DAY 4 - PART II

Well, after a good 2 hour nap, a dip in the pool, dinner, and Bible study, we got out for a 10 mile ride. The temp finally dropped down into the 80's, so it turned out to be a nice ride. We are actually in Bellevue (close to Seattle) and were trying to find a trail we were told about that takes you into Seattle . . . we never found it. We just rode around streets and sidewalks until it got dark, then we called David to pick us up because we knew we couldn't make it back before it got really dark. Overall, we only logged 19 miles today . . . hopefully we can find a nice trail in Seattle tomorrow for a long ride.

DAY 4 - PART I

We started of the day in the saddles at 6am, leaving right from camp. I always like being able to do that. We heard from several sources that the trail from Lake Easton (where we were) to Cedar Falls (where we were going)is clear, maintained, and easy to ride. We were really looking forward to today. Finally, what we were looking for. Well, about a mile into the trail we hit a patch of gravel everyone was having difficulty with in one way or another, but I proved to be the most dramatic by crashing, again. I don't know why I didn't notice that my feet were clipped into my pedals, because my first crash taught me well to keep one foot unclipped in gravel, just in case. I bruised my bruises again, but this time added cuts and scrapes. I'm feeling pretty beat up at this point, but we must keep moving onward. So, we wound up and around this mountainside, with the trail not being what we hoped for but slowly doable. . . for about another mile or so. Then the trail started getting narrow, mosquitos were loving us, we had to carry our bikes over fallen trees, and had to get out the gps to figure out the trail because there were forks in the path and nothing to indicate which way to go. The gps told us we were following mosquito creek . . . yes, we were.
We keep trying to move forward because it had to get better than this at some point. Well, we came to an overgrown area, had already walked through poison oak, the trail was gone and we were basically carrying and pushing our bikes through the woods, so we decided to turn back. We had been at this for over 2 hours and had only gone 4 miles. :(
So, back through the poison oak, back over the fallen trees, and back through the heavy gravel to get back to camp.
We packed up camp and headed to Seattle where we can ride bike paths that will hopefully not have any downed trees on them. :) We're making a plan to ride tonight after it cools down a little. Apparently there is a heat wave passing through Seattle. Judging from how the previous days have been for us . . . we're just in time!
We are having fun being together though. Our goal is to ride 200 miles altogether, so we have 92 to go between tonight and tomorrow. I think it's doable. I'll post part II later tonight.

WHAT GOES UP MUST COME DOWN! - DAY 3

Last night we charted a course to ride a paved road to our next destination. We started riding at 6am. We were SO thankful for the nice, flat surface! It was the straightest road I've ever seen, but it was totally one of those rolling hill countrysides. We had several hills to climb and each time we topped one, there were two more in sight . . . and as the day went on, the hills seemed to get bigger and bigger! Overall, there were only a couple monster hills with some bite to it, mostly they were just long. The best part was going down the other side. Oh yes! Everytime we went up, we went down! At one point, my spedomoter registered 30 mph and I was braking. It was so awesome to go down those long, rolling hills; even if we had to pedal up the next one. The hills were so long, it seemed like it was never going to end, and I kept from looking up as much as possible to keep from feeling overwhelmed with the enmormity of going uphill. At halfway, we stopped for a long rest in the shade of a huge barn. There was a side door into the barn open, so I peeked in and staring back at me was a HUGE owl sitting up in the rafters. I must have scared him as much as he scared me . . . he took one look at me, spread his wings and soard out a window. It was an amazing sight to see him so close. Everything went pretty well today. We got started early like we wanted to. The heat came up later morning, but we were finished riding around 11:15am. We logged 44.5 miles. So we have just now accomplished 100 miles.
We have decided to bag riding in the desert type terrain. Riding on the paved road is fine, but when the heat comes up and there's no civilization in sight, let alone a tree, it just is too much for us. The heat is exhausting. We've also been told that there is an unusual heat wave passing through, so we need to be able to shelter ourselves from the sun. The trail on the western half of WA is upkept by the state parks system and is supposed to be in good condition. We'll find out tomorrow!
Later today, we were able to find a bike shop to fix Zak's bike, so he'll be with us tomorrow. I think he's happy about that . . .

IT ALL LOOKS UP HILL - DAY 2

We started out the day at 5am, but the sun rises around 4 here. David cooked us a good breakfast and we head out right from the camp we stayed at - St. John's, WA. We had several turns to make to wind us around the countryside to get to our destination. We planned a 60 mile route. The first road was awesome! Smooth, fast, a beautiful morning for riding. We polished off 10 miles in about 45 minutes. Then, our first turn . . . onto a gravel road. Not too bad. A little washboardish, but doable. We were making pretty good time and following the route as planned. As we wove our way throughout the countryside, we happened upon our first hill that was quite big. We ended up walking it. We got back into no man's land for real. We saw maybe 5 cars the entire morning. The hills kept getting bigger and bigger and we felt a little cheated because you know that what goes up must come down . . . but that wasn't always the case. We crossed the JWP Trail about 6 times today and each time we were thankful to be on the gravel road rather than that trail. At one point, we came upon a sign that said road closed 10 miles ahead, but we were certain that our next turn came long before that. Well, we kept going and going, but there were no turn off roads, let alone the one we needed. At this point it's starting to get pretty hot outside and we've travelled about 35 miles. I also need to mention that this is desert, platue (sp?) country . . . there's not a tree for shade in sight. We came upon the closed road, and could do nothing but keep moving forward . . . because we sure as heck weren't going to go back all those miles! So now we're on the closed road. It's a rough gravel road. Did I mention that we were going uphill? I don't know what happened, but my chain froze up and I couldn't get my feet out of my clips, so down I went! My feet popped right out of those clips at that point and freed up my chain! I bruised the insides of both my knees and got a scrape/punch on the side of my chin as my face hit the end of the handlebar, as the other end of the handlebar hit the ground. My jaw's a little sore, but I can still talk, so all is well! We could see about a half mile ahead that there was much road construction going on and it didn't look like we were going to be able to get thru. At this point a road came up and after consulting with the gps, we decided it would take us to the road we eventually needed from our previously planned route. But first, we would have to tackle the biggest hill I ever seen! grrrr But at least the road is paved . . .
Did I mention it was hot out, no shade, and we were running out of water? AND only about 35 miles of our 60 behind us?
A few miles down this road we came upon a farmhouse. The first one of the day that we could access and only about the 5th one we've seen. 100 feet further is the turn we need to make to pick up our other route. We stopped at this house and asked for water. She let us use her hose and it came from a spring. It was the most refreshing water ever! We asked her about the next road we were looking for and she dropped the bomb on us . . . that road is closed. The bridge is completely out and there's no way around it. Oh great. Now what? She gave us directions across an access road so we didn't have to turn back. She was going to give us directions through a field that would be shorter, but mentioned that the owner of said field has been shooting dogs recently and thought it best we didn't go that way. Yes, I didn't want to go through dog alley either! We rested in the shade of her barn for about half an hour. We traveled over a very bumpy, dry, hot prairie for 4 1/2 miles. All I wanted was to get to a real road and it was looking dimmer by the minute. It was so incredibly hot and completely desolate. I thought my arms were frying off my body. FINALLY, we made it to the actual road, but now what do we do? We saw a grove of trees about a mile and a half away, so we decided to head for that and call David to rescue us. We had been out riding for 8 hours and the afternoon heat was unbearable. As we sat under the shade of the trees waiting for David, the owner of the farm happened by . . . we thanked him profusely for letting us use his shade!! He was very nice and he talked with us for a while. He thought it was pretty hot out for us to be biking. At that point, 2:30pm it was 93. We got in 46 miles.
For tomorrow, we've made a plan to stay on real roads, not caring about staying near the JWP Trail. We have a route that is a straight shot, 45 miles. Pending any giant hills, we should bust this out quickly. Now that I've said that, I wonder what will happen?!

THE 1st 10 MILES ARE ALWAYS THE HARDEST!!

So many things happened out on the trail today that there's not enough space to contain it all . . . first off, it was raining - we were told it was a freak of nature as it just does not rain this time of year . . . lucky us. We were on our way to the trail and had to turn around for a left behind helmet. We got to the trailhead at 7am, an hour later than hoped for, but pretty descent none the less. We knew the Eastern half of the trail was not going to be all that great, but we had no idea what we were really in for. After everyone made a deposit in the bushes, we were off! The first couple of miles went well. A little thick gravel once in a while, but nothing we couldn't handle. Then we went through a little mud here and there. Nothing grand, but it kept sticking to the bikes and kept getting thicker and thicker . . . then, we really went through a mud bog that none of us were able to pedal through! I would describe this mud to be very similar in nature to that of cement, including the little pieces of gravel. At this point we were only about 5 or 6 miles into the trail. So we spent some time trying in vain to wipe the mud from our bikes. Mud was everywhere! As we were getting ready to try to pedal on and hope to find a source of water to wash the mud off our bikes, Zak's gears broke right off the frame of his bike. The next town was about a mile off, so Melanie & Kera rode ahead to scout out a bike shop while Zak & I started walking with our bikes. That mile turned into 2 miles of pushing our bikes to civilization. There was no bike shop (it was Sunday anyway and everything was closed), but there was a hose outside a small cafe that we were permitted to use. So we spent over an hour washing the cement-mud from our bikes and skin. We had to call David to pick up Zak and his bike, while Melanie, Kera & I wanted to go on. So, we went back about half a mile to pick up the trail only to find right away that the tressel was closed and the trail stopped. You need to know that we are following signs for the John Wayne Pioneer Trail, but there are no indications anywhere that the trail is closed, or there's a detour, or simply that the trail is not maintained. So back into town we went trying to find a way to bypass the tressel. David catches up with us, so we pull out the gps and make a plan. He drove us to the nearest spot for picking up the trail. David drops us off, we take a few pictures, glad that it has stopped raining and ready to get moving. About a half mile later, I got a flat tire. We spend some time taking care of that and get a call from David that about a mile down the trail (he was scoping it out for us as he and the kids were on their way to set up camp 40 miles away), it is overgrown so badly that a moose would have difficulty passing through. Since we didn't have machetes to blaze the trail, we decided to crawl back into the truck and give it up for the day. David says "is this still the same day?" because we've had so many things go wrong. At this point we had been at this for 6 hours and were completely worn out, wet, and frustrated. Those were the hardest 10 miles I've ever ridden! I know there were other things to mention, but I'm tired and I can't remember them at this point.

This trail is really bad. There is no way were going to be able to ride it, so we're making a plan for tomorrow to follow surface roads that run nearby the trail. I hope it's not raining!

ANXIOUS!

I'm anxious to get up to Washington and out on that trail, however, training has gone awry this spring and I think I'm in for a bruttal ride. All we have to do is ride, right? No time limits, no worries. I wish I had more time for riding . . .