Wind

I rolled into Lima after riding until midnight the night before with Greg and Pete; a couple of cyclist I had met the day before. Pete decided to stay in Lima as he was beat so Gregg and I pushed on. We were in the wide open valleys of Montana and the wind was ferocious. The roar of the wind was constant. The force of the wind I have never experienced before. Gregg and I both were all over the road. The wind was having its way  with me in particular as I had as much surface area on my bike to catch the wind but about 40 pounds less than Gregg to hold it down. I was audibly groaning against its gales. Twice it pushed me into the ditch; I simply could not steer myself out of trouble. My toes were curled against its force, and my shoulder was turned and tucked. As the wind passed my face it often sucked saliva and snot out of my mouth and nose in long lines of lost moisture. Many times the wind pushed my front tire over in the loose gravel by two or three inches and I would either fall or nearly fall as if someone had swept my feet out from under me. At one point I stopped to get something out of my pack and I could not see to pull the zipper for the blowing sand and gravel. I gave up getting what I needed. Then we made a turn and the wind hit us head on. At one point it just stopped me from moving all together. I could not move against its force. Later I  passed a rancher with one dog riding on his four wheeler and two dogs running. I asked  how he decided who got to ride. He chuckled and said one had fallen off and the older dog preferred to run along side. We talked about he wind and he said he had never quite seen anything like it. Eventually Gregg and I made it to a campground only to discover a sign saying "warning a grizzly has been through this campground two days in a row". I looked around for the bathroom but found something better. A horse trailer for wood and food storage. I locked myself in there with the mice but away from the bruins. Gregg took his chances outside. In the morning one of the people camping told us his weather radio had reported 70 mile an hour gusts. I thought I had seen Dorothy!