It was another late morning. I guess by late I mean I was rolling after the sun came up. I stopped at the Lodge store and grabbed some supplies and had a bit of breakfast, a little coffee to try and wake / warm me up. I was dragging to day, and I think on purpose. I knew what was ahead of me (I thought) and this section, again, doesn’t really excite me.
I finally got moving and started up the climb to Union Pass. What I had forgotten, maybe I didn’t check, is that the race route takes a different road than the one I had previously been on. I remembered the climb up just being a normal, but tough, gravel climb to the top. The last time we did this it was with full rear panniers, so I would have remembered having to push up with all the gear. The trail I found was much tougher, with much more debris and downed trees. There was snow on the route and I had to do quite a bit of pushing. The weather was cold yesterday, and didn’t warm up, even with the sun out today. I got to the “top” of Union Pass and it was bitter cold. I stopped briefly to take a couple of pictures, but I didn’t want to spend much time on the top. It must have rained up there, or maybe it was just the snow melt, but there was a lot of mud, and even the grassy areas were boggy, so it took a bit longer to get toward the decent part of this section.
Thankfully the roads were improved from six years ago and when I finally got on the decent it was rideable, and didn’t destroy me or my bike like it threatened to last time I came down this side. The final long straight stretch of gravel was washboarded and dusty, and apt send-off for this notorious section. I skipped Whiskey Grove campground, where we stayed last time, and instead just took a few minutes at the “rest stop” at the transition to pavement. I knew the next section was almost all pavement into Pinedale, and there weren’t too many opportunities to stop between here and there.
I decided to stop early in Pinedale, get some supplies and a hotel room. I knew the next section, just before Atlantic City, was a bit rough, and I didn’t remember any good places to camp. Also I was dreading sleeping in my bivvy. It seemed like I my sleeping bag always got wet from condensation, and then I’d have to dry it out somehow before the next night. I didn’t know where I’d be stopping in the Basin, or what the conditions would be, so I wanted dry gear tomorrow. My plan was to get up very early and push through as much of the Basin as I could, continuing into the night until I just couldn’t go any more. Again, this was another night I could have pushed just 20 more miles and been 20 miles further the next day, but the lure of a warm hotel and a nice shower kept me from moving on.
