Day 23: Casper to Shoshoni

Got up at 5 AM, looked outside and saw some very dark clouds. The team has been exceptionally fortunate by not being rained on (other than a few raindrops) this year. Last year it rained so much that people would just assume that they were going to need their rain gear in the morning when they were getting dressed. This year we've been narrowly missing the bad weather, either by getting indoors just in time, or leaving town just in time. In fact, just a day or two after we left Colorado Springs they got half a foot of hail.

Breakfast was provided and of course it was delicious. Lots of homemade foods. In particular I enjoyed the sticky buns and the hash brown casserole. Ate a good amount and started getting ready, keeping an eye outside the whole time. While the wind was quite stiff it looked like the darkest clouds were passing just south of us. But the team kept their rain gear in their pockets anyways.

The team headed out for the 98 mile day and immediately hit some very stiff wind. Wyoming is known for its wind and it seemed to be backing its reputation quite well. To fight the wind a little bit better, most of the team stayed close and used each other as wind blocks. It only helps a little bit, but any help is good help. This continued on for about ten miles, but the pack was swaying a lot where I was (since the gusts would blow them around), so I moved up to the front. On my left was Channing and to his left was Nick Weaver. We had probably a foot between each others handle bars, which was pretty close considering how much the wind was pushing us around.

A few miles into this particular formation, I saw Channing start leaning into Nick. Channing put his hand onto Nick,s back and I though he was trying to tell him something. But apparently Channing had accidentally swerved into him a little bit and was trying to steady himself. He ended up over correcting and he started going down. Fortunately, Nick was able to peel off to the left, but Channing's bike swerved in front of mine and took me out.

I landed on my right shoulder then onto my hip. I then started rolling (always, always wear a helmet). While I was rolling, the rest of the pack was right behind us so they started falling as well. Brian was trying to avoid me, but wasn't able to miss me and he ran me over on his bike. In the pile up my bike flipped up off of me and took out Brenna. Channing banged up his knee pretty good and Mallory fell as well when she ran over Channing. The saving grace was that, with the stiff wind, we weren't doing more than 13 mph, so it was a relatively slow speed crash.

After I stopped rolling, I just laid on my back doing a mental check of everything. My shoulder took the worst of it and I had felt something pop when I hit the ground. I also had a pretty good case of road rash on my hip and shoulder. After a moment or two I stood up and surveyed the scene. Bikes everywhere, but everyone was in pretty good spirits since they got to take a break from fighting the wind. Probably the worst thing that happened overall was that Channing popped a tire in the crash. For me, my right shoulder was really bothering me.

I considered sitting it out for the day since I was having problems with using my right arm and the road rash on my hip made it painful to move, but I had promised myself that I would not ride the van before I had biked 40 miles each day. So after a 30 minute break waiting for the van to show up with medical supplies, I got back on the bike and followed five or six of my teammates.

I found that, while riding, my hip didn't bother me much at all. As soon as I got off the bike, though, it felt inflamed and bothered me, but that just got me back on the bike. However, my shoulder wasn't doing as well. With the wind so gusty I needed to push on the handle bars and that irritated my shoulder. Still, I felt like it shouldn't stop me from pushing on. Also, the team decided that with the wind so strong that the rest stops should be at ten-mile intervals instead of the usual twenty.

I approached the 40 mile stop and thought about getting off, but with a mile to go the wind seemed to die down and I got a second wind and I cruised into the stop. I decided that I wanted to go more than halfway through the mileage before I got off the bike for the day to clean up the wounds and ice down. And then, while eating lunch, two people came by.

One gentleman came by, saying he had seen the riders from last year as well. He was also involved in touring by bicycle and was a big supporter of our cause. He chatted for a good long time, during which time a young man came by. Turns out this young man was involved with another college touring program, but they raised money for disabilities. He had ridden with them two years ago and while driving through the area ran across them. He gave us some information and let us know that by coincidence the other team would be staying in the same small town as us that night.

I wanted to stay and talk more, but I felt like I needed to fight through my injury so I headed off by myself with four others somewhere ahead of me. While I had thought the wind had died down just before lunch I now found that it seemed to increase in intensity. I fought against the wind and then, with a mile or two before the next rest stop, it seemed again that wind might finally have died down. I cruised easily into the rest stop thinking I could do another 10 miles to make it a decent 60 miles.

Got off the bike to find the drivers for the day (Mario and Brett) talking about the logistics for the rest of the day. It turned out that just two minutes after I left, the gentleman offered to buy lunch for the team. I think my jaw dropped a little bit. I was trying to fight through the day, but if I had just taken it easy for a few more minutes I could have gotten a good meal. Not that there's anything wrong with peanut butter and jelly of course.

The end result was that Brett would support us five front riders, while Mario would take the van and support the others. Shortly thereafter, I got back on the bike and made my way down the road by myself. Once again I had been duped by the wind and instead of dying down it again increased. The wind can be very devious sometimes.

I chugged along at something below ten mph for the next hour and one more time the wind seemed to die down as I approached the 60 mile mark. But I had been fighting the wind with my right arm for the last 45 miles and it wasn't feeling better. I pulled up to the car, but it didn't have any ice or peroxide so I felt like it wouldn't do me any good to stop since I couldn't clean up the rash or ice the shoulder. So I got back on the bike for another ten miles.

But this time the wind was howling. About five miles into it I crested a hill and got hit by the strongest wind I've felt all trip. It was so strong that, even in one of my lowest gears, I had to stand up in order to put enough power into the pedals. The grass was being ripped all around by the wind and I saw a tumbleweed fly, not roll, but fly past me. Gravel was being picked up off the ground and dust was pummeling me. I felt like I was riding in a hurricane. Standing up in the pedals meant I needed to use more arm strength to hold the bike straight and that was pretty much the last straw for the shoulder.

Finally pulled into the rest stop at mile 73 and that's when I called it. Brett put the bike in the car and I grabbed some food. There was about 25 miles left in the day so we (mostly Brett) spent another hour or two taking care of the remaining four riders in the front. I also caught some good sleep and looked out at the countryside.

I've determined that the scenery always looks better with a tailwind. As soon as you start fighting the headwind you tend to look down at the road more and you keep your head forward to reduce the drag. But in this case, for today, there really was nothing to look at. I had stopped at one of the highway rest stops since it had information kiosks and found a sign that talked about the area. It started "To the casual observer this may look like a wasteland..." That should pretty much tell the story. The mountains were very far off in the distance, and the terrain consisted of long, rolling hills covered in sagebrush. Lots and lots of sagebrush, with nothing higher than my kneecap. You know you are in the middle of nowhere when the mileage signs don't give the distance to the nearest city, but to the nearest road and it's 50 miles away.

There was one bright spot, though. Ever since Colorado, people had been telling us that Shoshoni, though a very small town, was world famous for its shakes and malts. As we got closer, it seemed to be the topic of every conversation with the locals. When Brett and I pulled in to find some free food, the first thing I did was walk up the counter and order one strawberry malt. $3.50 later I had one world famous malt. Honestly, it wasn't as good as I had been hoping for. I think the shop is world famous since it's on the way to Yellowstone and it offers over 50 flavors of shakes. Since ordering the plain old strawberry probably took away some of the mystique. But ice cream is ice cream and it's always good.

The same shop also offered to give us a discount on food for the team. It wasn't a magnificent discount, but it saved each person a couple bucks, always appreciated. And it was on short notice too, which makes the shop owner's offer even more generous. The team rolled in as the shop was closing, so the shop owner also had her staff stay late and help us out. She put out a"Shop is closed for a Private Party" sign as well. Very nice.

All in all, the team spent from 9 to 11 hours on the bike to go just under 100 miles. The previous day was 93 miles and also had a headwind for most of the trip, but people still finished before noon. The wind was that bad today.

I was wiped out, so after eating I went over to the volunteer fire station we were staying at and fell asleep on a row of stacked chairs. I was still in my bike clothes. I woke up a couple of hours later since I tried to roll over, but couldn't since there was nothing to roll over onto. I pulled out my pad, inflated it, took my biking shoes off and went back to sleep, still with my gloves on, though. Woke up four hours later feeling quite dehydrated, so got some water and finally took the rest of the biking gear off. Went back to sleep totally drained and so glad to be indoors while the wind howled outside.