Hills, Animals, and Freeze Dried Dinners

Whoooeeeee! I am more tired tonight than when I ran my first marathon. Almost all up hill and some steep ones plus a strong head wind. We went 44 miles but it took us an hour longer than the 45 miles we did yesterday. Yesterday we averaged 11.3 miles an hour and today we averaged 8.3 miles an hour. We did have a nice steep downhill and I got up to 37 miles an hour while I was braking. A good thing about all the hills is that I am sure that I burned 10 bazillion calories!
We saw a big cow moose right as we left today. We also saw 6 big deer. And we saw a bear. He was up ahead about 50 yards just off the side of the road down a bank eating grass. Cliff pulled up behind me on his bike and we proceeded to take some pictures. Right then Cliff's wife, Kathy, and their 10 yr old grandson Cody (who is on the trip too), drove past us as they were heading to the next campground. They pulled over and stopped about 50 yards on the other side of the bear. Neither Cliff nor I realized it was Kathy. She and Cody got out of the car and started walking back to us. We thought they were passersby walking back to get a better look at the bear; but they hadn't seen the bear, they were just walking back to see us. I thought,' some people sure are crazy' and Cliff said it out loud. We both recognized them at the same time and they were about 10 yards from the bear. The bear saw them and instantly climbed a tree which made him about eye level to us because of the bank down the side of the road. I got some great pictures.
I am having freeze dried noodles and chicken tonight. As hungry as I am I was thinking of eating a second bag of this stuff. Tastes great. Lots of mosquitoes in this camp but my repellent is working good. The weather was nice today. I drank 5 bottles of water. Glad I decided to bring that much on my bike.Well, tomorrow is another day. I should be getting in better shape so these hills don't wear me out so much. What some people won't do to lose a little weight! Love ya all, Dee