Our trek took us 17 miles, with an elevation gain of 901 feet. My thighs felt every foot of that gain. We came upon a nice guy from Colorado who gave us energy to keep going.....told us about the tunnel just ahead, and the beautiful valley view from its portals.
My favorite part of the trip was going back....all downhill, and much quicker. The highlight was, as we coasted downhill, Darrell ahead of me looking up at a waterfall, I saw a grizzly standing in the middle of the road. My mouth wouldn't work for a minute, as he continued to coast toward the bear, not seeing it. Finally, I yelled bear, and we both stopped. I found new energy to fly back up the road to a safe point (I was told later, that's the wrong thing to do...). Did not get a picture of the creature, but it looked like a sub-adult (biology term for youngish teenage bear).