Today we got a late start for us. It was 7:30 a.m. before we hit the road and we were in the back of the pack. The climbs started right as we left Ely and they continued until just before Eureka. The hardest climb, of course, was the last one. It was the steepest, the longest and it started to rain just as I hit the summit. Then about 2 miles down the rain stopped but I was cold the rest of the ride and I was one of the lucky ones.

Even though we started at the back of the pack we were finishing at the front of the pack. This is not because we are fast riders, it is because we don’t spend much time at the rest stops. Others make the stops a social event and eat more than we do. That doesn’t make our way right and theirs wrong but today it worked to our advantage and we didn’t get as wet or cold as the ones following us.

Our camping facilities were not bad but there wasn’t any showers. It started raining in Eureka about 8:30 and it rained hard for a couple of hours. I say a couple of hours but I don’t know for sure because I went to sleep and missed most of the rain.