The dawn was cold; the moisture of the previous night had accumulated on our bags and everything else we had left out in our surroundings. This meant that my riding shorts and jersey were soaking wet and freezing cold. Lucky for me KC slept a bit longer than I did and allowed me to warm them up a bit in the bottom of my bag. We had decided not to carry a stove or cooking utensils on this trip so our breakfast consisted of left over fig Newtons and granola bars.

One thing that it seems I must learn on each tour is to not stop for the night without making it to the top of the hill. In the morning, I was sore and not in the mood to ride my bike. My butt was sore and my legs were cold, both physically and in there wanting to ride. To top off our bad camping place, we had thought we were close to the top of the summit but in actuality had another 5 miles. Just up from our camp was a false summit that once we peaked we dropped for a bit and then continued upward to get to finally finish the first and hardest climb on the Lotoja course.

We had woken up to cloudy skies. A few drops even fail before we crawled out of our bags. This meant that once we reached the top of our climb we had a very chilly descent. We both dawned the little bit of warm clothing we had brought and headed down. It was nice to move without pedaling but damn it was cold. At the bottom of the descent there was a quick, fairly steep uphill that just about broke my knees, they had frozen completely during the ride down.

I only saw KC for the first couple of turns during the descent and then not for quite awhile. Seeing that I was pedaling with but one gear, I climbed faster but got dropped quickly on the descents and flats. After our climb we had rolling terrain into Montpelier. We passed dozens of barns and even a cattle drive.

We ate at a small diner in Montpelier around 10:30, just in time for breakfast. The omelet and hot chocolate hit the spot. KC downed plenty of coffee for the both of us. We saw a couple of racers returning from Jackson and chatted a bit with them. They were quite impressed by my insanity of touring on a monogeared bike, at this point I was agreeing with them.

From Montpelier we began immediately to head upwards towards the Geneva summit. This climb wasn’t near as long or difficult as our first. We climbed for a couple of miles and then summitted before either of us really thought it was possible it could be done. This was a beautiful area of sage brush as we entered Wyoming and then began our last significant climb, Salt River Pass. This last pass just about killed us both. We ended up walking the last mile or so, due to the steep grade being saved till the very end. This is the King of the Mountain climb for the racers. The view from the top more than paid us back for the hard work we had suffered through to get there, I’ll post some pics.

The Salt River Pass dropped us down into the endless doldrums of the Star Valley, quite possibly the longest valley in existence and the windiest. We had originally planned to make it to Alpine Junction or at least Etna this day but the wind beat that idea right out of us. The wind was cold, and from the front. Apparently, it isn’t possible to draft another rider pulling a BOB. I’ve always thought Jeff Keller to be completely insane for wanting aero bars on his touring bike, now I just think he is insane for other reasons. We battled all the way to Afton, about 10 miles short of our shortest goal. We were both exhausted and in dire need of sustenance, you know, food.

We parked our bikes outside the first diner we found and headed in, they weren’t very busy and the waitress was interested in what we were doing.  Unfortunately this place had absolutely nothing vegetarian. I confess I ate fish, dammit, I ate fish. To be honest I think I needed the protein in light of not finding any nuts at the gas stations or having any soy for two days. I’m sorry fishy but you did taste good.

After sitting for about two seconds, I was convinced that we did not need to continue that night. It took me another few minutes to convince KC, but logic did prevail. We found a hotel a couple of doors down and crashed. The hot shower and real bed felt great. After the showers and a bit of resting we went out to see what kind of night life existed in Afton, Wyoming. Apparently not a lot, we found a bar that was open and played a few games of pool, it’s been a while. Gurr you better have the felt combed for the weekend after Interbike cause we are playing.