The Rise Up Ride: Day 102, Third Day Blahs
Date: 2 August 2021
Start Location: Dean's Fish Camp, Mouth of the Kasilof River, Kenai
End Location: Kelly Lake Campground, Sterling Highway, Kenai Peninsula
Distance: 76.6 km
Time: 4:23
Total elapsed: 5:23
Elevation: 450 m
A lot of cyclists will tell you that the third day riding is the toughest on a tour. Of course this is day 102, but since leaving Whitefish in June I haven't ridden several days in a row on the road and it feels a bit like starting over. While back in NYC I'd trained hard everyday, but that aerobic fitness is not the same kind of fitness that only comes from several days spending hours each day in the saddle.
I'd ridden out of Homer two days ago on Saturday, up the coast to the fish camp yesterday, and so today's ride along the busy Sterling Highway was predictably challenging. It's something both physiological and mental as the body struggles to adjust to the cumulative workload. After a late start at the fish camp, fortified by strong coffee and Ben's amazing breakfast burrito, I rode some extra mileage to the mouth of the Kasilof River to avoid riding the same stretch of road and finished the Kehoe Loop back to the Sterling Highway and up into the town of Soldatna.
This is why I don't like setting fixed points, like making campground reservations. I was not having fun on the bike this morning. My destination today was an National Forest Service recreational site just about halfway between Clam Gultch and Seward, where my National Park Senior Golden Pass got me a tent site online three weeks ago for $5. So, the lesson was a cheap one when I realized in Soldatna that there was no way that I could make it all the way to Cooper Landing today. My legs were leaden. Listening to podcasts tossed me into an ennui that made the relentless ups and downs of the lumpy road feel tedious. My low point was when I started looking for a motel and sank lower still when the cheapest place was over $250 a night.
I resigned to push on, vowing to ride as far as I could to avoid having to do more than 100 km over Moose Pass tomorrow. I'll need to get to the Nauti Otter, the fixed point rustic hostel outside of Seward where I'm booked into a cabin tomorrow night. And, after a 32 oz fountain drink of Mountain Dew (which includes three of the primary cyclist food groups: sugar, caffeine, and water), I rallied enough to make it all the way to Kelly Lake Campground. I'll have a difficult but manageable 105 km to ride into the Chugash Mountains tomorrow and down to the coast.
Things were looking up as I scored an empty free campsite by the lake, surrounded by brilliant fields of fire weed. I know how to rebound from the third-day blahs and set to work pumping, filtering, mixing and drinking several liters of water with rehydration packets. I cooked a big dinner of dehydrated Thai beef noodles with sourdough bread, butter, Gouda cheese and cashew butter, and am going to sleep now even though it still light out at 9:30 pm. I'm hoping that most cyclists are right when they tell you that you'll feel better on the fourth day of a tour.
