I forget when the word came to me, but I remember remarking to yoda, apprehensive. Thats how I felt going into this one. This was a BIG ride, even with the shuttle it was 42 plus miles with a LOT of climbing, something over 4000 feet all above 10,000 feet hitting 12,300. Lots of numbers that translate to very little oxygen. We got a shuttle from the end point Junction Creek upto Hotel Draw. Our driver, Lisa, a VERY cute lady and a damn strong rider, single speed 34-16, got us up the mountain all in one piece with great conversation and encouragement. It did end up taking about 2 hours as we had to drop another guy off mid way, giving me way too much time to think about the potential disaster we were about to undertake. We had a favorable weather forecast but as you can see from the picture above, there was certainly rain in the area. We were familiar with the first three miles as we had ridden them the day before but the climbs weren't much easier even without the initially climb upto hotel draw. Basically the first 6 or 7 miles is benchcut on the side of the top of the earth. You really feel like your there, looking across so many ridges, when you stop, you can't afford to be looking around much when you are moving, remember we are at the top of the earth, everything is down from there if you fall. It was up and down, not long climbs but certainly work. We hit the first of the big climbs and yoda was really starting to feel the 10 days in a row of riding. He was doing a fair amount of walking but it was so steep that he was keeping up with me when I rode. 
It finally leveled off to some degree and again we where on the edge of the top of the earth, this time just on the other side.
When the top of the earth got really narrow, the trail simply followed right along it
The top of the earth can also gets very rocky at points. This was one of the few ridable sections, we hike-a-biked up through a bunch more
More views from the top of the earth. We knew we had to get to about 12,300, and we got to about 12,100 or so a few time, only to have the trail descend and us have to re-gain the lost ground. The first 20 miles took about 6 hours and we were seriously starting to wonder if we were gonna get out before dark. We had also ridden about the last 10 miles and knew they were basically all down hill (except for the up hill, Ted), so that was at least somewhat comforting. We finally hit the high point above Taylor lake near Kennebeck pass, dropping down some loose crappy trail, not the way you want to loose precious elevation that you had worked so hard to gain. Anyways were all about out of water so I broke out the filter and yoda and I started filling camelbaks. Whether it was the mojo bars, gel packs, or fluffer nutter, yoda had put his rally cap on and was definitely showing signs of life again. After a check of the map and finding no good bailout options, he soldiered on with howie and I. There were a couple of short uphill pitches before about a 6 mile downhill to Junction Creek, this water fall was along that section.
You would think, hmmm, we finish at Junction Creek trail head and we were down at Junction Creek, the trail should follow junction creek, down hill as thats the way water flows to the trail head. Well you would be wrong, and we knew this. The trail climbs up about 1000 feet, and according to the profile, at a reasonable rate over 3 or 4 miles. Well that profile must have been seriously compressed as at least a mile of it was flat to down hill slightly, making more climbing over a much shorter amount of mileage, not something you want to discover after 30 plus miles and 7 hours in the saddle, but we made it up. Although he swore he couldn't climb anymore, yoda kicked butt on the way down, including the ups. We were all spent at the end for sure. It was a great ride but probably too much to tackle after so many days in the saddle.
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