DISTANCE TRAVELED: 26.68 Miles
AVERAGE SPEED: 8.89 MPH

          Today we woke up around 6:30 and packed our tents, which were much more dry than the day before! After breakfast, we backtracked for 3 miles and then began the day. Brian, Marianne, and I all rode together for most of the day as we climbed for 8 miles. The road steadily went up curving around the slopes of large mountains. Close to the top, we looked down the three miles from where we had come and saw some other fellow riders one another switchback. We yelled to them a very annoying tune hoping to get it stuck in their heads and they yelled back. Unfortunately they didn't hear our message perfectly so they just thought we were saying hi. The echo however was incredible. We then continued on and two miles later, we reached the top. We put on our rain jackets just to keep warm and rode down in the cold wind. After some more climbing, we came to our final descent where we reached speeds of 32 mph. The roads were well-maintained but were mainly gravel instead of hard packed dirt that is preferable for high speeds especially when trailing a BOB. Brian came around a corner and hit some gravel not allowing him to turn like he wanted. Even when he turned the front wheel, the bike had so much momentum, that he kept going straight. With both breaks on, he headed right for the edge of the road skidding to a stop about a foot from the edge of the road where there was a sharp drop off. After this little shake-up, we slowed down the pace a little. As we continued on, we rode into Lincoln, Montana, another place I had ridden through last year. For lunch, I ate a double bacon cheeseburger. We got to the campsite at 2:00 and had lots of time to sit around. It almost felt like a rest day and in some ways was better since we didn't get bored with nothing to do! Two staff members, from Adventure Cycling, came from Missoula to cook dinner for us that consisted of Elk burgers, salad, juice, and cheesecake. It was a great change from the normal food we had been eating. The Elk that were in the Elk Burgers were actually shot by Julie's husband! We had our second group picture (Picture25) and after a fire and preparing the bike for the next day, I went to bed around 10:30. (Picture26)