Chistochina, Alaska Day 67, Aug 7th

We rode a few miles down to Sourdough in the rain for the pancake breakfast they've planned for us. We're already wet and freezing--it's 55 degrees and raining--and no one wants to ride. Again I feel like riding in this weather will be detrimental to my health, and I'd rather ride 180 miles tomorrow to catch up with the team than make myself more sick riding in this all day. As the rest of the team is reluctantly heading off, I am unpacking my bag and refilling it with the necessary essentials to get me those 180 miles unsupported, hoping desperately that the weather will be better tomorrow. Oleg decided at the same time that he was going to try to ride for 24 hours straight the remaining 328 miles to Anchorage and arrive there 2 days early. If it wasn't for this damn weather, I would love to present myself with that challenge, but I'll have to do this 180 challenge instead. I've been sitting in the cafe here at the Sourdough Camp since mid morning and now it's 4:30. The RVers have been coming and going, and most of them are speaking foreign languages.

I have no concept of time anymore, or whether I'm riding up a hill or down since we always have a headwind. Being out in the Yukon was strange. I was so far away from anywhere I've ever been before, would ride all day and see the same hills and far-off mountains, but rarely any people. It seems like I'm moving myself as hard as I can all day long and getting nowhere. I hadn't talked to anyone from home in weeks, and when I was riding by myself sometimes I would be nearly overcome with feelings of abandonment and desolation. It got so bad at times that I would often think of Kelly. Further contributing to my disorientation was the fact that I was wearing my sunglasses at 10 o'clock at night and had to force myself to go to sleep when it was light at night. We left the bar in Destruction Bay at 11:30 and the sun was just setting.

So after sitting in the cafe for about 7 hours or so, the lady who owns it gave me some tea and reindeer chili in a sourdough bread bowl which was very tasty. Not too long after Jody's grandmom (her grandparents had planned their trip so they would be in Tok at the same time as us) came to get me after hearing of how I stayed behind. They took me to their trailer to sleep, fed me roast stew and scotch before I headed to bed. Not too long after being asleep, I heard a knock then Jordan, Daniel, and Oleg's voices. They hadn't taken me and Oleg seriously until they got to Chistochina and realized we weren't there. So J & D drove up 70 or so miles to get Oleg (he rode 170 miles before they caught him), then drove back 170 miles to pick me up. Then we drove the 90 scheduled miles for that day to the community center in Chistochina and arrived at 12:30 in the morning. Everyone was asleep when we got there, and I confused the cute boy on the floor (there were a couple of other people staying there too) for someone on our team who had decided to clean themselves up. Oleg and I raided the place and found some ice cream to eat before sacking out. On the way to Chistochina we saw a white fox on the road which made me realize I would have had to deal with possible wildlife encounters--bears and moose and whatnot--riding by myself in the middle of nowhere as I left at 3:30 in the morning to ride those 180 miles.

During breakfast the next morning we had another Darlene scare. As she was lighting the stove the gas had built up pressure, released and blown up into her face. After checking her over for melting flesh we saw only some fried hair, but no major deformations.