28: Under the Weather
After weeks of undeniably good luck, today has been a struggle. Felt inexplicably exhausted and nauseous throughout much of the morning, leading to a restorative trailside nap. My ability to plop on the ground and sleep there for a solid hour speaks to my exhaustion!
The sentry raindrops of a looming thunderstorm woke me. I pedaled into a sanctuary stand of trees to wait out the storm. I burned a bit of fuel to make myself a cup of coffee and emerged from the trees 45 minutes later into sunshine and feeling rather restored.
Unfortunately, the sunshine soon gave way to another storm, and then another.
By early afternoon the trails had turned into total gumbo mud—the kind that cakes onto your tires in thick layers, making a terrible mess in one’s suspension.
With more rain in the forecast and still feeling a bit nauseous, I decided to do a kindness to the trail, my bike, and myself and call it an early day. No sooner did I have my tent up in the next rainstorm began.
It’s been two hard days in the Wyoming Range so far, and I’m less than halfway.