Jackson, CA to South Lake Tahoe, CA

Today was Kirkwood. The day I have been thinking about for the past two weeks. Arguably the hardest day of the summer, by far the hardest day so far.

Woke up at 5. I'll tell you one thing, sleeping in a high school gym doesn't do wonders for your back. Regardless, I tried to shrug it off. I needed full concentration for today. 95 miles. 65 miles uphill (hard), followed by 20 miles downhill very steep (harder), followed by an additional 10 miles of uphill (hardest). We went to the same Lion's Club/local restaurant for br

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akfast. They literally gave us an all-you-can-eat buffet, and by all means, the food was delicious: scrambled eggs (yum), pancakes (yummy), and bacon (yum yum). After some tips from previous JOH riders, I made sure I didn't eat too much, which was pretty tough, because the food tasted soo good.

After the breakfast, we darted off to Tahoe at around 7 am. For today, we had assigned pacelines, mine having 5 members instead of the usual 4.

We climbed and climbed and climbed and seem to be going so slow. Literally, we were going roughly 6 mph...I could run that. After the 2nd or third crew stop, we decided to break up the group, and my half decided to pick it up. I don't know how we did it, but me, Tucker (from Iowa State) and Jeff (from Kansas State) managed to fight through it and make it through Tahoe. I don't how I could of done it without them and their encouraging words.

The scenery was incredible. I have never seen anything that beautiful. The pictures speak for themselves.

I was pretty nervous for today but I ended up doing really good. After running and biking everyday for the past year, I feel like I was pretty ready for this trip, and today was proof that I was. However, once I got to Tahoe, man was I sore. They had some pizza ready for us which I devoured. I ate a ton of food today...maybe pushing 7000 calories. At least 6 cliff bars, a couple electrolyte chews, a turkey sandwhich and chips for lunch, and the 4 slices of pizza for dinner. It's okay though, cause I know I easily burned off all those calories and then some. Today we get to stay at a motel 8 for the night...a very nice treat. We also have the day off tomorrow to relax our muscles. I would go out tonight, but I'm way too tired and probably just going straight to sleep. I would write more and edit my thoughts a little better, but I'm way too tire to do that...its been a long day.

By the way, this is for you, Mitchel...IronHorse (the bike) made it all through Kirkwood without breaking the bike chain.