Day 9 (6/13): unexpected issues
Due to historic flooding, NPS has for the first time in almost 50 years closed all entrances to Yellowstone National Park. The closure comes as a safety precaution due to high waters and multiple road collapses inside the park.
Into Lolo a little over an hour later...a little bit bigger of a place than the previous small towns traveled through on this adventure. First order of business, food. McDonald's...which I never eat at under normal circumstances...was the best candidate. While they didn't offer the "big breakfast" option that had been my go-to since starting the race they had the normal biscuits, etc. A bacon/egg/cheese biscuit, egg McMuffin, and coffee set me up with a warm breakfast and some time to think through the upcoming day. Darby, MT was about 55 miles down the road with Sula around 20 miles afterwards. Beyond that lay Wisdom and then Dillon, MT. Dillon was some 120 miles away and lay beyond the climb up Chief Joseph Pass - the next big climb on the course. I pondered my chances of getting to Dillon before stopping for the day. A lot would depend on how much progress I could make in the earlier parts of the day...wasn't looking forward to attempting the climb late in the day or after sundown.
It was during this time that I became aware of the issue in Yellowstone. A mix of late season snow that had begun to melt plus the way-above normal amount of rainfall over the past few days had set forth a huge release of water down the Yellowstone River. Flooding had ensued and several roads were either under water or had collapsed amid the flooding. Nathan, the race coordinator, was working on alternative routes as the race goes right through Yellowstone and racers were already stacking up at the West Yellowstone gate. There actually were a couple of racers who were in the park at this time. Fortunately they were far enough to the East where it wasn't much of an issue though one racer was forced to take shelter in a porta-john amid the height of the storms the previous evening...no fun for him.
Leaving Lolo I headed down the road towards Florence (important later), Hamilton, and Darby. As my middle daughter bears the same name as one of my stops I told her that when I got there I would take a picture of the town and send it to her so that was on my list of "gotta do it's" for the day. This part of Montana has a great resource for cyclists. The "Bitterroot Valley Cycleway" is a multi-use trail that parallels hwy 93. Running from Missoula, MT to Hamilton, MT it provides 47 miles of protected roadway for cyclists to use when operating in this area. This is not a trivial thing as hwy 93 is very busy in this area. While sections of the trail are in need of maintenance (apparently funding for maintenance and repair comes almost soley from private fund raising) it is a without a doubt an asset to the area and increases cycling safety dramatically.
I plodded along the Cycleway, occasionally veering onto and then back off of the hwy when the trail got bad until I reached the trail's endpoint at Hamilton. Back onto the hwy, I found myself working against a headwind and going uphill while pushing on towards Darby.
During this segment I started noticing something...weird in how I felt. Body mechanics were off and I was having a lot of trouble keeping a steady pace. My legs, knees, back all felt fine but I was off and couldn't really place it.
Arriving in Darby, I stopped into the local store for some supplies. While in there I popped into the bathroom for a quick check down below. Uh oh, blood in my bib shorts...what's up? Doing a little checking I found additional items of concern in the form of two skin tears along the left side of my backside near my bib short's chamois pad. I gave it some thought and was going to ignore it for as long as possible. I've had saddle sores before and had been dealing with them this time since day 3 - should be able to manage them for a while longer. At some point they would granulate and then they wouldn't be as much of a problem. However, walking back outside I started to realize that my feeling of "being off" was actually me feeling a bit sick....chills and some mild nausea. Looking around Darby (there's not much there) I managed to find a small hotel and checked in. I didn't get anywhere near the distance as I had planned for the day but I just felt bad. Maybe getting "out of the wind" for a bit would make me feel better.
Once in the hotel I dumped a bunch of gear and then soft-pedaled back to the store. I grabbed some Tylenol and a cheap thermometer as well as a few items for dinner...wasn't going anywhere tonight anyway. Back at the hotel made a few phone calls to get caught up and then took my temp...100.4, crap! Ok, Tylenol, fluids then a shower. Once done, into bed - maybe it's just a cold...
Comments
Post a Comment