Day 11

Finally, I got an earlier start.  Not the earliest, but earlier than the past couple days, it seems.  Good thing too, because of the scattered thunderstorms coming my way in a few hours…however, it was already raining when I started at 7:30 in Wolf Creek this morning.  It kept raining for the first couple hours.  Luckily it wasn’t pouring, so I didn’t get drenched like day 1.  Yikes, that was.

Day 11 rain

When I made it up another part of the mountain, I was so proud of myself again.  I felt really good.  It was beautiful scenery too.  All the sudden, the sun came out for about 10 seconds.  I felt like it was God smiling at me and giving me a thumbs up.  I can do this!  What a tender mercy.

Day 11 scenery

(This isn’t that spot, but just some of the scenery.)

I rode through a small town called Cascade to find a restroom.  On my path, this lady stopped and started taking pictures of me like crazy.  I said hi and she told me she’s from the local newspaper.  I stopped to tell her more about my trip and gave her my business card and everything.  Cool!  I didn’t even contact them, and I’m getting publicity.   🙂

Day 11 city

Great Falls came up pretty fast.  I got there before 1:30pm.  I’ve never finished my ride for the day that early.  Nice!  Especially since 10 minutes later it started raining again.  Great Falls welcomed me with crazy city drivers.  So busy!  One cool person rolled down the window and whoever was in the passenger seat crawled out as they could and cheered me on.  Can’t help but smile at that!  Now I can rest for the day.  Ate tons of food at Golden Corral (buffet) and three hours later I was hungry again.  Haha!  Only two more days of riding to get to Canada!


Day 11 Stats:

Started at 7:30am in Wolf Creek, MT

Ended at 1:20pm in Great Falls, MT

5.25 hours of riding

53.5 miles


Random Fact:

Just like you’ve always thought, you do have to stay focused on pedaling to stay balanced.  And believe it or not, keeping going helps.

Day 1

Hello, everyone!  Today is the day I began the journey.  Got a nice and early start in the morning.  Not hot or cold.  Rained last night.  I’m so excited!  It was quite the adventure today.  May the one wheel be in my favor!

I was feeling so great and felt like I could keep going forever in the beautiful weather and everything.  Also, today’s ride I’ve done before in my training, so I was very familiar with the route.  “Yeah!  I feel good!  Whoo!  I can ride forever!”  However, around 7 miles, Kris Holm Uni (as I’ve named my unicycle, Uni for short), got really tight and stuck that I couldn’t turn the wheel.  I kept going a little bit and as it was going down the hill, it started going again.  At mile 15 it started grinding.  The frame had bent a bit, so I got off and tried to fix it by bending it in again…only I bent it too far and it wouldn’t fit anymore!  Oops…  We called unicycle.com and ordered a new frame to be shipped to our destination overnight.

day 1 bent

Uni at 8:30am, Day 1.  Great start….

BUT!  That didn’t stop me!  After fixing it enough and getting fueled up again, I kept on going.  Still a really nice day out!  It started getting a little rough again, but I kept going.  And going.  And going.  And then it began to rain…and I kept going.  And then it began to hail.  “Ouch!”  Hail while riding (let alone on the face) hurts!  It began pouring.  I got drenched and so did my car when my wife picked me up.  After all, you know what they say when life throws you challenges–dance in the rain!

Day 1 hail


Day 1 Stats:

Started at 7am in Orem, UT

Struggles/on hold 8:30-12:30pm

Ended at 2pm in South Jordan, UT

4 hours of actual riding time

35 miles total


Random Fact:

On a bicycle, it takes about 235 pedal rotations to reach a mile.  On a unicycle it’s about 516 pedal rotations to reach a mile.  More than double!