Wednesday 21 August 2019

On winds and trucks

The wind gods must hate me. Of the last four days of biking, all had winds that partially went against me. Today, however went well beyond the norm with a strong wind (20+ km/h) out the South East that was a royal pain given I was going mostly due East. It was a psychological effort to keep going at the low speed imposed by the wind. Typical speeds were below 15 km/h.

Thankfully, Rosetown was only 83 klicks, but the math implicit was scary, especially as my legs were protesting the effort to maintain even the slow pace. The mind wandered into scenarios of when I would start to beg for a lift. I even took a picture of an old truck which served as an ad for Rosetown towing with the phone number written on the side in large friendly letters, just in case. I was also worried about how low my water supply was getting.

There was a number of very wide loads on the road. For several of them, I took the better part of valour and the grass shoulder. Give truckers the space and the chance. At least a couple of the ones going the other way moved to the hard shoulder in order to give trucks passing me more space. 

Eventually the road veered a touch to the North, reducing the effect of the wind to merely a cross wind, which combined with the occasional presence of a railway embankment which gave a degree of cover from the wind. I felt I was flying for a bit. I made Rosetown earlier than I expected, or at least, earlier than I feared.

Tomorrow, I should make Saskatoon.

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