The team has entered Washington, which means we are now officially on the West Coast. We’ve also found that The Evergreen State is ironically quite yellow — the landscape is much drier, blanketed by endless wheat fields that source its golden hue. Our surroundings aren’t the only new thing we’re experiencing. With less than three weeks of this ten-week ride left, the team is going through the beginnings of some bittersweet emotions — each day slips by with what seems like increasing rapidity, and we’re torn between making the most of the rest of our journey together and looking forward to returning to the comforts of daily life. This ride does a great job of encouraging a certain mindset though, which is to take things day by day. We look forward to taking that in our stride (or should we say pedal stroke?) as we head to our next big stop in Mount Rainier National Park. Until then and as always, we bike!
Ride Overview, Day 57
Mileage: 98
Elevation: 5,422’
Ride Dedication: Maaike’s grandmother, Willemien Niekerk-Timmer
Points of Interest: Alpowa Summit
Quote of the Day
“It’s like a challenge to find the color green in Washington.”
Tales of the Trail, Day 57
Day 57 brought one of the most daunting challenges for us so far — a 98 mile day with over 5,000 feet of climbing, all in temperatures much higher than we would like (upper 90s!). However, we took on the day with energy as always, which was showcased in our morning activity: Kev had us play the classic smack-your-friends-hands-until-they-have-none-left game, “Ninja.” We enjoyed returning to a playground classic, which got our minds, bodies, and reflexes ready for the long and warm day ahead.
The team in the middle of a heated game of Ninja.
We crossed extremely early on into our third to last state of the ride, Washington! We caught the simple but elegant state sign on a bridge and snapped some more iconic I4K sign pics, of course. Soon enough we were back on highway 12, where we’ve spent much of our riding in recent days. The picturesque route has brought us along the water and mostly between the large hills and mountains of the Northwest, although we eventually came to realize there was truly no way to get through them other than going over them. The team conquered a truly epic climb into the first rest stop, reaching a view that looked almost like our flat home fields of Illinois once we reached the top.
Olaf, Logan, Kev, Lucas…
…Riddhima, Anthony, and Emma roll into Washington!
Taking in the first sights and sounds of Washington.
The view from the top of the first climb of the day — scarily similar to the corn fields of Illinois, but in yellow.
The team voted to take a somewhat longer second stretch, as the next 30 miles of the ride were mostly downhill. More determined than ever to beat the heat, we used the descent to our advantage to make up as much ground as possible in the coolness of the morning. However, despite hydrating and fueling ourselves well, the weather did start to catch up to us as we reached early afternoon. We took a quick stop at the bottom of a large climb for some shade and unfortunately got up close and personal with some goatheads — for those who are unfamiliar (as some of us were before we became a little too familiar), picture the mother of all thorns. This led to what might be a record high number of flats for any one stretch of the ride, as many of us got double flat tires as well. Needless to say, the true hero of the day was the always reliable tube box stored in the van.
Peep the goatheads that got our tires. Rest stops are for the weak. All we do is fix flats.
Pictured here is quite literally the only shade Riddhima could find, once again proving that SAV has many useful purposes.
The final miles into Walla Walla were truly a “character building” portion of the ride, as Lucas might call it. The town of Walla Walla truly appeared out of nowhere, as we rode through yellow fields and gravel roads for mile after mile without seeing any buildings whatsoever. After one final huge climb, we chugged along through some more rolling hills, got a beautiful delivery of cold water from the van a few miles out from our stayover, and reached one of the most amazing gifts we’ve received yet: root beer floats and popsicles. We’re eternally grateful for the Blue Mountain Church and their amazing hospitality. We are doing our very best to take care of our tired bodies as we look to some more warm days ahead!
The sprawling wheat fields of The Evergreen State.
Thank you to our stayover host for donating these refreshing ice popsicles!
Ride Overview, Day 58
Mileage: 52.5
Elevation: 1,075’
Ride Dedication: Kev’s Aunt Bianca, a breast cancer survivor
Points of Interest: Lake Wallula, McNary National Wildlife Refuge
Quote of the Day
“I don’t have my tetris shot, because I don’t even like that game!”
Tales of the Trail, Day 58
It seems our teammates want us to try out nearly every art form possible during our mornings, from drawing to dancing. This time, Kev had us recreate an iconic “RuPaul’s Drag Race” lip sync battle. Devoid of the extravagant outfits and charismatic stage presence that typically accompany this kind of endeavor, we kind of just ended up uncoordinatedly shuffling around to “TikTok” by Kesha in a parking lot. Our laughter was the most consistent thing about the performance.
The team mid-lip sync.
We rolled out into much of the same scenery we had biked through yesterday. We biked for miles through interstates and highways, deserted industrial zones, and, of course, a lot of yellow farmland. After the previous day’s near-century of a ride, we were thankful for the shorter distance. Through the learned efficiency of a steady pace and quick rest stops, we made swift work of our route and arrived in Kennewick before noon — a feat unheard of just a few weeks ago.
Bike selfie!!! Peep your favorite journalist-cyclist duo.
More license plate finds!
Hungry for food, we spread out all over town for Taco Bell, the restaurant “J’s Asian Flaming Grill,” or, most mouth-watering of all, the PB&Js in the team lunch box. A huge thank you to Melissa, our stayover host, for coordinating showers during these hot times and making sure we are well taken care of! In the rest of our down time, the team has been cleaning dusty bikes, replacing worn-out chains, talking to loved ones, taking well-deserved naps, and more. Tomorrow, we begin our climb up to Mount Rainier.
Cyclist’s Corner
Today’s Rider: Kev Murphy
How are you feeling today?
Today was a long, hot day. But I’m feeling pretty good. 100 miles, wow! It was a long 100 miles, lots of climbing… just the heat, it was like a high of 95 today. So, less hot than yesterday, but more mileage than yesterday, so I stayed hydrated, I ate a lot of food at rest stops, lots of granola bars, and I’m glad I was able to do it. Proud of myself. In the last stretch, we were on this kind of gravely road, which was not fun in 95-degree heat, but we were surrounded by fields of wheat which was really cool and the sky was kind of hazy which was interesting. It was a cool experience.
Which chore have you been doing for the team during the ride? Can you share your process doing this chore?
My original chore was TikTok and press. I have made some TikToks, which you should follow the TikTok… and then I’ve done some interviews with press. But, we also needed a new routemaster, which is an interesting name for a chore –“routemaster” – but basically every night I review the route for the next day, make sure there is not construction on the route, I use Google Maps to kind of just see, and I make sure there’s no roads closed or anything like that. Sometimes the route does master me, though, and Google Maps will not show me that there is a road closed or that road is flooded, so gotta love Google Maps for that! After every day, I’ll give [stayovers] information about if there are any safety concerns on the route and if there is any rerouting, and then I’ll also give information about the stayovers – if they’re donating dinner, how many bathrooms there are. And I also have all the leftover stayovers. The logistics committee stayovers, the ones that they got confirmed, got handed to me, so I do a lot of the coordinating with the places we stay to just make sure that everything runs smoothly like the logistics committee wanted.
What’s the best food you’ve eaten on the ride so far?
This was like early on in the ride… this sweet lady, Judy, greeted us with big, nice hugs as soon as we got in the door and it was like 7pm, it was a long day. She was so excited for us and had fried chicken, had lasagna I believe, had tons of food for us, and that fried chicken was delicious. I really miss that. And then we also had it on the side of the road the next day as our lunch, which was really fun. So, I think that was the most memorable food. Most memorable dessert – I will stand by that La Crosse, WI has the best ice cream ever. It was Pearl Ice Cream, delicious. I will probably make my way back to La Crosse, WI sometime in my lifetime just for the butter pecan ice cream I had that night. It was amazing, smooth, creamy, delectable, delicious, just like the best ice cream I’ve ever had. So, food-wise, Hagerstown, MD. Ice cream, sweet treat-wise, La Crosse, WI.
Do you have a favorite team memory?
The first thing coming to mind is the first camping night in Meadowlark Lake in the Bighorn National Forest. It was a shorter day in terms of distance, like only 45 miles, but it was a lot of climbing, and I remember we found snow at the top of the climb, which was really cool, so I made a snowman. Logan made a snowball, which was really fun. Then, that day, as soon as we got to the campground, we had a pie-eating contest. And that’s a top-tier team memory. I tried my hardest. I lost to the people that had pumpkin pies, which I still will stand by that the apple pie was harder than the pumpkin pie! I came in fourth, but I came in second in the apple pie challenge. So I’m proud of myself for that. The pies may have had a little mold on them, but that was okay, and it was just like a really fun team memory of us just all sitting there and eating a pie, and we were like, “what is going on right now?” and we camped that night and it was so cold… we were all freezing in our sleeping bags, and the next morning we woke up and had to bike down that hill! So, I think it was a really bonding moment to have to camp together for the first time, and the pie-eating contest helped that bonding.
Is there anything you’ve learned during the ride that you didn’t expect?
I feel like I’ve learned a lot about the generosity of others. We’ve had so many people just be so kind, and sometimes not even tell us about their kindness. We were out to breakfast one day, and our breakfast just got paid for by a table next to us because they read the back of our shirts and went to our website. It’s just like a crazy experience that so many people are so generous, all the stayovers are so generous with the food donations, letting us stay in their place for free. Our teammates are generous. Shoutout to Logan – bike mechanic – he’s worked on my bike so much and helped me make sure that I can ride and all the different mechanical issues that I’ve had. So I think it’s been a very cool experience to see how kind strangers are… just how generous people are, how sweet they are, and for every bad person, bad car, there’s always a hundred nice people that we meet… It’s been a really crazy summer that I feel like has changed my perspective a bit of the world.
What’s the first thing you’re going to do when you get home?
Thinking about getting back home… it’s bittersweet! I am really excited for my bed again. That’d be nice. My sleeping pad is not the best of things, but it does the job. I’m excited to not have oatmeal for breakfast everyday… I’m excited to have coffee every morning too, that’s not just gas station coffee… just making my own coffee. I’m also really excited to see my parents. I’ll see them in San Francisco, and the rest of my family too, who I won’t see in San Francisco but I’ll see after the ride! That’ll be exciting, and just like telling all the stories will be fun. There’s not like one single thing, but definitely sleeping in my bed is the one single thing that is top-tier.
Anything else you want to talk about?
I like biking! Shoutout to the journalists!
(A reminder that any unfamiliar terms can be found in our handy I4K dictionary.)