After a final attempt by Paige to fatten me up, I quickly tossed my gear on the newly serviced bike and hit the road. Paige had sent me off with pepperoni and several boxes of Muscle Mac, probably the most bicycle touring appropriate dinner I've seen yet. Add to this the groceries I had bought in Swift Current and I was looking pretty good for food so I just grabbed some more donuts at Country Corner (obsessed) and picked up some lunch stuff at Safeway on my way ouy of the city. Stopped to use the bathroom at Starbucks and actually had a nice chat with some of the folk sitting outside.
Then it was off down Highway 6. It wasn't long before I ran into some road construction and my old nemesis, the prairie headwind. The construction wasn't too bad; I was forced to ride with traffic at times but the police presence in the area forced my vehicular buddies to behave themselves.
Oh right, today was quite the holiday. Summer Solstice, Aboriginal Day, and apparently Selfie Day. Being the Summer Solstice, it was also the longest day of the year. It also happened to be the hottest day on the bike so far. By noon it was at about +28 and probably peaked above 30. I didn't actually notice the heat too too much until I realized how much sweat I was exuding and water I was intaking. Final water count for the day stands at 8.5 liters.
Anyways, I survived the heat and made it slightly past Weyburn to Nickel Lake Park. Huge campground, with apparently a lot of things to do, but I was drained from my day in the sun and decided that the ambition for the night only extended towards showering, eating, and writing a bit before bed. However, I had to extend that ambition to getting a small fire going, as I soon discovered the campsite was positively thick with mosquitoes. Many bites and one pot of Muscle Mac later, I extinguished the coals and scampered into the tent to strip down to minimum layers and unwind.
Rain in the forecast for the next few days but fingers crossed I outrun it towards Manitoba.
I woke up the next morning. I saw the wind rattling the leaves in the cottnwoods. Sure enough, another day in the headwind. As if that wasn't a bad enough start, a bird pooped on my tent overnight.
Once on the road I did my best to stick to an easy pace. The wind was fairly light but I am well acquainted with the habits of headwinds and knew it would only get stronger as the day wore on.
Adding to the rigor of the headwind, the sun was out and unimpeded today, so even three layers of spf 60 eventually proved inadequate to prevent light burning.
Road conditions were worse than usual. I encountered a 30 km stretch of highway where the shoulder had been replaced with loose gravel and so I was forced to pick between slipping and sliding in the shoulder or mixing it up with semis on the ashphalt. Oh yes, I also had a flat in the morning. Glorious day, wonderful day.
I avoided buying many snacks today as I was still panniers deep in Regina provisions, so I opted instead to use my pitstops to purchase gatorade in order to preserve my emergency water supplies and keep my electrolytes up in the scorching heat. I did spring for some donuts at the Tim Hortons in Estevan, but that was mostly just an excuse to use the wifi, after Country Corner donuts it just wasn't the same.
Doing some research on the Tims wifi, I saw that there was a campground in Alameda, 60 km distant. I had only gone 80 km so far, but there was still the growing headwind to contend with. The forecast for afternoon thunderstorms in Estevan eventually settled the matter and I struck out east. About an hour from Alameda, the 110 km in the heat and wind finally took its toll and I was hitting the wall like never before. I had some hard moments motivation and sanity wise but eventually made it into the campground for the night. Another dinner of muscle mac, a much needed shower and then the mosquitoes chased me into bed for the night. Headwinds for tomorrow and possible rain in the forecast but if all goes well I should escape Saskatchewan tomorrow and break free into my second homeland.
I'm coming for you, Manitoba.
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