Grueling

Yusufeli to Gole
August 9th
124km (2,797m vertical)

I slept well in the hostel last night and felt refreshed, but my stomach was still churning. Decided that I would try to ride anyway. It was a really tough day for everyone, and by the end I was completely spent. Not fun at all. Several times I wondered aloud, “Why the hell am I doing this?”

My stomach was in knots and I kept rushing into the bushes every hour or so. I had no appetite so I only ate 3 pieces of bread with peanut butter for breakfast, and 1 piece for lunch. I had 2 granola bars en route and that is all that I ate before dinner. As a result, I ran out of energy in the afternoon. (I did drink about 8L of electrolyte enhanced water on the day to keep me going...although it tasted like I was drinking warm salt water.)

It was also damn hot. My computer showed 111F after sitting in the sun for a while, but the riding temperature was at 100F for most of the afternoon. That kind of heat really gets to me.

The road was terrible. It was rough at best and sometimes it disappeared altogether. There were stretches several km long under construction that were nothing but loose sand and rocks – felt like riding through quicksand. My shoulders are both pretty stiff from my fall, and they didn't appreciate the rough roads. (I can't even reach behind me to scratch my own back...which is annoying itself.)

Finally, but importantly, today was the second most amount of climbing on the trip...only 12m less than the day with the most. What a day to be sick! Climbing can be fun when you're healthy, but it is torture when you are sick! The 5km climb we were told about at the end of the day turned out to be 20km long, and the camp was 5 km further than anticipated. This was pretty tough on me mentally, when I had been counting down each hundredth of km all day.

Nic and I didn't get in until 5pm...after 10 hours of riding!!! My butt is really sore. I didn't have time to shower before dinner, so I made due with a baby wipe bath in my tent. The toilet area tonight is across a creek and up a hill. Not ideal. I set my tent up far away from the others, and plan to use for nearby bushes tonight as needed. Not sure how much more of this I can take. Every day is just such a challenge.

More mountains and rivers:

Tiny mountain town:

Nic reaching for water between climbs:

A patch of sandy "road":

A tiny community of people still living in stone houses. Its already getting darker and I'm dead tired, but this was fascinating to cycle through: