We crested the summit around 2:00pm or so. This summit was again just shy of 10 000ft, and Jake got to see his first patches of snow. We figured we were done the tough portion of the day but were sadly mistaken. The remainder of the day may have actually been tougher... The steep descents were on terrible road and always followed by a hairpin turn - not allowing us to carry any momentum over.
One part in particular that I'm sure none of us will soon forget was this steep (~10% grade) 3/4 mile climb amidst the worst swarming mosquitoes you've ever seen. We were all pedaling on our highest gear trying to escape the madness. Although pedaling as hard as we could, I think more energy was spent slapping mosquitoes off our bodies. One slap would often kill up to 5 mosquitoes. It was brutal. At this point Geoff was in the lead and all we heard was screaming...
Anyways... After a flat tire and some sore knees and consciences, we finally made it to the Cyclists Only Lodging where we were greeted by Jon and Lucy, thousands of skeeters, and Shawn - a rider we had spent the past two nights with.
Halfway up the climb!
Made it to the top! Just shy of 10,000ft
Very excited to begin the first downhill
Arriving to Jon and Lucy's spot.
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