Day 13--A Pain in My Side...Literally!

So, last night, I was walking to my tent and kind of tripped on the edge of the tent pad frame. It must have been just a weird movement, because I felt a pull in my side (feels like an intercostal muscle). It was kind of one of those things that knocks your breath out. I took some ibuprofen when the pain didn't seem to go away. I was not terribly comfortable sleeping (but I was nice and warm on my new Z-rest). I was just hoping that it wouldn't hurt when I rode. Well, it did...a lot! It was most painful when I would stop, and start.

First we had to go to the grocery store to resupply for the next three days until Seeley Lake. I took more ibuprofen when we got to the store. By the time we came out, I was feeling better. At least, if I eased onto MC, it didn't knock the wind out of me.

We had to go back along the bike path to get back to the route. Then we had another bunch of paved miles before getting back to the dirt. It was sunny, so leg warmers and arm warmers came off before we started the long climb on the gravel road. It was about a 6 mile climb. At one point Derik went whizzing back down to do part of it again. I was just chugging along like a turtle. My side was okay as long as I didn't do any sudden jerky movement. Fortunately, the climb wasn't too steep. The only problem was if I wanted to rest, I had to stop on a flat place because getting started on a hill was too jerky. 

I didn't take many photos today because most of the time we were just climbing amongst the trees. There were a couple of vistas though.

One of the rare openings in the trees.

We stopped for some lunch at the top. There wasn't really anyplace to prop MC, so I had to lay her down. That did not feel good on the ol' rib muscle! Derik had to pick her up for me when we were done.

The ride down was, at times, a little hairy as the road was pretty twisty. I did stop and take this photo. Derik did too, and Connor almost ran into us.

Swan Lake down below. 

After the descent, it was an up and down meander through some old growth larch, birch, and Doug fir.

Trees

I started noticing that my side was really hurting again. At a turn, when I caught up to the guys, I took more ibuprofen. That helped.

Tonight we are camping at another "informal" campsite by Swan River (really should be Swan Creek). We've now had 9 out of 13 nights of free camping. I hope my side feels better tomorrow. If not, there's always my friend Vitamin I!