Sink the Bismarck? Bismarck almost sank me!

Stateline Resort to Bismarck, North Dakota Sunday, July 25, 2021

I have a little sleep monitor on my Apple Watch, which measures my hours of total and deep sleep. Curiously, I had my deepest sleep last night, in a hot tent with a cooling breeze. Something about air-conditioned rooms interferes with restful sleeping for me.

I was determined to get going before sunrise, so I got up at three and packed hurriedly. By now it was 55°, but slated to reach 99 that afternoon. That’s a difficult range to deal with. Leaving the campground in the dark, I hit a soft spot that eluded my headlights, made me fall over and break my rearview mirror, the second time this has happened. Luckily, I had bought a spare.

The worst hills were in the early morning, and it was cool to see the sun rising like a red rubber ball, just like in the Cyrkle song. In 21 miles I had reached my original intended campground, and up a short steep hill was a little convenience store that was just opening, although it didn’t have much. Still 52 miles to go, and now the hot sun was out.

The hills were still numerous, though not quite as steep, but the worst thing was the total lack of any shade. I had lots of spare water, but it heated up in my panniers and it wasn’t very palatable. I finally found a small RV park where I could have lunch, but all they had was a picnic table in the broad sunlight. Leaving there, I had my post-prandial loginess to add to the heat and exhaustion, and I was starting to despair. Fortunately, I was able to reach my good friend Sharon on the phone, and she really bucked me up as I pedaled slowly up the hills.

With 17 miles still to go, I found a small patch of shade under a single large tree, and carefully lay my bike and myself down for a final rest. A couple of cars stopped to ask if I was OK. I was, just barely.

Readers of this blog know I have had challenges before, but this was possibly the worst. There’s just no escaping the heat. It’s weird because Vermont gets relatively little sunshine, and we are always grateful when it comes. Here, it is just a brutal unrelenting glare, and you pray for it to stop. Even if you’re an atheist.

The next two days are predicted to be over 100, there is a heat advisory, so I will be taking two rest days. I need to rethink whether continuing this trip will be possible at all. Bismarck has the last sizable airport for many hundreds of miles.

Kinda bummed tonight.

Distance 76 miles, 4,461 total. Time 10 hours with stops. Elevation gain 2,999 feet

©️ 2021 Scott Luria