What a beautiful day! Started off very cold this morning which meant everyone layered up because the first kilometres were down hill. Before I forget to mention it, my legs weren't as sore as I thought they'd be today!!!
Sara and I left together and ended up catching up to two other young ladies (Sara and I are quite fast on downhills!!!) we biked with them to the first rest stop at 20km which we biked in 40 min! I had a big smile, it was so nice. We did have around 600-700m elevation climbing to the top of Sunday Summit, but nothing like yesterday. There were some very nice steep downhills and in general the uphills were at a smaller grade than yesterday. We even had a downhill where people were hitting between 50-80km/h depending on brake usage as there were some sharp turns. We passed beautiful areas of trees, meadows and wildflowers. It was such a beautiful ride that i was even singing How Great Thou Art, God sure created a beautiful breathtaking world, and his gift of the downhill is appreciated. One gentleman even said, it must be all downhill in heaven. We pulled into Princeton around 12:15 and stopped for ice cream on the beautiful downhill into town - I had Canadian Moose with peanut butter cups. We continued onto camp where we set up camp. We also found out we could use the pool at Memorial Park, until 3pm, where we are camped. Sara and I swam from 1-3pm. It was lovely, so relaxing and cooling from the hot sun. The pool was followed by a quick shower as it was cold, which I guess on this trip we'll have to get used to, especially since most hot water tanks aren't set up for 90 people in a matter of hours!!! We had free time all afternoon, so I sat in the very small sliver of shade by my tent, people watching. At 5:30 dinner was provided by the Princeton Baptist Church - hamburgers/hotdogs and chips/salsa, a very nice meal. Many thanks to them. Following dinner was our peloton meeting, and the item discussed the most was the 2 cattle guards that are on our route tomorrow. The advice: get off your bike and walk across OR go pretty fast across and hope your tire doesn't twist and fall between the cracks! Don't go too slow but don't go too fast either!!! The pastor of the baptist church also spoke and shared how they are working with those living in poverty here in Princeton. They run a food bank out of their basement and once a year they do a bbq and picnic with everyone bringing chainsaws and they cut down trees and chop up firewood for those who are unable to supply their own. (Princeton has a big working community in the mills and mines surrounding the area). We had our small group meeting and then I went and watched a game of softball on the adjoining ball diamond. I had just found a spot when a player hit a home run which shot just above the outstretched outfielders hand and over the fence hitting a tent! Thankfully nobody was hit. Can you believe that Princeton has 11 teams with about 200 players!!! That was my day.
71.2km
3h 14min
650m elevation give or take
Top speed: 66.2km/h