Not gonna lie, I'm a little stressed out writing this right now. I've been in my tent for about 2 hours holding it up against a mega storm, and the radar says (thankfully I have service) that it'll go for another three hours or so. I've got a good tent (REI Quarterdome 1 person), but all tents have their limits...
How did this happen, you ask? Well let me tell you.
As you likely maybe didn't read yesterday, I went an extra 35 miles thanks to a tailwind. That means that my planned stop today was only 20 miles out, after a cool ghost town (South Pass City) and an almost ghost town (Atlantic City). There was another possible stop 30 miles out at Daiganus Well in the middle of the Great Divide Basin (sort of a desert, but clearly not, as it's pouring rain). The next spot I could stop was 55 miles away or so, at this reservoir, since there is no other water here.
Let me break for a second and explain the Great Divide Basin in Wyoming. Here the Continental Divide line splits and forms a big oval. All water that fall in the middle of the oval gets stuck, it doesn't go anywhere. It just hangs out and evaporates. Since it's relatively dry here, that makes a nice, dry, desert-like basin. If it weren't dry here, it'd be a giant lake. You drive right through it went you drive across Wyoming on I80. Rawlings is more-or-less on it's eastern border.
So I get to the well and it's only 11am, so I have to choose again - hang out all day where there is no shade, or go on a bike ride. I chose the bike ride , again, but it went differently this time.
1) I the wind hadn't picked up yet. It could still have been a headwind, and a 90 mile day with 55 miles of headwinds would be very difficult. But, I judged the weather and the storms brewing in the west, and figured it's probably be a tailwind.
2) The roads were worse, but when is that news?
So I filled up 6 liters of water (in case that headwind showed up and it took all day) and took off. 6 liters of water, btw, is very heavy.
I had a tailwind for maybe 10 miles, and then I was storm surfing. See, a giant storm brewed up around mile 45 and was chasing me. I know from experience that wind around here goes away from storms, and that if it caught me and passed me I'd have a massive headwind. What happened is it went to the north of me, and I tried to stay on it's front edge. If I slowed down or the road curved wrong, I got a strong sidewind or even a north headwind. if I got in front of it and rode it's south-western edge, I got a tailwind. This was a fun surfing game, but it meant I had to ride 50 miles without a break. Ouch.
Eventually I had to turn south for 6 miles, and that gave me a great tailwind, but when I turned to go east again the storm had passed and I had 12 miles of brutal headwind. At this point other storms were also brewing, and things got complicated. The lightning was hitting around me, and it was hard to stay on the road with the crazy winds.
I got to the reservoir at 90 miles and was destroyed. I couldn't tell you how long I was on bike, but the last 12 miles took about an hour and a half. I even missed it and had to backtrack a mile. When I got there at about 6pm two nobos were also camped. I don't know much about them because we've been hiding in our tents all night.
They helped me pitch my tent before the worst of the storms moved in and hit us (there is no cover or wind break here) and then for the last 2 hours I've been trying to keep my tent on the ground and not flat. There was a lull where I could cook under my rainfly, but now it's back to holding my poles up as it thunders and lightnings around me. The wind swirls, so my tent is accosted from all sides.
But, I'm dry. My tent isn't leaking (I waterproof the shit out of it), and everything is in drybags just in case it fails. I have enough warm clothes to keep my sleeping bag packed *just in case* my tent fails as well. Hopefully it doesn't - that will make for a long night curled up in raingear.
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