DISTANCE TRAVELED: 37.47 Miles
AVERAGE SPEED: 8.62 MPH

          Anticipating a long and very hard ride, I woke up at 6:00 and packed up all of my things inside of my tent. I had to use a rain jacket and rain pants to keep warm enough. After a breakfast of cereal and cantaloupe, I began to pack my tent, which was soaked on the outside. After getting rid of a few pounds of water, I packed up and we left at 9:00. The first five miles were on the paved road and passed by quickly. We turned onto a dirt road, which climbed 2,000 feet in 5 miles. (Picture12) On the map, the hill looked horrible but as we rode on, I kept looking for the hard part to start. The climb kept us hot and kept our legs burning, but the views were worth the work. When we finally got to the top, we thought we were still a mile away. I put on my arm warmers, but they were not nearly enough to keep me warm. For the next six miles, we descended at speeds between 20 to 28 miles per hour. By the time we reached the bottom, we only had another 16 miles to go and no more climbing for the day. Stu got his first flat and we stood around letting the flies bite us as he fixed it. After the downhill, the terrain was rolling and as we got onto a more primitive trail, potholes appeared. (Picture13) After the rains of the day before, the holes were filled with water. It was nice to have to use some skills to navigate. Some of the potholes were 8 or 9 inches deep so mud was thrown up everywhere and it really felt like we were mountain biking. Numerous places, we slipped on the mud as we tried to skirt around the puddles and other places we ended up flying though deep puddles as they appeared around a bend when we were on a downhill. My bags were covered in mud but the fun was worth the dirt. We arrived at camp at 2:15 which was a great surprise. Everyone had thought that it would be at least 6:00 before we arrived because of the horror stories we had heard. Stu collected wood for so we could have a fire after it became dark (Picture14) and everyone set up tents. Around 6:00, we ate dinner next to a campfire. It was filling and every bit of it disappeared. Our campsite was along a stream and the only problem was that if it rained during the night, the possibility of flooding seemed likely. After sitting around the campfire and talking for a while we did some daily maintenance on the bikes and then went to bed, hoping for blue skies the next day. The peaceful flowing stream next to my tent helped to put me to sleep.