No Man’s Land

The past few days have been some adventerous, lonesome, and empty rides. The landscape of Southeastern Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma is empty. At the same time, this emptiness opens the views for miles. It’s beautiful in it’s own right.

My ride from Colorado Springs was a rather subtle ride. With little to no cities along the route, I was anticipating stealth camping somewhere along the road. I stopped for lunch in a small town called Rush. By small, I mean it had one cafe, and that was about it. I was overwhelmed by the kindness of Kaci and her husband who graciously invited me to sit at their table, and welcomed me into their lunch. By the time it was over, not only did they buy my meal, but they also donated 20 dollars to the cause. It’s this kind of kindness from complete strangers that makes this ride so memorable.

After a long day of biking, I made it to Kit Carson. All along the ride, I was anticipating Kit Carson to be a city with at least a few thousand people. Again, I was disappointed when all it had was a gas station and a diner. After battling a late afternoon headwind, and 110 miles of riding, I grabbed a seat and devoured my burger, chips, and soda. Still in need of a place to set up camp, the waitress invited me to set up camp behind the restaurant. A few trees assisted in sheltering me from the strong wind, and I had camp set up just before some evening thunderstorms rolled through.

 

I arose early, in an attempt to beat the previous day’s head wind. In Wisconsin, the winds tend to die down in the early morning. Apparently, that’s not the case here. The wind was just as strong as the evening prior, and was a vicious headwind. My average pace was only 8 miles per hour. I couldn’t even keep up with molasses in January. However, mentally, I just accepted the fact that I was going to move slow. What I was worried about, was the chatter I heard about a few major storms rolling through the area. I kept riding, routinely checking the skies for some dark clouds. At lunch, I saw stormchasers setting up their cameras atop their vehicles. However, I wanted to get more miles in, and knew I had a few more hours until the storm approached.

 

Slowly but surely, I crawled across the landscape. The wind continued to howl. In the end, I made it to Holly, Colorado. A small town, with a campsite that allowed me to camp for free, charge up my phone, and eat my dinner from the local grocery store. As I set up camp, more stormchasers swarmed by. At least 15 in total. Fortunately, the dark skies stayed west of my campsite, meaning that my extra miles allowed me to dodge the tornadoes and rains that accompanied those ominous clouds.

I was anticipatig a solid night of sleeping. However, I found out the the truth behind the Beatles’ single “Blackbirds”. They actually do sing in the dead of night. Just my luck they were perched right above my tent. At 3:30 in the morning, the serenade began, and prevented me from getting any more sleep. I guess that meant that I’d get on the road early. With the brutal wind I had been facing, I needed every second to pedal away.

Fortunately, the wind was a lot calmer, and allowed me to crank out 123 miles. A very solid, consistent, and long day of biking. I actually was able to go through some relatively big cities as well. I welcomed the sight of civilization. I even crossed into the Central Time Zone! For the rest of the trip, it’ll be either Central or Eastern timezone where I’ll be residing. As I trekked onward in the evening, the winds once again shifted to create a stiff headwind. I trucked onward, looking for a place with cover to potentially camp. There was nothing. No trees. No cover. I pulled over and asked a state trooper for some recommendations. He told me to bike another 20 miles into the next city. I had already ridden 120, and with the stiff headwind, that wasn’t all of a possibility. In the end, I found cover beneath a bridge for the night. Maybe it made me feel like a hobo of sorts, but I stayed dry from the thunder storms that rolled on through the night.

The winds are unpredictable in these states. It can shift in an instant, and can pick up speed in no time. Thus, when I can get extra miles in, that’s exactly what I’m trying to do. I may face a day when I can’t get more than 20 miles in, so I’m building up a security blanket in case that happens.

Today, I rode 134 miles to Woodward, Oklahoma. This created an opportunity to get a full day ahead of schedule. Yes. I’ve been putting the pedaling to the medal. Cranking out those miles while the wind is in my favor. It was a long day of biking, but I’ve graciously accepted it. This trip, is hard, it’s difficult, but you take it one day at a time. Today’s ride, I had no cities to ride through for over 83 miles. That’s tough. I’ve even started talking to the cattle I ride past, they usually look at me like I’m crazy. Just like people do. Through it all I keep pedaling, because that’s all I can do. Just keep pedaling. One mile at a time. I’ll keep trucking onward to Dallas tomorrow.

 

 

Matt