Thursday, June 6, 2013

Ride Day 100

Today I rode from Dillon to Ennis MT, 78 miles 2800' of climbing. The day started out cold at only 36 but the sun was out and it warmed up rapidly. I rode through the valley seeing antelope, deer, cattle, sheep, llamas, horses and lots of birds like sandhill cranes, eagles, hawks, redwinged blackbirds, magpies, starlings, honkers, ducks of many types and one dead garter snake. I enjoyed the ride as I took it fairly easy after the problems I was having yesterday with pain from a little seizure I had the night before. I ended up not riding from Wisdom to Dillon but rather I rode with some fishermen in their pickup truck. I had decided that it was impossible for me to ride and was eating breakfast when some fishermen started talking to me about my ride. They did not have room but they told me I should hitchhike because there were a lot of fishermen that would have room. So I went out and stuck my thumb out. They were right since it took me about 20 minutes to get a ride with three fishermen that stopped. We had a lot of fun talking and laughing on the way but it took less than an hour to do the 62 miles and that would have taken me 6 hours probably. I stayed at the RV park by I-15 in Dillon which was a mistake because the road noise went on all night. I wanted a shower and to clean my clothes so I stayed there instead of camping on the sly like I have been lately. It was only $10 bucks for the night. For food I went into town and had a good pulled pork sandwich with apple pie a la mode then back at camp I ate more junk that I had with me but also some good fruits. My ride in the morning was freezing cold. I had my full finger gloves on and my long sleeved riding jersey, my fleece jacket and my raincoat and I was still cold. But then I started to sweat while I was also cold. My body seemed confused. It did warm up quickly and I stripped off layers just as quickly until I was down to only my jersey. I put sunscreen on my face. I still got burned because up at this high altitude the UV is stronger. I need to be more careful of that over the next few days while I am up around 7000'. The only thing disturbing to me today was all the gold mine tailings that were along the road for miles and miles just everywhere. The environment took a beating on that gold rush and it looks like it is going to stay like that forever now. Harvard University is the one that got most of the benefit from the mining so maybe they should take some responsibility for the damage even though it was 150 years or so ago. I did like Virginia City and would have liked to have spent more time there but I wanted to get to Ennis so I just took a few pics and rode on. The big grade out of Virginia City was not too hard except for the heat which made me get too hot so I had to take a couple breaks just to cool down not because I was tired or winded or anything. I still made it to the summit without much effort. The downhill was fun but I kept my speed down to 30 mph except a couple times when I was looking around and it went a little over. The view of the Valley from up on high was great and I wish I had the camera to capture it unfortunately for me I only have my little pocket camera. Ennis is a spread out town. I stopped for a juicy cheeseburger and a piece of cheesecake then headed to the RV park to camp even though there are thundershowers predicted tonight. I have been riding now 100 days which kind of shocks me a bit. I started this riding on a whim but love it so much I may never stop. Such is the life of a wandering bum...

Ride Day 99 by jimfrogs at Garmin Connect - Details

Ride Day 99 by jimfrogs at Garmin Connect - Details