Day Twenty Three - The Tempest Strikes Back

Day Twenty Three – The Tempest Strikes Back

Crescent City to Arcata

Daily Brief

The day started rough with rain, winds, and more rain. We almost considered building an ark. Thoroughly soaked, it was a fine first day for our new fifth rider Ashley Powel. Finally the weather yielded to the sunshine and we finished the day out like we wished it had begun.

The Ride

::Warning; Useless Paragraph Imminent::

First, let me just relate my experience of the night before. Those of you who don’t want to hear me whine can skip this paragraph. So, sometime after midnight I was awoken by fierce winds and rain. It was getting cold, but I tried to get back to sleep anyways, just as I was slipping into sleep a bike was pushed over by the wind onto the tent and onto me. I still refused to budge but I kept feeling water hitting my head and felt it start to soak up from beneath. I tried to hand on for as long as I could. Sometime around 5:30 AM I abandoned ship and wondered into Shaun’s tent, realized my sleeping bag was too wet to sleep in, then crashed in the car. After awhile in the car I finally got to sleep when I found my extra riding cloths and wore them instead of enough blankets. Ok, so, now that I’m done with my rant, I will on continue with the rest of the day.

::OK, you’re clear::

We started our day early and packed up our camp, all wet, into the van. We hopped on your bikes and made our way to the hotel where we met Ashley Powell who knows Shaun and Chris from church. After that we immediately started up our largest climb of the day, getting completely soaked from the outside, and sweaty from the inside of our spandex. The downhill wasn’t any better as it caught all the water in our shoes and completely water logged our feet. We’ve faced rain, but never in this volume. At least it wasn’t freezing cold, just normal cold.

After what seamed like forever we checked the odometer to a harrowing reality that we did 5 miles in around 45 minutes. That was depressing. Thankfully the rest of the ride wasn’t such a ridiculous climb. After what seamed like another forever we took lunch at a Mexican restaurant along the way. Ashley hooked the team up and we ate some amazing, large burritos. They even gave me almost enough hot pepper, almost. The Mexican food played with our stomachs a little but it wasn’t too bad. After lunch we really didn’t want to go back outside. Our spandex was soaked and every time we sat down it reminded us of that fact, especially with the biker pads. Shaun said it was like wearing a wet diaper. Chris wringed about a cup of water out of his gloves, and our shirts were all soaked through. Despite that fact we faced the cold wet day again and hopped back onto our bikes. It reminds me of what Jamie said when we started this thing, to remember her when in pain.

As the ride neared completion we finally received some tender mercy when the sun took back the sky and the wind wasn’t so bad. It actually started to dry us off a bit. When we came into Arcata a motel was the only way to go. We immediately set about drying off the camping equipment and cleaning off the bikes. Then we soaked in the hot tub, got some dinner and checked into our beds for some warm, dry, quiet rest. It’s so easy to take for granted sleeping where it is warm, dry and quiet, but we won’t tonight. (Take it for granted that is.)

Daily Stats

Distance: 74.5
Time: 5:21
Avg Speed: 13.9
Max Speed: 37.6

Total Distance: 1646.26

P&C Pushups: 0 (It was rainy ok…)