Big Ride - Day 1 - Seattle to Easton

Day 1 was good. Stayed at the University of Washington dorms the night before, rooming with Nick the mechanic for our trip. Woke up at 4:40am and headed off to the start around 6am. The opening ceremony was nice and our top fundraisers presented the American Lung Association of Washington with a check for about $250,000. Lots of pictures and then Tony, our top fundraiser led the group out of Seattle.

I started the ride riding with Jim, a fellow Illinois local from Elgin. Later I was riding with Patty Harm, Stephanie, and Kevin Stone. Patty, being the local lead us down the bike path as we rolled along a beautiful river. We quickly learned that we need to focus more to the cue sheets while talking as we hit the end of the path and realized we missed a turn... yay bonus miles!

Side Note: Bonus miles are what we call extra miles we do when we get lost or adventure off the path laid out to us. 90% of the time it is because we get lost.

The rest of the path ride was real nice. One highlight was seeing a parking lot taken over by wild chickens. I guess they are the Washington equivalent of Canadian Geese that have taken over most of the New Jersey parks back home.

After the next water stop I rode a while with the three girls from DC. I lost them though when we started climbing up to the falls (forgot the name so I'll get it later). There was a great rest stop at the falls where we got to go to the overlook and see a gorgeous waterfall. Snapped some quick pictures on my cell phone.

As we pulled out of the falls I lost the girls again and found myself riding with Ruben from Minneapolis. He was a real cool guy and we rode most of the way together. As we approached I-90 we had a quick debate on how crazy it was to ride on a major interstate... but the cue sheet tells us where to go so a quick left and we were on the entrance ramp and riding the shoulder next to cars and trucks flying by at 70+ mph.

As we went into the biggest climb of the day I found myself not able to get a good pace or body temperature (I wore to many layers for the day). Rueben dropped me and I just took my time climbing to the summit.

After the summit I found myself back on I-90 along a river. I shot a great cell phone video of the contrasting tranquil waterfront and the 2 ton trucks flying by on my left.

Finally I found myself off I-90 heading downhill with a great tailwind. I only know about the great tailwind because I blew past the camp site and tacked on a few extra bonus miles for the day. Turning around I realize just how strong the wind was as I struggled uphill to get into camp.

Camp was good. Found a spot with Dan, our riding guide, Rosie, a fellow Agile fan, and Tracy. The showers sucked as it took a token to get 3 minutes of hot water. After 95 miles it was the greatest 3 minutes of my life, followed by the worst 30 seconds as I finished washing my hair in ice cold water.

Next we had dinner, which was prepared by some alumni riders, and then celebratory cake and ice cream. Then it was time to make our PB&J lunches for the next day and off to bed.

Final Ride Stats

Mileage:

94.08 miles

Time:

6:25'42

Avg Speed:

14.6 mph

Max Speed:

36.1 mph