DISTANCE TRAVELED: 59.62 Miles
AVERAGE SPEED: 13.00 MPH

          I woke up at 7:00 and struggled until 7:15 when I finally got up. I ate a quick breakfast in the cold morning and then packed up. By 8:30, I was on the road and went up and down a few hills to get to the main road four miles away. We climbed and descended a few times and then had a fairly long climb to where the Forest Service was doing controlled burning. After I passed the still smoking land, I started down a long downhill. Ponderosa Pines over 40 ft tall were everywhere and made the day much better. One place, we saw a steep downgrade sign and where we saw that it said 8% for 2 miles, we knew it would be fun. The road cut down a narrow canyon with high cliffs on the sides. Although a little windy, I still reached 44.4 mph. When this steep section was over, I rode on a very gradual downhill to our next turn. At this point, I took a break with Scott and Mike and bought two ice cream sandwiches to help me get to the next town. We continued and the 12 miles to Reserve passed quickly. After some lunch, we stopped outside and the heat had increased greatly. Just strapping the new groceries to the bike in the hot sun was a chore. As soon as we left town, we started a 4 mile uphill that passed by very quickly. (Picture220,Picture221) When we reached the top, it was mostly downhill the rest of the way to Cottonwood Campground. Since I knew that we would have to filter water, I filled up with 2.5 gallons at a closed café. After this stop, we descended quickly in a light rain to the campground. We waited out the storm under the still large trees and as soon as it was over, began to set up the tents. For dinner, we had chicken with rice and many different desserts. After eating, we made paper airplanes and tried to throw them as far as possible but we finished this simple game by lighting the tails of fire and throwing the flaming planes into the air. This was of course much more fun. Stu also told us that it is possible to boil water in a paper cup so we made a paper cup, filled it with water, and placed it in the fire. The paper immediately burned to the water line and then stopped. Unfortunately, the water evaporated before it could boil but if we had a big enough cup with enough water that it would not evaporate, I think it would work! It got dark early so after sitting around the fire for a bit longer, I went to bed at 9:50 to get ready for our final 4 days of riding.