Day 8 – I’m not alone!

June 30, 2012

Start: Wigwam Creek
Finish: Rabbit Creek

Today’s miles: 15.9
Total miles: 238.6

Splats: 1
Divide crossings: 0
Wildlife: elk

Canada –> Mexico

9%

I woke up a little earlier this morning but still didn’t get out of camp until around 9:00. I don’t know why it’s taking me so long to break camp. I was feeling pretty sluggish after yesterday’s push the first several miles. Following an elk down the trail for a quarter mile or so helped fuel me up a little bit. Murray caught up to me before long, and we rode together the rest of the day, including an insane quarter mile of trail that looked possibly impossible to walk up. It took Murray two trips to get his bike and gear up the climb.

In camp tonight, another divide rider, Craig, passed by. He spoke of another unicyclist just a few days behind me – I’m not alone out here! I hope to meet this other nut before too long.

Today’s goal was to get across the border and into Eureka, MT, for a rest day. Unfortunately, progress was abruptly halted about 4.5 miles from the top of Galton Pass and our big descent to the border. I failed an attempt to mount the unicycle; that’s not uncommon, but I landed poorly, rolling my ankle. I immediately knew there would be no more riding, at least for today. After several minutes and a bunch of ibuprofen, the initial pain subsided, and I gathered the courage to stand up. We retreated a few hundred feet to Rabbit Creek, where I iced my ankle in the frigid creek water. I’m not going anywhere for the rest of the day, so we’ve set up camp and have mostly been lying in the refuge of our tents to avoid the healthy mosquito population here. All I can do now is rest and hope the ankle feels okay tomorrow. I’ve deconstructed some of my body armor and sewn together (with dental floss) some of the elastic and Velcro to wrap the ankle with for some extra support tomorrow. I was lucky to have Murray around to help and keep a cool head! (I didn’t want to backtrack the 100 yards to the creek, but he made me).

As per tradition, it rained for a few hours this evening. Otherwise, it was a warm and sunny day!

Post-trip note: I must’ve been trying to stay optimistic when I wrote this entry.  When the accident happened, I was on the ground for about 20 minutes before trying to get up. Initially, I didn’t think I’d be able to get out on my own, and for the rest of the day, I thought the trip was probably over.