Week 10: Around the Olympics

Morning Yoga

Week 10

Day 64

New Townsend, WA: Last Rest day

Instead of trying to organize 21 people who are staying at different houses miles apart to all drive to Olympic National Park which is over an hour away, we decided to have an actual rest day and actually rest. Ben and I gave a community presentation about the to congregation to the church that was hosting us. We were overwhelmed by the generosity of the congregation to our cause and we have many people to ride for over the next couple of days.

Day 65

New Townsend, WA- Port Angeles, WA

The Olympics 

My last van day of the trip. Aaron navigated as I drove the host van to Sequim to find lunch and dinner for our riders. Aaron made it his mission to get as much artisan bread and pastries donated to the team as possible. He over-achieved by getting us super fancy, hand-decorated mini cupcakes donated. The store owner told us to call ahead next year if we came through and he would create a feast of fancy cupcakes for us.

As soon as the riders rolled into the YMCA where we were staying, we changed into hiking clothes, threw granola bars into our backpacks, and drove to Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. We had a close encounter with two mountain goats, but mainly stared in awe of the mountains around us. I will now stop talking about it and let the photos speak for me.

Coming down the mountain, our breaks were overheating so we had to take a mandatory 20-minute break at a vista overlooking Port Angeles and Strait of Juan de Fuca. It turned out to be a gift as we were forced to sit and talk and reflect on the specialness of being in the Olympics with a group of 21 amazing people.

That night, the Fanaticus Sports Grill donated a sit-down dinner to the whole team. We could order anything we wanted from the menu for free, and they only wanted a photo of the team in front of their restaurant. Their generosity and food were both unbelievable. On our way to the restaurant, a man walked up to us in the parking lot and asked us if we were the kids biking across the country for cancer. When we said yes he introduced himself as John, and thanked us profusely for showing our support to the cancer community. He was a throat cancer survivor, and said told us that while undergoing chemo knowing there were people like us raising money and awareness for cancer is what got him through. Over and over he explained the impact we havesd on people currently battling cancer. We were all humbled, and walked to dinner feeling proud of our summer.

Day 66

Port Angeles, WA-Forks, WA

Get your Twilight wood!

The night before, Aaron had secured free coffee and pastries for the whole team at a local coffee shop called Common Grounds. Our day started deliciously slow as we sipped, chatted, and drew on the chalk-board tables. Mornings like these remind to value being around our family of 21.

Since forks is the setting of the Twilight books, the jokes and references were endless as the forest closed in over us, and every noise we heard was instantly blamed on a vampire or werewolf. Team Dip dove into Crescent Lake, even though it was cold and overcast. Ben tried to give Conner and I pointers on how to correctly perform a butterfly stroke, but I prefer looking like a beached whale.  Right off the bat, Subhash’s chain fell off on a blind turn with the lake on one side, a cliff on the other, and no pull-out in sight. He fixed it as fast as he could while I stood on the guard rail in my neon jacket and waved at cars to slow down. Team work.

As we rolled into the host, we passed by a motel sign that said “Edward Cullen, DID NOT SLEEP HERE”, and took photos with the Forks sign. That was our Twilight fix for the night.  

Low: Chris (aka Glue) was fixing his pants as they came around a turn, and he road straight into the back of a parked truck and broke his clavicle. It was a sad day when we knew he would not be able to bike the rest of the trip.

Day 67

Forks, WA- Moclips, WA

At Ruby Beach; Hello Pacific!

We broke up teams based on Wolf Pack members. Rachel is Alpha Wolf and set up the pack requirements which are timeliness, loyalty, and silence. Wolf pack was Gino, Liz, Jess, and me (Hannah and Sherwin were on van duty that day), Chance at being in the Wolf Pack: Josh, Mike, Ben, Babs, Matar, and Subhash), and No Chance at being in the Wolf Pack: Conner, Leslie, Mia, Rachael, and Aaron.

This was an appropriate theme since we were in werewolf country, and we did a lot of howling, especially down the long downhills. Today was our first encounter with the Pacific Ocean, and we would have our tire dipping ceremony at Ruby Beach. We excitedly threw our shoes off in the parking lot and started to carry our bikes down the trail to the beach. Our enthusiasm waned as the trail turned out to be long, rocky, and steep. We then had to walk over piles of rocks and driftwood to even get to the water. Finally there, the photo shoots started, Subhash road is bike into the waves, and Team Dip jumped into the freezing water. The rest of the day was a race against the clock as we had a 7:30 dinner deadline to keep and it was a 95-mile day. Gino got a flat, and while we were waiting, the lack of sleep caught up with me, and I turned into crazy/loopy/delirious Kate. I think I may have surprised my team. Also, an undercover cop stopped to see if he could help, but only succeeded in scaring us with his reverse driving skills. The last ten miles were slightly downhill, we played Contact, and the sun was streaming through the trees. Time like these make it painful to think about the end of 4K.

For showers, we only had 2 shower heads per gender, and we hadn’t eaten yet, so we rotated 2-3 at a time trying to get back to the church as fast as possible. By this time in the summer, all is 4K OK.

Day 68

Moclips, WA-Shelton, WA

Kurt Cobain's House

We split into groups through assigning superlatives. Everyone stood in a circle with 2 fingers up, and Halle asked prewritten questions such as “who is the most eligible bachelor”, or “who has the best rest day outfits”. Everyone has to point to who they think fits the question, and if you receive the most votes, you have to put your finger down. The first 5 people who put their fingers down formed the first group, and we continued until we had formed 3 groups. My superlative was “most unpredictable”, and “most likely to make someone’s day”. 

Our path that day took us through Aberdeen and past Kurt Cobain’s childhood house. There are different people living there now, but we stopped in the alley next to it and listened to Nirvana as we read his biography off Wikipedia.

That night, we were met at the church by Beth, the kindest and most enthusiasm host ever. She had gone all out with making vegetarian and gluten free dishes for the restricted eaters, and pulled pork for everyone else. Bellies full, we stayed up late again working on writing yearbooks for everyone.

Day 69

Shelton, WA-Bainbridge Island, WA

Sunrise on Bainbridge

Aaron's chain

The day was filled with spontaneous tears as we realized it was our last full day together. However, in order to remind us that we weren’t quite done, fate made it one of the hilliest and rough days. Before the first water stop, Aaron’s derailleur completely snapped off with no warning. He then had to turn it into a fixed gear that was stuck in the lowest setting. This was great for going uphill, but on flats I almost fell off my own bike from laughing so hard as Aaron pedaled as fast as he could to try and go anywhere. Kelly then got a flat, and while we waited, Aaron tried to change his gear to a harder one. Aaron managed to destroy his chain and we had to coast to a bike shop two miles down the road. We spend another 2 hours there fixing his gear back into the lowest setting. Not to be outdone by Aaron, Kelly hit a huge stick that got stuck in her spokes and broke one of them. I wove it into the other spokes, and we were on our way again. Who knew that a small island could have so many hills? We finally straggled into our campsite more than two hours after the first group. Our camp was right on the water and after dinner Team Dip was at it again as we jumped into the second coldest body of water of the summer. We stayed up late, savoring our last few hours together and walked down to the beach to catch a meteor shower. I saw two meteor’s and next thing I knew, Conner was waking us all up because we had passed out in the sand. It has been a long, long, summer.

Day 70

Bainbridge Island, WA-Seattle, WA

The Last Cheer

Everyone was in a hangout mood, but we had SO MUCH to get done in the three hours before we needed to be on a ferry headed to Seattle. I ran around like yelling orders to people and handing back lost belongings. We had to through away a lot of food which always breaks my heart, but our hosts took what could be saved to a homeless shelter. On this last day, I biked for Lori, Camilla, my Aunt Amena, and Team Seattle 2016. I also rode for my family, friends, and John for their much needed love and support throughout this summer.

We biked as hard as we could back over the hilly island to the ferry terminal and then signed each other’s jerkies as we waited. The ferry was beyond belief was we looked across the water at the Seattle Skyline, compete with the space needle and Mt. Rainier. The morning was warm, so we stood out on the deck, took photos, and hugged each other.

We still had 2 miles to bike until the park where all our families and friends were waiting, and we all knew that Aaron would get a flat. He did, half a mile from the park. At that point, we were super-grouping, everyone kept going the wrong way, Chris was carefully riding with his arm in a sling, Aaron got a flat, Aaron re-broke his chain, and Subhash fell on railroad tracks, and everyone was screaming “slow down, go, stop, watch out for Chris, go, stop, wrong way, watch out for Chris!). It was an absolute mess, but wouldn’t be any other way.

Our destination 

We rode into a crowd of cheering parents, and the photos began again. We did a really special thing of introducing each other before we got awards. I had drawn Sherwin’s name out of an empty chalk box the week before, and tried to express to the crown how awesome he was, but I got nervous and forgot most of what I wanted to say. Afterwards, we did our cheer, jumped into the lake, and then sprayed each other with bottles of champagne. It wasn’t goodbye forever yet, because Conner’s uncle was hosting us at his house that night for a bbq. We ate all the veggies, drank all the wine, and met everyone’s parents.

We then had to say goodbye for real. Surprisingly, I held it together and didn’t blubber like a big baby, but I think that will come later. For now, I am going to enjoy hanging out with my grandparents, cousins, best friend, parents, bother, aunt, and uncle until it is time for me to start school again.

Week 9: Wicked Cool Cascades

Week 9

Day 57

Spokane WA: Rest day #1

I forgot to mention in the last post that our host in Newport fell through and we had to rack to Spokane and missed 40 miles of our ride. It was not an ideal situation, but we now have two back-to-back rest days in Spokane. Jess, Rachel, and I knew we wanted to find a place to hike, so we asked Matar, Gino, and Josh to drop us off at a Lakeside Park trail. The trail they dropped us off at went for about a quarter mile along the road until it ended at a boat launch. By that time, we realized we were on the wrong side of the Spokane River and were walking the wrong way from town. The only option was obviously to swim across the river, and we recruited three friendly kayakers to ferry our backpacks. The water was much colder than we expected, and when I first dove in it was hard to take a first breath. I laughed too hard the rest of the way across to be overly worried, but I was also grateful to have boats near me in case I cramped up from the cold.  Now on the correct side of the river, we started our “5” mile walk back to the Spokane downtown. This would become a joke because when we checked the mileage every hour, the GPS always told us we only had 5 miles left. Eventually, the vans picked us up when they realized it would be hours until we reconnected in town. That night we shared the YMCA with Team Portland. We have been in the same town before, but this is the first time we have been in the same host.

Day 58

Spokane, WA Rest day #2

Portland and Seattle together

Our grand Spokane finale was to go to the river and jump off of some rocks and watch the people of Spokane doing Spokane things on the beach. Later that evening Kelly and Heidi Greenwood, the parents of my friend Josie Greenwood, picked me up and took me out for the best ice cream around. We talked about how beautiful western Washington is and how people from all the world come to bike over the Cascades. Thank you Heidi and Kelly for the great conversations and ice cream!

Day 59

Spokane, WA-Grand Coulee, WA

We did our morning dedication with team Portland, and played a modified game of Simon Says in order to choose riding groups. It was good to get to know our “rival” group, even though Hannah lost the vegetable off at the very end, so Portland ended up winning the game. The defining moment was when she though they told her to be a rotten tomato instead of a ratchet (crazy) tomato.

It was my turn to van and Rachel Hughes was my navigator. Lucky for me, she is our best navigator by far, and chalked the dreaded bike trails all through the city. We started off late because of the game, and then found out there was a warning of sever wind storms in the afternoon. At every succeeding water stop the team dragged themselves in against headwinds. We trying to make a 6:30 pm dinner deadline, but the trucks, dust, and sudden gusts meant that we racked our bikes 30 miles from the host and still were half an hour late.

Because it was so highly recommended, we went to the Grand Coulee Dam to watch a laser show. We were all surprised when the show turned out to be an entire history lesson of the day and surrounding complete with a narration and characters. I still don’t understand how the lasers where showing fish swimming up-river. 

Day 60

Grand Coulee, WA- Twisp, WA

Mike’s birthday today!

Riding for Jocye. 

Our best car experience happened when a black minivan passed us with a women hanging out the passenger side window cheering and dancing. We were all too shocked to say anything or wave back until they drove past, but it was much appreciated.

Our day started at the bottom of a canyon, but we then biked up into the sagebrush scablands and Eastern Washington. Off in the distance we could see the Cascades and it seemed impossible that we would be surrounded by them later that day. Unfortunately, the happy lady in the van was overshadowed by an angry man in a Subaru who screamed at us to get off the road. This shattered my assumption that all Subaru owners are awesome. On a brighter note, I dunked into the freezing cold Methow River at lunch and was rejuvenated for about 5 minutes after I got on my bike.

Sash of the flats 

That night we stayed at a grange and celebrated Mike’s birthday by singing and with a fancy dessert the host van found. Today I rode for Jocye, the wife of my Dad'd good friend Dana. I also got my second flat of the day via a goat head seed. Tradition requires the rider who got a flat to wear their tube as sash until the next water stop. 

Day 61

Twisp, WA-Colonial Creek Campground, WA

Climbing the Cascades for Bob Aaserude

That morning we were able to meet our hosts when they came to the grange and cooked us Hungarian Coffee Cake, poached eggs with smoked salmon and pesto, and fruit salad made of home grown fruit. There were also boxes of apricots and plums from their gardens. Kim and I talked for a while about our love of wilderness and she told me stories of when she lived in a Teepee off the grid on Orcas Island. Twist was an adorable town, but nothing compared to Winthrop, the town 10 miles up the road where we stopped to explore and buy coffee. Winthrop had keep all their old fashion buildings and looks like an old western town. It is now filled with outdoor stores, restaurants, and art galleries.

Soon our 18-mile accent over the Northern Cascades started. This was the same mileage for crossing the Rockies, but with a much steep grade and a much hotter day. Kelly was my climbing buddy, and we chatted a bit, but mostly thought our own thoughts as we climbed for hours.

The night before I had explained the concept of a rain shadow to my team, and while biking it was easy to see the gradual change from a dry ecosystem on the east side to a rainforest in the west side. We had our water stop at the top of the pass, and some our team members with the guy who holds the record for biking across the country in something like 8 days. Apparently he was not too interested in learning about our cause.

A poor picture of Diablo Lake

The decent was incredible as we biked past waterfalls and caught glimpse of high mountain lakes. Since there were no showers at the campground, our only way to wash the grim off was jump into the freezing glacial water of Diablo Lake. It took a lot of peer pressure to jump off the dock, and it was a situation were as soon as you hit water you were already swimming towards shore. I’m sure the campground was delighted that there 21 college kids screaming on the dock, but all were exhausted from a 78-mile mountain pass day, and went to sleep early.

Day 62

Colonial Creek Campground, WA- Anacortes, WA

Another long but great day as we biked straight to the coast. We were team Thunder Knobs in tribute to a sign we saw in the Norther Cascades National Park. We still have no idea what a Thunder Knob is. The down hills were awesome and we did a lot of howling as we flew down them. We also hit the jackpot when we stopped at the fireman’s garage sale. I bought a tie with a rainbow fish on it to use for presentations in my fish classes next semester and a backpacking pot the exact size I have been looking for a year all for $2.

Team Thunder Knobs rode as hard as we could to make it in time for 7:00 PM showers, but had to stop and take photos when we reached the water. Going through Idaho felt like home, but coming back to the coast and the smell of salt water is like going back to California.

Anacortes Sunset

A highlight of the day was meeting Lori, an artist at a craft fair who is a 3-time cancer survivor. She is passionate about using what we have and not being caught up in a consumerist life style. What she said was inspiring to me because I also try tp resist buying unneeded products. She cried when we told us how much our trip meant to her and how what we are doing is what saves people from cancer.

That night in Anacortes, Connor, Leslie, Aaron, and I hiked to the top of a hill to watch the sunset over the water. We are night quite on the ocean, but close enough to provide us with an absolutely stunning display of west coast sunsets. 

Day 63

Anacortes, WA-New Townsend, WA

Our mornings are getting slower every day because we are so exhausted every day. I have started to wake up and have no idea where I am or what is happening. All day we got to ride next to the water through small coastal towns. Aaron got two flats in two hours, but both times we made the best of having to sit and wait for 2 hours. The first time we on a pullout overlooking a rocky shore, and the second time was next to a ripe blackberry patch.

The best part of the day was taking the ferry from the peninsula where we were to Port Townsend. We payed 50 cents a bike, and got to hang out on deck. I was hoping to see some orcas, but the sea gulls were enough for me.

We were greeted for dinner by our hosts at the Presbyterian Church of Port Townsend. People from the congregation had volunteered to host us at their house, so we split into groups and got to sleep in real beds. Rachel, Hannah, Liz, Adriana, Jess, and I stayed with Nellie. That night we all watched the Olympics and drank tea and milk with homemade cookies. I also think Nellie and my Grandma B are long lost friends because while growing up they both spent all their summers in Yosemite and are the same age.