MS 150 - Part 4 - Day 2

Back on the bike and heading back to McCall after the mid point of the ride. Left calf starting to tell me that it is wanting to cramp up. I kept telling it that it had to wait until at least Donnelly before it could do that (I didn't want it to get the best of me just yet). As I was heading back out I passed people that were just coming to the turnaround.

I made it safely to Donnelly after going across the very grating bridge. Stopped for a quick drink and got another Payday bar. Trying to get a little salt and a lot of sugar into the system. After getting refilled and refueled I took off towards Roseberry. Crossed the highway safely (thanks to the great volunteer support crew). After turning at Roseberry to go towards McCall the ride got interesting again. Deer started being a part of this little trip. The deer however, were behind a tall fence and they had little if any chance of trying to jump in my way. I did not make any attempt at trying to get in their way either. The place is called the Black Pine Deer Farm and they sell venison, hides and antlers.

I continued on my quest to finish this ride. I was passed by a couple of other bikers as I got near the Finnish Cemetary. One of them slowed to talk to me. He was getting wore out trying to keep up with the other guy. We kind of stayed at the same speed and caught up with several others out on the road. We turned onto the road going to the Jug Mountain parking lot. This was the final rest area before getting to McCall and I did not stay here long. I wanted to get going as quickly as possible. After filling the water bottle, I bid the volunteers ado and started back out on the road.

Going along I realized that I probably needed to refresh my sun screen so I stopped under a shade tree and got the little container out of my pocket. A couple of guys went by and asked me if everything was fine and I said that it was. I did wish that I could have taken the tree and its shade with me.

I stayed with this group down the first hill (nice 34 mile pace down this one, wind rushing through my hair). They headed out ahead of me and another group of about 5 passed me. As I started going up the next hill one of the guys that passed me had stopped. I asked him if he needed help and he said that he needed to stretch since his calf was hurting. I didn't stick around since that can be a contagious problem. I then caught up with the group that he was riding with and let them know that he would be coming.

Down the second hill I went. Not to much speed because near the bottom there was a right turn onto the road that we came up from. I saw that several people did miss this turn and had gone on down to the highway. I kept my speed up after the turn and went over a couple of inclines that I stood up on the peddles to just get to town. Caught up with 4 others at the light to get across the highway (the easy way to catch people). Across the highway we rode and down by the starting spot. This was not our destination, we needed to get to Alpine Village to get the meal that was awaiting us. After making a trip through some of the bumpy back streets of McCall we made it to our final destination.

Several people asked me if I would do it again and I said that this would indeed be something I would do again.

I would like to thank all those that donated money to this wonderful cause. Also, the volunteers need to be really congratulated on the effort they made in making this a very safe and fun ride.