July 12

July 12

I slept well last night with the exception of being petty cold and having to go to the bathroom at 1:30 am. The only good thing about having to pee was that I saw the stars which were again incredible. I was the last one awake, which surprised me. I missed the coffee call but there was still enough there when I got out to the kitchen. For breakfast we had fruit yogurt cereal and French toast. Delicious!

We headed out of camp on our bikes around 9 am and immediately started climbing. Holy hell, there was a ton of climbing! Just this morning we climbed 1000 feet. The views were spectacular and it was shocking to see how high we climbed. Ben and I did awesome on the climbs and were really proud of ourselves. There was one section where we had to get off the bikes and maneuver our bikes under a fallen tree and then duck under ourselves. I was thinking "this is some crazy shit! I can't believe I am doing this!

 

After a shit load of climbing we had a good break of easy flats and then went into at least a 1/2 mile of rock field. My ass was really hurting but Tess gave me a good riding tip to stand up and hold the seat between you thighs. That felt a lot better.

We started back after lunch and Rob gave Ben and I the option of taking the road back instead of the way we came. We decided to go back the way we came because we wanted to ride the down part that we climbed. We were like, "We can do it. Well just take it slow and walk of we need to." Well, that was freaking crazy! I can't even describe how insane the ride was. It was crazy long, crazy steep up and ridiculous downs. When we were almost back and going down the part we climbed in the morning I couldn't BELIEVE I made it up before. This is not a beginner’s trip. Seriously this is the hardest thing I have ever done. It is also the most insane thing, even on my terms. I mean I do some stuff that i probably shouldn't do. I know I push the limits sometimes with safety and pushing me body.  But let me tell you, this is beyond anything I have ever even thought of doing. Ok, enough complaining and scaring mom:0)  It wasn’t so bad;)

A great part of the trip has been the weather. It has been really cool and shady. The first ride we had some sprinkling but it felt good and refreshing. It cools off at nighttime. This afternoon it got a little warm and we were sweating, especially during the insanely long part of the trail when we walked up the ridiculous steep slopes!

I have stayed very hydrated on he trip, with the help of my very cool hydration pack. So I have not gotten light headed or anything, but I was hallucinating during the very end of the ride. The shadows and logs were tricking me and I kept thinking they were people. I can't describe the exhaustion. Ben and I agreed today was harder than running a marathon. I mean, we were riding for 8 hours at 9-10 thousand feet, on steep and rocky terrain, with a huge 29 pound bike! As Mer would say, "OMG WTF was I thinking? I think I'm dieing. Might actually BE dieing!"

Finally, we made it back to camp after 8 hours of riding! We rode about 16 miles and climbed over 2000 vertical feet. We all went down to the lake to clean up and I was so delirious and exhausted that I wasn't really thinking, or standing for that matter, and grabbed my towel and soap but didn't change into my swim suit. Dummy? You bet! After the long ride to the lake I was not about to turn around so I went in my underwear, almost a swim suit. The water helped wake me up and turned my stumbling exhaustion into that amazing accomplished exhaustion where you are content just sitting and staring into space, or in my case writing all this down in a delirious stupor.

Stats:

17.56 miles

2000 feet vertical