My day started at 4:30 am, when the birds woke up. I tried my best to go back to sleep, but excitement got the better of me. I got up around 6:30, made a chia seed-granola-bruised mango breakfast, packed, dawdled, journaled, etc., and my riding buddies, exhausted from their last few days, were still sleeping. They got up around 8:30, and I left with the hope of waiting up for them in Concrete. I ended up being just a town ahead of them the whole day. I took the 530 detour off SR 20, and it was gorgeous. Two younger women in a car pumped their fists and cheered for me from their car in a driveway as they waited for me to pass. Grocery shopped and met another cross country-er in Marblemount. I believe his name is Bob, and he is lightly loaded doing 100+ mile days. As he graced my little wooden bench corner for some delightful conversation, I unashamedly devoured my second-in-my-entire-life Klondike bar, a banana, and some trail mix. In Newhalem, my parents and little brother, whom they had just picked up from Job Corps, met me. We chatted and sat on the swing set. It was so good to see my little brother. I beat the system by solar-charging my iPhone in the middle of the hydroelectric power park. Ken and Emi caught up with me, and we decided to backtrack 1/2 a mile and camp, as Emi's knee was bothering her a bit. Tomorrow they are riding a short day to Diablo, and spending the day there. I will break camp tomorrow morning with our neighbors, who are also headed to Maine! I hope to make it over the pass and to a cyclists' campground just west of Winthrop.
I've got a mean sunburn and connect-the-dots mosquito bites. No showers at Newhalem Creek campgrounds. Washed hair in the sink and wiped down with Wet Ones.
Tonight's dinner was brought to you (er...me) by an entire can of baked beans and most of a can of cheap beer (shhh...).
Expenses:
$1.99 Can of baked beans
$1.99 Klondike bar
$1.59 can of pineapple
$4 hiker-biker site split 3 ways
Total: about $10. I'm too tired for math.
You forgot the part about the 20mph tailwind that was blowing you uphill some of the afternoon! Give God credit for the assist!
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