Spring 1997 - Cincinnati to Yukon
Journals - 24 April 1997
Day 24 - Loramie Lake S.P., OH
24 April 1997 (quite cold in morn [low 30s]; up to 60s in afternoon; quite
a bit of rain; mileage = 31.2) -- X - Today was supposed to be easy, too.
Fortunately, it was. I woke up super early in the bivy (maybe 4:30). I was
comfortable, I was just not tired. We did feel pretty scummy after a few
days of hard riding and no shower. I got up (5:30) and was surprised that
the sun wasn't coming up. The light that lit up the bivy was from a full
moon which was quite awesome over the lake. I went down to the lake to look
at it and after a while, I noticed an animal swimming back and forth. He
was moving about as fast as a duck, but just its head was out of the water.
It was about the size of a medium dog. Every once in a while, it would
smack the water quite loudly and dive down. After a while, it zig zagged
away. April got up (~5:45) and we started packing. We were rolling at 7:00
which was pretty good since it was dark, cold, and we were deep in the
woods. My feet were cold and April's hands were cold, but we were both glad
to be riding in the still, windless morning. There were banks of fog in the
creeks and wooded areas; signs of no wind. We rode straight through to
Sidney. On the way, there were 2 bridges out. No problem though, although
April kept dropping her bike because of the S.P.D. pedals (2 times). We
stopped to eat breakfast in a playground with a pelican spring thing and a
geodesic dome. We were obviously meant to stop. We then rode off into the
country down an extremely straight road. The wind was just starting and it
was from the north. We hustled to Larame State Park. It was sunny but the
wind had kicked up. We had a good lunch of burritos, using the double
boiler technique. We pulled out the mats and took a nap on the picnic
bench. This was fine until it got cloudy and cold. So we put up the tent.
Just in time, it started to rain really hard. But we were fine in the tent,
and the bikes were covered. While it rained, we took turns taking showers
which felt awesome. Other than that, we tried to sleep as much as possible
to prepare for tomorrow's early wake up. A - Butt still hurts after 10
miles in saddle. Cute ducks here doing different duck things than those
yesterday. These are professional beggars. Chris wouldn't let me feed them,
though. There's one on a nest very close to our tent also. Chris decided to
become Chris Black today when filling out the campsite registration. Silly
boy.
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