Two of the Three Sisters Mountains in Oregon as seen from McKenzie Pass.

Temperatures During the Trans Am Bike Race

Felix Wong's avatar
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Below are the temperatures and average humidity at the places I slept at during the 2015 Trans Am Bike Race.

Generally, the temperatures were very warm or downright hot and I only slept inside my 32-degree down sleeping bag once or twice before shipping it home (along with my rain jacket) from Newton, Kansas. From that point on, whenever I slept outside, I did so on bare concrete or inside a bivy sack.

However, there were a couple nights in Kentucky and Virginia where there were torrential downpours when I realized the bivy sack was not entirely waterproof. I spent those nights shivering inside it wasting a lot of energy.

If I were to do it again, I would bring a smaller and lighter waterproof bivy sack (e.g., SOL emergency bivy, which is not breathable but would keep out outside water) and retain my rain jacket for the entire race.

For hydration, after the first few days when I kept getting dehydrated, I drank a 33-ounce cup of soda at convenience stores every 40-60 miles and otherwise only had water in my water bottles. I highly recommend bringing water treatment tablets, which weigh next to nothing and take up no space. If I had brought any, I would have had the option of safely consuming stream water when there were no services such as in the Oregon desert or during the nighttime.

Weather in the Towns I Slept in

Below are the low and high temperatures and average humidity at the places where I slept or camped during the 2015 Trans Am Bike Race.

Day Location Low Temp. (F) High Temp. (F) Ave. Humidity (%)
1 Deerhorn, Oregon 52 90 62
2 Dayville, Oregon 60 94 42
3 Cambridge, Idaho 52 86 55
4 Kooskia, Idaho 54 82 48
5 Darby, Montana 51 66 n/a
6 Cameron, Montana 37 73 55
7 Rockefeller Memorial Parkway, Wyoming 35 66 47
8 Jeffrey City, Wyoming 48 77 n/a
9 Walden, Colorado 41 73 56
10 Fairplay, Colorado 41 59 78
11 Tribune, Kansas 61 91 63
12 Newton, Kansas 68 82 73
13 Pittsburg, Kansas 71 83 84
14 Houston, Missouri 63 88 80
15 Ellington, Missouri 71 89 77
16 Goreville, Illinois 73 89 81
17 Utica, Kentucky 75 91 74
18 Lincoln Homestead State Park, Kentucky 62 86 75
19 Chavies, Kentucky 65 87 78
20 Virgie, Kentucky 64 84 77
21 Konnarock, Virginia 64 79 86
22 Christiansburg, Virginia 53 76 62
23 White Hall, Virginia 56 81 55
24 Yorktown, Virginia 64 89 73
Two of the Three Sisters Mountains in Oregon as seen from McKenzie Pass.
Two of the Three Sisters Mountains in Oregon as seen from McKenzie Pass.