Rain? You Want Rain? I’ll Give You Rain.

Day 8 ... Newport to Clark Fork. 67 miles with a modest net gain of about 1,350 feet. The night before, we’re thinking it should be a relatively easy day, except the forecast is a little questionable. We’re anticipating our first damp day ... maybe even all day. We certainly weren’t looking forward to it, but knowing that it was bound to happen eventually, we weren’t really dreading it either.

As it turned out, the first 55 miles were nothing but pleasant. The last 10 or 12 made up for it. I’m not positive that it was the hardest rain I’ve ever ridden in, but I’m quite confident it was in the top two. Like much of our trip, Tex, Cath and I were riding in an efficient pace line for most of the day, taking turns pulling the train every couple miles or so. All good. Once the downpour started, riding on someone else’s wheel lost its appeal. The efficiency of the slipstream was FAR outweighed by the increased water spray on your face (and everywhere else). It quickly became every man for himself.

Testing our rain gear for the first time (with varying success) was especially challenging through the intermittent three inch deep puddles. The significant spray from cars in either direction was unnoticeable during those times.

All that was bad enough, but when the first of three simultaneous lighting/thunderbolts hit, and with nowhere to hide, our speeds only increased. See you in ClarkFork (I hope)!

Like many challenging circumstances, the 45 minutes it lasted seemed like hours, but we made it. And again, like usual, once it was over, it was almost worth the memory. Almost.