Day 9: Lima

As the first light of the new day lightened my room, I still heard the rain on the tin roof. I took a careful look out of the window. It was raining cats and dogs and the lodge was almost in the clouds. Nice! The mood was at the bottom of my socks.

But after breakfast the rain passed away. The question was: How long?

The next bad news I got from Mirko, who was about to quit the race due to his aching knees. Despite painkillers he wasn’t able to go on. He wanted himself prescribe one days rest and go on the next day. But I had a gut feeling that this would be the last time I saw him during the race.

I slipped into my rain gear, packed in my more than welcomed lunch package and just a few miles after I left the lodge it started raining again. The first 15 miles were easy rolling on a paved road and after one hour the rain passed away again. The gravel road to Bannack State Park wasn’t too bad after the lot of rain last night. A little bit sticky but not so bad like I saw on some pictures before the race where the whole drive train was completely blocked. But Russ from the lodge warned us about one section later on the route. As I hit Highway 324 I rode into the great wide open, huge areas of grassland, hills and mountains in the far. Several thunderstorms were dumping their load down the earth. I was happy pedalling toward the sunny spots and not toward the thunderstorms. But 10 minutes later the GPS forced me in a 90° right turn and I took course of one of the black looking clouds. Thank you! 20 minutes later I took a bath in the pouring rain. Fortunately these heavy rainstorms are limited to a small area. After further 20 minutes I rode in the sun again.
I rushed in Thom Batty who left the lodge about one hour before me in the morning and obviously backtracked the whole way. On my question what was going on he told me the same story like Mirko this morning. His knees didn’t want anymore. He was on the way back to the lodge and ready to quit the race. What a shame! Before he went on he warned me about the mud right ahead of me.

It was unbelievable. As I hit the mud I just saw the deep tire tracks from all the riders who pasted this section before me. The first mile was incredible muddy, but the road didn’t look like a typical mud slide, though. Four or five turns of my wheels were enough to have a thick layer mud on it. Sticky like glue! No change to ride a bike onto. I tried to push my bike through the grassy shoulder on the right side of the road like some other also did obviously. But the grassy shoulder was covered with cattle dump. So I had to decide - plague or cholera. Just in my case the late bird catches the worm. After one mile I was able to ride my bike again. I still saw the deep tire tracks and foot prints on the ground. The guys ahead of me started just 45 minutes before me at the lodge in the morning. I caught up the first two guys and saw some other sticking at the steep uphill in the far. It was Steve Martine and Fred Arden. Steve lifted his rear wheel and pushed his bike just with the front wheel. The whole drive train was blocked by a huge clump of sticky mud. I passed them by and before I tackled the steep climb I got out of my rain gear. The view from the top was amazing. Huge grassy hills dipped into a diffuse light. An absolutely great atmosphere!

Landscape wise one highlight followed the next. The wide open land narrowed in a small canyon with a bumpy gravel road, another complete change of the landscape. I followed a river with its sap green grassy shoreline through the canyon. From time to time I had to stop to suck this view onto my “hard disk”. The gravel road that left this section hit the frontage road of Interstate 15 toward Lima. I didn’t leave this road anymore until Lima. As I tried to check in to the Mountain View Motel an older guy at the office told me that there where another German guest in room No. 4 and if I‘d be agree to split the room with him. Thomas. I was agreeing. Now the daily routine started. Resupplying at the gas station for an early start tomorrow, taking a shower and having dinner at the restaurant (like Trixies in Ovando – bad food and absolutely lousy service) right across the motel.