Cross Country Recumbent
Tuesday August 5, 2003. Rawlins WY to Riverside WY
Start time
|
7:43 am
|
End time
|
1:00 pm
|
Miles
|
64.9
|
Time pedaling
|
4:22
|
Average speed
|
14.9
|
| Odometer |
1726
|
Today was better than yesterday. The wind was basically calm all
day, and the riding fairly easy. From Rawlins I went East to the
little town of Sinclair. A high percentage of the gas stations
out here are called Sinclair, and apparently the name of the town is no
coincidence. The town is entirely built around a refinery.
A little break from the never-ending scenery shots to remind you that I
do go through cities:
From here the ride continued West for 15 miles on I-80, which isn't
much fun; but it went without incident. Eventually I turned South
and made my way down to Saratoga for lunch. I ran into two
Westbound riders, one from Scotland and the other Ireland. They
seemed to be enjoying their tour of the States. Their advice to
me was: when you get to Kansas increase your miles because its pretty
dull.
At the same time that I was talking to those two an Eastbound day rider
puller up. He was just doing a day ride from Medicince Bow to
Saratoga. I looked enviously at his unloaded lightweight road
bike. I got a little ego-boost as we rode together for a couple
of minutes, and it became clear he couldn't keep up; probably a
combination of the faster recumbent and my (by now) well-conditioned
legs.
Saratoga has some funky hot springs right next to the city pool, but it
was too hot out, and I don't think my road rash would've let me sit in
the hot water, so I passed it by.
Riverside is just a small town with a decent campground. The
proprietor (Larry) says that the number of cyclists is down this
year. He did have a log, and there is one Eastbound rider two
days ahead of me. It'll take me a while to catch him becuase I've
got some upcoming work and relaxation planned for the Pueblo area which
will eat about 6 days of time. Maybe I can catch him in Kentucky.
The observant reader will note that my mileage has been less the last
few days. There are two reasons for this: one is that
civilization is scarce out here and some days (like today and tomorrow)
you either ride short days or really big days (the next town, Walden,
is 50 miles). The other reason is the aforementioned work and
relaxation in Pueblo (actually in CO springs and Boulder as
well). It won't do me any good to get there early because I'll
just be sitting around waiting for everyone to show up.