Sunday – Day 36
Custer to Deadwood, South Dakota
(Longest Day in the saddle so far)
Miles: 69.94 – Total accent: 2,880 – Hours: 7 hours, 28 minutes
Totals:. Miles- 1,866.33 – Accent- 66,883 feet climbed – 163 hrs 30 minutes in the saddle
Get out of your flipping head!
Depending on which app you use for cycling, the expected elevation, grade and distance varies. We’ve learned that the Komoot stats differ from what we actually ride. Today, the program was showing over 4,000 feet of climbing over 70 miles. Needless to say, I was approaching the day with a bit of trepidation. These aren’t horrible numbers but on a fully loaded bike on a gravel trail…well…I knew it’d be work. Riding consecutive days, I think a bit of fatigue may be a factor as well.
And then I thought of Denise Mueller, Patty Peoples and Cheri Grunfield…iconic women who have put an indelible stamp on cycling. I scolded myself! Just get in the bike and ride!
Taking lots of photos in attempt to capture it all means lots of stops and starts.
The amazing shelters still occur about every 12 miles.
Now, having hours of riding, the mind is free from the constant input of society always trying to capture our attention. I look at things like the horses in a field that are constantly swishing their tails. How much energy does this take? Or what does MESS mean when talking about a mess hall…things I don’t have time to think about or question when dealing with daily routines.
We pass a huge ranch where chairs and an alter are set in a pasture. Drew says he was told it is lucky to be married in the rain and I start to laugh. I tell him of moving in the pouring rain and how Mom had said it was lucky. And then later, she admitted she was just trying to make me feel better and didn’t think it was actually true. What other stories were we told growing up that we believed but weren’t actually true? I think of all the people who were raised to believe they were English or German or American Indian only to find out from Ancestry they weren’t at all!! What other myths have others told us about ourselves that we bought into? That we’re not strong enough or smart enough or rich enough? Maybe each one of us is perfectly ‘enough’ just the way we are. Ponderable.
Further down the road we met Gary. He is from Florida. He shared how a great friend was killed and about his horrific mountain biking accident. As a result, he retired and decided to start enjoying life. He and his wife travel all over. He was on an electric bike. It’s amazing how electric bikes have made it possible for so many to continue to cycle. Such a good thing!
Now, at over 7 hours on the bike, we arrive at the KOA camp in Deadwood. What a welcome site!
Now for the lessons of the day: when riding through a tunnel, pull the sunglasses down just a bit. It’s REALLY dark in the tunnel and hard to see the road surface.
And secondly, riding with panniers is a bit like being 9 months pregnant: you’re used to moving easily past things you now fit through closely, like the gates along the trail.
And the final thought: “You’ll be fine”-a reassurance Drew gave me early in the day. And I was.
