Day 5

Day 5

Hardest day yet. Since day 1, everyday I have said something like "I thought I was in the desert yesterday, but now I am really in the desert." I just didn't think it got much more remote, which is quite naive on my part. We had a 70 mile day, and since the first day we had been warned about this day. Usually, there are 20+ mile an hour head winds on top of the 100'+ heat, daunting climbs, and the lack of shade and services.

It was my day to cook breakfast and lunch (and clean up after), but we still managed to get out by 6:50am. Right as we were finishing up, I made my lunch and snacks, and turned my back for a minute to clean some dishes. On the table, I left my sandwich, pop-tarts, banana, and a bag of pretzels and nuts neatly stacked. I turned back, and someone took my banana and bag of pretzels and nuts! I WILL FIND OUT WHO TOOK THEM!

As we left I remember thinking how warm it was, and the sun was just rising. I knew it would be a long day. We rode 30 miles to Glamis, the only services stop on the entire route. The first 10 miles were on "chip-seal" which provides rolling resistance like a 10 mph headwind. Since we were staying below sea-level in Brawley,

the only was to go was up. After about 10 miles, we hit a steep climb, and it was getting hot. I tried to ignore the heat and panic that was setting in because the dunes really are beautiful. I heard somewhere that because of the winds the move west(I believe) at 1 foot per year. We stopped and climbed a hill to an observation spot and took some pictures before we continued to Glamis.

Glamis has 1 store that is only open from now through March. They charge outrageous prices because they can. It was $2 to use the bathroom (rumored to be a porta-potty) and apparently they had showers for $10. Of course there was no tap water (though some tap water here is questionable anyway), and I had to pay $4.25 for a gallon of water. I was too pissed about that to engage in any small talk with the seemingly-friendly cashier. I drank a can of pepsi ($1.50), ate 2 pop-tarts (one food item I am extremely thankful for) and we were back on our way.

Somehow in the 20 minutes we stopped, a pretty strong head wind developed. In 20 minutes?? How did this happen?! I was with 3 people, and we started a paceline on fully-loaded touring bikes in the middle of the desert at about 8 mph. We caught a couple other riders and all rode for about an hour when 3 of them wanted to stop. Gunnar and I continued on our own because of an impending migraine for me. I had 4 full water bottles and a full nalgean, and I still had to ration my water. I drank the first bottle in about 5 miles, and I realized that if I kept drinking at that pace I'd never make it.

20 miles into it, we crossed a boarder patrol station. The boarder patrol boys invited us in to cool down and offered us water. I cannot tell you how thankful I was for this. I promptly downed almost 2 water bottles, and topped them all off before we left. At that point, I was still feeling good. The next 10 miles was a series of "dips", another word for short hill. Unfortunately, the speed you gained going down was never enough to get you back to the top, and the sun was beating down on us. After about 3 or 4 more miles, we stopped for a second, and when I turned around, there was a cloud of sand about 1/2 a mile back. It looked like there had been an accident, and we were terrified that it involved one of us. We later found out it was a diesel trucker who had crashed when he was going up and down the dips (no cyclists involved), and the highway was closed for a few hours. It was scary for me to think that it was only about a 1/2 mile behind us, must have been my guardian angels looking out for me.

With about 5 miles left, I felt terrible and was really worried about this accident. I was looking for a tree to sit under, but there were none for miles. Finally, I stopped on the road and begged Gunnar for some Gatorade and electrolyte mix. He graciously gave me some (Gunnar I owe you big time), and I felt so much better. He pulled me the rest of the way at about 10mph and we made into camp.

We stayed at a motel, but it was really a brothel.

There were 5 rooms, all equally as disgusting. It is by far the worst "motel" I have ever stayed at, but luckily it did have a working ac. We later found out at the bar that the hotel used to be a brothel. 30-50 years ago, they used to raise cattle in the area that would be brought to the market in Colorado via the Colorado river basin. Palo Verde was one of their stops, and all the cowboys would go to the local bar. The women figured out they could make money off these men, so they would reserve rooms at the Lagoon Lodge and take care of all the cowboys. The women would try to get the cowboys to spend every last penny they had at either the bar or on the women themselves before they took off the next morning. I don't think the hotel has been renovated, painted or let alone cleaned since then. We decided not to look much at the room because we didn't want to know what was there, and I won't go into anymore detail.