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.