When I set out to do a cross country ride, I had to decide what I meant by “cross country ride”. Did it mean ride a little bit each day along a route that crossed the country or get on my bicycle and not use any other means of transportation until I reached the other side of the country? I decided it meant “ride my bicycle in an unbroken line from one end of the country to the other, except . . .” That meant I was free to drive (or be a passenger) at various points (as when we drove to and from Boise) as long as I started bicycling where I had stopped.
And then there was the “except” clause. I wasn’t sure what the exceptions would be, but I accepted that there would be some.
Today, I found an exception, and it was somewhere between “except when it’s not fun” and “except when it’s not safe.”
I started out in Ririe, Idaho, battling a strong headwind with occasional gusts on a rough but quiet road. It was not fun, but I felt safe if a bit battered about. Shortly after I turned onto a highway, though, I decided that it had gone beyond “not fun,” and the combination of the gusts and traffic verged on unsafe. There was a wide shoulder, but I still felt quite uncomfortable every time an 18-wheeler passed and I got blown from one side of the shoulder to the other. I packed it in. Here’s a short clip taken just after we crossed into Wyoming of the wind I was battling.
I got back on the bicycle for a short while when we entered a valley that seemed sheltered, but I soon found the wind picked up around every corner, and the shoulders disappeared to nothing. I accepted that I would be a passenger most of the rest of the day.
There were a few spots where I really wanted to ride my bicycle. We drove through the Swan Valley of the Snake River and Palisades Reservoir in Idaho and the valley of the Snake River south of Jackson, Wyoming. They were each beautiful, and I would have loved to see them at the speed of a bicycle rather than the speed of a car.
From the safety of the RV, a number of spots seemed safe enough to ride, but getting on the bike and then back in the RV every time the wind got gusty or the road got narrow was not worth the hassle. I stayed in the RV until we reached the bicycle path just outside of Jackson, and then rode the last half dozen miles into town.
Those last few miles were enough to catch one barn, though I suspect I missed others while a passenger.
The Jackson Hole area is one of Toni’s and my favorite places in the world, and we have planned a couple of luxurious rest days here. We’re staying in the Four Seasons in Teton Village and have some good meals lined up at several of Jackson’s fine restaurants. I’m also glad to be off the bicycle the next few days, as cold rain and even a little snow are predicted. Unfortunately, the long-term forecast is not much better, so I may be applying the “except” clause to the unbroken line principle some more next week. I’ll take things one day at a time.
*The song title is in fact spelled “They Call the Wind Maria,” even though it is pronounced Mariah. You can look it up.
The technical stuff:
14.4 miles
566 feet of climbing
Average speed 11.6 miles per hour
Weather: Mostly overcast with a some periods of sunshine. Temperature in the 60s. Headwinds and crosswinds of 20-25 miles per hour with higher gusts. Afternoon showers and thunderstorms.
Grey areas represent portion of the ride in the RV
You can see the entire route to date here.