The night passed without any incident and, being better acclimated, everyone was able to sleep better than the night before. The morning’s main incident was Dave slicing his finger when he tried to crush a tin can with his hands. Hut Tip #1: Don’t crush tin cans with your hands.

We hit the trail at around 8:00 AM and it wasn’t long before a few drops started falling. I was out in front of the rest of the group and when I saw the drops coupled with the dark clouds overhead, I decided to take cover. Good thing I did because the few drops soon turned into a torrential downpour which lasted about 10 minutes.

The rest of the goup had done the same. After the rain subsided, I stepped out onto the road to await the rest of the group. They soon rode by, a parade of rain-gear-clad riders. Ryan hadn’t followed Brian’s suggestions on the rain wear and bought the O2 cycling jacket instead of the O2 jacket with the hood. As a result, he had to create a makeshift hood using a plastic bag.

The rain made the riding much more difficult. With the dirt damp and muddy in places, it created a lot more drag during, especially when hauling the trailer. Despite having only a moderate incline, Ryan and I labored to haul the trailers up the hill.

Shortly after passing a cool Aspen forest on our right (unique because it contained only Aspen trees), the sky ahead started looking pretty ominous again. We decided that it would be prudent to take cover and wait for the storm to pass. That turned out to be a good move because the storm was soon upon us. It turned out to be no ordinary thunderstorm - it was a full-blown hailstorm! The ground was soon covered with little white balls. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit; it was certainly a unique experience.

The rest of the ride passed without much incident. When we finally reached the hut at around 2:00 PM, the hut guys were once again in the process of restocking the hut. In chatting with them, we were astounded to learn that the previous two groups had used 20 jugs of water! At 5 gallons/jug, that’s 100 gallons of water! Our group of six typically uses just over 5 gallons/hut, certainly no more than 10 gallons/hut. What the heck did these groups do, take full-on showers and wash their bikes??? Not only that, but the last group left the front door wide open when they left (a big no no because of all the little critters).

Because of the damp road conditions, today turned out to be a pretty tough day. Dave’s reward for himself was to polish off an entire roll of Oreos. As we lounged around, the weather became really nice, the clouds from earlier in the day being replaced with blue skies and sunshine. The nice weather prompted Judy to bust out her “camp shoes” - pink flip flops with sparkles on them.

With all of today’s riding through wet conditions, it was a good idea to clean and lube the bike chains. The open area in front of the hut soon became the bike cleaning zone. Rob’s chain in particular really needed some attention - that thing was filthy!

Judy killed some time by created her flower thingie centerpiece. Ryan was able to fix the sunglasses he broke with some duct tape, attaining in the process the highly desirable Poindexter look. Too bad there weren’t more chicks out here because Ryan would have attracted them in swarms.

That night, Judy went to bed feeling kind of sick. Hopefully it was just exhaustion from the day’s activities and nothing that a a good night’s rest wouldn’t fix.

Cumulative miles: 74.93
Daily miles: 34
Mechanicals: None
Casualties: Dave sliced finger

[Go to Day 4 trip report or go to pics.]

Posted by Roger at 9:31 pm.