Day 18: Deliriosaurus Rex

Course: Duchesne, UT to Dinosaur, CO

Distance: 95 miles

Temperature: 94 degrees

Conditions: Thin shoulder, lots of big traffic, bumpy roads

Terrain: Desert, rolling hills

You know you’re in for a hot bike ride when no one has cold weather gear on at 6a.m. It would prove to be a tad bit hotter than your average hot, though. Usually we wake up with a faint idea of what we’re in for. Today was not one of those days.

I rode with Doug and Beau. We started off as the last pace line to begin, and quickly worked our way up the ranks until we became the second pace line. The wind was at our backs, the terrain was flat, and it wasn’t too hot…yet. In a matter of 30 minutes, that all changed. The shoulders got thinner, the heat turned up, the wind went away, and the hills came rolling in. At one point, I swear I could have reached out and touched every car or semi that passed us. It was pretty freaky. However, we stayed steady and made it through the rough patches. We rode for about 50 more miles until we hit a local bike shop/rest stop. We went inside and enjoyed some A/C while we rested before getting back on the road. As soon as we got going, Beau’s chain fell off the cog, so we stopped to try to fix it. Unfortunately, the break was a little more complex than we could handle. We called a crew van to pick up his bike, and it came rather quickly. Just as it arrived, Doug began to feel dizzy and we noticed that he had a lot of salt on him. He decided to rack, and I was to wait for the next pace line to jump into.

I joined two guys who had also lost their third member due to heat exhaustion – Michael Walton and Luke Millen. Both of these guys ride extremely fast, so I knew that I was about to push myself a lot harder. As the hills kept coming, and the desert got hotter, we kept powering through. It wasn’t easy, and I was stumbling into each crew stop, but we were making good progress. About 15 miles out, delirium set in. The most ridiculous things would make us laugh way longer than we normally would. Luke passed gas once and Michael laughed for about five minutes.

Arriving in Dinosaur, I felt like I was crawling through the door of lodging. We had freezing cold showers, and it never felt so good. We were fed dinner by locals who have been feeding JOH riders for 17 years now. I ate two plates worth of chicken, beef, mashed potatoes, corn, and green beans; two rolls, two long slices of cantaloupe, a slice of blueberry cobbler, three cookies, and a slice of chocolate cake. After dinner, a bunch of us went to an ice cream shop to get shakes. Some people joke about having food babies after they eat a lot. I think I just might scold the next person I hear say that. You don’t know food babies until you’ve been on JOH.

Tomorrow is another long day. 90 miles in the desert.