Rick from Whitefish nursing a sore knee

***Hey, this is Rick.  I left Sparwood at 5:00 in the morning.  Spent the night with Paul, Cadet and Bruce.  Left with Bruce in the morning and Paul & Cadet followed.  Got up to Trek Mining on the Corbin Road and Paul had caught up to me.  We got stopped by a train that looked like it wasn't going to move.  We didn't want to make a detour and get disqualified, so, both of use climbed over the train with our bikes.  Cadet caught up with us on Cabin Road.  They both went ahead on Cabin Road.  Once I got onto Wigwam I got caught in a heavy rain storm and got soaking wet.  I caught up to Deanna on the Fixie on Wigam and got into the connector together.  What a bitch of a connector coming out of the river basin!  Man!  Old man, heavy bike, caused my knee to get tweaked.  Deanna was just laughing at me trying to get that bike up that cliff.  Reached Pass at the dark and we both went down the pass in the dark.  Made it to the border about midnight and I got a sandwich and hot chocolate at the bar at the border.  Made it into Eureka at 1am and we camped out on Cadet's motel room floor for the night.  That was a hard 20 hours for that day!

***Hey, this is Rick again.  Slept in at Eureka and left there about 10:00am.  I had iced my knee that night and I wanted to see how I could do today.  Paul had left about an hour before I did and Deanna went ahead and left on her Fixie about a half hour before I did.  Cadet was complaining about his knee and he was going to try to work it out and see how far he could get.  I havnt seen him, at the end of the day.  I went ahead and tried to see how my knee would hold up and I was able to make it up to Whitefish Pass and caught up with Deanna there.  And also Brad had hooked up with us.  I had a flat going down the backside and Deanna had a flat also.  My knee really started hurting on the backside of Whitefish Pass.

It was a good climb up to Red Meadows and I decided to camp there for the night.  My knee was really bothering me going up, so, I'm really worried about the knee.  This could be a show stopper, so, I'm just going to rest it tonight and it's a beautiful camping spot, so, I'm enjoying the scenery right now.

***Hey, this is Rick again and I spent the night last night at Red Meadows Camp Ground.  Man, I'll tell you what, I was going to be nice a dry, beautiful camping, and here we are trudging through the snow!  Get wet feet, so, my feet were nice and cold for climbing into the sleeping bag.  But, I left there kinda late, I slept in and the knee was really hurting on the way into Whitefish.  Deanna and Brad had gone ahead of me last night, so, I don't know if they camped or made it all the way into Whitefish last night.  I'm going to take an off day right now.  I stopped in at Glacier Cycles and they were super nice!  Got me right in and checked over the bike.  The bottom bracket was making some funny noises and they said that it would probably hold up and we'll go ahead and see how that holds up.

Also called a J. Shafer a PT (physical therapist) here in town about my knee and he said come right over.  I went over and he checked me out and he said that it would probably be in a lot of pain but it might not be a show stopper, so, that's good news!  So, right now I'm just laying in bed icing my knee and I'm supposed to go back and see him at 5.  But I'll go ahead and see if I can do 100 miles tomorrow and see how my knee holds up.

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