OK, this ranks as the worst day so far. I left NE City early as usual and my first turn off was onto a gravel road. Gravel! YUK! So last nite we had thunderstorms and a lot heavy rain. So glad to be in a motel.
The gravel road would have been ok except the hills were unreal. I don’t mind hills, in general, but straight up on loose gravel doesn’t cut it. I had to walk.
I finally ended up at the beginning of the Steamboat Trace bike trail. Of course, it was gravel, but I expected that. But with the excessive rain last nite, it was very saturated and not as solid as it should have been. Made for heavy pedalling. The first 10 miles weren’t too bad but the last 10 were brutal. So soft that I left one inch tire ruts in the surface. So hard to pedal.
By the time I got to the end, I was exhausted. Only 25 miles and I was ready to quit. But nothing for another 28 miles. No choice but to pedal on.
I met a couple on a tandem the last mile of that horrendous trail. I warned them of the conditions but like me, they had no choice. The last 6 miles of the trail had warning signs about rough conditions, be cautious. No kidding. My bike was so covered in MUD. I had to walk it thru parts and even had to scrape mud off at least 5 times before I could ride. My bike is NOT a mountain bike and all I could do was apologize and clean him off as best I could.
As soon as I got off that trail, of course, it started to rain. But the ‘town’ I ended up in was very small. The cafe was closed-Monday. Nothing was open and no place to stay. I would have. So I talked to my bike and said, “hey, we have no choice, must go on”. I apologized for all the mud. Couldn’t even find a place to hose him off.
So we rode on and the hills were no biggy. Left town with no shoulder. Turned into a rumble strip with a 12 inch shoulder and a drop off on the right. Very stressful to ride. But we survived.
Then it turned into NO shoulder. A few trucks so it was hairy. Then soon, we got a narrow shoulder with no rumble strip but it disappeared now and then. Really had to be on your toes. The last ten miles were heaven. A rumble strip with a 5-6 foot shoulder. I felt like I had my own highway. And I needed it because I was tired and was really tired of having to be so on my toes.
Got into town and believe it or not, things are closed here on Monday, like restaurants. Wierd.
Cleaned my bike and am just mellowing out. So tired tonite. A really HARD day.
54.7 miles today. 757.3 total
BikerAl Across America 2018 
Sorry you had such a bad day. Rain can really make these trails bad. Kay McNabb gave me your blog. Wish you could have come here. We would have liked to have you visit with our club & bike shop. All the best.
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