The Dutch couple (Anna & Geert) beat us all out of the campground this morning. They are on a faster pace and said they want to fly out to the West Coast in California for riding some extra days along the Pacific, after finishing the GDMBR. Last night before going to bed, I heard some noises outside our tents. It was dark already, so I got out my flashlight to see better. Initially all I saw were many eyeball reflections back to me. They were very close to our tents. I turned up the light a bit more and it turned out to be a small herd of completely black cows that had wandered into our campsite, obviously curious what these humans were doing here. They kept staring into my headlight, obviously not seeing me. What we all didn’t want to happen was a stampede across our tents, or leaving some of those fresh cow “paddies” on or near us. I finally was able to scare them away by shining the light on me instead. That must have been a scary sight for them, because they all ran off into the woods. Hopefully they wouldn’t come back later. I didn’t hear anything else that night other than coyotes yapping in the distance.
We had taken some extra water from the lake nearby just in case some of the reported water sources ahead were dry. I sure didn’t like the color, but that will get progressively worse further south. My water filter will take most of the nasty stuff out, but will still leave a strange taste behind. Lisa and Darren, who I had met in Montana, reported that the main water source ahead at lake Hopewell had dried up and that they had to “beg” water from other campers there. We all wanted to avoid that scenario.
We rode on through some really nice Alpine meadows. It was distinctly different than the route further back north. There were some folks camped by the side of the road in places, dressed in camo gear. Hamish stopped to talk to one guy who said that Antelope hunting season had begun.
Eventually our dirt route would turn to pavement for a while. The guidebook said to stay on that paved road if it started raining, or that it had it in the forecast. Of course it started to rain on us about 5 miles before reaching that paved section. It was a pretty strong thunderstorm, so we all put on our raincoats, and huddled under some pine trees. Probably not the safest move for avoiding a lightning strike, but we didn’t want to get hammered by hail either. The rain eventually subsided, so we ventured out riding our bikes before it got worse. It was pretty slippery initially, but then the mud started to stick to our tires. Sean somehow avoided that happening to his bike (thinner and slicker tires I guess), but me and Jess got our wheels completely clogged with sticky peanut butter mud, to the point where our rear wheels would no longer turn. We had already started to walk our bikes, but had to stop every few feet and take large handfuls of mud from our wheels. Many times we simply pushed the bikes, while the back wheel would simply slide on the mud without turning. The rain started pouring harder again, and we found that riding through the water puddles and ruts with water was the best strategy to keep the mud from accumulating. We came to a downhill section and suddenly both my brakes would no longer work. It almost seemed that applying the brakes would make the bike go faster. I quickly jumped off the bike before I got up too much speed. Phew, that was a close call! I then just started walking the bike, trying to keep my wheels in the wettest part of the track. I would keep trying the brakes to see if perhaps they would dry and clean up. No such luck.
Hamish and Jess were ahead at the junction with the paved road, trying to clean off the mud from their drivetrains and brakes. A muddy creek was flowing again from all the rain, and they were using water bottles to try to squirt away most of the mud. Jess’ front brake had stopped working too, but at least she had her rear brake. I had a spare set of brake pads with me, but first needed to clean off the mud so I could install them. Hamish and Jess were doing the same on her front wheel. Not the best conditions to do such a repair. My chain would also no longer stay on my chainring, because the rear derailleur and cassette was completely clogged with mud as well.
It took a while, but I finally was able to install new brake pads, and could confirm I had braking power once more. A huge relief! The older brake pads were completely destroyed by the mud that had small and larger rocks imbedded in it. I guess the chunky peanut butter mud variety. I then was able to clean the derailleur, chain, and sprockets enough to keep the chain on, and being able to shift. Still, it wasn’t very smooth, but good enough to pedal on further on the paved road for now. We had our first experience with peanut butter mud, and sure didn’t want to experience more of that!
We had a long climb up the paved road in the pouring rain, but at least we had solid footing under our tires. It was getting a bit darker, and the rain brought in cooler temps, or the other way around. We didn’t have any destination in mind since there were no campgrounds or towns ahead for many miles. We would glance at the sides to see if there was a good wild camping opportunity. It seemed like an endless string of barb wire fences instead. In the distance I did see some structures on the other side of the road that looked like barns and a neglected house. Maybe there was an opportunity to camp nearby? We rolled up to the gate near the road and it had a padlocked chain around it. We decided to investigate further and had to team lift our bikes over that chain since they were so heavy. We rode to the house and there was a padlock on the front door. The other structures were pretty run down with holes in the roof, so that didn’t look like a place to hang out. Behind was a wooded hill that looked like a possible place to setup our tents out of sight from the road. That is what we ended up doing since none of us wanted to continue down the road to look for something else. We were cold, wet, muddy, tired, and hungry, and wanted to get off our bikes. I quickly put up my tent, put on some dryer clothes, had a bagel, and crawled into my sleeping bag for more warmth. My tent was my castle, and I quickly fell asleep. What a day!
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