I must say, day 41 has been the best day of the trip yet. The 18 mile climb up the Big Horns was rewarded by an 18 mile downhill soon after. Woohoo! I love the mountains. Climbing up the hills is a challenge I enjoy taking on. Feeling your heart beat faster and faster, your breathing get heavier and louder, your legs straining to continue pedaling despite the build up of lactic acid in your already tired muscles - it is a challenge to see hard I can push myself. Of course there are days when I want to take it easy and ride at a relaxing pace. But there are also days when I want to get my heart pumping and experience the adrenaline rush I used to get from running. Mountain climbing gives you that, and much much more. The sense of accomplishment you get when you look down the edge of the mountain and see the long windy road where you started out from half an hour ago way below you, the view of valleys below and snow-spotted mountain tops, feeling like you are at top of the world when you finally reached the highest point, and knowing that an 18 mile downhill awaits. All these make climbing up the mountain all the more worth it.What was even more exciting was the long hike up to the snow and pile of rocks during our lunch break. Who knew I could play with snow in the summer! It wasn't an easy hike, but it was so much fun. We finally reached the rock structures at the very top of the mountain, and enjoyed the scenery for a while before the cold and hunger chased us back down. The whole round trip took us about 2 hours!Arriving at our stay-over was the next best part. We stayed at a recreational center, and they said we could do anything we wanted. To our delight, they had a skating ring and three huge inflatable bouncy ring/obstacle course/slide! So we blasted some music and skated to our hearts content. We also had bouncy obstacle course/slide races.That was such a energy-draining day I had to fight to keep myself awake on my bike the next day.