Day 4 & 5 Sea 2 Shining Sea

Yesterday was nothing short of an epic day on a bike. 52miles at 9.4avg and over 7700ft of climbing. The tandems started riding an hour after the rest of the group to try to allow the main group to ride a more leisurely controlled pace. Since was only the tandems who stayed back it didn't quite work out to slow the front down so we took the opportunity to stretch our legs and hammer a bit. We caught the guys in the front in a little more then an hour twenty. Larry is really a turbo/ deisel back there just making our bike fly along. I'm just hanging on and steering.
The rest of the way we rode with rider after rider, pushing, cheering and just being there for them so they could ride as far as they wanted for the day. The steady steepness of the climb was just unrelenting.
After lunch we rode with a group of 6-7 riders just keeping each other company and telling stories try to make the pain of the hills go away. I can't even to begin to explain what an honor and pleasure it is to ride with these people. The stories of their life experiences to get to where they are now will bring a tear to your eyes even while climbing some of the most beautiful roads in the country. Sunglasses are great for masking the tears.
We were rewarded with a fast downhill to our cabins for the night at Kit Carson Lodge on Silver Lake. They were kind enough to open their lodge just for us. They were not planning on opening for the season for a couple weeks. We had a great pasta and chichen parm dinner, which was excellent.
After dinner a handful of us spent the evening kayaking and watching our crazy surport staff jump off the high rocks into the lake. And of course a fire pit was there to warm us all back up. Just an amazing day!!

Day 5

Today we had two good climbs followed by the real reward for all of our climbing, a 56mph descent  down to Lake Tahoe.