July 21st - Jordanelle to Duchagne - 145 km

The generous lady that transported us around at Jordanelle said: "Yawl thought you had your little butts kicked by them mountains yesterday, but you ain't seen nothing yet!" True words, as the climbs of Saturday didn't match the gradients of todays at all! In 2 days we climbed more than 12,000 feet! An early start an right away we had a long down hill which I raced down with some young guys. My bike is smaller, with fast light top of the range wheels that some of us are testing for Bontrager/Trek. Combined with my weight advantage and gravity, I came out best to everyone's delight when I said it is because I'm fattest of them all! Soon we started the first 8% climb of the day around the Jordanelle reservoir. It winded along a valley, ever up and up. Later when we reached Walter's SAG, he told us with a straight face it is only 7 and a half miles to the summit. I thought he looked a bit strange as if he knows something we don't....and so it was. The suffering increased greatly, as the pass kicked up to a seemingly endless 8% grade, which I found extremely uncomfortable, as I have only 2 chainrings in front, not a third granny gear as many cyclists have. The leg strain is huge, and it goes on and on.... As we ascended to 9,480 feet the air became so thin of oxygen that I found my heart jumping out of my chest and me gasping for air. So I had to stop a couple of times for a "Kodak moment"! (actually to recover somewhat) At the summit I felt quite elated that I made it. To our left there was still a enormous ice bank that has not melted yet. we could later see it from 40 km away. The scenery was awesome, and photo's will be posted soon. The downhill again saw us reaching speeds over 80km/h. I did 82km/h, on the lovely open road. At the bottom there was a cattle gate, which ripped my rear tire, but did not deflate it. I patched it up with Duct tape and rode it the whole second half of the ride to camp, were Sylvan replaced it with a new one. This side of the mountain the landscape changed again to desert-like conditions, wuth amazing rock formations and colours. We saw horizontal sandstone formations similar to those in the Grand Canyon, all around the town of Duchesne, which is next to the big water reservoir of "Starvation". Plenty of history evident here. The days ride was delightful despite the heavy climbinhg, and I had a surge of energy during the last 30km of rolling hills, such that I managed to go at 35 to 40km/h into a headwind all by myself, to arrive at camp earlier than most. We had a nice dinner and people sat around in circles like one huge family....so "gezellig". Pictures will follow tomorrow. Again a 145km day tomorrow, with lots of climbing, so I have to go to bed now, as it is late! I'm enjoying the tour with its joys and challenges lots. but miss my family, friends, pets and garden much! Your encouragement and prayers are so appreciated and valued, and thanks for the comments on the blog.