Ride to Pe Ell

Longview to Pe Ell: 49.7 miles
Total Mileage: 128.9 miles
Quote of the Day:  "Well I was born in a small town and I live in a small town.  Prob'ly die in a small town, oh, those small communities."

While we waited for the finishing touches to be placed on breakfast, May lead us in a brief yoga session. 

Every morning during the route meeting, two riders give a quick "Town Fact" talk.  Basically, it covers population size, a picture of the affordable housing crisis and any fun tidbits we should check out.  Ian and I had Longview and yesterday we told everyone about Nutty Narrows a squirrel bridge which covers one of the busier roads in the town.  No joke there is squirrel bridge in this town.  For $1,000, Amos Peters created the smallest bridge and the smallest animal crossing in the world.  This year they dedicated another three bridges.  Before heading out to Pe Ell our group decided to stop and see the bridge for ourselves.  Not the best picture, but it proves we were there. 

Group shot with the largest squirrel I have ever seen.



Let the climbing begin!

Everyone made it to lunch around the same time so we were able to have an impromptu Happy Birthday dance party for Kaitlin wearing crowns of leaves.  I know there is dance video or two floating around, but I was not able to find it and sadly did not take my own.

After lunch we had some serious hill climbs; two of them clocked in at 9-10% grade.  Thankfully most of it was in the shade so while we were cranking low and slow, we were not baking in the sun.  Bike and Build has its own set of rules and one of my favorites is what goes down must come up.  While that was definitely true today, we did have our first large descent.  There is nothing better than seeing a yellow diamond sign with a truck rolling down a hill and a grade percentage underneath; today we hit the first of many 9%'s. 

The views are also incredible.  Before I left for the trip I had very few expectations for the trip.  While many people told me the riding would be beautiful, their descriptions did not do the scenery justice.  I was also surprised with how many family farms we passed along the way. 

As promised here is one side of the trailer; Sarah pulled out some of her amazing artistic skills.  The other side has a great map and I am sure I will find a picture soon enough to post.  The painting is only made better by Poe leaning up along side of it.

Pe Ell, with a population of 624, is a cute town in the middle of no where (there's nothing wrong with middle of no where, just trying to give some context).  While some hosts provide showers others may be near a stream or have an in with the local YMCA.  Here, however, the pastor brought his RV and a few brave souls decided to check out the "stream" about a mile down the road.  The water was pretty low, but there was a section deep enough to wash my limbs and kit before heading to the church for a hose shower (it's exactly what it sounds like).  

Artsy pebble picture

Da Stream Crew: Sarah, Miranda and Victoria!

For dinner, the church provided the most loaded potato bar of all time!!  Seriously, the potatoes were a foot in length and if you could dream up a topping it was probably on the table.  The church had also secured two cakes from the local bakery which were quickly turned into birthday cakes.  The pastor's wife also provided ziplock bags for cookies so we could take a few with us on the road tomorrow.  This is only the third host and we are already spoiled.

The birthday celebrations continued after dinner and a couple of us 21+ riders headed over to the local bar.  We got permission to start a fire outside and our fearless leader Johnny decided to take it upon himself to chop some wood.  After a few failed attempts someone from the bar came over to show us how it was done; seriously, you could tell we were all a bunch of city slickers. 

The rest of the night was spent drinking a local beer (just one because we had to ride in the morning), getting to know one another and listing to fellow riders singing/play the ukulele (a shared team item which someone brought with them).  As we headed back to the church we had a great view of the stars in the sky.  Sadly living in a city means I only get to see a handful of starts each night so I am going to soak up as many of these opportunities as possible.