Last van duty & Beautiful Bend

Along with being legally allowed to drink alcohol, my 21st birthday brought another important milestone... I also graduated from Van Passenger to Van Driver! Woo hoo!

The 4K's insurance policy allows only 21-and-overs to drive the vans. Since we had fewer over-21s than under-21s, the 21-year olds picked up the slack on the team and ended up having to do van duty a lot more than the "kids." So after my birthday, the 21-year olds were NOT mad about welcoming me to the drivers club, and it was my turn to do my duty as a driver for my 6th and final Van Duty Day. 

I was afraid I would've forgotten how to drive after 2 months of not being behind the wheel of a car, so I insisted on practicing in the parking lot the night before, but it turned out that really wasn't the case at all. Then I realized that's probably because biking is really in a sense driving -- you still have to steer, be constantly aware, be anticipating others' movements, and obeying traffic laws. Only thing that's different is the speed! :P

That day we were riding from Mitchell to Bend: a sunny Saturday with very mild weather and 84 miles on the agenda. I chose to drive the water van because the food van is a gigantic tank (15-passenger van) and I made no guarantees about my ability to drive that large vehicle. No one argued ;)

With Tom as my passenger....

Hi Tom :)

...we left Mitchell around 7 am. The elevation profile for the day was basically: flat until mile 12, huge climb up a mountain until mile 17, descent off the mountain, and then a steady gradual downhill for the entire rest of the day. That being said, mile 17 was the ideal place for a water stop, as we usually are in need of a water refill at the top of climbs.

We headed to the top of the mountain, chalking the turns on the way. Since I was the driver now, not having to get out of the car and run like a maniac to chalk in the middle of the road was exciting ;)

On flat ground, groups would've made it to mile 17 in an hour, but given that it was a big climb, we expected it to take even the fastest group close to two hours. So we had a lot of time to kill on top of the mountain. 

We had Ashley with us, because with her hand still healing, she wasn't able to do the climb. We killed the better part of an hour driving down other side of the mountain and then back up again, so she could scout it out and see if she could do that part of the ride. She needed to check out how steep it was and how tight any turns were. Luckily it wasn't too steep or windy, so she decided it was a yes. We returned to the top and took naps until we saw the first rider (Chris, of course) crest the hill.

Early morning nap...

Water stop at the top of the mountain

The rest of the day we set up two more water stops -- one at the beginning of civilization, the first place we'd had cell service in about 24 hours, and people celebrated because there was a Starbucks next to the water stop -- and one as a combined lunch/water stop with the food van, 18 miles out from the host. 

Riders grazing on food set out at the lunch stop

Kiera and Gina at the lunch stop!

Groups were very spread out because we had a super fast group that day, who we never caught up to for the third stop, but it was okay because they agreed to go unsupported.

After water stops were done, the food van agreed to chalk for us, so we were able to stop at a grocery store to get stuff for a certain team member's birthday :) as well as donations for the next day, since it was a rest day. We got a $25 gift card and used that to buy a ton of eggs and cheese for breakfast the next morning. We've gotten pretty good at feeding our entire hungry team with a $25 gift card ;)

When we arrived in Bend, we got settled at the AWESOME Vacation-Rental-By-Owner (VRBO) house we had set up for us!! We got this house using a team budget that we had saved for the last few days-- and the owners gave us a discount too because of our good cause.

Awesome view of the Cascades from the back porch of the house

Immediately after arriving, we went back out to search for dinner with Julie and Porter, the food van drivers. We had some trouble because it was a Saturday evening and a lot of managers weren't in. But we ended up getting some burgers, chicken sandwiches, some clam chowder, and 4 pies.... an interesting combination to say the least, but enough to feed the team a 4K OK dinner.

We brought back our winnings and the team happily devoured the food. We then relaxed for the night and played games including star tipping. We also celebrated Gavin's birthday...

19 or 12?? We only had a 1 and a 2 candle. 4K OK.

The next day we woke up to a beautiful day in Bend, and it was our LAST REST DAY!!! We couldn't believe we were already on our last day off together!

A few chefs made a great breakfast of eggs and pancakes for us. It was the first time we'd cooked our own breakfast!

Chef Julie making pancakes

We ran out of glasses so Porter used this dish for his cranberry juice. 4K Ok.

The team then split up to do various activities. I was among the crowd who went to Bend in the morning to do some shopping at REI, then went whitewater rafting on the Deshutes River! It was a blast!

We had two rafts, and this is the raft I wasn't in. Check out Julie's face. We love this photo.

Here's my raft going through some rapids! Tom, Sarah, Jen, Joanna, Zach, me, and Rowen.

Rafting was less than an hour but it was still really fun. The river was just GORGEOUS. Teal water against deep green pine trees everywhere. 

Here's us going down a rapid and the other raft waiting for us. Check out the beautiful color of that water!!

And that darn pine smell again. The water was coooold but we all ended up in it.... Not because the water was that rough but because we pushed each other in. We love each other :)

One of the main causes of falling in was when we were on still water and our guide had us play a game involving trust falls and our paddles. I'm sure you can already tell that was bad news. Basically two people stood on each side of the raft and held out their paddles, You hook the handles together and then hold on to your paddle and slooowly lean back. The idea is to see how far you both can lean before you fall in. I refused to do it with anyone in my raft except for Zach. And then we were doing pretty well... until Jen knocked us in -____- 

Regardless, everyone got soaked from the rapids AND thrown into the water at some point, and it was a ton of fun!!

After rafting we went back to the house, showered up, relaxed in the hot tub for a bit, and then went back out to Bend to get some dinner. We went to the Deschutes Brewery and this is the delicious dinner I got:

Paying for food was strange.. .but totally worth it. Look at that pizza!!!! I also ordered a drink (1st time at a restaurant) and was upset because they didn't even card me!! Booo!!!

After dinner we ventured out to walk around the adorable town of Bend. 

Becky and I next to the Deschutes River

Downtown Bend

Lots of young people... and lots of hipsters. THEN we found a bike shop, and I bought myself the following awesome birthday present:

I was sooooo excited about these!!! Hashtag bike nerd status :)

These tires are some of the best road tires you can get, and the one girl on our team that has them (Ashley) is also the only person on the team that has never had a flat tire!! A lot of people including me had been looking for them, but very few bike shops carry them. Happy birthday to meeeee :) :)

Back at the house, I needed the help of 3 guys to get the new tires on my wheels. The only problem with the really good quality tires is they're extremely stiff and thus really difficult to put on. Good thing I had lots of teammates willing to help :) 

We were all sad to see our last rest day together come to an end. We have all become a true "4K family." Living with 24 people for 70 days will do that to you. 

With that, we were ready for the final stretch of the ride: just 6 days until Portland!!

Update

We reached the Pacific yesterday, and will arrive in Portland tomorrow!!  I probably won't write any new posts before the trip ends because I'll be spending my last 2 days hanging out with my awesome team, but don't go away. I still have like 7 days of the ride to blog about, and then I have a few cool posts planned - a reflection, one with team bios and one with a summary of the entire trip. I'll write all of those asap after the trip ends. Stay tuned :)

She Flies With Her Own Wings: Oregon Part 1

The title of this post is Oregon's motto. I thought it was pretty cool and relevant. Having reached Oregon, I'm pretty amazed that I got here by the power of my own body.

Heading out of Baker City, Oregon, we had two "short" days: A 78-mile day followed by a 71-mile day.

Everyone was in really bad shape from the crazy hard ride the day before. We were tired, sore, and we had a lot of joint pains. Personally, my knees were really hurting. So coming off of a very difficult few days and having missed a rest day, we were oh so ready to do two short days in a row! 

The 78-mile ride from Baker City to John Day looked pretty intimidating on paper...

Three mountains?! Holy cannoli!

...but it ended up being one of my favorite rides of the trip! Because Oregon is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!

The weather was just perfect-- low 70s with not a cloud in sight. My ride group that day was Joanna, Meredith, and Porter. Porter was his usual goofy self and was cracking jokes and trying to play tricks on us all day. For example, he kept sneaking up on us and going "pssssssss".... making the sound of a flat tire, trying to freak us out thinking we were getting a flat. Unfortunately he never succeeded and as soon as we heard it we would just turn around and glare at him... but that didn't stop him from continuing to try all day. He also managed to squirt me with windshield wiper fluid from the water van at one of the water stops. So we gave him the nickname Pesky Porter.

Oregon really likes to put up these signs! I like them too because we can see where we're coming from and where we're going :)

I was worried that with my knee pain they would hurt really badly on the climbs, and Meredith was having the same problem. But actually they weren't that bad. They weren't very steep and they were actually really enjoyable because... drum roll please... the entire state of Oregon smells like pine trees!!! Woo!!! This might sound crazy but all of the climbs smelled delicious and I was just in a great mood because it smelled so fresh and outdoorsy. 

Pine treeees!!

Interestingly enough, it was a slightly different smell than the pine smell of Colorado. We think that has to do not only with the type of trees but also with the differences in humidity and altitude! I can't put my finger on exactly how the two pine smells are different but they definitely are. You'll have to go experience them both and let me know what you think :)

Like Colorado, I thought it was pretty sweet that we were crossing a mountain range on our bikes. AND, we had some amazing scenery. Aaaand cue scenery photos.

Casual log cabin 

The descents were really fun, too. In fact, on the last descent I broke my own record by a significant amount and went 44 mph!! I'm really mad at myself for forgetting to take a picture of that on my bike computer, but I promise I did go that fast!

One of the summits

 In the middle of that final descent, we came across the following random gigantic covered wagon on the side of the road.....

Naturally, we stopped and got in it for a picture. 

Me, Pesky Porter, Joanna, Meredith

We got into the host in fantastic moods that day, feeling accomplished after 3 mountains, having a rush from our top speeds on the descent, and super excited to be in beautiful Oregon. Having a mail drop waiting for us only made it better -- I got a bunch of birthday cards! Then our host fed us an awesome dinner that included... drum roll please.. Mediterranean salad with feta cheese and balsamic vinegar! Both luxuries that I don't believe I've had at all since the start of the trip and that made the Italian side of me very happy.

The next day we got to "sleep in," and by that I mean actually sleep past sunrise! We had an awesome breakfast from our host and then got on the road. A bunch of my teammates rode for my mom that day, and again I was so honored by their support.

That day Nitkin and I took off in a group of 2, and it was a nice change to not have to worry about anyone else. I felt like pushing myself that day, so I let Nitkin, a much stronger cyclist than I am, lead the pace and I did my best to keep up. For some parts with headwinds I snuck behind him to draft (hehe, cheating), but I did do a pretty good job keeping up.

In fact, somehow, by mile 40 we were not only in the lead but were so far ahead of the last group that the water van wouldn't be able to catch us the next time around. Our options were slow down or wait in order to close the gap between us and the other groups, or go unsupported for the rest of the day. Unsupported means that you take responsibility for getting your own food and water, and the vans don't need to worry about you. Nitkin and I were feeling good and since we only had 30 miles left to go, we decided to go unsupported. We stocked up on water, stuffed our pockets with snack bars, and set off.

It was a pretty quiet day, considering we didn't see the vans or any other groups for the majority of the ride. We just took in the scenery and it was a nice, calm ride.

The highlight of the ride was Picture Gorge, a part of the John Day Fossil Beds. The gorge is absolutely GORGE-ous!! It was carved by layers of lava and basalt.

Here we saw a sign for Mitchell, our destination of the day, aaand Portland!!

View from one of the gradual climbs of the day

Another highlight of the day was meeting up with some other cross-country cyclists on the road. Most XC cyclists we've met are going the opposite direction, but this group was actually going east to west like us. They were with Adventure Cycling, a much more organized program than the 4K (but recreational and not a charity), and were all over the age of 60! I was super impressed with how well they all were doing. We passed them while riding at a faster speed, but whenever we stopped for a snack or bathroom break they would pass us, so we basically kept leapfrogging all day! Also, some of them were riding tandem bikes, which I think is absolutely crazy to do across the country!! Props to them!

Nitkin chatting it up with one of the Adventure Cycling cyclists

There were a couple of difficult climbs, and right before the end we actually had a horrible 20-mile gradual climb. It was very windy too, and since we had skipped lunch we were losing energy fast. We tried to get a hold of the water van to bring us some food, but neither one of us had cell service, and there was no town coming up before our destination. Our only option was to keep going, so we just tried to cover the distance as quickly as possible. I liked riding with Nitkin because he definitely pushed my pace, but that meant we got there faster!

At the end of the 20-mile climb, we were rewarded by a GLORIOUS 6-mile descent with gorgeous views into a valley.

Brake check area... translation: DOWNHILL AHEAD!

view of the valley on the descent

 With that, we rolled into Mitchell, Oregon!

Basically the entirety of the town of Mitchell

Welcome to the smallest host town of the entire trip! This town was crazy... I'd put money on it being part of a witness protection program. I also give this town 10 years before it's a legitimate ghost town.

Mitchell has a population of about 150. Our team's arrival literally increased their population by 20%. Their K-12 school has a total enrollment of 50 and other than houses the town literally contains a grocery/hardware store, a cafe, a school, and a post office. I couldn't believe how small this town was!!

Nitkin and I got in really early, around 2 pm, but I couldn't have picked a worse day to get in early, since there was nothing to do at the host or in the town. So I took a 2-hour nap. I must've been tired because normally I cannot nap. There was no wifi in the entire town, and no cell service for --no kidding-- 50 miles on either side. See what I mean about the witness protection program?? 

Despite the tiny size of the town, we were still treated with great hospitality. The principal of the school put us up in the gym and fed us both dinner and breakfast. He also took us out to the Painted Hills after dinner, which were absolutely amazing!

Me, Tom and Chelsea goofing with the Painted Hills

Mitchell was a neat experience! Heading out the next day, we were headed to Bend, and were looking forward to two things: cell service and a rest day!!

Hells Canyon and Oregon at Last!

On our last morning in Idaho, we awoke before the sun in Cambridge with a highly anticipated ride ahead of us! We were riding Hells Canyon, which was rumored to be one of the main highlights of the Portland ride.

Sunrise!

Hells Canyon is a 10-mile wide canyon located on the border of western Idaho and eastern Oregon. It is North America's deepest river gorge at nearly 8,000 feet, and was carved by the beautiful, winding Snake River. We were promised gorgeous views... and a challenging ride, with the following difficult elevation profile:

Setting off at sunrise, we hit the first climb right away. A gradual uphill for 16 miles. It was extremely windy and the weather was very strange! The air was cold, but we were alternating hitting pockets of hot air and cool breezes. I mean really hot air! The abrupt and drastic changes in temperature and humidity were enough to freak us out! Coupled with the fact that there was no civilization around and no cars on the roads, we really felt like we were going towards Hell.

After what seemed like forever of slow, steady trudging, we finally reached the top of the first climb, which marked the point where we would descend into the canyon.

We were pretty excited at this point because of this sign:

"Trucks use low gear next 7 miles?" Translation: huge steep 7-mile downhill :)

The downhill was a blast! 7 miles is one of the longest descents we've had on this trip. It felt like it was never going to end. We were losing so much elevation that my ears were popping. It was pretty steep, so we picked up major speed, and it was windy enough to be fun but not so windy that we had to go really slowly.

At the bottom of the descent was the first water stop, where Dan decided to entertain us with a game of Chubby Bunny. He set an extremely impressive record of 11 marshmallows.

Chubby Bunny champion. I was laughing so hard my abs hurt!

The first water stop was at a shop called "Gateway to Hells Canyon," and it certainly was! Just a mile or two after the water stop, we officially entered the canyon. It was pretty obvious when we did. We found ourselves hugging the western side of the canyon on a road several hundred feet above the Snake River.

Huge brown desert-y mountains bordered the river on both sides. On our side was Idaho; on the other side was Oregon!

The road was very windy because it followed the shape of the mountains. It was really fun to ride because it was a gradual downhill (aka easy riding) and had some fun curves. We saw the occasional RV and camper, but for the most part the road was really clear of traffic. Hells Canyon isn't a route that people use to commute or to get from point A to point B on a daily basis.

We had many great views....

At the end of the gradual downhill, we were nearly down to the level of the river: and it was time to cross the river! Helloooo, OREGON!!

Gina and I wanted to do gymnastics on the sign.....this is the best we came up with.

It wasn't time for our second water stop yet, but we stopped anyway to take pictures of course! Everyone was in a great mood because we had finally reached Oregon!!

We all felt a great sense of accomplishment, but also the sad feeling that the trip was almost over. We were entering the final 10 days of our journey!

Casual bighorn sheep crossing 

Maroun and Jared riding in Hells Canyon!

Ironically enough, there was a town called Halfway, located halfway to our destination that day!!

Entering Pacific Time Zone!!!

After riding in the beautiful canyon for 10 miles, the rest of the day was HARD. In fact, I'd go so far to say that it was the hardest day of the entire trip. This was because of sheer mileage and elevation gain. You can't argue with numbers.... in this case, that was 110 miles and just shy of 8,000 ft of elevation gain. 

First, we had to climb back out of the canyon. A steady, slow climb from mile 40 to 57. That's gradual enough to not feel like a climb but to feel like a really annoyingly hard ride...for 17 miles. That was followed by a very steep 3-mile climb, which was really rough. Besides the mountain, we were also hungry, the sun was beating down, and the air was extremely dry. I went through both of my water bottles before getting to the water stop for the first time all trip.

I was so hungry and feeling so weak that I wasn't sure I was going to make it to the top of the mountain. At every turn I thought the end must be in sight, but it never was. None of my teammates were in sight and it was definitely a mental struggle for me. In the end I can't say exactly how I made it up.. I guess I just kept pedaling!!

Luckily food was awaiting us at the top, and after lunch we had another sweet 6-7 mile downhill.

The rest of the day was just as difficult as the part before lunch. The scenery was okay but we had been looking at the same road, the same dry, brown brush all day. And we were not by any means finished climbing for the day.... the last 38 miles were a steady climb of varying steepness. We also started seeing some strong headwinds while going uphill. It. Was. Brutal!

"Hells Canyon Oregon Scenic Byway"

Lots of cows!!

A small river we were bordering for a while

Our motivation was going out the window, lots of complaining was taking place, and the team as a whole was going a little bit crazy. There's usually a point on long rides where people start to lose it, and for this ride it occurred preeeetty early. We just kept pedaling and did our best to keep each other sane and make each other laugh. I was with a good group that day - Joanna, Jared, and Gina, all three of which are always funny! So that was good.

Sun getting lower in the sky! 

When my group finally rolled in to the host, the sun was just sneaking below the horizon and we had been on our bikes for a whopping 14 hours. Ouch.

We were among only 8 riders to make it in that day; everyone else was simply still riding at sunset, and had to get picked up in the van since it is unsafe and against 4K policy to ride in the dark. I was proud that we made it!

In Baker City, Oregon we were greeted by the following sign:

In other words, this water was NOT 4K OK! Several Baker City residents had been to the hospital that day for drinking the contaminated water. So we drank only bottled water, and in an effort to be extra careful I even brushed my teeth with bottled water. The only other time I've had to do that was in Thailand, so it felt like I was in a third-world country!! We were taking bets on who on the team would accidentally drink the water and get sick, but miraculously no one did! Go team! 

That night everyone was so exhausted that we just went to sleep really early. I slept on a table as I like to do whenever I get the chance. 4K problems. 

Hells Canyon was definitely a memorable ride and was the most difficult of the entire trip. With that behind us, we had beautiful Oregon to look forward to!!