Thursday June 01, 2017
Middlegate Station was an interesting place. It's not someplace that you would normally stop at because from the outside it looks pretty run down. But under the covers it is very welcoming to the wayward traveller.
This morning we ate breakfast at Middlegate and got on the road about 9am. The Swiss left before us, and Nick/Kristen after us. We saw both pairs of riders about 14 miles later at a new stop where we got something to drink.
Later we ran into the Swiss guys again and talked with them some at the top of a pass. Their English is pretty good. I have to clear up some quick assumptions about them that I made yesterday. They are both older than I first thought, probably their 40s. They aren't riding MTBs, but 3" fat tire touring bikes made by Surly (see photo). They looked as if they were travelling light pretty light, but they are also both wearing daypacks with water bladders and some added gear. So they may be carrying almost as much stuff as we are.
They grew up in the same small town in Switerland and both have the exact same name; Markus Meier, but they aren't related. In 2011, one of the Markus' raced and finished the Tour Divide unsupported offroad MTB race from Baniff, Alberta to Antelope Wells, NM, a distance of 2745 miles and with almost 200,000 ft of climbing. It took about 3 weeks. So they really are strong riders.
We had 2 big climbs today, one over 6679 ft Mt Airy Pass and the other at the end up into Austin, where the road really tips up and gets steep at the end. Stats for the day were: 65 miles at a decent 14.3 mph with the help of another day of a west tailwind. However, we ended up climbing 3500 feet, which I believe makes the third most difficult day of our trip so far.
We finished the day with Markus/Markus. Not sure where they ended up staying? Who knows, maybe they kept riding? We found the only camping site in town, a small RV camp run by the local Baptist Church. It does have showers. Nick/Kristen finished not too much later and are at the same campsite. They are also strong riders.
I have to say that climbing on a loaded touring bike is much different than climbing on a road bike. At least for me. On my road bike, my natural style is to push a pretty big gear (I ride a 42 x 25 in Colorado) and then stand up on the pedals for a break to stretch the legs, or when the gradient increases a bit. On my touring bike I am pretty much stuck in spinning mode. Due to the added weight I can't really push bigger gears, I have to spin to save my legs. But worst of all is that I can't stand up on the pedals, both because it would hurt my hip (which is doing great if I stay seated), but also because the loaded bike is not really stable enough to be tossed back and forth when standing. So, I am spending all my riding time in the saddle, and at a higher cadence than I am used to riding. Yesterday this really started to hurt my butt. Not saddle sores, but muscle sore. Maybe we took fewer stops yesterday than we have been?
Tomorrow will be about 70 miles to the next town of Eureka, with slightly less climbing than we did today. Its time to wash clothes and we are considering getting hotel rooms.
Mike
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