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Day 41 - June 4 - Entering the Mormon Valley

"Early bird gets the worm, late worm gets the wind"

Hi, and welcome back to my bike blog.

Body Changes

I have a few problems with my body that I didn't expect to get. In hindsight, all is obvious, and understandable, but my body is starting to do some strange things that I'm not used to. Get all of your puberty jokes out of the way, because it's about to get spooky.

First, there's the obvious things, like my legs that are getting harder and harder to scrub clean in the shower because of two of the following: knee pain, soreness, big muscles, lots of GRAD (Grease Rust And Dirt if you haven't been following the blog for long), but never all four. There's also a bit of redness on the inside of my thigh, which probably came from biking in pajama pants too many times. These things are expected, and I've gotten used to them like I've gotten used to my amazing tanlines.

The first strange thing that's happening is that my nose is always stuffy. I thought it was allergies, but I've never been allergic to anything. Can allergies develop at age 26? I also thought it was the cold, but I haven't been out in the cold in about a week. My only conclusion is that it's a natural defense mechanism against the pressure changes from all the ups and downs I've been doing. For the last few days, my poor body has moved up and down about 1500ft every day or so. I suspect that my nose is stuffy to prevent the pressure differentials from sucking my brains through my nose. This is the only possibility. Isn't science cool?

Secondly, I've noticed a significantly increased appetite. It's just about doubled. In Green River, I sat at a restaurant, and accidentally ordered two full meals, but ate them both with room to spare. This morning I had two big subs at Subway, and then had three bowls of soup at Olive Garden. To some, this might seem normal, but to me, it's very strange. I've never eaten like this before. This is about twice as much as I usually eat in a day. This, too, has an explanation. The terrain is getting harder, and I'm burning more calories. It's either that, or that I'm eating fewer times per day, and just eating a lot at those times. Either way, I'm eating enough, which is good.

Thirdly, is my sleep schedule. At the start of the bike ride, I would wake up early and finish early. Now, I wake up late and finish late. Part of the reason for this is that I'm doing long days, and as everyone who has finished highschool (not to single out my friends who haven't), it's easier to bite time out of the evening than to bite time out of the morning. I think this issue will get fixed next timezone shift, or next time I take a day off or a half-day off, which is tomorrow!

The last, and strangest thing that's happened is that I've somewhat lost feeling in my left pinky and ring finger. I can still feel things, but the fingers are tingly. A brief online search calls this "hand numbness," and as far as I can tell, it's about as dangerous as it sounds. I probably pinched a nerve or something going up some hills, and will take a few days to recover. Still, it feels really strange. A bit unpleasant, but only noticeable when I think about it. I should stop writing about this. It's getting annoying.

The Image Gallery

I don't know what happened here, but it's going to be a very good representation of me when I get to Portland:

I call this one "Big Toe Ridge."

My route today was essentially the mountain pass between Price and Provo. It was a big uphill, winding through the mountains, until it reached Soldiers Summit, and then a big downhill until Spanish Fork. Here's the "entrance" to this mountain pass. You'll notice that a lot of things look quite Lord-of-the-Rings-esque:

This warning sign appeared approximately every eight miles:

Behold! Middle Earth!







Eventually, I reached Soldiers Summit while on the phone with both of my parents, while trying to figure out plans for the end of the summer. My dad, looking at a map of where I was, noticed these strange alien markings on the hill right by the road:

Here they are from ground level:

I got to the gas station, ate some ice cream, refilled water, and asked about the extraterrestrial presence to the south of me. The lady at the gas station told me that these are old foundations of late nineteenth century houses that were built to house railroad workers. After the railroad was completed, the residents decided that the weather was too crappy up here, so they all went off the mountain.
I started making my way down:

Sheeeeeeep

And finally, more amazing mountain photos:




The Map

Today I biked for almost 120km over the course of seven hours. Total uphill: 766m, and total downhill: 1028m.

Thanks for reading! See you tomorrow!

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