The title may well refer to the temperature today on the Huckleberry ride; I don't think the mercury did rise quite that far but it was surely a hot one. I had thought about riding from Moscow this morning to but a Relay for Life hangover (very little sleep and lots of walking Friday night) had me moving slowly. I passed Chris on his way out of Moscow and thought "boy, he is going to be late". I dropped my car in Troy and rode to Deary hoping that a) I would be on time and b) that I could stay ahead of Chris neither of these being certainities. A huge crowd were at the appointed hour in Deary and I'm sure Corrie will supply lots of photos. Cliff spilt gallons of red Gatorade over his seat and left the parking lot looking like it was the scene of a gory accident (which was probably how Cliff's bike shorts looked too but thank goodness they were stock black and not some fancy colored duds like Bruce might wear!).

No huckleberry ice cream for me this year as the memories of last year's ugly scene on the side of the road were still fresh. Seems like the old belly is fussy about going from too hot to too cold in 30 seconds flat!

Arrived back at Deary in one piece and persuaded Paul and Jane to take my car keys and move my car from Troy to Moscow. They were kind enough to wait in Troy to check that I still intended to add the extra miles, thanks guys! Not sure if you noticed that I almost passed out when I stopped to talk to you; I got moving pretty quickly to put an end to that sort of nonsense! The trail up from Troy is just gorgeous and nicely shaded. Now, I did know that there was 11/2 miles of the Latah trail not paved but I didn't know where that patch was located. FYI it is at the top of the hill out of Troy; the pavement ends and the old railway bed of big loose rock appears. I puttered along on the rock stopping once in a while when it got too squirrelly; finally I found a place where a quick run across some grass got me to a gravel road that was much more preferable to the railway bed. Following my nose I found the highway and after about 1/2 mile I could get back onto the trail right about where the paving commenced. Stopped to spray paint the TRC logo on the new underpass bridge, thanks for the idea, Chris, I painted your name too!

It was plain sailing (trailing) to Moscow; or should have been. Oh no, I feel an OCD moment coming on. Rats, I am going to get to Moscow with 94 miles on the clock. Normally I would say "what the heck" as I always enjoyed stopping just short of the century to prove a point to Corrie and Steve (ie I have the self control to "just say no"). But maybe it was that old friendly rivalry between Debbie and I; she did her century on Tuesday when I was up to my eyeballs in the Albion picnic. Whatever the reason I turned on Mill road and pedalled to the top of the Lenville road hill before returning to the trail. Get to the end of the trail, my car is at Safeway right by the trail end. "What the %$#!" I'm reading 99.1 miles. OH boy, WWSD? Well, we all know the answer from Steve, so I dutifully turned onto Palouse river drive and rode 0.6 of a mile before turning back. Be proud Steve, all your training was not in vain; I can be as OCD as the best of them!

Stripped off my clothes in the parking lot and went shopping at Dollar tree.

Thanks for the ride guys.