Remember how I was talking about the great weather forecast? Well the rain that wasn’t supposed to arrive until Tuesday came early. I didn’t bring the rain gear because it wasn’t supposed to rain. At least I brought cold weather wear. As we were breaking down camp, it started to rain lightly and it was much colder today than the previous days. Daylen, Irene, and Sam headed to Beatty to drop off their gear and then, on lighter bikes, rode to get the cars from Death Valley. Daylen had to come back to Beatty to use the Supercharger. Irene and Sam were feeling pretty beat up after yesterday and with the terrain we encountered today, they would not have had fun. Emily, Anthony, and I did the ride as planned. It started off on a wide, flat, gravel road. The further we went the rockier it got. Eventually it was as rocky as Echo Canyon. When we got to Tarantula Canyon, it was deep, deep, gravel and my tired body was not into it. Eventually though, I realized if I went slow and trusted my balance, only using my power to get through the really sand-like parts of it, I was able to motor through it. Once we got of that section and on to the climb over the pass though. Oh my! It was loose chunky rocks over uneven terrain, beaten up by motorbikes. It was like the deep gravel AND having to climb, which I was really too tired to do. There was much hiking. To add to the epicness, it began to sleet on the climb. We were fortunate to have a tailwind for almost all of today. I can’t imagine if it were a headwind because it was ripping strong and cold! The pass was beautiful though and once over it, the gravel got better and better until we descended a very smooth and hard-packed, dirt service road. After the service road, we just had a few miles to roll into Beatty we’re we stopped and jerky place for delicious beef jerky and dried fruit. Then to a BBQ place for lunch. Sam had gotten a room at Motel 6 where Daylen and Irene left there stuff before biking the rest of the way back. I don’t think there ride was much fun as it was on the highway, it was raining, and they had the crazy headwind we were lucky to avoid. 😬 Looking back, I didn't use maybe half the things I brought (although not necessarily half the weight).