Day 28

Wow, the snot sure was a-flyin' today!

Since I'd gotten into camp fairly early the night before, I'd gone to bed early knowing that I had another long day coming up. Sometime around midnight, the winds shifted around from the south to the northwest, and picked up considerably in intensity. I could hear the trees waving around in the wind, and a couple of pinecones dropped onto the tent, which scared the crap out of me. At one point there was a little bit of rain, but the constant wind was enough to dry everything out by morning.

I was up at about 5:30, the wind was still blowing, and it had brought a 52 degree temperature and clouds with it. Again, I had read about all this in the weather report a few days ago, so it wasn't unexpected, although that didn't make it any more pleasant.

I got on the road at 6:40, for my earliest start ever. It was the first time I was wearing my long-sleeved shirt while riding, but it was still pretty chilly. I'm guessing for the first half of the day that I lost more liquid out of my nose than I did from sweating. Yum. I began the day by riding on a lot of straight county farm roads. When going north, it sucked, and when going east, it was great. At one point I discovered why the State Forest was called "Sand Ridge" when one of the asphalt roads suddenly turned into not gravel or dirt, but sand! And not sandy gravel, but full-on, beach-like sand. There was no way I could ride through the stuff, and even pushing the bike through it was a hell of a chore, as it would sink in pretty deeply. Luckily I only had to do that for about a quarter of a mile before the surface hardened up a bit, and then I was at IL 29.

I took that north for a good stretch, going through Pekin and East Peoria. As I turned east, away from the river on IL 116, I had a surprisingly big hill to climb that eventually took me to 830 feet, from 490 feet. Much of the rest of the day would be spent on that 800 foot plateau. I made it to Metamora at 10:30 and 41 miles, and had a very early lunch at McDonald's. Then it was quickly back on the bike, rolling up IL 89. My original goal for the day was Starved Rock State Park. I knew that it was a very popular campground, so I hoped to cover the 95 miles quickly to get there early enough in the day to get a site. That's why I had started so early and tried to make few stops.

And also because of the wind. Luckily, the western component of the wind was a good bit stronger than the northern component, so the winds I was fighting when going north weren't quite as strong as the winds pushing me when going east. Also I spent a fair bit of time on roads that went some combination of both north and east, so that helped balance things out. Still, it was easily the strongest wind I've had for the whole trip. Often when heading north, I would not only be fighting the wind going forward, I would also be leaning the bike to the left as I rode, to counteract the crosswind. That makes it particularly exciting when the dump trucks go flying by, bringing their very own wind components with them. Thankfully, the clouds had broken up and disappeared pretty early in the morning, so it was the fifth consecutive day of cloudless skies. And while it never got exactly "warm", at least the temperatures became more tolerable.

By noon, I had covered more than 60 miles, and the odometer read 96 when I reached Starved Rock just before 3:30. And the campground was already full. I knew this had been a possibility, but I had figured maybe the cold weather would keep people away. I guess not. Anyway, no big deal. Another benefit of making it early to Starved Rock was that I still had plenty of time in the day to go elsewhere. And not only did I have time, I had energy, unlike the day before, despite having had to fight the headwinds. Maybe it was just because I knew that "elsewhere" was Illini State Park, 17 tailwind-fueled miles straight east.

So I covered the ground pretty quickly. I stopped at an Eagle grocery store, and talked with a woman in the parking lot who seemed fairly knowledgeable about bikes. She was quite amazed with the amount of weight I was able to carry. It turns out her husband rides a lot, and is in the Starved Rock cycling club, which is doing a century ride (100 miles) tomorrow. So I took the opportunity to use my show-off skills and pointed her to my odometer, which read 105 miles at the time. I also happened to mention that I'd done 107 miles the day before. She seemed suitably impressed, and said she'd definitely tell her husband about meeting me. I made it into camp before 5:00, feeling much less tired than the day before. I thought I'd picked a non-electric site, but apparently I'd passed by that less-crowded area. Well, it was $11 vs. $8, and I'd been lax with the solar panel so my computer needed charging anyway. No showers though, so that means tomorrow will be my fourth day of riding without showering, which is the longest I've gone. With the cooler temperatures though, I don't feel the need as much as I did when it was warmer.