Hi everyone! Valerie is back with you, ready to supply you all with some actual good content after the mediocrity of the guest journaler. All jokes aside, thanks to Cal for writing the previous journal, I enjoyed my short break ;)
Back to our regularly scheduled content. We woke up on day 62 only somewhat rested as we went to hike, cliff jump, and just overall were pretty active during our rest day the day before. The 90 mile bike ride of day 62 was not going to wait for us though, so we promptly packed up, had breakfast, and were ready to roll… Until we weren’t. It turned out we had a flat tire on our van so while our fearless ride leaders along with a couple of other team members were figuring it out, the rest of us sat by the fire and tried to stay warm for about an hour and a half.
Morning circle but not really
Morning nap time
We finally got to see the REAL Angela once she got a chance to play with fire
As a result of all the morning chaos, we rolled out of our campsite late at 9 AM. We all knew we had a long and hot day ahead of us and that we needed to hurry, and yet some groups made the curious decision to stop at a coffee shop for about an hour. Just kidding, it was only one group, but they most definitely payed for their ill decisions later in the day when they had to bike until sundown and then get picked up by the van to get shuttled the rest of the way.
The coffee house in question
The group in question
The rest of us made our way out of the national park/national forest area of Mount Rainier while enjoying the views of the mountains. We had some nice downhills in the beginning part of the day which switched into a bit more climbing later. We finally for to see the kind of Washington that most if us imagined it to look like - forests, picturesque rivers, and greenery everywhere.
Perhaps it is time to switch to bigger bikes to get to San Francisco quicker?!
Rest stop melancholy
Last hill of the day
Despite rolling out late almost everyone made it to the stayover before sundown. We had pizza for dinner donated by our stayover Castle Rock Christian Church, some of us went to the river to take a river shower, all the while the last group was losing their sanity still biking through the depth of Washington state.
The should be an oil painting
The last exciting part of the day was that a 2021 I4K alum Bang joined us in the evening to bike into Portland with us the next day!
Day 63 started out with me deciding to spend the day in the van, so I do not have a ton to say about the day’s route. It was a 70 mile day with lots and lots of rolling hills that painfully reminded us all of the good ol’ Pennsylvania days. The day was very hot again and the riders did not encounter anything particularly exciting while riding except for a phone booth and the Oregon state sign.
Our Portland stayover as well as an absolutely amazing dinner were provided by Illini alumni including Jill Townley who hosted us for the night in her backyard and let us use her showers. Huge thanks to everybody who fed and hosted us!
-Valerie