My second day of riding the Colorado High Country 1200k brevet. I was the last to start by a significant margin, and paid for it by getting the biggest share of horrible weather, which slowed me down; the lesson learned: an early start can sometimes beat out the afternoon storms in the high country. I lost some data towards the end of the ride when my Garmin died (the last 10.5 miles, evidently, which was basically all descent (a loss of 2370'). We experienced an inordinate amount of weather this day, starting as I reached the top of the biggest climb of the day, Snowy Range Pass, at what appears to be around 10,800' (both Garmin and USGS topo). The rain soaked through my top-tube bag and soaked my external battery, which shorted out; consequently I was unable to recharge the Garmin. The rain even shorted out the Dinotte rear light, but it continued to flash in an unusual and less than ideal pattern (the pattern was too slow in one part). Thankfully, the Dinotte light sorted itself out by the end of the third day. I lost the light by the time I was climbing towards what I understand are know as the Rabbit Ears passes, which include the continental divide. This was the first of two nights I finished in the dark. Secondary to the weather was the cracks in the asphalt, which took their toll on the faster sections between Laramie and Walden. Because of my late start, the crazy-long stop I made in Laramie to dry out and warm up, three changes of clothes as I left Laramie due to changing weather, and another, prolonged deluge as I made this second climb of the day crossing the Medicine Bow National Park, I was WAY behind schedule and had to practically time-trial it to the next control point, Walden, and made it with only around 4-6 minutes to spare. As it turns out, a late check-in would have been forgiven due to the exceptional weather but, since I figured I could make it, I decided I should make it. I was then worried about how little sleep I'd get if I did not ride fast. I asked John Lee's wife if it might be possible to relax the time deadlines on the first two intermediate controls on Day 3 so that people (that is, ME) could choose to sleep in if they wanted to; she called him and gave me her phone and he readily agreed, and passed the instruction onto the support staff at Steamboat Springs, the overnight control. So, I took it easy and the only real issue was the descent from Rabbit Ears into Steamboat; because it was dark and the road was in poor condition, I felt obliged to stay on the brakes and keep my speed down for what turned out to be a LOT of miles of downhill, and I'll be darned if my fingers weren't very tired by the time I made it to flatter ground near the end.