Gongchen -> Dongjing I was not feeling great today. I couldn’t tell if I was coming down with something or fighting off something or just tired. It was sunny but also very chilly from the strong winds that started at the end of the day yesterday. Without the wind, it was very warm. We had a yummy breakfast and got coffee then made our way out of the city on a pretty busy road. It wasn’t very pleasant, especially since there was also a strong headwind. It was so much nicer once we got off that road and onto gravel. It started with a really long climb. Feeling as beat up as I did, that was much harder than it should’ve been. Once at the top, we meandered in this river valley. It was pretty but the gravel road was pretty bumpy. Brian suggested taking this road he found down to the river. It ended up being a very steep road in someone’s persimmon orchard which did not going all the way down. Having to climb back up wasn’t fun. We rode through the valley the whole day. Parts of it was on very nice concrete roads and other parts, the road was really broken up. It was so jarring that it felt like I had body aches but later I felt fine so it was just fatigue. We had one last big climb before descending down to our hotel. The climbing was steep once again. I was cursing the engineers that decided to make it so steep. And on the steepest section, the concrete was really broken up. On the way down, we encountered some big rock slides covering entire directions of travel. It was also getting chilly. Again with the chilliness and the aching body, I was wondering if I was getting sick. I felt fine after a shower, just tired. Every day so far, we’ve been getting to the hotel a little bit after sunset so today was surprising that we finished so early.