Starting out today, I was a little worried about the distance, the climbing, the heat, and the possibility of thunderstorms. We got everything but the weather, so it wasn't quite "epic" but it was close. The first two rest stops and lunch were each 30 miles apart so you actually felt like you covered some distance between each one. We made good time and were towards the front of the group today. We heard 7 people got sagged, or bumped, to other rest stops or lunch. I predicted correctly that people would sag today, before our short/rest day tomorrow.
On the road we saw a wind turbine farm, 6 dead deer, land similar to The Badlands, the Flaming Gorge NRA, forested mountains, wicked descents, and mining country. It was quite an accomplishment to have finished this day intact both physically and mentally. My left hamstring was giving me problems until lunch when I had a Coke, Advil and Endurolytes. This is going to be my new lunchtime cocktail. I rode the hills fairly strong but was getting bested by Dan and Brian. Dan is super strong! If I didn't take the Endurolytes I would fade after about 30 minutes.
After the lunch stop came the biggest, nastiest climb of the day. It gained 2500' in about 10 miles. That by itself wouldn't be too hard, but on the way up the 6-7% grade we had a 25-30 mph headwind. This made it feel like a 10-11% grade and that is tough. When we got to the next stop I told Lon he is trying to kill us.
On our final descent into Vernal, I felt like I was in the Tour de France descending down alpine mountains. There were 10 switchbacks and we had a train of about 5 people gracefully taking each one at about 35 mph. It was so awesome. We went to dinner at the local brewery which is new as Vernal used to be a dry town until 4 years ago. We got to know Eleanor and Franz from Toronto and invited them to come out to Portland to go wine tasting and bike riding.
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