Jester: That was some of the best flying I’ve seen to date – right up to the part where you got killed.

Previously, I told about the bad climb day, which I think was day 4. I was rereading Paul Howard’s book on The Tour Divide race (Eat, Sleep and Ride) when he encountered this segment. I thought it was a good description of the climb and I will include a picture that I found on the internet that shows the bottom of the climb. It gets worse…

“Pushing through the puddles and shivering through my bear whistle, I noticed only slowly how the ‘trail’ was being squeezed between the river and its imposing embankment. This, it turned out, was the ‘quick grunt’ at the end. It looked neither quick, nor a mere grunt. Instead, after the passage of nearly 40 pairs of feet and bikes as well as the recent downpour, ahead lay a loose, shale rake that climbed steeply up a precipitous slope. The occasional twisted tree trunk and associated glistening roots added an extra frisson to the task ahead.

With little enthusiasm for retracing my steps, and unsure that I could even if I wanted to, I started to climb; slither and slip might have been a better description if it were possible to do uphill. Initially, I pushed the bike, although it soon became necessary to take advantage of leverage afforded by hanging on to surrounding trees and haul it after me. Climbing over the bike on such a precipice was a delicate maneuver. I drew some succor from the fact it was unlikely that a fall would result in a direct plunge into the river below. Becoming impaled on a tree branch on the journey down was a much more likely fate.” Paul Howard – Eat, Sleep and Ride

Tailwinds

Chuck