I quietly packed up my gear in the near dark and put it in the truck like most mornings. i ate my cold breakfast and left by 6:30. The day was 149 km and the previous day there was a head wind and I wanted to get going before picked up.
Only a few kms in Kerry caught up with me and explained that he wanted to get to Kindersley ASAP because he wanted to FaceTime with his family for his granddaughters 1st birthday.He made it in time before she went to bed.
Shortly after that Ken caught up to me and then left me in his dust too. Along the way he was riding in front of us, stopping ahed of us, and taking some really nice pictures of us as we pass by him.
Vicky, Matt, and Duncan caught up to me and i joined their pace line to avoid the wind but I dropped out because I wasn’t fast enough to keep up. The pace line sure does help you to go faster in the wind but I was going anaerobic and didn’t feel to good at that level. I knew that I still had a ways to go.
At the 88 km mark I crossed into Saskatchewan. I took a selfie and rested in the sliver of shade that the welcome to Saskatchewan sign shed. Shade is a very underrated thing in my life normally. In the prairies however I have come to appreciate shade and seek it out whenever I can.
At the 94 km mark I broke my chain. ugh. I proceeded to put it back together but I hadn’t aligned the pieces and I broke my chain brake. The chain brake was made of brass, or some light metal, and broke where tool pushes the pin into the link. The sun was blazing down on me and there was no shade anywhere to be found. I knew that there was some people still behind me so I called them hoping they had a chain braker. They did. About an hour or so later I had it fixed and was back on the road.
Sam, Julie, and I rode the rest of the way together and drafted each other most of the way. We made it to Kindersley in just under 10 hours. Most had got there in much less time. I was on kitchen duty but the food had already been prepared and eaten so I did the clean up.
Shortly after dinner I had a shower. Yesterday in Youngstown one of the ladies gave me there keys to their jeep so I could drive 3 guys over to have a shower. The water from a glacier would have been warmer. Today at the campground the water was scortching hot.
Everyone is in bed as most have admitted today was a tough day. Tomorrow we are supposed to have a tail wind but yesterday they said that.
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| Through Alberta, on to Saskatchewan |
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| Taking a break in a small bit of shade. Shade is a scarce resource in the prairies |
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| Lead truck told me to move into the ditch when the truck passed. I thought she |
Roll on Saskatchewan!
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