Epic Bike Ride day 31 and 32 June 27 and 28
Thoughts from Mark: I’ve had lower back pain for the last 20-ish years of my life. I can’t really point to one single event for the cause, and it typically lasts for a few days (or months) at a time, and then will gradually get “better,” or at least less noticeable. Kelly will tell you that I am arguably the least flexible person she has ever met, and it’s true. I have tried stretching at times (and when we are home I often do a series of stretches in the morning, as well as at night). On the ride, however, I have not been doing the stretches. During the first 4 weeks of this ride, the pain has been tolerable, but something changed in the past 3-4 days. The pain has been getting worse, and the back has been stiffening up. Today was simply brutal. I started riding, and after 2-3 miles had to turn directly into a 30-40mph headwind. After 3 more extremely slow miles, I turned again, this time on a fairly busy paved highway, and was being blown sideways into the path of passing cars and semis. Luckily, this only lasted for 5-6 miles, before turning again directly into the headwind. I tried to ride on, but the pain, and the wind made it feel like torture. Kelly made the correct decision for me, and we stopped for the day after only 12 miles of riding. We drove for a few miles before we found a nice camping spot, and shut it down for the day.
The next day, after some rest, Tylenol, and stretching, I got back on the bike. I thought we might be able to make it 30 miles, but we ended up riding 50, all the way to Pinedale. We stopped for dinner in Boulder, WY, and I ate a chicken fried steak with tons of gravy. The scenery started to change, too. Gone were the vast stretches of emptiness, without structures, animals, or trees. Now we could see houses in the distance, with herds of cows, trees, and fantastic looking mountains in the distance. We rode into Pinedale, and resupplied our groceries, before camping in a city campground. The mosquitoes were there to greet us, and we quickly took cover in the truck bed, and went to sleep.
Thoughts from Kelly: The cows were very noisy all night long, making noises I’ve never heard cows make, not that I’ve spent a lot of time with cows. At times they sounded like donkeys, but I could see it was the cows, hope they were okay.
Watching Mark suffer with this back pain is not very fun. I am very glad he agreed to take some time off the bike to let his back recover. I was thinking we would spend a couple days at this camping spot, but Mark didn’t like not having cell coverage knowing that Boulder and Pinedale were not too far away. Driving in was very cool. Lots of amazing ranches with gorgeous houses and barns. At one point a mama cow and her calf were running along the road with Mark. It appeared (to me) that they had gotten loose and were trying to find their way back to their herd. A rancher soon came by to guide them back safely. What a sight though, two cows just trotting down the road next to Mark! Arriving in Pinedale, we did resupply shopping and camped at a city park. This is a really cool town, there were kids riding their bikes and walking around without parents. I honestly didn’t know people felt safe enough for that anymore.
Miles for the day: 12.54 Feet climbed today: 723
Total miles ridden: 1,418.13 Total feet climbed: 94,339
Miles for the day: 50.59 Feet climbed today: 1,069
Total miles ridden: 1,468.72 Total feet climbed: 95,408