What a beautiful ride today! Deserts are behind us and replaced with rivers and hills.
We are completely beat after such a long ride! We just now finished getting the tent up and gear stowed away under the fly. As sundown was almost upon us we just tried to find an open field to throw our tent in but it's hard to know what is privately owned or not. Since we're low on time we grabbed a camp spot at a campgrounds instead. And boy are they expensive at times! It's $28 for what boils down to a tiny patch of land that we need. We are thinking of offsetting our checkpoints so that we end the day outside a town and thus have an easier chance finding open fields.
We had some interesting moments with rain today as we realized our rain gear is just plainly too hot to do any intense cycling in due to overheating. However if the mountain air gets cold enough you could get incredibly cold due to exposure. It's a tough call for us abut how to tackle such conditions. The easy answer is to pay good money for waterproof breathable wear I guess. Still, I got a good shot of Jan trying our makeshift waterproof gloves (that are zip lock bags :p) and am attaching it.
Also Jan said he uploaded new photos into the gallery last night so have a look!
OMG!
ReplyDeleteI just wrote a giant post/comment section and it never posted it! So frustrating. I will try and re-create the witty sarcastic humour. I think it went something like this:
BLAH BLAH BLAH I hate biking.
BLAH BLAH BLAH you guys are crazy!
BLAH BLAH bears?
blah blah blah blah blah...
...so I had no idea you guys were so reliant on pit-stops to re-fuel your supplies. That is terrifying on its own not knowing if you'll see civilization again.
ReplyDeleteHow could you not buy breathable rain gear?? I assumed all rain gear even the mostly crappy ones have arm pit holes in them. Maybe I was wrong.
Is nobody putting the food in a tree? How are the birds getting at your food? Aren't you afraid of BEARS!? You're basically saying: "Hey bears, if you like the stuff outside, come take a bite out of what you find inside..."
It sounds like a breakfast burrito or hot-pocket for bears.
I would not have made it far in this trip because I would be facing life in jail for bludgeoning a semi-retarded McDonalds employee to death (or at least within an inch of it).
At the very least I would have bought 12 Big Macs and then thrown them at the windows and let them slide all the way down. Then I would have screamed and yelled until they gave me a refund for those big macs, claiming that their windows ruined my burgers.
Hope you guys enjoy the mountains, and scenery. I can only imagine the drudgery and frustration of the barren wastelands ahead known simply as "the prairies".
good luck guys.
You nerds are an inspiration to us all. Or at least other nerds.
GO NERDS GO!
Jeff, totally epic post! We read this while on a snack break and cracked up completely.
DeleteWe are a bunch of dumb dumbs for not thinking of the food and bears thing. We are now taking extra precaution :p funny thing is we have this thing called a bear bell. When were told about it we jingled it, then looked at the lady and thought "have you ever even seen a bear!?!" haha.
About the pit stop thing - while we don't *need* a pit stop usually, they'reglove to refill water and get a lunch. However the desert thing was a complete surprise. We had enough supplies and even emergency water but just barely enough. Holy crap of was hot. The entire landscape was sand/dirt, dead trees, and little desert shrubs! Ugh
Team Nerd
What do you mean you jingled it? Is this bell supposed to "call" the bears? Or somehow fend them off? It sounds more like a dinner bell for bears: "come and get it!!!"
DeleteI would be too afraid to use the bell. I would probably try to throw it at the bear.
3 tips for bears. Number 1) Get big (Jay you got that covered) 2) Make lots of noise 3) Stand your ground. Many bears make fake charges to try and scare you off. If you run. Then you're bear food.
Keep this in mind though: bears are fast. If you do have to run though, you don't have to outrun the bear. You only have to outrun the slowest person. Just sayin...
Sweet gloves
ReplyDelete