Day 24: Hills and reantless heat
Today was rough.
The day started good, but that didn’t last long. Got a puncture about 10 km in so tried to swap out to a spare tube but that didn’t inflate either. So did my first tube patching session on the side of the road. This wasn’t so bad as it was still in the redwoods which are great.
Then got onto highway 101. First half of the day on highway 101 was good. Garmin told me it was pretty flat but certainly didn’t feel like it. A couple of times, the Garmin brought be off the highway just to renter via a big fucking hill.
One such hill I was struggling with in the middle of the day. Took a couple of breaks on the way up. Towards the top of the hill I heard a shout. Some homeless guy was watching me climb the hill and thought it was hilarious. He was a good guy though and we chatted for a few mins.
This is when I was hit with 2 sucker punches called hills and heat. Either one on their own isn’t so bad but both together was rough. Got up to 31 degrees Celsius today I think. And the reason Garmin thought the beginning of the day was flat was because the end of the day was so hilly.
Stopped in a bigfoot souvenir shop just to get out of the heat. The air con was great so I just wandered around the shop like a crazy person. When I started to get weird looks, I bought a packet of sweets and left.
At one point my Garmin says it is 4.3 kms to the next turn. I look down, pump my less, push and push and push for what feels like 10 minutes. I checked again and it is now 4.2 kms to the next turn. Fuck. Will be a long 2nd half of the day.
The sun was continuing to get more and more relentless and was starting to see Mirages on the tarmac ahead. My pasty Irish skin can’t handle the sun so I am covered with long trousers and a long t-shirt. But my neck, ears and face were becoming a worry so I covered them all with my buff. Which of course just made me hotter but better than sunburn.
For about 10 kms, I was stopping at each bit of shade I could get on the highway. A singular tree cast a shadow across the road, I would stop and rest for a min and drink some very warm water. I was stopping 3-4 times every kilometer during this section. I have never experienced “hitting the wall” or “bonking” before but maybe there was an element of this too.
Feeling nearly dead, I pulled into the first business I saw which was “confusion hill”. It is some kind of tourist place with mystery and illusions going on where you can tour around it. But I just saw a coke sign outside the souvenir shop which was enough for me. I park my bike, grab a can of coke and a root beer and sit outside in the shade. I rested here for maybe an hour and got talking to who I presume was the owners. Turns out the popular cartoon show “gravity falls” is based on this place. The lovely owners topped up my water bottles and feeling a little better was on my way again.
The rest stop was really needed and the last few kms were not as bad. Landed into camp after 70 kms, found the only other bike tourers (the Germans), took the camp next to them and lied down on the bench. I was exhausted. At this point I couldn’t have been bothered to swat away the flies buzzing around me or landing on my face. Phill and Julia tried to make Convo but I am not sure if I made much sense.
A few hours later, I had a shower, dinner and everything is good again. It was a tough day in the office. Give me wind and rain and hills any day over that kind of heat.
Not sure if I will take a rest day or continue tomorrow. I will make this decision depending on how the legs feel tomorrow. The next day’s riding is the largest climb of the USA pacific coast. But it is the first thing in the morning and looks like a massive 10 miles down the far side. The next few days are hot but not as hot as today. But either way I will be up and out early to try to get out of the midday sun. I think that should be the lesson of the day.
P.S: Still have trouble downloading GPX tracks so will update the map for this entry when I get that working again.
