End of day 4

Had happy hour pizza special at Sneakys Pub! $10cn for a 12″ three item pizza including a pint! About $7.50us, was tasty!!

Plan is to be up 6am, on the road by 7am, try to get to Sparwood before the predicted heavy rain…

Day 5

Started with 2.5m hill, then onto logging road, then single track so steep it took two of us to push each bike up!! F!!!

Hills finally leveled out a little bit, we went through several miles of clear-cut logging area that is now being grazed by cows. A decent road, good riding, but eventually we got into lower Elk Valley on our way to Sparwood, and it was blistering headwind for the last 13 miles! Made it through, though…

Pulled into the town of Sparwood, heading toward the only hotel in town, saw some food trucks beside the main drive, pulled in there and I had Korean beef barbecue with homemade kimchi, rice, and salad greens, with what’s Sabi soy sauce over-the-top. OMG, what a good meal!!!

As I mentioned before, we are following the published book schedule, even though today was a short day because we started so early on the bikes at about 7 AM, because predicted rain tonight we will stay at the hotel here rather than pushing further, though this is the recommended stop. After today, we will head back out into the wilderness and have three nights with no services, so happy to have one more night of relative luxury!

It’s interesting on this trail, Lael Wilcox from Anchorage, the woman who raced this last year and apparently is racing it again this year now, it’s amazing to think that we’re going over the same trail she is. Her very first day, she rode 220 miles her first day! We’re not even at 150 miles yet, working our asses off, and we’re already on day five! It’s hard to imagine her incredible will and fortitude! But when you’re not carrying anything at all on your bike, you can certainly do double or triple the mileage we are every day, which put you into towns a little more frequently. A very different strategy for riding the divide…

Up where the food trucks were, the food was so good we asked them if they would be there dinner time, they said that they move just down the block to the place where this ridiculously huge cool truck sets, that’s like the town plaza. They will be up there tonight, apparently the leave and be live music up there! Right across the street from the grocery store since we have to provision for the next three days…

OK I guess that’s about it for this one, not many pictures since it was kind of a short day and we’re already at a hotel again! Lucky us! Everything hurts, but everybody’s doing well!

Thank you all for your kind comments!!

Weather update: We are hunkered down in Sparwood at the hotel. The predicted rain moved in with a vengeance! High winds, sideways rain, and SNOW visible at about 200′, so we are not excited about the morning…