Day 2 - 70.5 miles / 5 hours 36 min - Vantage, WA

i'm just checking in. i'm in vantage, WA. ride yesterday was rough. ride today was great. in odessa tomorrow. (This was a text from my cell phone)

Day # 2

Day #2 at Easton State Park started off with breaking down camp and loading the trucks with our gear for the first time. We were running late as a group so our support crew loaded the trucks instead of us riders.

We had a breakfast of instant oatmeal, hard boiled eggs, and bananas. We got our cue sheets from Daniel and then we were off. I road with Kevin, James, and Stephanie. We traveled some back roads from Easton to Cle Elum. This was a nice ride with some views of the mountains at Snoqualmie Pass from the top of a hill (see picture on pictures from day 2-4 post). In Cle Elum we stopped at a gas station for Gatorade, a Lunchable for me (I'm not overly fond of PBJ sandwhiches), and chocolate milk for Kevin.

Next we got onto Highway 10. We stopped to take pictures of Mount Stewart on our way out of Cle Elum. The ride through the Yakima River Valley was awesome. I have lived in the area for over 20 years off and on and have never been on this road. Wow, I have missed on of the prettiest roads that I have ever seen. We stopped multiple times to take pictures and the had a water stop/check point half way through the Valley. I enjoyed watching some red tailed hawks catching the thermals. When we got down to Thorp, WA. we stopped at a river rafting put in/take out area to use the Porto potties and took more pictures of the river. In the town of Thorp we stopped at the Post Office to check to see if they had a library in town in-order to stop and down load pictures and update our blogs. Oh Course they didn't have one, but something funny happened outside of the library. A woman drove about 30-50 feet out of her driveway over to the Post Office and then drove back the 30-50 feet to her house. We just laughed because here we were riding our bikes cross country and she had to drive that short distance to the library.

Next we came into Ellensburg. We stopped at the last water stop/checkpoint before Vantage, but since there was a Mc Donalds right there we went in and got burgers instead (boy do you get hungry when you are biking so many miles). Right before getting to Ellensburg we went through some farm land, the day was getting hot, so when the irrigation systems were near the road and spraying out into it we had to ride through in order to cool off.

After Leaving Ellensburg we had about a 9 mile climb east of town towards Vantage, and then a 11 mile descent to the camp ground. Kevin said that he has never gone down that long of a hill before. He and James said that they would like to have a whole day of down hill sometime. I told them that they wouldn't feel that way if they have ever done the Tour De Blast up Mount Saint Helens.

That night we staked our tents down tight due to the high winds up the Columbia River Gorge. Supper was catered by the owner of Blustery's Restuarant. He made a huge salad, bread, and three kinds of pasta. For dinner we had birthday cake. Steven Chu turned twenty. Again, most of us were in bed before dark.

only pic i took on camera phone.

max: 38.5 mph, dist: 70.5 miles, time: 5:36, avg: 12.5 mph, PBJ: 1/2, flats: 0, yakima river valley on highway 10 was awesome. felt great today