Distance: 35.2 miles
Avg speed: 8.4 mph
Max speed: 24.7 mph
Ascent: 3020 ft
Saddle time: 04:10

Thought I’d stay off with how my day ended. Despite the rain I still managed to to light one more campfire and use up my remaining wood. The warmth from the burning logs took the chill out of my bones and I nervously feel not fully knowing what lies ahead tomorrow…

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Unsurprisingly, I woke up to another rainy morning. I have quite diligent been monitoring the weather forecast so I knew that rain was expected throughout today. I took the first break in the rain to tear down camp. There is nothing like packing up a wet tent as every piece of debris wants to stick to it. I tend to use what I call ‘the roll and wipe’ method. For every roll I wipe. This tends to take care of the larger piercing stuff which would mean you’ll been repairing it at your next site which is the last thing you’ll want to be doing after riding a bike for half the day.

All packed up I made my way to the visitor center where I would eat breakfast and buy a long sleeved shirt. The rain really picked up during the ride which sent a chill to my bones. I was looking forward to some hot coffee!

I arrived at the visitor center around 8:30AM and immediately bought a shirt from what little options they had. They only had one style of which all the larges were gone so XL for me. The mercantile had more choices but I refused to cycle the 1.25 miles back so this will have to do.

I headed into the Marino Grill where I ordered a coffee and enjoyed my bagel and peanut butter I purchased the night before. I was hopeful that Swati and I could connect via Hangouts voice but is would ring and I never got through. I did see that she tried to call me about 30 minutes earlier but I was not yet in wifi range. I was a bit bummed as hearing her cheerful voice would have been great. Moreover I wanted to wish her luck in her upcoming run in Oregon. I know she’ll rock it!

I waited as long as I could for Swati and the rain but it was time to depart. Today would have the worst % grades of the entire trip and they start immediately… I nervously pushed off into the last frontier around 9:45AM…

Storm clouds were approaching so I quickly found an available site and pictched my tent. I literally just finished sinching down the rain fly when it let loose! Whew that was close! I then dashed to the common picnic area for shelter.

While eating dinner two back Packers strolled into the eating area. Damen and Peter currently reside in Milwaukee WI but are actually from the Czech Republic. Peter has pretty good English while Damen has some trouble so Peter would sort of translate. They arrived in igloo today morning by bus and were out hiking looking for animals. They were very disappointed as they didn’t encounter anything. These guys are really into hiking and he visited South Dakota, Sequoia, places in Europe. The allure of Alaska was to experience the wildlife. Unfortunately, it hasn’t quite panned out yet.

We continued chatting about sports (mainly NHL and soccer) and the usual small talk. Damen and Peter both enjoy using their electric marijuana cigarette and were very generous in offering me some. I gracefully declined and Damen said I would sleep like a baby. I don’t think I’ll have trouble sleeping after the day I’ve had. They were a little disappointed but understood. They finished up and were going to go on another hike.

Before retiring for the night I went to the common area for a late night snack. Here I met Walt who is from DC here on business travel. He works for the National Weather Service and has some work to do in Anchorage but squeezed in some hiking in between.

Sitting at another table was was a young couple from CA making dinner. He works in robotics while she was studying to become an architect. They were departing Denali tomorrow and were taking the train from Riley Creek to Anchorage. That sounds like a wonderful way to end the trip. Wish I would have thought of it! 🙂. She was Vietnamese and the stew she was preparing smelled delightful! Mind you, my stew was good but I’m almost certain theirs is better.

Everyone was wrapping up so I finished the evening inside my tent mentally preparing for the 5 mountain passes I have in front of me tomorrow. It is going to take all of my strength (mentally and physically) to push to the end. I only hope the rain holds back. The sounds of the creek outside combined with the winds blowing through the tree tops soothed my nerves as I closed my eyes and slowly slipped into sleep.