Day 6: What’s the weather today? Oh…

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Today…was a day. Let me set the scene for the beginning of the day for you. It was raining, it was pouring, Jon and I were snoring, and Dustin’s Chef Boyardee on our little burner was boiling. Eventually we all crawled out of our tents, packed everything up, promised we would leave at 8:00, and actually left by 8:45.

Today was the first day of biking in the rain which, thank goodness, was mostly just a drizzle throughout the day. That being said, it was COLD and even though we layered up in the morning, during the first 15 miles of “flat” biking, we were quickly shedding them as we heated up. This proved to be a mistake as we began our 7 mile all uphill ascent of Loup Loup, the second peak of the Cascades that we had to go over. It took us a few hours, many breaks, Dustin’s entire bag of snacks, and soaking all of our clothes but WE DID IT.

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1-vYmAlaDjerdUluPwinttqdUnB-n3fU4

At the top we had to take some serious considerations about how we wanted to continue. The shoulder of the road wasn’t in great condition, it was wet, and it was a steep downhill. To avoid hypothermia, Julia went down with Jon while Dustin and I took our chances with the 20 mile downhill. It ended up being very cold, very fast, but also very fun. When we got down the mountain we found Julia sitting contently and Jon almost dying of heat in a car that registered, I kid you not, 104 degrees. Now we are holed up in a Best Western after a nice dinner with Julia’s parents and are watching Hustle.

We definitely did not take enough pictures today but we will take more in the next few days! Tomorrow is pretty much everything we did today, but doubled. So make sure to check back in to see how we do it!

“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”— Bilbo Baggins

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