We had a wonderful nights sleep last night since we were in a bed, and there were curtains on the window to block the light. It sure was a good way to start the 4 month mark of the trip. I still can't get over what an amazing evening we had yesterday after such a long day of riding. We made some oatmeal in the hotel room but decided to go to the cafe anyways to see if they had any more of those huge cinnamon rolls. When we went outside, we were greeted with really cold air and the wind again. I didn't realize it was so cold out after being inside all night. Sure enough, when we got to the cafe, they had rolls. So we each enjoyed a nice warm cinnamon bun before getting on the road. As we were sitting there eating them, we watched the trees swaying outside and were dreading going out into that awful wind again. Camille and Camille had left earlier than us, but we knew we would see them on the road anyways. Just as we were getting ready to leave, another cyclist came in. His name is Alvero and he is know as "Biciclown" and has been touring for ten years. He stops in various towns and puts on clown shows to raise a little money and provide some entertainment for the locals. The funny thing is that he, along with another guy who has been riding for 11 years, and Lorenzo (riding for 14 years) who we have been hearing about since MT, all met in Whitehorse and all stayed with the same Warm Showers host we are going to stay with. It was a lot of fun talking to him and was pretty amazing to meet someone who has been touring for so long. They all have a budget of about $10 a day; I don't know how they do it in the US and CA, I would starve for sure. The wind was still strong today, but didn't seem quite as bad as yesterday, so we were so happy about that. We rode for about 4 miles before we caught up to Camille and Camille. They move right along, we were surprised they were already so far down the road. We stopped and chatted with them for a little bit. Before they left Rancheria, they bough Mike and Mike each a cinnamon bun since they decided not to stay last night. They gave them to us to give to them and even gave us one to share too. It was just so nice of them. Joe and I plan to stay a few days in Whitehorse, so we may get lucky and get to see them again. A little while later we saw the guy I mentioned before who has been riding for 11 years. He was trying to catch up to Alvero, so he just waved and kept riding. He had a flagpole with so many little flags on it from all of the countries he has ridden to, it was pretty neat. Even though we had to battle the wind again, somehow it didn't seem as bad because we were in such a good mood from last night and we knew that at some point today we would catch up to Mike and Mike. I was surprised that we caught up to them as early as we did. They didn't leave until about 11 (and we left around 9), so we caught them on a big hill after we had done about 12 miles. Since they usually walk up the big hills (its harder/slower on recumbants to ride up them) it made it a little easier to catch up to them there. For the rest of the day, I hardly noticed the wind because we had people to ride with and we spent most of the time talking. The miles went by really fast. We rode by Swift River, where Camille and Camille had food dropped off for them (that was their destination for tonight). It sure was great that we finally had someone to ride with! We stopped for lunch at a rest area around the 32 mile mark (20 mile for them). There was a beautiful view of a lake and mountains, and even an island in the middle that the sign said was formed by a volcano. As we sat their making our lunch we spotted a moose down in the lake. Joe and I had rice and Mike and MIke had tortilla pb and j rolls, and we all snacked on the wonderful cinnamon rolls. Since it was pretty windy, we were able to eat without having to worry about mosquitoes! While we were there, a few people came and went, many of whom asked about our travels. The wind seemed to calm down a little in the afternoon, and the sun came out nice and strong (which made me really happy because it was such a cold morning). We had some more big hills to climb and I absolutely loved it because I got to wait at the top like Joey does for me. It was so nice to be able to take little breaks! The one thing about the bikes that Mike and Mike are riding is that they do really well going down hills. Papa Mike was flying downhill in front of me, not even peddling, while I was peddling like crazy and he was still losing me. At one point we decided that we would ride about 20km more and then start to look for a nice river or creek to camp by. Right when we got to 20 km, there it was, a beautiful river (the Smart River), and a perfect pull out to camp at. Again there was a fire pit already made and wood there ready to burn from other people that had camped there. It was perfect! What made it better is that we had gotten there pretty early so we had plenty of time to relax. We got our tents set up, Papa Mike tried to do a little fishing, and a fire was made. Joe and Mike had a blast "getting firewood." They found the biggest log they could find and decided they would try to break it in half. They tried everything from throwing it down on another log to putting it between two trees, to 'hammering' it with rocks. It was a riot to watch. Eventually they went onto the bridge and threw it down from there onto the tree stuck in the river below. That almost did the trick. Somehow, after a lot of persistence they managed to get that log broken in half. Papa Mike and I couldn't stop laughing. After we had been there a while a guy (with a mullet!) stopped by in his minivan to talk to us. Joe and Mike had been thinking about going swimming since we got there. The guy, who was a little weird I might add, talked them into going swimming, and that water sure was cold. Again, it was really funny to watch. Mike and Mike had 2 bags of marshmallows, so we got to enjoy those over the campfire. We were all so happy that since we were in a pretty open area and it was breezy there were few mosquitos. Finally, we could "enjoy the wilderness." As we were sitting there eating marshmallows, another cyclist came! Joe had just gotten done joking around that by the end of the night we would have another group of cyclists join us. His name was Carlos and he was riding from Anchorage back home to Mexico. We had a blast. While enjoying the campfire and marshmallows, we all got out our stoves (which were all pretty different) and made our dinners. We had baked beans, Mike had instant mashed potatoes and Carlos had oatmeal (twice), soup and other snacks. Carlos is traveling really light and is hoping that he can make it all the way back home before he has to go back to college (he is riding around 120 miles a day!!!). He even said that one day he went for 2 days without any water, which was crazy for us to think about. Since he didn't have a filter or any type of purification he didn't drink from the streams. We told him to just stand on the road with his bike and hold up his empty water bottle. There are so many RVs that someone is bound to stop and would probably be more than happy to help him out. It was so amazing that we had 3 different groups all camping together, out here in the middle of no where. What is more amazing is that in the last 2 days we have met cyclists (or hikers) from all over: Denmark, France, Argentina, Spain, and Mexico (and Texas). What an incredible day. Ever since we got to Rancheria it had been nothing but wonderful, such a welcome change because we were both feeling kind of down and out the last few days. We rode 49.33 miles today. We all said good night and got in our tents. Just a little while later, two people on motorcycles came. Now there are 5 tents down in the little pull off! It will be fun to hear their story in the morning.