This morning I rode to the top of Horseshoe Meadows, another Hors Categorie climb, the 2nd hardest cycling climb in California and the fourth hardest climb in the US.  It was 6,400 feet of vertical over 22 miles.  I rode down from our campsite to town to start the climb:

At mile 22, with 6,100 feet of non-stop vertical climbing behind me, I broke a spoke:

Here’s the climb data up until the spoke broke:

I didn’t feel comfortable going down the mountain with a broken spoke, so Trish came up with the truck.  Here I am setting out to complete the last couple miles of the climb:

We met up at the top of the climb and went for a hike at 10,000 feet in the Sierras.  B brought her fancy walking stick:

We played in the snow a bit:

We all drove down together.  On the drive down, I kept saying “wow, I rode up this?”

At sunset we set out to find a Letterbox:

We successfully found it and did the stamping:

Today’s switchbacks can be seen in the distance:

Tonight we used our homemade outdoor kitchen for the first time:

And Trish made a new letterboxing stamp:

I’m exhausted, off to bed!