One of Those Days

I knew going into this that there would be days when I just didn't want to do this. This morning was one of those. I slept in. It was nice and warm in my sleeping bag and I just didn't want to go out into the cold. I ended up starting hours later than I had planned. And then I just had no motivation to go hard on the bike, and that is the only option because there is no easy on this expedition. After awhile I got back into expedition mode, and the rest of the day went well.
The ski tracks I have been following have been covered in snow drifts. Then today I started to notice that they were no longer covered in drifts and look nice and fresh. This means they were created after the big wind storm a few days ago. This gave me hope that I was on track for completing the expedition. Also I got another 15.1 nautical miles in today which is a number that works well.
Big milestone of the day, I completed my first degree! I stopped for a minute at 81° south and celebrated with a drink of weak chocolate water and a pink honey stinger waffle and then continued on. Only 9 more degrees to go, and that first one was the tough one because of the climb out of Hercules Inlet and having to go around the big crevasse field. There are still a few crevasses I have to go around but mostly from here on it is headed south. So at 15 nautical miles a day that is 4 days per degree and I should be able to arrive at the pole before the end of the season.