Out of Sync

I hitched a ride the 50-some miles back to Houghton from Copper Bay. I was thankful to not have to re-bike that stretch. With a belly full of breakfast, the mid-morning sun streaming in through the windshield, and the hum of the car, I was lulled almost back to sleep. I fought it knowing in a short amount of time I would have to mount up and bike 60 miles from Houghton to Silver City. We pulled off at a roadside BP in Houghton. I loaded up my bike and set out into a strong headwind. Unfortunately this wind stayed with me almost my entire ride. I headed south to Greenland where the road turns northwest to Ontonagon before turning west to Silver City. As I plowed into the wind I knew this was going to be a long haul for a more average ride. My body was exhausted, my muscles ached from yesterday's longer ride to Copper Harbor, and the wind kept my speed around 7 mph.

It took me 5 hours and 40 minutes to bike 60 miles with an average speed of 10 mph. This is pitiful. I've done these miles in about 4 and a half hours all the rest of this trip. I felt every second of that last hour and 10 minutes everywhere. The first part of the ride was really quite hilly - nothing unmanageable, but annoying nonetheless. The last 15 miles or so were flat, but I still couldn't get my speed up to more than 11 mph. Even when I finally caught glimpses of the lake, while my mood calmed, my body still didn't want to work. Thoughts about calling for the sag wagon to come and pick me up paced back and forth in my mind before finally parking it right there in the front so I could think of nothing else. Luckily I didn't have any cell service or I probably would have called. Everything hurt and although I have been sleeping alot better since having my own space each night, I think my body is still playing catch up to the cumulative exhaustion.

I tried my best not to think about my near 90 mile ride tomorrow into Ashland, WI. My body and my mind were not in sync with each other all day. Never finding a rhythm that felt good, my emotional balance sank as well. I am 3 rides away from being home. It feels defeating to have everything feel so out of whack so close to being done. I knew that I needed to finish my ride today. I just kept pushing those pedals over and over. I quit paying attention to how slow I was going and kept my eyes on the pavement watching the broken shards of glass and pebbles roll on by. I knew as long as I kept rolling forward, I was getting closer. It's all I could do. My sister's words, "I have seen you try harder because you believed all things were possible," motivated me to keep going, to keep pushing through the pain and exhaustion, to believe that I could make it to the end of the ride for the night.

When I was about 4 miles southwest of Ontonagon I kept my eyes on my bike-o-meter. I knew I was going to break 1,000 miles today. Three miles, up a mile-long gradual incline. Two miles. Headwind. One point nine miles. More wind. As the tenths of a mile kept turning, a brief surge of energy overcame me. I passed the barn with cartoon animals painted on it with a wooden sign that said, "critters." A few more feet up the road, the numbers rolled over. One thousand point one miles. I stopped my bike. With the early evening sun beating down and the dog across the way incessantly barking at me, I took a moment to realize this accomplishment. I took out a piece of few days old pizza that I packed in my bike bag for lunch. Now luke warm from the day's sunlight heating it up, it was the best meal to celebrate this milestone. After 17 days of consecutive biking around Lake Superior, the largest fresh body of water in the world, on my last day biking through the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, I rolled my bike over 1,000 miles. It was a brief moment of awesomeness on a long and difficult ride.

Tonight will be my final night in Michigan. It's taken me just as long to bike through the UP as it did to get through Canada (8 days). I'll cross into Wisconsin tomorrow at Ironwood, some 50 miles into the ride. Tomorrow's ride will be the last long ride of the trip totaling close to 90 miles. While Canada saw alot of physical pain and the victory of my one and only century ride through the mountains, Michigan saw alot of emotional rawness and breakdowns before starting the breakthrough to inspiration, strength, and gratitude. The official countdown has begun. Three days left!