

Day 16 Murdo, SD to forever (well, Mitchell)

No pictures to post tonight - not enuff time.

Today was flat, except for down to and back up from the Missouri River. We're now out of the rain shadow of the Rockies, so crops can grow - lots of corn and other stuff that i didn't recognize.

Pretty yellow butterflies. A few pheasants to be seen. Not much else except for giant farm equipment - tractors, harvesters, etc. Equipment dealers, and big machines that took up 2+ lanes of road and we had to sneak by.

Brutal, brutal day. Heavy winds quartering into us from the south kept speeds low until the last hour - so 10 hours in the saddle. 90 degrees and humid. Lots of folks didn't make it, and many who did were pretty trashed by the end (me included). A near death experience.

And, although shorter by 30 miles, tomorrow is predicted to be worse - hotter, more humid, heat index of 102 and wind from the south - as we turn south. Can't wait!

I'll try to get up some pictures tomorrow.

10 hr in saddle, 237 km(147 miles), 23.4 km/hr (14,5 mph), 130 watts, 89 pulse, 4680 kilojoules (means I could eat a real lot - mostly as milk shakes - couldn't think of anything warm to eat).

Day 15 the flats of South Dakota

Rapid City to Murdo, SD

Rolling grasslands, and grasslands, and grasslands.

A brief excursion through the weird and bizarre pinnacles of the Badlands. Last time we were there was in 1980 I think.

Hot. Crosswinds for most of the day: scrubbed off the speeds a little and very hard to help each other: echelons and double pacelines help, but take so much concentration that it's hard to enjoy the scenery or to keep it up for very long.

During the middle of the day we turned north for a while and had a fast tailwind respite, then back to the crosswinds.

Highlight of the day: car parked along the road, and as I drove by noted the giant bug-eyed glasses of Nate! Crazy dude drove up from Colorado (actually, all the way from Santa Fe) to take some pictures - so leap-frogged along with us for a while through the badlands. Then, he drove into Murdo, hopped on his bike and rode back to drag my sorry ass the rest of the way to Murdo - amazing how much easier that last 15 miles was with the chatting/catching up on the latest news. We'll eventually have some links to Nate's web site and his pictures from today.

Thanks, Nate for showing up - made it a great day.

The animal of the day was: GRASSHOPPERS!!!! Billions, and billions landing on every part of our bikes and bodies as we trundled along.

Pictures include: the PAC Tour version of a refugee camp, the long morning paceline that lasted for a few hours, the badlands, and the bugeyed photographer by the road.

8.8 hours in the saddle, 237 km(145 miles), 16.4 MPH, heart rate 93, av power 131 watts.

Day 14: The Black Hills, Custer to Rapid City, SD

Tha, tha, that's all folks! No more hills for many days.

Beautiful ride through Black Hills - rolling, plains and Ponderosa Forest. Distant views to the plains - and fast swooping downhills to those plains. Not a hill in sight to the east.

Tomorrow starts the long, hot, cloudless march east.

With predicted east winds. Aaaaaaaagh!

Didn't get much of a picture of buffalo, but they were cute. Mom buffalo gave me a snort, loosely interpreted as: "Back off, Dude, you're in the wrong gear for a sprint". We've been reduced to washing in the fountain outside a "Sonic" drive-in!

5.5 hr in saddle, 122 km (75 miles) , 13.5 MPH av power 141 heart rate 90.

Day 13: Sheridan, Wy to Custer, SD

Rather a weak day for pictures: there were a number that I should have taken, but at inopportune times.

Gigantic coal mines and coal processing as we left Gillette - "the energy capital of the nation".

Some fun rocky canyons as weaved through the sedimentary (sandstone and limestone) layers that were pushed up and tilted, then eroded, as the basement layer igneous rock forming the core of the Black Hills were pushed up.

Then we rolled into Custer, the southern gateway to the Black Hills: a tourist trap including the Flintstone motel and campground.

Sturgis motorcycle rally appears to have spilled over to occupy the entire summer in the area, and Harley Davidsons's appear to be the predominant vehicle on the roads. Hard to tell without looking, if you're about to be run down by a large truck, or just passed by a Harley.

So, for pictures, you'll have to settle for a few choice labels from the PAC Tour vans and one picture of the finest in local wildlife.

6.6 hrs in the saddle, 185 km (115 miles), 28.1 km/hr(17.4 MPH - fairly strong winds variously tail, cross, and head), av pulse 93. 1700 foot net climb (about 4000 ft total).

Day 12 Sheridan, wy to Gillette, wy

Day 12 - oops doubled some of the pictures. Where'd the sheep come from? Did the Tour detour through Wyoming????

Suspect that today was the last look at snow-capped peaks for a while. Just a few looks back over the shoulder as we rode over a low saddle. Then, down a broad valley with lumpy hills on each side. No sign of agriculture except for hay.

Then on to Gillette - the self-proclaimed "Energy capital of the nation". Based on lots of gas wells, and a big coal mine.

We hammered hard today, as evidenced by my massive heart rate average of 88 for the day! I was taking pulls with my heart rate in the 70's.

6.6 hr in the saddle, 106 miles, 26.2 av speed, 88 av pulse and 133 watts av power.

I'm saving it for something later.

Day 12 Sheridan, wy to Gillette, wy

A day late posting, hotel internet was out:

Today was a big day – over 8 hours in the saddle and over 7000 feet of climbing – nearly 6000 feet net from bottom to top of the main climb over the BigHorns. I think that’s much harder than 6 climbs of 1000 feet each. Feels that way to me.

The Bighorns are pretty spectacular – big views, sharply cut canyons, spectacular folded layers of limestone. And the summit ridge is a broad, green meadow full of spectacular flowers. Well worth the visit.

Although this was a big day, I felt like lead compared to similar days in the past: I’m getting a feel for how much tougher it is to ride a lot day after day after day.

In the picture of the distant mountains, you can see our road diagonaling across the face of the mountains, and in the shot looking down, you'll see the road coming up through the notch. It's one of the all time great climbs.

Remarkably, though this was an all uphill, then all downhill day – at the end of the day, the averages are all in approximately the same range.

196 km/120 miles in 8.4 hours in the saddle, average of 23.3 km/hr = 14 MPH. Av pulse 99, power 138 watts. Climbing 7487 feet total.

Response to comments

Response to some prior comments: No the guy in tight jeans isn't riding with us: he's with a fast group that passed us.

As you can imagine, the guys doing massive miles don't have too much time for other stuff. Practicing social skills may be part of the "other stuff" - and it may show in some cases. Or, maybe they had a stroke that nailed their speech center.

The relatively high speeds and low pulse rates may have several explanations: our altitude is a bit lower and may account for a few beats per minute. The tailwinds certainly help - we've had some pretty long sections where minimal pedaling gets us a lot of speed. And, although we don't ride pacelines all the time, even with a headwind, tucking in behind some big young guy saves quite a few watts.

And, recall that power (and thus heart rate at steady state) to speed ratio is non-linear. In the range that we're interested, figure that any percent increase in speed requires twice that much increase in power (and I need to increase my pulse rate by nearly 20 beats to increase my power output by 20%). But, the same holds true in the opposite direction: back off your speed by 10 percent, and you can back off your power by twenty percent and for me, I'll probably lose 15-20 beats in pulse rate!

The psychology is interesting to me: without trying to figure out what effort I can sustain for 5-8 hours, I settle into a comfortable range that results in tired but not exhausted at the end of the day - and it's very consistent from day-to-day: 95-105 beats, 135-141 watts - without trying to stay consistent, and with very different profiles from day to day (flat vs rollers vs long climb), that give the same average but very different distributions of power (steady, steady, steady in case 1, vs brief on/off/on/off in the rollers, vs loooong on then loooong off on the long climb then descent).

Day 10: Columbus, MT to Powell, WY

We'll try the pictures: Low cloud decks, distant views of Beartooth plateau, welcome to Wyoming, and one of the hilltop houses!

Day 10: Columbus, MT to Powell, WY

sVery slow internet connection, so I won't try loading photos now.

Interesting terrain today, and more pleasant backroads - no Interstate riding!
Bumpy morning, lots of up and down and then an afternoon long gentle climb up to a plateau.
Dryland ranching and irrigated sugar beet agriculture. Red Lodge was a small tourist town. Rode along the front of the Beartooth Plateau with the top of the plateau obscured in clouds all day.
I wasn't aware that Montana ever had a low persistent cloud deck and high humidity - and cool pleasant riding conditions.

Every little lump of a hill seemed to have a house on the very top (with nary a tree in sight). 3 possibilities: they wanted a 360 degree view of other little hills; they really like wind, wind, wind; they needed good cell phone reception.

6.9 hours in saddle, 177 km (108 miles), av speed 15.7 mph, av pulse 94, av wats 138, 5280 feet of climbing.

Day 9: Bozeman to Columbus, MT

Bozeman is surrounded by mountains. Once we climb out of the Bozeman valley, and drop down into the Yellowstone River Valley we leave the high peaks behind.

We're again in a wide river valley, with plateau's along the sides and no mountains visible. Acts more like the plains - with wide vistas and the scenery dominated by thunderheads in the afternoon. Small towns with abandoned grain silos and old railroad stations - some abandoned, some restored.

We're out into sagebrush country, and pinion/juniper terrain on the ridges.

Columbus is a town of only 1800 people and seems to have nothing except a large truck stop a hotel, and a couple little casinos - though didn't appear to be any actual gambling going on.

102.8 miles 5.8 hours in the saddle for 17.8 MPH at av pulse 95

OK - I continue to learn more about this long distance riding thing. I stumbled in on a discussion of training programs that people had followed leading up to the transcontinental: I thought I had worked hard on training and had done long rides and had a total of 3300 miles of riding under my belt since January 1 (and about 259 feet from October through December).

Several were disappointed that they had "only" 8000 miles, but 8000 seemed pretty standard mileage for the year thus far, and were impressed by Bob Lewis who had 13,000 so far this year.

My previous total for a whole year was 6,600 for the entire year!

OK, I'm out of my class by a substantial amount. But, I do have a job and an occasional other interest.

Day 8: Missoula to Bozeman, MT

Bozeman is another western valley town - small college, strip malls, rolling terrain in the valley with surrounding mountains - Yellowstone high country to the south, Bridger Bowl ridge to the north.

One climb over a small pass, then a descent into the Madison River and along the River through a narrow rocky valley and then out into the flats and rollers with side and head winds.

Of Bozeman's 30,000 residents, approximately 29,000 were tubing on the river. I believe that most were drinking beer in preparation for sharing the roads with us.

When we go to the beach, everyone seems to help each other with applying sunscreen. I wonder that cyclists don't help each other with chamois cream.

101 miles, 16.1 MPH, av heart rate 97.

Day 7, Missoula to Butte, Montana

As you might imagine, 7 days into a long tour, discussion turns to saddle sores, so I propose that I present a detailed recounting of these discussions along with some photographic images of the topic of discussion. However, since I haven't labeled this as a blog involving "adult content", I fear that it might get busted. So, I'll move onto other topics.

We continued up the broad Clark Fork valley and then finally, up a steeper climb up a narrow valley to cross over to the next valley (where our route sheet instructed us to "snake through Anaconda" - cute). And, finally on to Butte.

Saw a few areas of pine bark beetle kill for the first time.

I have no comment nor understanding of the trash can for "urine bottles only."

After arriving in Butte, I realized that I had never seen photos of Butte except for pictures of the largest open pit copper mine in the world. Now, I know why - there is nothing photogenic in Butte except for the mine. Unless, you consider the gigantic brilliant white statue of "our Lady of Something-or-other" up on the ridge above town.

I've never been on a bike ride before where seemingly everyone is shooting photos from their moving bikes. I proposed a pool that we'd all contribute to - the winner would be the first person to crash while shooting a photo. No takers. Darn.

Let me know if anyone wishes me to relabel this as "adult" and publish the saddle store stuff.