It’s Not All Fun And Games

The fear of brutal headwinds had me up before the sun again today. I wasn’t on the road before sunrise but I was on the move before 7:30. My hope was that I’d be able to put some kilometres behind me before the wind really kicked in. Sadly, as has happened before, my attempts to wake before the wind failed miserably. As the song says, “You can’t always get what you want.” It was clearly going to be one of those days.

On the upside, the early morning wind wasn’t a complete headwind but rather a pretty dominant crosswind. It was a pretty small upside since I knew my route would be turning directly into the wind at about the midway point. I tried not to think that far ahead. Besides, even though it was a crosswind it had a significant impact on my progress.

The first hour of my ride was slow but I somehow managed to fight my way through it while maintaining a decent average speed. In hindsight, perhaps fighting the wind so much today’s led to some of my later struggles. Then again, maybe it was just the fact that 30 km/h headwinds pretty much sap your will to live.

After my first hour on the road I was rewarded with breakfast. Yes, Subway. Hey, I was just thinking, wouldn’t it be cool if Subway sponsored my ride? Anyway, getting to Subway required me to ride directly into the wind for about 1 km. All I could think of during that time was that at least I’d have a tailwind on the way back to the main road. It was my happy thought of the morning.

My stop at Subway was probably a bit longer than necessary. I was clearly procrastinating. Did I mention the wind? Did I mention the sandy roads? Well, the sandy roads and the wind made it feel like I was being sandblasted at times. Okay, I’ve never actually been sandblasted but today was close enough.

I returned to the road for a whopping 45 minutes before I deemed myself worthy of another stop. Well, worthy or not, when I saw a Dollar General I decided to stop. It was two hours into my ride and I was already looking for excuses to get out of the wind. At least I only had 90 km to go.

My Dollar General reward for pedalling 28 km in 90 minutes (yes, that’s bad) was a bottle of chocolate milk and a bag of animal crackers. The former I consumed in about eight seconds. The latter I saved for later. Perhaps if I made the chocolate milk last longer I could’ve delayed my return into the wind. That said, I knew hiding in the shelter of Dollar General wasn’t going to get me any closer to my destination.

Speaking of my destination, I mentioned in my previous update that Van Horn was my optimistic goal for the day. It took all of 15 minutes on the road to realize that wasn’t going to happen. Having not forgotten last year’s ride into Halifax, I scaled back my goal and set my new target as Sierra Blanca. At 115 km away, it too would be a challenge.

The next 27 km were entirely unpleasant. The temptation to stop was always there but I knew I had to keep going. I set incremental goals along the way to stay focussed as I slowly worked my way towards Fort Hancock. I didn’t know what, if anything, was in Fort Hancock but it was the next town down the road and I just hoped there would be somewhere I could hide from the wind – even if just a little. There was.

When I arrived in Fort Hancock it was clear that it was one of those towns that if you blink you’d miss it. I made sure not to blink – which wasn’t easy considering all the sand in my eyes. Fortunately, I was able to see around the sand long enough to find the Post Office. It wasn’t much but it was my only sanctuary.

By that point I was more than four hours into my ride and had managed to cover just under 60 km. The good news was that I was halfway. The bad news was I had just finished the easy part. I knew the road up ahead turned to the east meaning the crosswind I had been fighting all morning was about to become a headwind. To add to the fun, most of the afternoon would be spent climbing a hill.

Surprisingly, the Post Office ended up being the high point of the day – the chocolate milk was a close second. After eating my sub I went inside to see if there was anywhere to fill my water bottle and the Post Master kindly offered to do so. She then offered me a small bottle of cold water. Now, generally I’m pretty much against bottled water. I avoid it whenever I can and I’ve yet to buy water on my journey thus far. That said, I wasn’t about to turn down a bottle of ice cold water. I’m not kidding, it was the highlight of the day. Perhaps it wasn’t so much the water as it was the gesture. It was completely unprompted and unexpected. It really is the little things that so often make the biggest impact.

The next five hours were five of the toughest hours I’ve spent on my bike. The winds were howling at speeds that I would estimate to be 30 km/h. And they were absolutely relentless. There were even large tumbleweeds blowing across the road. And I mean large. There was one that was taller than my bike. Add that to the constant climbing and I was not a happy camper.

The low point of the ride came at the 91 km mark. Despite still being about 25 km from Sierra Blanca I was very much running on an empty tank. The wind was definitely winning. I briefly even considered the possibility of wild camping right there along the Interstate but that clearly wasn’t an option. Not a reasonable one anyway. And so I did the only thing I could, I cleared my head and analyzed the bejesus out of the situation. I did so while eating the last of my sub.

At that point I really don’t know if I was more beaten up physically or mentally. I was definitely beaten up. On the upside, it was still somewhat early in the day. It was only 3:00 and there were 25 kilometres between me and Sierra Blanca. At 10 km/h I could be there by 5:30. Of course, based on the previous hour, 10 km/h was optimistic. I continued to overthink the situation to distract my mind from how exhausted I was. It seemed to work because while I was trying to will myself into action, I slowly started to feel some energy return. Not much. But some. I figured this was my window of opportunity. And so, I wolfed down my last CLIF Bar and resumed my ride.

The wind hadn’t changed but I definitely started to regain control of the situation. Or at least the illusion of control. As mentioned earlier, I may have been fighting the wind a bit today instead of accepting it for what it was. As such, I probably burned through a lot more energy than was necessary. For the final 25 km I succumbed to the wind’s will and dropped down into my granny gear. After all, resistance was futile.

The next ten kilometres weren’t exactly fun but there was a marked improvement to how I was progressing. Plus, I was nearing the top of the climb and I started to get a bit of an adrenalin rush, or a bit of second wind anyway (actually, let’s not use the word “wind”). Either way, I could finally start to see the light at the end of the tunnel – in a good way, not in a “Go into the light” creepy sort of way.

Fast forward 90 minutes and I was on the home stretch going into Sierra Blanca. The wind was as strong as ever but I was now on a bit of a descent. The end was near (again, in a good way).

Sierra Blanca is very small town and has limited services. One of those services is Subway. It was truly a sight for sore eyes. Seriously, after pedalling into the wind for five hours my eyes were sore. In addition to getting some dinner, I was also able to get directions to the city park where David, last night’s host, said I’d be able to camp for free. Fortunately, the city park was about two minutes away.

As I set up my tent, it became clear that preparations for some sort of event were underway. Upon speaking with a couple of locals (one of which was either the Sheriff, or Deputy Sheriff or something like that), I learned that tomorrow is the first annual Desert Dayz fundraiser. Food, entertainment, raffles, mud volleyball, chili contest, and races, were just some of the events on the schedule.

When I arrived in town I hadn’t planned on staying here more than one night. Then again, I didn’t expect there to be a reason to stay more than one night. But now it seems there is. And, after today’s gruelling ride, the thought of a day off sounds pretty good right about now. I’ll decide in the morning. Side note: For once I actually lucked out with my wild camping site selection. Usually I end up camping under the brightest light in the area. No, not on purpose. And not tonight – and there are plenty of bright lights around as they continue to set up for tomorrow’s event.

As for today, I can honestly say I’m extremely glad there haven’t been many days like this. That said, when these tough days come along I tend to think back to the best advice I’ve ever read when it comes to cycle touring, “It’s not how you feel at the end of the day, it’s how you feel the next morning.” Right now, I’m pretty exhausted. We’ll see what the morning brings.

Today’s totals:
Distance travelled: 117.36 km
Ride time: 7:27:53
Average speed: 15.72 km/h
Maximum speed: 31.53 km/h