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DAY 4 - BUCKS LAKE to TAYLORSVILLE, 18 MI. (by bike) 20 MI. (by car) After a very long gruelling day climbing to Bucks Lake the good news was (1) we'd gotten a delightful 11 hours of sleep and (2) it was all downhill or flat to Taylorsville. The bad news was when John peeked his head out the door of our motel room, it was raining! This came as a total surprise to us. The forecasts had all shown sunny weather, warming (if anything) over the course of our trip. Between that and the fact our trip was only 4 days long we really didn't do the preparation we normally do. And one thing we weren't prepared for was rain. Not having much choice, we brewed up a pot of "motel" coffee (yum!), gobbled down the lemon cake we'd bought at the restaurant last night, put on the warmest, most waterproof clothing we had, and got ourselves on the road. There were still little patches of snow at this altitude from a storm that had passed through the week before, but it wasn't terribly cold - at least not while we were still dry and just starting out. But by the time we got to the bottom of the mountain in Quincy, our hands and feet

Bucks Lake to Taylorsville

were freezing and soaking wet. It would have been a really enjoyable downhill too - 18 miles of pure coasting. Although our cold, wet extremities and the need to be extra cautious on the slick pavement took some of the joy out of the ride it was still pretty fun. Just not quite the reward we'd worked so hard for the day before. I don't think I mentioned it to John, but before we'd even rolled out of Bucks Lake I'd made up my mind to ride only as far as Quincy and call Bruce from there, asking him to give us a ride in his pickup truck the rest of the way. I figured we'd done our heroics on the climb yesterday and didn't need to prove anything else. When we arrived in the charming town of Quincy we immediately found ourselves a nice cafe (The Alley Cat) where we could change into dry clothes, warm ourselves up, and get some good hot coffee. The only thing left to do was give Bruce a call. An hour later we were rescued, while the conversation among the locals at the cafe was all about the unexpected rain. We weren't the only ones that had gotten caught off guard - just a bit more vulnerable on our bikes. NEXT

Bruce's Boeuf Bourguignon - Delish!

At the dam on Indian Creek near Taylorsville