DISTANCE TRAVELED: 68.54 Miles
AVERAGE SPEED: 12.80 MPH

          At 7:00, I was up and out of bed to find a clear sky with the coolness of the night still in the breathless air. The windmill was not moving and did not move again while we were at the site. Fortunately, everyone had filled up with water the night before. After having two pop-tarts for breakfast, I packed up and was on the road by 8:00. Aft first, I thought that we had only 30 miles to the next town but soon found out that it was 46! When I left, I also planned to go no more than 10 mph but as I got going, my legs felt better than expected and I was able to go much faster. I rode along the smooth road past sagebrush and toward the distant volcano craters. I passed by a few people and climbed into an area covered by small bushes about eight feet high. It was a great change of scenery but I still missed the large trees. Soon, I caught up to Mike (by this time my average speed was 15.31 mph) and as I approached, he was throwing rocks for what seemed to be no reason. As I got closer, I discovered that he was testing out a rattlesnake to make sure that it was in fact dead. (Picture216) It was yet another specimen of road kill! The skin was in great shape and no blood was seen so we wanted to make sure it was dead. Mike cut off the rattle and put it into a film canister. After looking at it for a while, Scott came up and we soon left. As we were still talking about it, Mike swerved as he was riding in front of me and since I knew that he was a good rider, I swerved before even knowing what was in the road. Not a half-mile further, was yet another dead snake. Off came the second rattle while I ate a container of pudding. Soon, we were on our way again and less than an hour later, we were in Quemado. For lunch, I had sopapillas, tamales, rice, and beans, which helped to fill me up since I had not eaten much all day. After lunch, we bought food and began the final 19 miles to the campground. We climbed steadily and the trees grew bigger. Along the way, we had a few drops of rain but just missed the downpour behind us. (Picture217) A mile from the campground, we stopped for some snacks. (Picture218) After a phone call, we were on our way again and got the campsite that had beautiful pines and was right on a lake. We had burritos for dinner and then sat around the campfire. (Picture219) I saw one shooting star that was the brightest one I have even seen. Soon after, I heard a loud buzzing noise and thought that someone was driving very fast on the nearby dirt road. It kept getting louder though and I soon saw red and green lights. A moment later, two huge planes, each with four engines flew only a few hundred feet off the ground right over our heads! If there weren't two of the, I would have guessed that the plane was about to crash. Soon, I went to bed and fell asleep at 9:00.