Day 18 – Dubois to Lander
Sun 20th June 2010 (Fathers Day)
It was another freezing night but at least our tents didn’t get blown away as happened to someone the night before during a storm at this campsite in Dubois. Still in one piece we set off at our usual time of 6:30am for what we expected to be an easy day.
Stunning red rock formations
From Dubois to Lander it was mostly downhill with just a few minor uphill sections and we made very good time completing 55 miles by midday. The landscape had changed today and we were cycling through an area where no trees will grow because of the wind. The only place we saw trees was in a shallow gorge formed by the river where they were protected from the wind.
The only trees are in the river gorge away from the wind
Some rocks on the ride were a deep red colour and others were multi-coloured in layers. It was very different to anything we had seen before. In the distance we were reminded that we are still in the Rockies with large snow capped mountains looming on the horizon. We will face those next week as still have another week in the mountains and it’s going to be our toughest week so far. But that’s next week.
A storm developing but for once it missed us
We arrived at Lander at about 1:30pm and booked into the Sleeping Bear RV site for the next two nights as tomorrow is our day off and we plan to do very little other than rest.
Home for the next two nights
Apart from Chris’s knee we have suffered very little so far. We had expected saddle sores by now but on this ride we have applied liberal amounts of AAC (Assos Ass Cream) which has really helped in that dept. and we are having no problems at all with our saddles. Hopefully that will continue.
The bikes have performed very well with not a single problem so far. Sherman is wearing down the tread on the rear wheel quite quickly and Chris plans to put on a new back tyre at Pueblo. I don’t appear to have much wear at all so I plan to swap my tyres over at about 2,600 miles and hope to get all the way on the tyres I have.
Our diet is much the same each day, cereal for breakfast followed by banana filled rolls, cereal bars, fruit pies and trail mix while on the ride. In the evening we usually eat pasta, tuna and peas although the last two nights we ate wraps as a change. Chris is starting to feel sick at the thought of eating another cereal bar so we will have to try to think of other things we can eat while riding. Any suggestions?
Ali G's dad joins us for da ride
Chris has had an incident free day today so no top tips I’m afraid.
Daily Mileage – 76.4 miles
Time in Saddle – 5 hrs 44 mins
Total Climbing – 1,928 ft
Ave speed today – 13.3 mph (our highest so far)
Posted on: Jun 21st, 2010 at 3:31 am
I think thats a good idea of just resting today, i think you need a day like that. I can’t believe you feel sick about cereal bars, i thought that happened to you about bananas!! Enjoy your day off, love you xxxx
Posted on: Jun 21st, 2010 at 7:52 am
Nice hat dad..you look very cool!! And like alan said just like Ali G!! So funny!
i know i keep saying it,but what amazing scenery! It looks like everyday you are entering some new unspolit area.
Well done on making it to your next rest day, and make the most of the time off the bikes!
I’ll drop you an e mail also so check if you get a chance.
Love you
Tracey
xx