Adaptations (not the Dominant Species Kind)
While the eastern half of my trip was scheduled and planned out, the western half is quickly theming itself around learning to be flexible and adapt on the fly. I’ve already rerouted because of the fires in the Pacific Northwest, and then immediately South Dakota hit me with difficult to navigate dirt/gravel (and grass!?!?) roads, and a whole lot of headwinds.
Dirt, Gravel, and Grass, OH MY!
I absolutely hate South Dakota’s mix of dirt/gravel on the majority of their North/South roads. On Thursday and Friday, I road on more dirt/gravel than I had during the entire previous two months combined.
“But Phil, isn’t it nice that there are so few cars on these roads.”
Yes! And that concludes the list of their positive qualities. Here’s what sucks:
They are inconsistently deep, in patches, meaning sometimes my wheel will get caught in a deep/loose spot and my bike will jut out from under me.
Some sections are so loose that it’s like riding my bike through sand on the beach and I have to push my bike until I get to a stretch that’s more packed down.
These roads are rough - with a lot of their traffic consisting of big heavy tractors, there are endless stretches of shaking and vibrating as I ride over tread tracks, rocks, “potholes,” etc. The most “sore” pain I’ve been in on this trip, particularly my hands and wrists, was after a 60-mile day of predominantly dirt/gravel roads.
All of this slows me down and hurts.
What about those grass roads?
It’s hilarious that so many of these grass roads are numbered “avenues.”
Those are fun, in short doses, and definitely not right after it has rained! But even those are stressful, as I’m generally trying to navigate a very narrow trench laid down by previous tire tracks.
So, adaptation #1 has been to ditch the biking app and use google maps as if I were a car. That way, it doesn’t take me on anymore dirt roads! Using the satillite view, I can find roads that will have a safe shoulder for me to ride on as well.
Of course, google maps couldn’t help me with my other problem.
You Can’t Climb the Wind
After fixing my dirt road problem, I thought I was good to go: until I spent the entire next day fighting for 60 miles with a 11mph wind in my face.
I find winds harder to deal with than hills. Mentally, I can see the top of the hill, and so I can gauge just how much energy I need to exert until I can get to the top of the hill. And then, perhaps more importantly, I can coast for a bit. I can let up.
But with a wind in your face, you can’t let up. At all. It’s like climbing an infinite hill that doesn’t have a top, or at least, you have no idea where the top is, and behind every curve is just more hill.
So I’m done (needlessly) riding into the wind. South Dakota’s road network is laid out in a grid. There’s very few ways to go diagonally to save miles. Yesterday, there was a wind coming from the south that I foolishly rode into all day because that’s the path I was on. Today though, there was a wind coming from the west. Instead of turning that way when I was “supposed” to, I just kept heading south. Overall I think it added 5 miles to my total trip, but I was able to bike 92 miles today instead of being broken after 60 like yesterday.
Tomorrow, there are supposed to be winds coming from the SW. Going forward, consider me a sailboat (at least while I can be).
