Day 6, June 2

A crow woke me up around 5:30 am..  It was probably the same one Ron and I had both thrown rocks at the night before. It sat in a tree near our site making noise for about an hour, mocking our pathetic attempts to hit it on its 50 or so foot high perch. Despite the crow, everyone else stayed in their tents another 20 minutes or so while I started my morning routine.

Everyone was ready to go about an hour later and the four of us: Mike, Ron, Marion and I, started riding toward the next town, Prarie City, about 14 miles away.

Mike set an insane pace that neither Ron nor Marion tried to keep up with and the quickly fell back. I managed to hang on until about mile 6, when Mike finally dropped me on minor hill.  Even though I did not try very hard to keep up since there was a long day of riding ahead it was still somewhat of a hit to the ego since Mike is about 20 years older than me, about 50 lbs heavier and is carrying 35 more lbs of gear.

We all stopped at a convience store in Prarie City for some snacks before heading into the mountains.  I also got in a call to my parents. The picture below was taken at that stop.  Ron is on the left and Mike is on the right and further to the right you can see that I turned the back of my bike into a rolling clothesrack. I washed my clothes in the shower the night before and the hadn't quite dried overnight.

From there we had maybe 5 miles before the mountains started.  As you can see in the picture below it was gorgeous praries with snow covered mountains in the distance.

The upcoming stretch included three passes.  First up was a 2000 ft climb to the top of 5277 ft Dixie Pass, then a 1000 ft drop, followed by a 900 ft climb over 5124 ft Tipton Pass, then a 900 ft drop and lastly, an 800 ft climb over 5082 ft Sumpter Pass. It was cold and cloudy, which made the climbing much more tolerable,  except thst I was constantly taking off then putting back on my windbreaker. The pictures below were taken about 1/3rd of the way up the first pass.

I hung out with Ron at the top of the first summit while he was waiting for Marion but it started drizzling and I decided the best chance at not getting wet was to get off the top off the mountain and enjoyed a 25 to 35 mph blast down the back of the hill.  At the bottom was a big disappointment.  Austin Junction,  which according to my map had "all services" available,  actually consisted of a single diner / store, which was closed.  The sign promising bison burgers and Huckleberry pie was a real kick since it was now 12:30 and I had been planning on lunch there. Worst of all the sign on the door indicated that it was open every day except tues and wed. This was Thursday!  Mike and I broke out our campstoves in the parking lot and ate there anyway.  Ron and Marion ate their lunch in the patio area since the were not heating anything.

After clearing Tipton Pass I was somehow out ahead of everyone and came across a beautiful long valley and a ghost town named Whitney.

Mike caught up with me there and left me behind as soon as we started up the last summit. At the bottom of the other side was a choice between a left turn and a couple mile off route drop to camp in the town of Sumpter or a right turn and 7 mile ride to a campground at Phillips Lake.  Mike decided to wait there for the others while I headed toward the lake.   After waiting about 15 minutes for Ron and Marion,  who was struggling a bit with the climbs, Mike was getting cold and headed toward the lake and caught up with me about a half mile before it. We both set up camp at the campgrounds there. Ron and Marion never showed up, so they must have either camped in the woods near the last summit or, more likely, dropped into the town of Sumpter. The total mileage for the day was only 62 miles but I was more than happy with that since the three climbs were behind me.