Saturday 7/23 Lost Park Jason made us eggs and turkey bacon, again it was amazingly good. He drove us back towards Kenosha Pass. On the way I saw a pronghorn in a field. Arriving at Kenosha Pass and unloading bikes, we saw another car pull up with another bikepacking rig on it and two guys get out. One of them was Jake, 27, from Truckee. He had also gotten shuttled up by a buddy. We rode with him, Mark, Jason, Jake and I on the Colorado Trail. After a while Jason turned around, he had to get back because he and Micah were dog sitting. It started to seem like it was going to be stormy. I again had the terrible feeling I had the previous two days, no energy, just felt awful. Mark disappeared up the trail in front of me. At one point we regrouped. He was talking to me, and I was just feeling so awful. I think this was altitude sickness. We continued on, reconnecting with Jake near the summit of Georgia pass. The storm had become angry and we sheltered under a tree, near some other hikers who were under a tarp. We waited and watched, I put rain gear on. We were about a mile from the summit. After a while we agreed that it was worth a shot and we slowly rode over the top. I suddenly had this urge to go poop really badly, I figured it might be altitude and began the very very rough descent. Sure enough, the feeling abated as we descended. However my bags showed, through the very rough terrain that they were not suitably packed and loaded. My tent rotated down the front Ortlieb bag, buzzing the tire on full stuff. My seat bag cantilevered, buzzed the rear tire and got a hole in it. Oops. Turns out that heavy bedrock sandals on top of the seat bag, seat bag not properly loaded, with nose containing small stuff and then a stuff sack behind makes for a seat bag that will cantilever and touch the tire. Later, I added a Voile strap that Mark lent me to keep the tent from rotating. But for the rest of that descent my bike was a little wacky. The descent was itself quite steep and chunky. We regrouped at the bottom of the descent and met D & D, an older couple from Virginia. They were really nice, I wish I could remember what their names were. David and Debbie? He had an old frame pack from perhaps the '80s. I commented on the old school pack and he said something like, "I still have my first wife, too." And she smiled. Then we all gave our numbers of years married, Mark, myself, D & D. Jake, of course had nothing to say. We continued for a bit and ran into three people who were providing trail magic. An E-Z-Up tent, coolers, bunches of snacks. I couldn't believe the luck. I had a Coke and I took a beer for later and I had a snack. Some chips. We were just in awe, it was so nice. The three people who ran it had initials A, C, K, but I can't remember the names. They were so nice. The two women, C & K had done the Colorado Trail on foot before and since then they do this trail magic for people. It's so nice. They had a dog, Tito. We continued on, Jake intending to go directly to Copper Mountain while Mark and I looked for a place to camp. We chose a spot near the second crossing of Swan River. As we were setting up camp, Jake came back. It was getting dark, Copper Mountain was far. We camped with him, had a fire. He told us we should try bone broth and I got a taste of his and I agreed; hot, healthy, has protein in it, makes you drink liquids at camp. I later did get some and I am glad I did.
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