Well, I almost missed the 10 am start. At 9 I was on the phone with Dell Tech support resolving a situation with my computer that include no start menu, task bar or desktop icons. Tough to troubleshoot. I expected to have to reinstall the system, but a quick registry patch got me up and running.

I was at the boat launch when Debbie arrived. Cliff rode from home to add extra miles, the rat. He got more than I did today. We went up Lindsay creek then tooled around Hell's Gate before heading to Taco John's for lunch.

About four miles from the boat launch we spotted Linda, Helen and Camille on their way to Lapwai. The goal: Camille's first 50 miler. We figured they'd have to take a room in Lapwai at the pace they were doing, but they were back at the boat launch before 4.

Mike, Nicky, Sherry, Lance, and Jan joined Debbie, Cliff and I for the 1 pm start. Mike and I turned back at the top of Evan's road to join the group and ran into Chris who had started late and caught us as usual. He is very well behaved on that bicycle. He even let me lead up Critchfield this afternoon.

Chris on his best behavior

Linda lead her own ride today making a third TRC start. As ride leader she felt it necessary to change the flat Camille had on highway 12 near the Casino. I explained to her that the correct protocol is to let the owner of the flat change it herself and then stand around poking fun and offering useless advice. She'll know better next time.

Camille will soon be doing centuries with Helen.

For a weekend forcast to be cooler than the week before it, we had extraordinary weather. Sadly most of us didn't take advantage of Saturday. After the litter pickup, I went home and cleaned up my yard.

This is a rare photo of something that happens only once or twice a year--me at work. See how miserable I am?

Mystery Someone picked up two big black bags of trash on our section leaving the bags at Dippel Road. We thought it might have been the Riddles, but they won't take the credit. The Ellis's? Perhaps. In any case thanks to whoever it was. We didn't have a large group, but we did manage to finish by 10.