Sherman's pass turned out to be epic. And not in a good way. Its 23 mile climb, with, as stated before over 4000 feet of elevation gain - the most of which seem to happen in the last seven miles (UNFORGIVEABLE). What was even worse is that, as far as I could tell, for the last seven miles, there were lots of places a road could have gone that did not involve all this climbing. You'd look around, and everywhere would be going down except the road! I had a lot of rage against the road builder - it got personal. ("why are you doing this to me?!?!?! I hate you!!!!!"). If he'd had suddenly shown up I'd have cheerfully bear sprayed him. Plus it was really cold at top, so on / off with the layers constantly, and still chilled on the descent.
Last night - no the night before last - I shared a campspot with Dan and his wife Jean. They are memorable for how generous they were with their beer, and also because their house had just burnt down that day (Jean told me that it was the first time she'd been able to say the words without crying). I'm not sure what kind of house it was, as it was in a friend's shop, and the shop burnt down. Something about a fifth wheel home? I don't know. But it was very new, had all their photos, etc. of when the kids where babies.
I didn't ask about insurance. From the way Dan said, "we will just start all over again."
It didn't sound like they were expecting a windfall of cash.
Going to hang out in Republic until I fill slightly less resentful to road surveyors everywhere and then will tackle the next climb - a meager 2000 feet. Should be a fun-filled afternoon!
No comments:
Post a Comment