Day 17 – Continued Bad Weather

By Mark Heggestad
We had another day of temps in the 30’s with non-stop rain.  So another day of no biking.  The good news – tomorrow’s weather forecast looks positive – mid 40’s by mid morning, cloudy but no precipitation in sight.

It has rained non-stop today, and we have kept ourselves inside pretty much the entire time. Need-less-to-say, We are bursting with anticipation to get back on the road tomorrow.

It is probably good we have some pent up energy as tomorrow morning we begin a 70-mile ascent, the longest continuous ascent of the entire trip.  We are thinking (hoping) it will not be that difficult as the increase in elevation is only 4,000 feet spread out over 70 miles, although the last 1,500 feet of elevation rise is in the last mile.  69 miles of taunting with a one-mile challenge at the end.  You got to love Mother Nature!  We haven’t experienced anything close to 70 straight miles with no ability to let up or coast.  I am looking forward to seeing how it turns out.  If the weather shines on us favorably we will know soon enough.

I took the two following pictures from our campsite during the one brief period it wasn't raining.  The mountains aren't distant mountains - they are a couple miles away, and two days ago there was no snow on them.

A gray day.
A gray day 2


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