3 - Service is Slim

4 days of mountains done. 5 mountain passes complete. Over 10,000 feet of climbing. It was the final push. Last hoorah before Seattle. We made it. We went up. We went down. The bottom of Rainy Pass finds us in Diablo by the lake. What a gorgeous view. I feel secluded into nature, though. No cell phones. No stores. No restaurants. No flat land to camp on.
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Today we ran into the 4k for Cancer riders. They started in Baltimore and will end in Anacortes in Washington. On my way up Washington pass, I heard from a fellow rider that they were on their way up the mountain and acted like show offs, too. I proudly decided to make sure they never biked past me. They didn't. I went faster up. I stopped for less time to catch my breath and cool down. I reached the top of the first pass without even seeing a rider from 4k. At the top of the first pass, we ran into their van and one of my teammates helped this girl fix her chain that fell off (an issue I have dealt with a lot in the past few weeks). We then ventured to the top of the next pass and went on a hike to a lake hidden in the mountains. Still, no 4k riders. On the descent to Diablo, I saw them all coming down the hill behind me. I pedaled hard. I would catch one of my teammates and warn them, so they could tag along. I ended up with 5 or 6 teammates bombing the final stretch of the hill at 48+ mph. We got to camp 15 seconds before the other riders. I felt so accomplished. It was a remarkable day and I'm glad to have had that extra push to ride faster.
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An awesome person and one of the funniest people of the triptrip, Kaylee Schweet-hat-sir, and I are cracking up. We assigned everyone a role on how I met your mother and then asked people what they would be if they could be anything. I would be a puddle of water melting into the ground. Kaylee would be a starfish. We had some people say a couch or an adult sloth! This game will continue. Have a great night.