It’s been a great couple of days! Christian and theresa were once again awesome hosts – it was fun to hang out with the kids. The climb up lassen was probably the hardest i’ve ever done – 8300 ft in 2 days. The scenery once we entered the park made it worth the climb. There were a few times i’d cursed the extra weight of the clarinet i’d been carrying, but it paid off when jeff and i started jamming ‘eye of the tiger’ at the summit. Jeff the madman made a solo ascent of the peak, while we met up w/marcus the road angel – beer and truffles! – and coasted down. The next day megan and i bade our escort goodbye. It was rad riding with everyone – we’ll miss having such great company. Now that our bicycle armada is gone, we’re taking a short day to recouperate. got a late start fixing megan’s broken spoke plus we had a head wind and some cutoff grades to climb, so we took it slow. We’ve met cool people, none of whom want to live in oakland.