Day 13

The wind teaches cruel lessons. After the beautiful tailwind out of Bassano, I was making all sorts of grandiose plans about 200km days and how I would devastate the Prairies with my breakneck pace. Cue to waking up this morning to find that the wind had pulled a total about-face while i slept, opting to crush my plans rather than lift my spirits.

Balance in everything I guess, only fair that after such a perfect day I should have something to contrast it against. Going against the wind is like biking uphill, except you never get to bomb the other side once you reach the summit. Combing that along with clear skies and summer finally having arrived made for one of the most grueling dad to date. I must have pounded back at least 7L of water over the day, with plenty more when I got to camp. Also there is no shade anywhere, I found maybe one or two tiny patches every few hours, and they were total mosquito-fears. Bleh. Took my breaks in the shade of road signs. Speaking of, here's the one pic I took all day showing the prevailing Albertan attitude to finding deer 'round these here parts.