Today we rode from the RV Park in Antimony to a campground in the Palisade State Park. We had blue skies with some clouds all day. We started on pavement, at noon back on off road surfaces, and in the late afternoon we did some more on pavement.
Riding statistics: on Sunday May 26, 2024, the 18th day on the Western Wildlands Route route, it took 12:06h (08:45h moving time), between 07:04 and 19:11, to cover 150 km (93 miles), including 871 m (2858 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 17 km/h (11 mph). During today's ride the average temperature was 23 °C (76 °F) with a minimum of 2 °C (34 °F) and a maximum of 36 °C (102 °F).
Totals: So far, it took 5 days, 18 hours, 58 minutes and 25 seconds of cycling time to cover 1922 km (1194 miles), including 22717 m (74534 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 14.1 km/h (8.8 mph).
We got up around 6am on the RV Park in Antimony. It was a cold night, but me sleeping kit is OK. However, the outer tent was completely wet from condensation. While taking down the tent, I noticed that the wet outer tent became covered in ice. I packed things wet and hoped I could dry it later in the day. When we left the RV Park it was still cold, especially my hands, despite the gloves.
We rode about 10km when we arrived at the Otter Creek. A creek with campgrounds, boating area, etc. But the also had a little shop. We went in to see if they had something warm. For me it was a warmed up cinnamon roll. Fons got a hot drink and also a cinnamon roll. That was a happy treat in this cold morning. Not much later we continued our ride.
We had to cycle 40km on a paved road before we were back on the original route. Fortunately there was not much traffic, the weather was great, and the views were not bad either.
At noon exactly we were back on the original route. We had to skip a part on high elevation because of the large amounts of snow. The first few kilometers were a bit though because of the road surface, double-track with loose sand. However, after that we rode into a magnificent valley. It was beautiful and the road surface was great. There were a couple of times that the road was flooded and we had to cross that. The first time, we used big rocks to make a kind of path. It was a success, we crossed with dry feet. The next one, we could cycle through without much issues. The third one looked difficult, more mud and less rocks. I was looking for large rocks to build another path. There weren’t many. The first rock was stuck in the ground. When I looked at a second rock, I saw a small (30cm) snake crawl on it. OK, let’s skip the path making. Fons went first, and almost succeeded. Then it was my turn. I also almost made it. The thick mud got us to a halt before we made it accros. Now that we had wet feet, made the next crossings much easier. Although someone sometimes made it into a all or nothing situation.
We continued the ride and were surprised by the different rock formations and colors.
At a certain moment I go into a turn in the road, and in the corner of my eye I see a huge snake crawling away. The beauty scared, wanted away, but the road had some edges to the sides, so it didn’t succeed immediately. That fact scared me a bit as well, what if she wanted to try the other side of the road. No worries, I already passed and saw her getting away from the road. The beast was almost 1.5m and as thick as my forearm. Black with yellow and a beautiful pattern.
We continued the ride through the valley and kept enjoying the views. Some sections required a bit more attention because there were deep tracks in the dried up clay. After 25km through the narrow valley, we arrived at a more open country, and within half an hour we were at Salida. We ate some snacks at a local gas station and I looked at the options we might have for spending the night. It was either 2km back in Salida to an RV Park, or 40km ahead at a campground in a state park. Because of the time, and the nice weather, we decided to continue.
At the Palisade State Park campground there was still a campspot available, which we gladly took. We decided to first dry and air everything, there was still a nice evening sun. After showering and dinner we went into our tents. At that time the wind increases into stormy forces. Let’s see what tomorrow brings (where we have to use a road alternative again to bypass Skyline Drive which still has over 1.5m of snow).
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