158 miles (6260 ft climbing), 11:09 hours 17 mph
I bounced back after yesterday thanks to Alka Seltzer cold formula, a good night’s sleep and DayQuil every 4 hours during the day today. My cold is still here but my energy levels were much better and I got through the day feeling pretty good.
We started of (sans Greg due to some confusion as to whether he was taking the day off or not). We woke him for breakfast but he thought we were rolling at 7am rather than 6:30am so when he eventually reemerged from his room everyone had left! We finally reconnected at the lunch stop later in the day.
The morning was stunning riding, 80 miles of trending downhill with misty vistas of mountains, “earthquake” lake and forests. Unfortunately I have no photos of it because it was cold and I wasn’t taking my long finger gloves off or losing contact with the group we were riding with. Still the memories will suffice.
We hit the first sag with the group we were riding with and then pottered around for a bit to find that everyone else had left. Bob and I then set off in pursuit and, reminiscent of Furnace Creek 508 when we had a never-ending string of rabbits with tail lights to chase down, kept a decent tempo going to gradually catch the scattered stream of people ahead of us.
There was a decent climb before lunch and then Greg arrived just as we were finishing up so we waited for him to eat and then rolled in together. A lot of people are only riding part of each day now it seems so we ended up being the last group on the road. We got in to Butte just ahead of a thunderstorm (thankfully) and early enough for me to get another massage for my legs to keep them “fresh” for the last two days.
