July 23
30 miles
If I were to sum up today, I’d say it was cold and rainy. It rained most of the night, but it stopped long enough in the morning to allow us to make coffee and break camp. As soon as we got on the bikes it started raining again.
Riding in rain and cold is a game of layers. Put on too many layers and start climbing, soon you’re sweating. Get wet and go downhill, soon you’re freezing. I waited a bit too long to put on my rain pants, but Paul waited too long for all his rain layers.
As we rode, I thought about cyclocross, a sport that involves racing through mud and sand in the Belgian winter months. The riders often get completely covered in wet mud. This was mild in comparison, and we have a lot more clothes on than lycra, but the road is mostly unpaved so we got decently dirty
We were heading back to the main campground near the park entrance, so we knew we didn’t have a huge day, but the last 9 miles were downhill. I could see Paul was shivering, which is bad news in this weather, but I also knew we were very close to hot showers, so I encouraged him to stay in easier gears so he would spin his legs more and generate more heat, and we made it back without having to stop and completely change clothes.
Having a short day of adverse weather is good testing ground. My feet were freezing and I appreciate the need for a pair of waterproof socks. And perhaps more robust gloves.
On the bright side, we were back at the campground by noon. We had hot showers, we did laundry, we had hot food and ice cream, and scavenged abandoned (wet) firewood from empty campsites. Having a wet fire is an active pursuit, keeping it going by constantly feeding it with the driest sticks we can find under the dense tree cover, but it’s still nice to have the warmth on a cold wet day.
We also utilized our squirt bottles and an old toothbrush to clean the dirt and grime from our filthy drivetrains and give the dirty bikes a little bit of a bath.
Looks like more rain is in store tomorrow, and since it’s only $25 to camp here with all the amenities and activities we could ask for, we are going to take a rest day before the next leg of the journey: the Denali Highway.
I’d be interested to learn if you find any decent gloves. When I was in NYC I used to fill latex gloves with bike grease and wear them under my winter riding gloves as an extra layer of insulation. Sweden I just used skiing mittens.
Blowing up the pad while inside the tent might be your greatest accomplishment so far 😅. Have a nice rest day.