Wheel Dip!

The last day of our ride was 26 miles. We got to sleep in because of the short ride, and were able to take our time. It was a little hilly, and there was some wind, but overall the ride was beautiful. We also found a buffalo early on in the ride that Jake decided to ride and chase Alyssa on and we found more opportunities to pick and eat wild blackberries.

We all met up just outside the beach at 2:00 pm to prepare for wheel dip. We then rode the last quarter mile as a large group of 26 down to the water. We all got in a line and dipped our front tires in the Pacific together. More than 4,000 miles after our wheel dip in the Atlantic, we tried to recreate some of the same moments. We took a lot of pictures with our bikes held over our heads and celebrated what we had accomplished over the last 2 1/2 months. After a little while some riders began getting back in the ocean and soon we were all in the water for one last swim together and a giant group hug.

We still had one last long evening ahead of us. After dinner we all got together as a group for the last time to give each other awards to remember great moments, have a big trivia games with fun facts about each other and the trip, and share any confessions we had about things from the trip that we had not shared with each other before. It was a great time to think back on the trip and all that we had experienced and to celebrate the time that we had spent together.

Triple Century

One of our hardest stretches of rides so far this trip was the three ride days between Libby, Montana and Republic, Washington.

The first of these days brought us to Sandpoint, Idaho. An early treat about 10 miles in was a waterfall and the last swinging bridge in America just off the road. Jake and I were sweep, the designated last two riders in the group, and Jake got his first flat tire of the trip. The mileage between the hosts was actually just under 100 miles, so many groups chose to do a couple extra laps around the block to finish off the century.

After a break to build in Sandpoint we set off for another century to Metaline Falls, Washington. The ride was on a road along a beautiful river for much of the day and a lake towards the end of the ride offered many riders the chance to swim a little. Once again we were just short of 100 miles so we did a couple laps around town. We ended up needing several laps around the whole town because each lap was only about half a mile.

The final Century into Republic, Washington was by far the hardest. The beginning of the ride Had a small mountain that would have been considered hard on another day but we faced one of the hardest climbs of the trip towards the end. The climb up to Sherman’s Pass started at about mile 60. We had known that we had a mountain pass coming but were unprepared when 20 miles later we were still climbing. Overall the climb to Sherman’s Pass was about 24 miles long and we gained over 5,000 feet of elevation. The total for the ride was over 100 miles with 7,700 feet of elevation gain. This was definitely the longest ride for many riders, taking some almost 15 hours to complete. It and a good thing we were camping in Republic for the night because it let us finish the ride even though it took the last groups until almost 9:00pm.