Muerto Challenge report

This Spring when operacion muerto declared the summer challenge to be to ride from Virden to Falcon Lake, Franklin and I immediately said that we would make an attempt. On July 6 & 7 we began our journey. Below are our words and pics following that attempt.

July 6, 2013

Weather: Wind SE 13km all day, except after midnight when it picked up a bit.

Franklin’s report

7:45am - Left Virden carrying food and 1 gatorade & 4 litres of water

8:12am - Crossed the Assiniboine against a “road closed” sign. Turns out the road was passable for bike.

10:45am - On top of Old Baldy just east of Deerboine Colony. 90 kms in the roads have been ideal.

Unfolding, and checking the map, again.

12:00 - Brandon; lunch at Humpty’s. Had the Classic Burger. Couldn’t eat my fries. Not feeling well. Large chocolate milk & water. Added 2 Powerades & 1 litre of water.

The hills and winds roads of the Whitemud watershed.

A steep one: 7% grade.

Six miles of sand along an conservation corridor (right next to the powerlines!?). 2:15pm - Mile 64N is a conservation corridor … read: sand! The roads in general since Brandon have been loose gravel.

3:15ish - Stopped at a potato farm for water on mile 65N. Added about 3 litres.

4:15pm - 155km in. Not quite halfway. Hitting a wall. Also the last of the big climbs.

5:00pm - Austin for supper: Onion chicken Teriyaki with guacamole sub; 500ml chocolate milk & 500ml of orange juice (2 – 500ml waters in jersey). @200km I hit another wall; not sure how to finish

The first mile of Darrel Rd.

The end of Darrel Rd.

9:33pm - Darrel Road turns out to be a pasture and a field. We can bike through the pasture, but must walk through the field.

July 7, 2013

Weather:  Over night, thunder and rain threaten, but that's all. Wind shifts to come from the West at 20 km/h and by midday it's 30'C (and more).

9:45pm  - The Portage Sandhills Wildlife Management area – the sand had been graded, but we kept breaking through the crust and plowing our bikes. Maybe 4 miles of this. Couldn’t stop because the mosquitoes were terrible. Fell and broke my pedal, so I couldn’t clip in on that side anymore.

10:30pm - Through the Sandhills, on good gravel. Turns out we only had just over four hours to go.

12:30am - Confusion over how to get into the city when the road turns to dirt and grass. We play it safe and go on roads Paul has travelled before.

2:00am - On Roblin Blvd. out of the gusting wind. The lightning storm is chasing us in. We make it in to the perimeter and stop at a Shell station for water. I still have some left. We depart and my bladder hose hooks into the spokes and rips the nipple off. We carry on.

2:45am - Arrive at 661 Campbell for a rest. 335 km in, 15 hours 39 minutes on the bike. Rod & Connie’s place offers showers, food & rest.

6:30am - Wake up, turn on the A/C and go back to bed. Not feeling well.

7:30am - Wake up, tell Paul he is on his own. Call Bethany and go back to bed.

Paul texts later to say he finished at 6:10pm, and went 190 km. Good for him, I couldn’t have done it.

Paul’s report

Everything Franklin reports checks out, as far as I experienced it. I’ll continue with my timeline. Since Franklin had the camera (his phone), the pictures from here on in are limited to the one I asked Brennan to take and email to me at the Falcon Lake Golf Course. 

7:30am - Hearing that I’m on my own, and that Franklin’s okay with me continuing, I make coffee and oatmeal for breakfast.

8:10am - Back in the saddle, heading toward Dugald Rd.

9:25am - Stop at Deacon’s corner for a shit and 2^nd breakfast – coffee, cinnamon bun, & banana. (a little surprised that I can shit)

11:45am - Ride south off the course into St. Anne for lunch and water.

3:30ish - Found the through road (Railway Bridge Rd) from Hadashville over to the road to Prawda. Fuel stop here: chocolate milk, butter tart, apple turnover, water.

5:55pm - The double water-bottle holder attached to my seat falls off (the heads of the two bolts holding the clamp shear off) and it’s water bottles all over the highway. Fortunately there’s no traffic and I can retrieve them. I redistribute my load, stuff the two bottles into my jersey, and carry on.

6:10pm - Pull in to the Falcon Lake Golf Course. A Fat Boy, fries, and a Corona never tasted so so good.

Notables

Ups

- The terrain north of the #1 between Virden and Brandon was beautiful. Riding the hills there was great!

- The fire and logging roads between Richer and the road up to Hadashville were at times super fun (Riding the water stretch was fun; it seems that sand is better for bikes when it’s wet than when it’s bone dry.)

- “saltstick caps” electrolyte capsules – I don’t think I could have found/carried enough Gatorade, etc, to keep my salts and electrolytes up, to make the water and food work – these capsules saved my ass. This I believe.

- The potato farmers north of Brandon who turned on their garden hose and let us fill up with the coldest, bestest tasting water ever. 

- Burgers and fries.

- A tail wind on Day 2.

Downs

- Sandy gravel: The gravel west of Portage tends to be much softer, with a fine fine grit that just sucks the life out of you.

- A broken pedal.

- A headwind on Day 1.

- The loss of a hardworking companion and intrepid navigator.

- Tendonitis in my left Achilles.

Final words (Paul)

I've never ridden this kind of distance before. It was daunting from the outset, but once you're in it, you just keep going. It's the kind of endeavour that, before you enter into the heart of it, you're more aware of the risks than when you're in the midst of it trying to manage those same risks. I'd much rather be in the thick of it moving and working, than standing back and trying to anticipate what might go wrong. Not that preparation and standing back isn't crucial, it's just not real enough to get me going.

Yet, finishing and having ended the suffering is sweeter still than being in the middle of it. Of course the paradox of it is that the sweetness of finishing cannot happen without being in the midst of the suffering. At some point during Day 1 we talked, briefly (pant pant), about the philosophy of suffering. In my religious background suffering is viewed as redeeming when done for righteous causes. I don't buy this approach anymore. Suffering is not merely a necessary evil that happens to you, that one endures. Suffering is to be pursued and then pushed through. It's a cliche to say it - but it strengthens and matures. It is a good all its own.

Maps

Below you'll find images of the maps we used. The route we rode is in yellow. The other markings are notes and failures and possibilities.