You know how we were just loosely concerned about rain during the night after the sprinkler incident yesterday? It happened. Around 1 am, all of our tents started to ripple in the wind which woke a few of us up and had us wondering what was happening. Then came the thunder. Maybe this was just a storm passing by and that wouldn’t actually hit us. The weather app said there was only a 5% chance of rain, right? Rain drops started to fall. Others in the tent began to wake up at the sounds of rain hitting the rain flies or blowing into the vents. Then the skies totally opened up and there was a downpour. All of our clothes hanging on the fences were getting soaked and blowing from where we had hung them. The bikes and bags outside were getting washed whether we wanted them to or not. Vents needed to be closed and there were a few of us running back and forth across the campsite trying to figure out what to do and where to get the necessary tools and supplies to reinforce the tents. One sleeping group even went without the rain cover for their tent thinking, as one might, that the chance of rain was so low it would be unnecessary. They were frantically throwing that on and pounding stakes into the ground. Maaike was fixing the zipper on her tent cover and Cole was grabbing his backpack which had been out after getting hit by the sprinkler earlier. The sprinting around lasted for maybe 20 minutes and we wished the rain had only lasted that long. It went on for 2 hours. When everyone was waking up, we opened the zippers to our tent to see what the damage had been. Lauren had her whole backpack drenched since it was at a picnic table through the night and no one had spotted it before the rain. Many of us had sleeping pads that were soaked, clothes that had not dried at all, and so little sleep it felt like we should just call the day here. We are the Illini 4000 though, so tough times do not stop us. We packed up, scavenged for what had blown away, ate breakfast, and started our day.
Ride Overview
Mileage: 82.7 miles
Elevation: +928 ft. / -1,781 ft.
Points of Interest: Craters of the Moon National Monument, Forest Fire Fighting Aircraft, Shoshone Falls
Tales of the Trail
A little bit of a rise in elevation coming out of Arco ended up being just fine because it gave us views over the valley and led us right to the Craters of the Moon National Monument. Scenic overlooks just a bit before the rest stop, which was at the visitor center, gave the team a chance to see the landscape and wilderness that looked so foreign and almost of a different planet. The geological features here had been created between 15,000 and 2,000 years ago from volcanic eruptions. The visitor center was a neat place to stop and learn about the history of the area and pick up some fun momentos to carry with us.
The rest of the day, from here forward was entirely downhill. We also had a tailwind! Rolling out from the visitor center, we must have averaged right around 20 mph over the next 25 miles to the second rest stop. It was incredible! For the first stretch, Ren had been resting in the van but wanted to be added in at some point during the day. She was shocked when she woke up to find out that we were already miles away from the van because of just how fast we were moving. The tailwind and descent combination is unmatched in generating velocity over the road. Wow! After waking up, we did pick up Ren a few miles in and kept on rolling fast like we had been.
What was supposed to be quite a long stretch turned into something quite short. We pulled off again in Carey at a gas station to fill our bottles and grab snacks. While were were hanging out, a family came by in their van to say hello and were really interested in our cause. Just before they were going to leave, they shouted over, “Would you like some bread?” and we did a double take. Would we like some bread? We will eat anything at this point. “It’s homemade sourdough from this morning!” Oh, of course we will have some now! And the family came back over with a loaf of amazing sourdough bread. Some of us were even describing it as the best bread we have ever had in our entire lives. It was awesome!
This was turning out to be one of the best days on the ride. We were flying, we were being given food from kind strangers, and now we were getting close to finishing. The temperature was rising into the mid-to-high 90s (ugh!) again as we were making it to the last rest stop. Nishk, driving the van, did a great job at encouraging us to get going again for the last 17 miles and still with the tailwinds, we made it. There was an antiques store just before the stayover that distracted us for a while, but then we made it to the Shoshone Community Center and started to setup for the evening.
As we were waiting for dinner to be prepared, a plan to go and see the Shoshone Falls that were about a 40 minute drive away started to form. Ehsan, Max, Tada, Nishk, and Vedang all were down for the trip and were treated for their commitment to an adventure after an 83-mile day.
See you tomorrow!
