Day 39: 55 Miles

Ness City, KS to Scott City, KS

My normal morning start time has been somewhere around 8:30 AM for the majority of this trip. When I talked to the 4 other guys who I camped with last night, they were all planning to be up by 4:45 AM. I knew it was going to get hot today and that I should be on the road early, but 4:45 AM seemed a bit much. When I woke up around 5:15 I had the only tent still set up in the park. Two guys were already out riding and two were close to leaving.

By the time I took down my tent, ate breakfast, and packed up it was 6:15. This was by far the earliest I’ve gotten on the road, but it put me behind everyone else for the day. I did have a nice view of the moon in front of me and the sun rising behind me which was nice, but I was otherwise not too happy about being on the road. I didn’t sleep well in the park. Everyone tried to get to bed around 9:00 PM, but at that point the sun was still out and there was still an annoyingly loud kid playing on the swings. I don’t think the temperature dropped below 90 degrees until after midnight, so it was pretty uncomfortable.

I got about 5 miles into the day and saw a few cyclists coming in the opposite direction. After that there was a steady stream of cyclists for the next 25 miles, all traveling in the opposite direction. I eventually found someone who was stopped and found out this was a group doing a bike tour across Kansas. They were traveling in the correct direction with the wind somewhat helping them. I on the other hand was traveling into a wind which held steady between 20 and 30 mph all day.

The riding today was miserable. For 55 miles I averaged 8.6 mph. This is my normal pace if I were to go for a run. I had one stop about 30 miles in, where I got some french toast and bacon, but then I was right back out in the wind. I relied heavily on listening to music once again to get me through the day. By the time I got to the motel in Scott City it was almost 2:00 and the temperature was 95 degrees.

I got into the motel and took a shower and relaxed in the air conditioning for a bit. Around 5:30 I went out to find a couple beers and some dinner. At this point the temperature had gone all the way up to 102 degrees. I guess waking up early was the right plan for the day. I grabbed a couple beers at the local bar and talked to a few people and then went next door for some Chinese food. Tomorrow looks like it’s going to be very similar to today. I’m planning to wake up early and do a short day around 45 miles. I thought Kansas was going to be easy, but the wind and heat have made the last few days the hardest I’ve encountered so far.