Crater Lake

A fifteen mile charge from our camp at Diamond Lake to the crater revealed a disappointingly smokey viewpoint.  The turquoise lake we saw last year was nowhere in sight.

SAG stands for Support And Gear but ours was Superior and Great.  Shiny and Glittery.  Superb and Green Grapes.  I don't know how we survived this ride without real SAG last year - it made all the difference in the world to have a constant flow of water. 

I was feeling pretty fatigued and even a little beat up by the time we reached the several mile switchback climb to the lodge.  Suffering up the hill alone, I passed a lady in white leg warmers who seemed to be hurting worse than me.

I had just finished spraying cold water on my hot feet and was remounting when the lady in white legwarmers appeared.  "Wait!  I have something to tell you!" she shouted.  She rolled up, huffing.  "You are my inspiration!  I wanted to stop so badly but when you passed me and attacked the climb, I decided to chase you".

It's funny because she's who I am.  Or maybe who I was.  And she will be who I am one day.  Here I was suffering in my head, unable to keep up with my riding partner, but this lady had a different perspective on what sort of cyclist I am.

After an enormous amount of toast at the lodge, we enjoyed a bit more climbing before the extraordinarily beautiful and fun descent back to camp.  Finally all back at camp, we exchanged stories around the fire about the day and of the past and even the future.