Start: 7:20 AM

Finish: 5:15 PM  

Saddle Time: 6:38

Ascent: 317 feet

Descent:  358 feet

Miles: 84

Total Miles: 3,605

Highlight: Rode for a couple hours with another cross country cyclist I met along the way.

Lowlight: Got rained on for the first time in 57 days.

Cyclemeter:  Follow this link to see the data I’m collecting with the cyclemeter app. You can see gps information, speed, elevation, distance, cadence and heart rate. Better viewed on a computer where it’s easier to play around with the graphs.

My record didn’t last. I’ve ridden cross country for 56 days and over 3,000 miles without experiencing any significant rain, until today, three days from home. It rained hard with a few brief showers. I was already wet with sweat from the high humidity so no need to put on rain the gear that I carried for almost no reason. It actually felt good, very refreshing and cleaned some of the dust and mud off my bike and bags.  I’ve been looking at my bike lately thinking I really should clean it up.

There’s not a whole lot to say about today, it was more of a get from point A to point B type of day. The ride started with mud. When I left my motel I could see it rained last night. The first 10 miles or so of trail was old, poor quality stone dust that has largely degraded to grass and mud. I had an 80 mile day and really wanted to finish up as early as possible to avoid some heat but also get online to post yesterdays blog since my wifi and cell signal were terrible last night. Mud slows you down, especially when riding more of a road tire.  I have a 35mm on the front and 37mm on the back. The 35mm was originally a 37mm that was replaced back in North Dakota with whatever the bike shop had on hand.  I held on to my back tire hoping a couple millimeters would make for better riding in these circumstances. Regardless, it’s slow going.

The mud fest eventually ended with some road riding detour where a long section of trail was closed for repair.  Maybe too much mud? I met an eastbound cyclist for the first time in weeks.  He’s riding from Seattle to Plymouth, MA roughly following route 20.  Remember the guy I met yesterday who wants to ride cross country on Highway 20? Well this guy is doing it. We rode together for a couple hours, through the rainstorms. Solo cyclists are a different breed. I often get asked “do you get bored?”. The answer is no, basically never.  I really don’t mind riding alone, in fact I prefer it. He felt the same way but we both like these chance encounters and riding with other cyclists for a short time.

We had lunch in Little Falls where he was staying for the night so I continued on alone. Trail conditions for the second half of the day were better than the first, it was all paved. The scenery was nothing special since it was just rail trail through the woods but at least the riding was easy and it was off road.

Tomorrow will be my first and only century ride on the tour leaving a short 55 mile day home on Friday.  Hard to believe it’s almost over.