Three pass Wednesday - June 23

We rode ahead to Prairie City to get breakfast before the girls caught up with us. We found a little local kitchen and got 2 biscuits and gravy for $3.50, it was so good. The girls finally rode in and we started the climb of the first of the three passes of the day. They all started rough at 3500 ft and summited around 5100.

We climbed one pass at a time and just as we were about to climb the third pass we decided to eat lunch by a fresh water spring. If you have not guessed yet we ate ramen for lunch and it was just as good as the first day we ate it for lunch. Jarod broke another spoke, which made us really nervous cuz we did not if his bike would make it to the next shop. We took a water break at about 4760 ft and I looked up how much further the lake was on my phone, only 10 more miles! We mounted up and Taylor swift took us to the top of the pass, she did a great. The down hill was amazing, all the way to the lake! The group found a great place to camp by the lake with high hopes of not paying! We ended real early that day and decided to take a refreshing dip in the lake. This was not refreshing at all, it was ice cold and a storm was rolling in. At first glance it almost looked like a green smog was rolling across the lake as we swam. Well in fact, it was a huge pollen cloud that was miles wide and blanketed the valley the lake was in. I quickly swam out of the lake to retrieve my allergy pills and watch Jarod and Chad, with a few girls, stuck out on the dock. They finally jumped back into the freezing water and we all went back to set up camp before the storm rolled in. Well the storm came in real quick and caught us in the middle of setting up camp. The girls went to a little shelter to eat dinner, we just laid in the tent and cooked dinner. We did not come out of the tent for a good hour and half, that is where the food was, so why would we. After the storm passed and we all had dinner, we played a game Chad told us about that made for a great ice breaker for the two groups. The pass couple of days where a little weird as we kinda just hung out together. As the game started we just meshed and it was the start of an amazing friendship and journey across america together.

We decided to gather firewood to get warm as the chilly air rolled across the lake. The whole group spread out and started looking for wood. Me and Chad went to get small stuff to start the fire for Jarod walked off without the hatchet and that only met he would bring back a tree. Sure enough me and Chad had all the little stuff in the pit and Jarod stools in to camp with logs and he "found" a wooden post that happen to read sewage on the side of it. He said it was dry....it made for a good laugh and kept us nice and warm.

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Location:Phillips lake