Oxygen in the Atmosphere, Indeed

May 13, 2013

So, as we were returning to Kemmerer (8 mile ride together.. Aislynn did great) from our first "family" ride along the Bear River State Park in Evanston to its Riverwalk path, Adam pointed out a brand new paved road that led West from Hwy 189.  Apparently it was built to take trucks and workers to Haystack Mine, but then the mine never happened, so now the road is... well, abandoned and empty, but NEW and PAVED. 

We thought it might work as a good workout route for me, so we veered off 189 to check it out.  As it turns out, it is only 2 miles long (so, 4 miles total), BUT... there is one advantage.  It's an unbelievable climb in that short two miles.  So when I want to start practicing climbs, it might be a perfect place, if I could go back and forth on it 3-5 times. 

Of course, every time I think about it, I find myself shuddering uncontrollably.  But.... the point is that as I train, it should get less scary and should become one of those great benchmark challenges within the overall challenge, right?

Anyway, when we got to the end (rather quickly), Adam gave one of his patented "Hmmm"s, and ...wait for it.... suggested I ride around Fossil Butte.  His logic was that I could start near Ulrich's Fossil Quarry, ride up to where the road turns right into the Butte, and ride up to the Visitor's Center and beyond.  It's also quite a climb, by the way, but seemed doable, and I liked that I could determine how far to ride and increase over time. I decided it would be my next workout.

Fossil Butte

And so it was that Tuesday night after work I packed up my Fuji, gloves, helmet and MapMyBikeRide app on my phone, changed my clothes and headed to the Butte.  I pulled off 30 and parked my car on the side of the road.  I could have easily pulled into Carl and Shirley's Gallery parking lot and let them know I was going to leave the car there while I rode, but frankly, their driveway has one of those cattle rails at the end of it, and they scare the heck out of me, so the fewer of those I have to ride over on my bike, the better. Took my bike off the car and gathered my things.  It was only when I looked down at myself that I realized one of the great misfortunes of being a fat chick in biking clothes... (especially a biking shirt that my adorable husband, who seems to think I have lost a lot more weight than I actually have, bought for me...)  Yeah, my bike shirt is so tight on me, read: my lower stomach is so big... that the shirt keeps slithering up over my hips to bunch around my waist, leaving my lycra-clad hips and thighs to bulge in all their glory, with no long shirt tails to reign them in, or at least hide them. 

No matter.  I was there to conquer the route, not show off my non-existent beach body.  (I do have the good graces to apologize profusely to anyone who came up behind me during this ride.  Time will erase the images...)  I got everything set, jumped on my bike and started off.  Within the first 2 seconds a phrase started flashing before me:  HEAD WIND.  Oh my heck.  The Wyoming head winds.  Forgot all about that.  But I reasoned that there are going to be head winds in Washington and told myself that this is actually a blessing.  If I train in head winds at this altitude, I will be uber prepared in September. 

One thing I didn't notice when driving through the Butte is that the road is actually quite rough.  I was a little worried about the effect that might be having on my thin road bike tires.  The head winds truly did make the ride a challenge, especially once the road started to climb upward.  I had all those Tim Pettigrew Lyrics in my head from when I used to lead the teen choir: "The road is hot, but it's not too long; the enemy is near, but he's not too strong, and I won't turn back, NO, I won't turn back."

The hardest part was the final climb up to where the driveway heads down to the Visitor's Center.  And you know, I have to say... there are all these clever little signs along the way that give a  timeline of paleontological developments.  You know, they say things like, "First rock formations appear" and then give a time, like "4.5 billion years ago".... or "Photosynthesizing bacteria are present"...2.7 billion years ago.

I was huffing and puffing, coughing and cursing my way up this hill, and about the time I got over the top and was trying to determine whether my lungs were actually bleeding, or just burning,  I looked over to my right and the sign read, "Oxygen is present in the atmosphere".... Huh.  Not so sure about that one, I thought, still gasping and sputtering my way toward the Visitor Center.

Anywhoooo..... I can attest that the ride back was way easy and pleasant.  It was the anti-ride there.  Gorgeous, lovely, life-giving tailwind AND a descent down back through the Butte.

It turns out it was just a 7 mile ride, but a much harder workout than our cute little family bike ride two days before.  It took just under an hour.  My assessment:  Oh man, am I in trouble.