Day Three – Hills from Hades

Daily Brief

Winding our way from Brigham City to Snowville, we started in flat paradise and ended with tough climbs and blasting winds. The team was beat, and by 9:00 PM, Shaun, Kregg, and Carston were out.

Upwards! Onwards! Forwards! – But mostly upwards…

We were sleeping comfortably in our sleeping bags, under the open skies when we got an early morning wake up call at 7:30 AM. Everyone except Shaun (who was in the van) got hit by the sprinklers as we were still half asleep. That really woke us up! We then took time to let our stuff dry, jumpstart the van (after the battery died), and change in the church after a friendly maintenance guy let us in. Breakfast was provided courtesy of Carry and Amy (Shaun’s sisters), who had sent food up with Carsten.

Leaving Brigham City we were in cycle paradise. There was only a slight breeze, flat open road, beautiful skies and green mountains. We took the first twenty miles hardly breaking a sweat. By around 1:00 PM we were half way done and took our lunch outside a rocket research facility. We piled in 7 kinds of soup to make some kind of super soup that we downed without a second thought.

Riding with beautiful skies, no wind, and open road. [Left to right is Chandler, Shaun, Chris, Kregg, and Parry)

What we saw in front of us.

Resting before we discovered our first hill. (Parry is doing marine rest)

A few miles later and we began to

ascend up towards Snowville. After big hill number one we all took a break before a bend in the road. It was a monster to climb so we took a moment to recover. Shaun was convinced that after the bend it was downhill with the wind to our backs all the way. Chris was convinced that it was going to be a climb. Chandler and Parry took the lead and went around the bend to discover the biggest climb we’ve seen yet. You know it’s going to be good when you’re already climbing up a hill, and you can see a hill growing on the road in front of you. After hill number one there were four more hills, and with the wind blasting our faces off, we slowed down considerably. As Shaun aptly put it, it was windy as all sheesh.

Watching Chandler lead, you could see him riding at an angle to the ground. It almost looked as if the wind would take the wheels right out from underneath him. Thankfully it didn’t and we all made it to Snowville, some ahead of others. We lost a little unity as the first group was half an hour ahead of the tail, but it was hard for Chandler, Parry and Chris to go slow up the windy hills that just kept egging them on. Today was probably the second biggest ascent of our entire trip.

Chandler definitely gets the windshield award for being so big that whenever you send him to the front of the group it’s like your drafting behind a windshield. Drafting makes all the difference, especially when your engine is your legs.

We ate dinner at Mollies café, one of two sit down restaurants in Snowville. Huge portions helped feed our lion like appetites, but I (Parry) think I’m gonna grab some pineapple right now. It’s amazing how much food and water you can consume when you’re burning three times the number of calories as a normal person in a day.

As a side note, Carsten (Van support guy, and Chandlers younger brother), says that the pain is becoming so intense he’s not sure if he can take it, yet we all know he loves to drive around the county side, take pictures of cows, and sleep all day. Here is proof.

Moo

I found about seventy more pictures like this one when I downloaded the pictures for the day…

Daily Stats

Distance:60.61 Miles
Time: 4:37
Avg. Speed: 13.1
Max Speed: 33.2

Total Distance: 180.47

P&C Pushups: 175