The climb...
they kept telling us to take the autoroute...But No...not the Russells!
I am halfway up, 4 hours, 18 kilometers, yes Jiro, we are walking most of the way. Today is like Little River to Ft. Bragg, but uphill like Van Damme canyon all the way to Noyo Bridge, then 'steep' downhill to Oak St. We are learning to swear in many languages! I drank a 70oz camelbak full already. Weather is perfect.
Ok, two camelbaks. Damn, that was tough. 4000' in 16 kilometers up..at one point my altimeter read a climb rate of 21' per minute...walking. Coming down was almost worse, even steeper, 1500' in 2 kilometers, mostly baseball sized rocks. Tom lost traction, skidded past Brian and I, right near the cliff side. Brain yelled at him to steer into the hill, and he pulled it off! Even missed the trees. A little later I went over the bars, a hidden cliff on the other side of a root..flying like superman. No damage to me or the bike. We got into Roncesvalles about two minutes before full dark, very tired. We had a room reserved, since we knew the hill of pain would be...painfull. The rooms were in a converted convent, quite stylin'.

David Russell