Day 64 – Centralia, WA to Astoria, OR

August 2^nd:

Our final century day of the trip!  I was in a group with Kyle, Sarah L., Sam, and Vadim.  It was also an exciting day because we were going into our final state – OREGON!!!  At the beginning of the day, we saw an interstate sign, showing that Portland was one direction and Seattle was the other.  We had another laugh about going to Seattle the night before so we could say we beat 4K for Cancer’s Team Seattle there.

The morning was pretty but I remember feeling like it was hard to get my legs going.  It likely had to do with the fact that I hadn’t ridden in two days.  Rest is good, but when you skip biking days, it feels as though you lose momentum.  We were on a road which was showing us every single mile marker, and it was driving us crazy.  This is exactly the reason why I do not own a bike computer – I would look at it far too often and it would mentally defeat me, especially on long rides.

We started off as a fairly quiet group, until Sam said “AHHH we need to talk about something!  I can’t do this!!  I’m going crazy!”  Talking definitely gets your mind off riding for hours on end, and the silence was causing all her focus to be placed on the spinning of her legs.  We talked about Jehovah’s Witnesses… or something… who knows where that conversation went.  All that mattered was that we were able to take our minds off biking for a bit, and before we knew it we’d arrived at the first water stop.  The second water stop seemed to come about shortly thereafter, and we began to see signs of the Pacific Ocean – some swamplands, bays, and harbors.

The water van chalked some funny messages for us that day, including one at the second water stop that indicated a sleeping spot for Flora, our teammate who can sleep anywhere and everywhere, and does.

At this second water stop at mile 60, we recognized that we were running low on food in our snack bins – extremely low, actually.  We rationed so that every person had one peanut and one raisin.  Just kidding – but we definitely did not have enough food considering we had 100 miles of riding that day.  My group stopped at a grocery store and grabbed a small bite to eat before heading onward.  This meant that even though we were the second group initially, we were quickly passed by groups behind us that didn’t spend much time at the water stop.

The afternoon ride was what I always pictured Oregon riding to be like.  There were beautiful evergreens along the winding road, with mountains still surrounding us.  We’ve been surrounded by mountains for quite some time now, and it’s probably a site that I’ve begun to take for granted.  I will be sorely disappointed when I return home to the piedmont region of NC to see a horizon void of these gorgeous mountains.

When our team got to lunch, we found that we were extremely far behind the other teams.  Only one team remained at lunch, and they were on their way out.  This was in part due to the fact that I’d gotten a flat during this stretch of ride.  Unfortunately, host van hadn’t been too successful with acquiring food donations that day.  They did get some food from a grocery store, but the teams ahead of us had not rationed the food well.  There was nearly nothing left when we arrived.  Kyle picked up some rocks in his hand and jokingly said “KIM!  Here’s your lunch!  Some delicious rocks!”  We sent this to the GroupMe so that everyone could see the consequences of their savagery.

We were told by the water van drivers that the teams ahead had to be shuttled across the four mile bridge from Washington into Oregon.  I’ve certainly mentioned this before, but a huge fault in this route is that we’ve encountered very few state signs.  People often begin this journey thinking of the art work they can make afterward with the photos they’ve taken.  Usually this includes the highlight moments of crossing into different states.  So of course, everyone was upset that they would miss the opportunity to snap a photo while riding bikes past our FINAL state sign.  Vadim, however, was determined to cross that bridge.  It was unsafe, we were told, because it’s a fairly narrow bridge with no shoulder and a huge, steep hill in the middle.  He suggested that we seek out a police escort.  Our group was totally on board, but we let him sort out the logistics of finding a police officer willing to do this.  He called the Oregon police department a couple of times, getting our hopes up and down as the officers he spoke to gave him different information.  One officer was willing to help, as he was a cyclist himself, but his shift ended at 4 and we knew we wouldn’t make it in until closer to 4:30, if not later.  He told us he’d pass the message along to the officer who would be beginning his shift at 4:00, and we should wait to hear from him.

We’ve decided that Kyle’s hair makes him look like George Washington from the profile view.  It was photo-worthy.

We passed by tons of cyclists who were partaking in the Ride Around Washington annual event.  They were going in the opposite direction, and I found it funny that they, too, were sporting the same safety triangles that I wear on my Camelbak and that I have mentioned are reminders of Bike & Build to me.  We spoke to a rider and a SAG driver (a support vehicle much like the vans we have on our trip) about what we were doing, and inquired again about the bridge awaiting us up ahead.  No one really seemed to know, as their route hadn’t taken them on the bridge.  So we continued onward in the hope that something would work out and that the timing would be just right for an officer to escort us.

We could see the bridge in the distance, and the water beside us on the road was beautiful.  You could see the town of Astoria on the other side.

Suddenly, Vadim got a phone call.  It was a police officer calling him back!!  This officer told him that he would be able to escort us and he would be on the Washington side of the bridge shortly.  We got to a pull off at the entrance of the bridge, where our van drivers were ready to shuttle our team over.  We told them we wouldn’t be needing a shuttle, as we had arranged an escort!  Jen and Matt didn’t seem to believe us at first, until the officer arrived minutes later.

We talked about the plan and how long we estimated that it would take us to cross the bridge.  We guessed about 20 minutes or so.  So we hopped on our bikes with the police car following behind us with its lights flashing.  As we got on our bikes, Kyle exclaimed “WEE WOO WEE WOO!” mimicking the sound of a cop car, which put us all into a state of hysterical laughter.

Jen took this photo from the van, which rode behind the cop car for a bit before passing.

The Oregon state sign was small, but we were glad we still got to bike by it!

Just as we got to the hill in the middle, the officer got on his speaker and said “okay, let’s try a flying V formation up this hill.”  Honestly, I still don’t really know if he was kidding or not, but we did as told.  Vadim was at the front of our flying V, but he kept screwing up and going too far to the right.  We blamed this on his Russian nationality, which obviously has nothing to do with it, but we blame most things he does incorrectly on this heritage.  Anyway, it was such a rush to be the only team to bike into this state.  We kept it a secret from our team until our confessions night on Day 69, and many of our teammates were actually quite angry that we “selfishly” did not get an escort for them as well.  OH WELL!!  Maybe they won’t leave us behind all day AND eat all the lunch next time…

We later went to a brewery in Astoria and then spent some time out on the riverfront, where we watched a beautiful sunset and began to acknowledge that the sun was beginning to set on our journey as well.

Day 63 – Packwood, WA to Centralia, WA

August 1^st:

First day of August!  Where has the time gone??  I was upset that I was assigned to be in the van on the day that Bike & Build designated as a “chalk in support” day for Patrick and Bridget.  The idea was that riders would chalk messages on the road, sidewalk, or greenway for these riders and for the ME2SB15 team.  The B&B community showed an incredible amount of support with these chalked messages, and it made me even more proud to be part of such an awesome group of young adults.

I dedicated my day to Patrick and Bridget during the dedication circle that morning, and I definitely broke down during it.  Many of my teammates also chose to dedicate their rides to them, some even dedicating to me as well because they knew how hard I was taking the news.  I have an incredibly supportive 4K team!

Kyle was my van day buddy, which made this duty much more fun.

The first thing Kyle and I did was go to the coffee shop – DUH!  The team would be on one road for about 30 miles, so there were no turns to chalk until after the first water stop.  We spent some time talking to Pacific Crest Trail hikers, who were in Packwood for a few days.  The Pacific Crest Trail is one that spans from Canada down through Washington, Oregon, and California and into Mexico.  It’s a trail that takes several months to complete.  It takes a very outdoorsy, dedicated, and mentally strong individual to complete a journey like this, and I admire those who decide to take on this challenge.  Just to give you an idea of where it goes…

Many of the people who hike the PCT start off alone, as these three guys did, but often find others along the trail to hike and camp with along the way.  It was great hearing some of their stories and sharing some of our own with them.  One of them said he had plans to move to Asheville, NC afterward, and I told him I could have guessed that, as Asheville is a haven for the outdoorsy, environmentally conscious, hippy, liberal, and adventurous.

At the first water stop, we took a photo of everyone in a line with Patrick and Bridget written on our calves.  I stood in the middle representing Bike & Build with my hazard triangle on my Camelbak.  For those of you who are unfamiliar, B&B requires all riders to have a Camelbak (which contains a water bladder that holds 100 fl. oz. of water) as well as a reflective safety triangle, both of which are always with me when I ride.  In a way, the safety triangle on a Camelbak is a sign of a Bike & Builder.

The rest of the ride day was pretty average.  We chalked the route for the team, as is the responsibility of the water van, and we unloaded everything once we got to the host in Centralia.  It had been discovered earlier in the day that Seattle was only a little over an hour away from Centralia.  Since we have a little bit of unspoken competition with Team Seattle, probably stemming from the fact that we’ve seen them four different times throughout this journey, we thought it would be hilarious to go and take a photo in front of the iconic Space Needle as a way of saying “beat ya here!!”  So we did.  We filled up the vans and spent only a little over an hour in this huge city.

Day 62 – Yakima, WA to Packwood, WA

July 31^st:

At a team meeting the night before, where we filled everyone in on the tragic Bike & Build accident that had occurred, we were told by the 4K for Cancer office that we were to take a day off and shuttle to the next town over as sort of a “moment of silence” for the fallen rider, Patrick, as well as for Bridget, who seemed to be doing better in the hospital upon further update.  While I understand this concept and I’m thankful that 4K showed their support of my B&B community, it was rather unfortunate that this was one of the main highlight days of our trip.  It was a climb into Packwood, WA where we’d get a better view of Mt. Adams, which we’d seen far in the distance on our way into Yakima.  It wasn’t our decision to make, though, and it was required that all 4K for Cancer bike teams shuttle day 62.  So on we went, driving a beautiful mountain road which I MUST add to the list of bike rides that I must go back and complete one day.  The huge, snow-capped mountain in the distance would have been the most rewarding site to see after climbing for miles.

When we got to town in the late morning, we walked around and found a coffee shop, where we spent some time hanging out and deciding how we’d spend the rest of the day.

We decided to take the vans to the lake.  It took us a while to get to this lake, though, because it was on a windy, uphill, unmaintained gravel road, and the huge 15 passenger van struggled a bit to get us there.  But once we made it, it was totally worth it.  The lake was one of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen, and we spent the afternoon goofing off together in the cool water.

Overall, it was a great day.  I enjoyed spending quality time with my teammates and reminding myself of how grateful I am for their friendship.  Although I was a little bitter about not being able to ride into Packwood, I was reminded of how lucky I am to have all my teammates safely here with me.

Day 61 – Richland, WA to Yakima, WA

July 30^th:

We knew it would be a very hot day today, with the heat wave bringing in temperatures soaring up to 104 degrees.  We decided to start the morning off with a quick coffee stop, as this has become the norm, and then proceeded with a group of Gino, Matt, Kyle, and Lizzy.

The morning continued to show the desert side of Washington.  We climbed for a little bit and were able to look back over the suburbia that is Richland.

In the morning, I talked to Lizzy and Kyle about our dogs.  Unfortunately, that morning Lizzy learned from her mom that her dog, Java, had received a cancer diagnosis and things weren’t looking good.  Of course, Lizzy was upset, but when you ride with the “team puppy,” Kyle, your spirits are always lifted.  Lizzy herself is one of the funniest people on our team, if not the funniest.  Her humor is subtle, clever, and unique.  We biked through a neighborhood where many animal noises were heard, and these were not just your average dog barking noises.  There were strange sounding birds and some growls from unknown animals, which caused Lizzy to ask “are we in the Dominican Republic or something??”

I believe we officially dubbed this day a “flat catastrophe.”  In this Washington desert, there were many thorns on the roads that would puncture our tires and tubes.  Before the first water stop at 30 miles, Martha’s team got 4 flats.  All the other teams, except for mine, had at least one flat each.  We had to wait for them at the first water stop for about an hour, which in my opinion, seems to defeat the purpose of waking up early to get as many morning miles in as possible as a means of beating the heat.  Instead, we roasted in the sun waiting for the teams to arrive.  Only after the first water stop were the rest of the stops that day considered “rolling stops,” meaning that teams could stop in for water and leave whenever they wanted to without having to wait for everyone to get in.  This always seems unfair to the first group (which happened to be my group, this day) who has to wait forever at the first non-rolling water stop only to fall far behind the rest of the day after getting flats of our own.

Later on, we biked into a town called Grand View, where we got our first glimpse of what I believe was Mt. Adams.  There are just a few of these gigantic mountains in Washington and Oregon, and when you see them it is truly stunning.  Even from such a far distance, it was an incredible sight.  It’s always hard to take photos of them, though.  I could see the stand-alone mountain in the distance and tried to capture it in this photo, but I was unsuccessful.

Shortly after rolling into town, Kyle got a flat.

The amount of glass on the side of the road in Washington is unreal.  I’ve never had to avoid so much glass so consistently throughout several days.  I don’t think any of the flats we had were due to glass, but it’s shocking that the glass was not the culprit.  Kyle did get another flat, but it was a slow leak and we were so close to the lunch stop that we employed the pump-and-run method so we could ride for just 4 more miles.  The host van had picked out a great spot for lunch in the shade.  There was a local woman who pulled over to ask us what our ride was all about, and then proceeded to tell us we’d picked a terrible time to ride there with the heat wave.  “We know” is about the only response we could give.  I think we looked rather miserable as we all laid in the shade, incredibly tired and probably dehydrated.

Shenanigans ensued, as they always do, as Sean and Kyle began wrestling.  I’m not sure when it started, but it’s not unusual to catch these two acting like children in this way.  It’s hilarious, though, and we all love to watch it.

  

Our final water stop was on a river with a small boat access ramp.  Some of us decided to jump in to cool off from the insanely hot temperatures.  While I would say most of us were clothed, there were others that were not.  When we got out of the river, a police officer pulled into the lot and said “I’ve gotten some calls about people swimming naked in this river.  Was that you guys?”  We said “we were wearing bike shorts without our jerseys, so if that’s what you mean by naked…”  We got away with it this time, but this is probably the closest we’ve come to getting a public indecency charge (let it be known that I was not skinny dipping… on this particular occasion).  Sam’s face says it all in this photo.

It was also at this water stop that I received horrible news from two of my Bike & Build friends.  Two Maine to Santa Barbara (“ME2SB”) riders were hit by a car in Oklahoma, one of whom (Patrick Wanninkhof) was pronounced dead at the scene and the other (Bridget Anderson) who was airlifted to a hospital.  I give this information not to scare anyone about my safety on this journey, but to remind everyone about the importance of safe driving.  The two riders were hit by a woman who admitted to checking her phone when the accident occurred.  We’re likely all guilty of doing this, but it’s heartbreaking instances like this that remind us to hold ourselves accountable for our actions behind the wheel.  The news affected me more than I expected, and I spent much of the remainder of this ride in tears, maintaining my position in the front of the pack so as to not let my group see me crying.  Bike & Build will forever hold a huge place in my heart, and the idea of my community being shattered left me speechless and broken.  I was reminded of how lucky I am to partake in two epic cross-country journeys, and also how uncertain life can be.  I’m thankful that I successfully made it to San Diego in 2013 with my entire NC2SD Bike & Build team.  Knowing that a B&B rider’s life was cut short so suddenly and that he wouldn’t be able to celebrate his accomplishment at the Pacific Ocean with his team made me feel guilty that I’ve done this twice with just a few small scars to show from it.  I’m proud of the Bike & Build community and how they proceeded to show their support in the days that followed.  Here’s a photo of my B&B family on our last day in San Diego, as a wonderful memory of great times with inspirational people:

Day 60 – Walla Walla, WA to Richland, WA

July 29^th:

It was a SHORT day of something like 50 miles…?  Regardless, it was significantly shorter than our last three days had been and we were ready for a quick ride.  We “slept in” until 5:00am, and then took our sweet time getting the vans packed, eating breakfast, and dilly-dallying as we listened to music blasted from the vans.  We decided that the water vans should chalk us to coffee to start off our day, rather than sending us on the route immediately.

We also decided that Sean looked like cyclist Jesus today.

We all went to the same coffee shop and completely overwhelmed the one man who was working there.

It was finally time to get going.  I left with my team of Adam, Sean, Kellie, and Jen.  It was a gorgeous and sunny day and we were looking forward to this brief ride.  At one point, we rolled up to the group in front of us, who had pulled over off the road.  Whenever you see this, it is courteous to slow down and check to make sure they’re okay and that they don’t need anything (frame pump, tube, etc.) before you move past them.  Emma was in that group on the side of the road, and I could see her sitting on the ground.  She called out to us “nothing to see here!!” so naturally, we were curious as to what was happening.  Suddenly, an adorable ball of fur popped its head out from under her arm and revealed itself to be the cutest lab puppy snuggling in her lap.  We came to a screeching halt, excitedly yelling “PUPPY!!!” and pulling over.  There were several puppies, the youngest and smallest of which were some kind of mutt – a mix between a corgie and an Australian shepherd, I think.  We took tons of photos and got some much-needed puppy therapy.

  

The rest of the ride was nice, but nothing we hadn’t seen before.  Again, we were still confused as to why this area of Washington was not as tree-covered as we were expecting it to be.

We even returned to the land of the pivots, which are a type of farming machinery common in corn and wheat fields.  We’ve seen them all over the Midwest.  Halle, our Nebraskan, was particularly excited to see the pivot with an American flag on top of it.  She proclaimed that “Washington’s got it figured out!”  She’s the one who taught us many of the names of farming machinery.

Somehow, these “short” rides always seem long.  I remember being irritated with how long the last 10 miles felt.  I think when you put yourself in the mindset that it will be a “short” ride, you forget that 50 miles is still a pretty long bike ride.  Comparatively, though, these are much shorter days.  We finally approached the river and crossed the bridge into Richland, where we stayed at the community center.  It was huge and seemed quite new!  We spent the afternoon taking a dip in the river and then going to a nearby brewery in the evening.

Day 59 – Lewiston, ID to Walla Walla, WA

July 28^th:

We started off with our usual morning pack-up and breakfast, which usually looks something like this:

We headed out for our third long ride day in a row, which was scheduled to be over 100 miles.  We crossed into Washington within the first 10 miles as we passed over a bridge!  My group was Kendra, Brett, Flora, and Adam.

Immediately after the bridge, much too early in the day, Kendra got a flat.  As we were stopping to change it, Flora decided to online shop.  The first photo is Flora being excited about her purchase, and the second is her credit card getting declined.

  

We were nervous about this ride day because we’d be back on highway 12 – the same road we’d been on for multiple days, which had gotten exponentially more dangerous during the second half of yesterday’s ride day.  We expected some climbs, too, which made the thought of a road with no shoulder very scary.  This time, however, it wasn’t as bad.  I’ll say that there wasn’t as much shoulder as we’d prefer, but we had enough room to stay single file, and in some parts we could ride double wide.

It’s been slightly disappointing to me that the “evergreen state” of Washington has up to this point been anything but evergreen-covered.  In fact, it’s mostly been desert thus far.  I can appreciate the different landscape and even find some beauty in the dirt and desert shrub-covered hills, but I need real trees in my life.  I was looking forward to seeing them throughout the state of Washington, so this was a rude awakening.  I was told that once we went through the Cascades, the scenery would change to the greenery I was expecting all along.  Unfortunately, that wouldn’t happen for a few more days.

Early on in the climb, Kendra got another flat.  This was all within the first 25 miles of the day!  I hoped that this wasn’t indicative of the way the rest of the day would go.  After the first water stop, we climbed a steady incline until the top of the first summit, where many of our teammates were taking a quick break.

This time, it was Brett’s turn to get a flat.  So once again, we waited at the top of the hill for him.  I remembered a fortune from a fortune cookie that I’d opened the day before and found it in my Camelbak, reminding me not to sweat the small stuff and to remain positive.

The day continued on in the heat with no shade and a desert-like scenery.  I’ve been thinking about it, though, and even though I’m inclined to call it “desert,” it was mostly fields of wheat.  I’m not sure if that qualifies as desert, but whenever a landscape is mostly brown, I classify it as desert.

After my two biking trips I’m convinced of this: when it is over 90 degrees, it is much more comfortable to keep biking than it is to stop and sit/stand in the sun.  When you bike, at least you have the breeze to cool you off, but when you sit in the sun, it’s unbearable.  It was crucial to put up this tarp during lunch so no one fried.

It is a common occurrence for people to sleep in the van during water or lunch stops.

After a couple more climbs after lunch, we found ourselves coasting downhill into a cute little town that seemed to appear out of nowhere.  The hills/mountains tend to hide these towns, and when you’re riding through wheat fields it seems as though you are not even close to civilization.  We went to a coffee shop and even found this rickshaw type cruiser which we thought we might trade a couple of bikes in for.

After the final water stop, we were on to our last climb.  We thought we were in fields of wheat before, but we REALLY hit the golden grassland in the final part of the day.

Again, I was very unaware that any part of Washington looked like this.

Finally, we made it to the cute town of Walla Walla.  Even just saying the name is fun!  We walked around town, and Brett and I decided to get a beer to celebrate the day.  Another century day complete!