It looks pretty.....

Cindy said to me that the pictures are pretty and do not give indication of difficulty...Funny I thought the same when I watched the movie. How hard could it be? Well I have been humbled ... And slapped around a bit. I will try to give you an example of what the 31 miles were like the other day....nothing like I have ever seen. Well to start with it was almost a five thousand foot climb. It was like a giant stair case ....but 20 miles long. So take this stair case and stretch it so that some of the steps are two feet high , some one, some three or four and then make them varying lengths .....add cracks ,and some deep fissures and then make all the surfaces uneven. Now add sand to the 20 miles in varying depths. No , not finished yet.... Now over the 20 miles throw and roll down rocks.... lots of rocks ,of all sizes... But mostly bigger than golf balls but up to size of oh.... Beach balls. Add one rattle snake with it's head cut off.. (and a scream). Now start up... But don't forget like I forgot.... Your bike is loaded... With gear ...AND add about 8 additional pounds of water ... Because out here ; there is no water. Now begin climbing.....so this is how it would go for me... I would pull up on the handle bar and stand up and pedal hard to get my front wheel over the " step" .... As I did this I would often lose purchase as my back tire slipped in the sand so I would quickly sit to add weight to the tire so I could move forward however my front tire would often hit a rock or a crack and start sideways so I would struggle to straighten the handle bars as the next step or fissure came into play ....as I straightened my front tire I would stand to gain power to move up the step just as my back tire hit the rock i just went over with my front tire and I would slip sideways or go up in the air and lose momentum. Now momentum is questionable when this is all happening at 2.5 miles per hour. This went on for 6 of the eight hours .....the other two hours ? They were spent going down hill at 4.5 mph over he same chit I went up. And that was just part of one day. Crazy.... Crazy, I thought this would be .... Easy.