Day Three - Odessa, WA...83 miles of heat and hills

Day three and the hot weather has begun! It was in the high 80's with sunshine galore.

We started by crossing the Columbia River Bridge, a huge structure that spans the river, providing a majestic view. A view I was unable to capture on film due to the competing emotions of, Oh my goodness, this is so beautiful! and Good grief! I am going to die crossing this bridge in heavy traffic! (A family we met, who had crossed the bridge the day before while traveling from Canada on their bicycles, said they just closed their eyes and went as fast as they could!)

Climbing out of the Columbia River Gorge, the view presented a beautiful scene exemplifying the power of water to shape the land, as the Columbia River snaked its way though rock forming deep canyons. However, soon we were in a big band of irrigated cropland. Irrigation brought by Roosevelt's Grand Coulee Dam,  (see link above) meant to tame the Columbia and provide food for a growing nation. We passed miles and miles of crops being irrigated by a variety of man-made devices, from huge traveling sprinklers over potato plants, to drip irrigation attached to individual grape vines. Apparently, this area is at the same latitude as Bordeaux, France but produces 5 times the volume of high quality grapes. Additionally, the county with the USA's highest potato production is located within Washington's vast irrigated land.

We climbed into the high desert land and another scene change, wheat fields. Not acres of wheat, miles of wheat. The land moved from sharp climbs to rolling hills. Unfortunately for me, the heat, a slight tail wind, and a few poor choices on my part combined producing heat exhaustion. No lasting damage and we finished the day, but I sure learned the drink lots of water, and yes, sports drinks are needed,  rule while bicycling through a desert!

We spent the night in Odessa, a welcoming town of 1000 residents. Passing out a 7:30, I awoke a little wiser and ready for the trip to Spokane. 

Day 2, Easton to Vantage WA

Fantastic ride today.

We started in the pine forest in Easton, then fifteen miles later we were in Cle Elum and in the high desert. The desert from Cle Elum to Ellensburg, about a 28 mile ride, is heavily irrigated. Lots of hay and winter wheat. After Ellensburg, irrigation stopped, and there was open range with sage brush and cattle. We finished the day in Vantage in the Columbia River gorge.

The challenge for today's ride began at mile 46 just after lunch in Ellensburg. To quote our cue sheet, "Mile 46.0 Follow Vantage Hwy out of town up long climb...Mile 61.2 Reach top of long climb..." This is the longest climb either of us has ever done, but we paced ourselves well, and had no problems. The best part about the climb was that it was followed by a 10 mile descent. They really do things big out here.

Tomorrow we climb out of the Columbia gorge and ride across more high desert to Odessa, WA.

Easton, Washington

Day one has finally arrived! We headed to Easton, Washington in the Cascade Mountains. Should you be interested in learning more about Easton, the links to Wikipedia and the Easton Welcome site are attached to the blog.

It was a great day! LOTS of climbing! We went through the Snoqualmie Pass in the Cascade mountains which entailed climbing 3000+feet. One climb was 5 miles long. We had another section that was mostly up for 12 miles...and we made it. All told we rode 88 miles up and down the mountain side. This is reported to be the 2nd toughest set of climbs we will have on the trip, so we are off to a good start. Woo Hoo, day one under our belt and no the worse for the wear. (well maybe a little!) More details and pictures to follow tomorrow. To be honest John and I are tuckered out from our first day and are hitting the hay early. : )

Day 0, Seattle, 06/19/20

Tomorrow is the day! Picked up the tandem at the Speedy Reedy bike shop today, and took it for a test ride. Everything worked perfectly. Thanks to Speedy Reedy for putting it back together, and thanks to Nate in GR for all the work he put into our bike getting it ready for the trip.

We biked up a one mile long 13% grade. At the end, we felt we could have climbed more. Made us feel more confident. Tomorrow we will cycle 95 miles I think. The organizers characterize tomorrows ride as a "difficult day." We will ride on bike trails, city streets, mountain roads, I-90 (Yikes!), and suburban roads. There is one section where many trees had fallen across the road. The highway department has cleared one lane through the area. It's wide enough for a car, but not for one of our support trucks. We will also have a twelve mile long uphill. Best as I can tell from the cue sheet, this http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/38152508/ is the route we take. I-90 between exits 54 and 62 does not allow bikes, so we will be shuttled past this area. Are we doing 95 miles, or 8 miles less?

Don't really know, but I suspect our pedaling mileage will be more like 87. It's 8:30. I am both tired and excited, so excited I don't feel sleepy. We have packed and repacked our bags many times, discarding this and that so as to take only what we really need. (I hope.) Our alarm is set for 5 AM. We load our gear on the truck at 6 AM, eat breakfast from 6:15 to 6:45, and have opening ceremonies -

ALA higher ups will tell us what a nice job we did, and we will present them with a check for around $200K - around 7:00. Then at about 7:30 PDT we will get on our bikes and begin the ride. Thank you all for your support, both emotional and financial. We would not be here without your help.

Tomorrow we fly to Seattle and meet each other in the Seattle airport. Margaret drove her car to Richmond, VA. By leaving it, and the bike rack there, we will have a way to get home. We will meet in Seattle, check in to Emerson Hall at Seattle Pacific University, and then go to the Speedy Reedy bike shop where our tandem (should be) is. We hope to have Friday evening and Saturday to get a feel for Seattle.

Our steed is to the left. In all honesty, there is less of Margaret now than there was in this 2008 picture.

Final Preparations

We ship our bike to Seattle tomorrow, 6/7. It takes a bit of planning to ship a sixty pound, nine foot long tandem. All of this is becoming in-ignorably (is that a word?) real.

We are packing for the trip tonight. Our friends, Jeanne and Bob, are driving to Seattle on 6/10, and have offered to take whatever stuff they can fit in their car. We hope to really load them up. The trip organizers have provided a remarkably complete packing list which we are following with some additions and corrections.

Last minute prep of the bike finished tonight with the installation of two new chain rings for the timing chain, as well as a new timing chain to complement the new drive chain. We have upgraded the tandem for the ride as follows: New chains, new chain rings for the timing chain, all new brake and shift cables, new foam pad for Margaret's seat, replaced the stock rim brakes with disk brakes, and Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires.

Soon as I figure it out, I will post some pictures.

Ready

Well, we didn't get to ride Friday, sometimes life interferes with your plans. We did ride the rest of the weekend. Saturday we rode to Hopkins, then Holland, and back home, 102 miles. Sunday we rode to Lowell, then Portland, then Lake Odessa, and back home, 107 miles. Monday we rode to Lowell for brunch, then back home, 43 miles. Observations:

1) Do not trust Google maps-bicycling to avoid dirt roads. We ended up doing 5 miles of them on Saturday.

2) When riding in a driving rain, as we did for the last two hours of the ride on Sunday, we can not go faster than about 25 mph. Above that speed, my eyes get so much water in them that my contact lenses begin to float, and I can't see the road ahead.

3) Drink like crazy on a hot, humid day like Monday. Then drink even more. We both didn't drink enough during that ride. Ride was tougher than it should have been because of that.

 All in all, I think we are read for our Big Ride. Maybe we are not where we had hoped we'd be in early June, but I think we are good enough. This past weekend was a test which we ended up passing. Now Margaret wants to concentrate in interval training in hopes of increasing our speed. We'll see what we can accomplish with two weeks to go.