As I mentioned in my previous post I wasn’t interested in spending much more time on my bike seat than I had to today so elected to find a quick group to ride with. I started out with Eritia (Ontario) and Joel (BC) and headed out for the hills. Todays ride included a very steady grade of about 3-4% for a solid 9 miles, after blasting out of camp our trio headed up and up and up. Switchbacks are a very interesting mental game, they break down a hill for you into manageable parts. That’s something that almost all of the cyclists are doing on their own, so when the geography makes an attempt to do it on your behalf there can be a bit of disagreement between the two systems. Thrown into that mix was a bit of mental exhaustion from the previous day, a short sleep (5:00 wake-up call as usual) and the fact that no-one actually knew how many switchbacks there were going to be.

Our trio caught Kyle (BC) near the top of the hill and we were now four. We soon caught hold of another big group including Brian (PEI) Sarah (also PEI I think) Jody (Location TBA) Hans Doef (Lacombe/BC) Matt Zantingh (Edmonton) Manley (Location TBA). We rode as a massive pack for a bit and then Reuben Vyn came by at a blistering pace. Joel stuck on for the ride, Eritia and I tried for a bit and the rest of them either didn’t even both trying or didn’t last quite as long as us two.

Knocking off another 500 feet of climbing together Eritia and I grouped up with the “early rising pack” which included. Barb Mellema (Iowa) Cynthia Aukema (Ontario) George Vanderkurr (Location TBA) Andy DeVries (Ontario) Louis Bosma (Ontario I think) John Vandersteen (Ontario) Jake Kuipers (Ontario is my guess) and probably a few others who I forget, but I did impress myself by knowing all their names (or parts thereof obviously).

Anyhow, the point is that there were a lot of people at the top of the hill and a lot of descending to do. We ripped along the road… and because I have a sweet video to prove it and only 5 minutes until the library closes I have to quit writing now and I’ll try to update much more when I’ve got better web access this weekend via Mom and Dad’s hotel when they’ll be in Boise to visit..

Sorry for the abrupt end.