Well, I didn't make a journal entry last night, plain and simple… I went to bed at 6:30 PM after stuffing my face with some of the best turkey I've ever tasted. It was a tough day to say the least. We left camp after a stormy night of lightning and thunder and a hard rain for most of the evening. The good news, at least what we thought was good news, is that we had heard there was a storm front over Lake Michigan and if it passed over the evening, we'd be free and clear of high winds and wet weather for the next day. I'd like to make an official mental note at this point: whenever someone says a statement like that, just reverse it.
For the most part of the day, it was so-so and dry. I'm not sure if I would say it was mostly cloudy or partly sunny. Anyway, I was feeling pretty strong, and so much so that I thought I'd have a pretty strong second day. Leading up for the past month everyone has told me that the second day is the toughest because you start to get into the hills going towards Cadillac, and the hills never tend to stop or give you any kind of descent to recover. It's just one long gradual climb toward Cadillac - which makes sense, since I've been told Cadillac is one of the highest points in lower Michigan.
To add to the pain of the slight incline all day long, there was a huge head wind from the north. They were some of the toughest winds I've "played" with this year, which meant staying with the pack was both beneficial to hide from the winds but it was also tougher to keep up with the tandems.
I stayed with the group for the first 75 miles, but the hills took their toll as we got closer to Cadillac. The group's speed just did me in and I needed to take a break, so I did the last 19 miles solo or with a few single riders. As I was riding through Cadillac, I suffered my first flat/slow leak of the ride. It was about three and a half miles from the end, so I just kept re-inflating the tube with air every mile or so. It made for a longer ride, but it saved me from fixing a flat so close to camp. Due to the fatigue I was already suffering from what I now considered to be the toughest day at day 2, I didn't want to stop.
To my surprise, as I pulled into camp I was still one of the first 50-70 people to reach camp that day - which told me that it was a pretty tough ride. After I made camp and dried some of my gear out from the previous evening's rainstorm, I grabbed some dinner and went immediately to bed. It was cold with another cold front coming through during the day and the high winds seemed to grow as the evening progressed. We were all in our long pants, sweatshirts, and jackets after dinner and I think the group had fun socializing that evening, but because of my fatigue I didn't feel I was up for much socializing. I just needed to recover for Day 3.
Day 1 - Day 2 - Day 3 - Day 4 - The Day After