Ride to Aberdeen

Pe Ell to Aberdeen: 56.2 miles

Total Mileage: 185.1 miles

Quote of the Day: Rivers and roads, rivers and roads, rivers 'til I reach you.

The potatoes made another appearance at breakfast this morning as cheesy, bacon-y potatoes.  Ziplock bags were again provided and I may or may not have thrown some in my hydration pack for a midmorning snack.

This morning I headed out with Louisa, Scurp and Alyssa.  We, like a lot of other riders, followed the chalking and within the first few miles we were LOST.  Thankfully we were only a few miles off the cue sheet.  There was a group of riders who made it seven miles before being flagged down by the pastor in his RV.  Who knows where they would have ended had he not been going home. 

Back on the cue sheet we soon found out the road was closed to a single lane.  While waiting for our turn, I told a story from my Southern trip where our group was held up by a local blasting project and despite our best efforts of hustling down the road, we all needed to hitch a ride trough the construction area.  Literally two minutes later, the forewoman told us that bikes could travel along the construction route, but only if the were escorted by a company truck.  Our group made it just in time; had we gotten there later who knows how long the wait would have been.

Escorts are things all Bike and Builders look forward to and on day three we had gotten ours.
Here is the crew, post escort, eating hills for breakfast!!

Louisa and I made a quick stop at a local car mechanic shop.
They had a lot of great old cars and signs like the ones below. 

A few hundred feet down the hill we found a fishing pond.
We took a much better #ussie with a metal fish cut out, but I have no idea where that picture went. 

A few hundred feet later we found today's lunch spot.  One of the perks to riding in the Pacific Northwest is there are blackberries around every turn.  They definitely make it better when you have to pull over for someone to change a flat. 

About a mile after lunch we started seeing some great metal cutouts along the road.  Kelton and I decided to grab a quick drink with a local before cranking out the final miles of the ride.  Not surprisingly, we were greeted by a lot more long steep hills.  Thankfully the grade was less steep and made it much easier than yesterdays climbs.  About 15 miles outside the host we stopped with a bunch of other riders to try some local blackberry ice cream; it did not disappoint. 

Dinner that night would be in, wait for it, the Aberdeen Museum of History.  This could very well be a Bike and Build first and was as cool as it sounds.  Before we sat down to dinner with the local affordable housing agency, we wandered around to get edumicated.

Ethan and Jeff are on the hunt for the fire.
What sweetens the deal is they are in one of the town's original fire trucks. 

Athena and I were keeping a close look out for ice burgs.

Scurp is waiting for her Gatorade on the rocks.
She could be waiting an awful long time because the store is stuck in the early 20th century.

After we wrapped up with dinner the leaders stood up and gave a brief presentation of the history, logistics and fundraising of Bike and Build.  Similarly, NeighborWorks, the local affordable housing agency, told us a little about their organization.  They do a great deal of home repairs, as well as offer subsidized housing programs, loans and home buyer education classes.  It turns out we would be painting the exterior of two local homes; fingers crossed the rain holds off tomorrow!

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. 

Ride to Longview

Portland to Longivew: 58. 5 miles
Total Mileage: 79.2 miles
Quote of the Day: "Afoot and lighthearted I take to the open road, healthy, free, the world before me." -Walt Whitman

INAUGURAL bike ride of the INAUGURAL Drift West.  Seriously, if I had a dime for every time we will say inaugural I will be a rich lady.  Everyone was looking great in the new Drift West jerseys and after a route meeting we were ready to hit the road. 

My crew and I were securely in the middle of the pack (a good place to be that way you don't have to be the one to chalk the directions).  Victoria and I posed with some great Lego pillars; I then had the Everything is Awesome song stuck in my head for the rest of the day.  As we were still in Portland, there were a lot of great bike lanes leaving the city.  YAY for great biking infrastructure.

One of the best lines from the cue sheet was to head under the bridge and take a right on the next street.  Our group felt like there should be a troll under said bridge so I did a little rudimentary chalking.

The bridge!!

Lunch is always "half way" and just on schedule, Natalie had found a great school parking lot with a shaded overhang.  Because everyone made good time we spent some time hanging out and eating donated Chipotle burritos.  In true alumni fashion, Ethan, Kaitlin, Lynsey and I decided to hit up the Dairy Queen next door for some ice cream.  It seemed like the most perfect idea in the moment, but soon enough our stomachs were unsure and there was a hint of regret.  Our legs, however, kicked into autopilot and we banged out the last 20 miles to the host.  We did make a state line crossing, but because it was over the river there was no state line and no opportunity to take a picture.

 

One by one, the groups began to roll into the church and once we had the trailer unpacked we headed across the road (literally) to the YMCA for showers.  The last part of orientation we needed to complete was to create a team charter.  In order to make the task a little easier, each of the chore groups would create their own mission statements and we would then take the similarities to create an all inclusive one.  We decided to throw conformity out the window and came up with a haiku which was VERY WELL received by the group.   I mean seriously, how good is our haiku?!?

INAUGURAL DRIFT WEST ORIENTATION

Host to Lewis & Clark State Park and back: 20.7 miles
Total mileage: 20.7 miles
Quote: "The haters gonna hate, hate, hate, baby I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake.  Shake it off, shake it off." - T. Swift

As the group alarm clock went off (some calm, but upbeat song) the hiss of thermarests could be heard around the basement.  After a quick breakfast we broke up into groups for a skills section (basic bike parts, how to fix a flat, etc) and then headed to a local school parking lot to go through some riding drills.  The Drift West riders are a mix of alumni and new riders which means the bike riding skills were all over the place; you had everything from those who completed a cross country trip to those who have never used clips before. 

A fraction of the food we will consume throughout the day

After riding around all morning in a parking lot, everyone was excited to head out on the road.  Johnny Jaguar lead us in a cheer and we pealed out in groups of 4-6 for the INAUGURAL 20 mile shake down ride (aka make sure our bikes were in working condition after traveling hundreds/thousands of miles, work on hand signals and practice reading a cue sheet); they also tried to get a mix of alumni and new riders in each group.  My crew consisted of Harry, Alyssa, Miranda and Johnny.  We stopped half way for a wild blackberry snack session.  Sadly it was was cut short because the last group caught up with us.

After ten miles we arrived at the Lewis & Clark State Park and decided to get in a quick dip before heading back to the host.

We all grabbed a quick hose shower before eating dinner and listening to a few last lectures including everyone's favorite: health & hygiene (cue the awkward giggles).  With about two hours to spare until lights out, a bunch of us grabbed some headlights and headed out to finish the trailer.  Each trip is responsible for designing and painting the support trailer; it usually includes a rough map with the highlighted trip, some kind of biking flare and a couple of safety phrases.

Final pictures will be included in tomorrow's post.

Trip to Portland

Last night after a long day at work I got myself home and laid out everything I would need to take with me.  If I was a bit more on top of my game I would have done it earlier in the week, but a combo of new job and being sick left things to the last minute.  After about an hour, I got everything wrangled and stuffed into either my hydration pack or backpack. 

The morning came too early and after picking up a few passengers we headed to the Pittsburgh airport.  Things went fine during the first leg of the trip and I had high hopes I would only be slightly late for orientation. 

One should never make that kind of assumption, especially when they are on a tight schedule.  One of the benefits of my flight was I did not need to change planes in Las Vegas.  As soon as the first group deplaned and the new riders were loaded, the pilot stated we would be delayed as the tower could hear everything in the cockpit, but ground control could not hear the plane.  After several updates, mechanics, calls to the head engineer in Dallas we had now been stuck in the plane two hours.  The pilot notified the passengers he could not legally be hold us on the plane and if people wanted to deboard to get a snack/lunch they could do so.  The downfall would be that if the flight was ready to leave they wouldn't wait for the missing passengers.  Since I brought no snacks or lunch I decided to make a run for it (after I got a couple hundred feet away from the door I realized it would have been a good idea to take my hydration pack and helmet instead of just my wallet and phone).  Thankfully the pilot also decided to make a run for it and was a couple of lines away aka as long as he was here I would not be left behind.

Long story short I arrived back in plenty of time with drinks and snacks in hand.  At that time we were told that would be getting off and a new plane would be coming to take us the rest of the way.  Because Southwest is great, we were each comped $100 voucher for our trouble.  By this time, I was WAY late and just thankful I would be making it to Portland (fingers crossed my bag would arrive with me).  I also decided it would be a "treat yo self" flight and purchased some wifi and a movie; big spender I know. 

Thankfully when we touched down my bag had arrived and there was an Uber just around the corner to take me to the church.  I might have showed up to orientation five hours late, but there was some great chalking outside the front door.  I snuck into the basement where the chore groups were busy acting out the safety skits aka making the rules and regs more fun. 

After dinner and a few more powerpoints a bunch of us headed outside to put together our bikes and make some final tweaks in preparation for tomorrow's shake down ride.  I desperately tried to learn names, but after five I was tapped out (seriously I am the worst at learning new names).  A little before 2300 people started rolling out thermarests and sleeping bags because tomorrow would be a big day.   

Here We Go!

Tomorrow is the day!!  After weeks of planning, riding, fundraising and building the time has finally come.  While my bike has already gone West, tomorrow morning I will head to Portland to check in for orientation.  It's my first time in the Pacific Northwest and I could not be more excited.  As John Muir said "the mountains are calling and I must go."  I might not be the fastest climber, I will soak up the downhills.  

Haven't donated to my ride?  Not a problem you still have time!  Click here to head over to my fundraising page.  Also I'm also taking suggestions on the must see things of Portland.  Keep checking back over the next two weeks for pictures and stories from the road!

Nothing Like the Smell of Sweat and Sunscreen on a Saturday Afternoon

Three Rivers Heritage Trail & Great Allegheny Passage 
Today's Mileage: 65 miles
Total Training Mileage: 383 miles

In addition to raising money and completing sweat equity hours, riders are  required to bank a certain number of hours (including a 65 mile ride) on the bike they will be riding for their trip.  We have had very few sunny days since I moved to town, so I took advantage of today's sunny weather and decided to get in my long ride.  I have definitely weekend warrior-ed longer rides, but a promise is a promise and I wanted to make sure I my new bike needed no further adjustments.

After the first ten miles I stopped to take a quick photo with Mr. Rogers.  Fred Rogers, most famous for Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, lived and worked most of his life in Pittsburgh.  After 895 episodes, the show wrapped, but his legacy lives on here and in the Smithsonian Museum of American History.   

From the statue it was back around the trail, over the bridge to Point State Park and then over another bridge to pick up the rest of the Three Rivers Heritage Trail.  Cruising along through the South Side I came across these great sculptures made from old steel mill materials.  Poe (the bike) posed for a picture to prove we were actually there and didn't just steal it from the interwebs. 

Lunch, in true B&B fashion, was half way (around mile 35) and under a shady tree.  Sadly I did not have the usual spread of left overs, peanut butter and jelly and gatorade stirred by my teammates.  After a couple handfuls of trail mix, a gatorade and some stretches I turned around and headed back to the city. 

After 4.5 podcasts I ended where I started the day.  It was perfect timing as I had no water and no snacks left in the old hydration pack.  Poe went back in the car and I headed off to eat a very large sandwich.  Thankfully the next long ride will be with some new friends and and terrain; while I don't mind longer rides it is always nicer to have company.  Twenty days until I Drift West!!