WA to MT Day 1
Today we biked 79 miles from Snohomish WA (a bit northeast of Seattle) to Marblemount (substantially farther northeast of Seattle). The ride was quite flat with only about 1700' of climbing which was good given that the temperatures were above 90.
For me, today actually started last night as it was just before 1:00 am pacific time by the time I headed to bed. Due to some weather delays, my flight was a bit late. It was about 11:45 pm yesterday when I arrived at my room in Seattle, and it took about another hour to get my bike unpacked and set up. This involves putting on the pedals, the seat, the handle bars, the derailleur, the wheels, the top tube bag and the saddle bag. As I headed to bed, I took this photo out of my window.
After 5 hours of sleep, I was up at 6am to be ready to leave at 7:30. This was my first chance to meet Aileen from Scotland, Bud from Asheville, Bill from Tampa, and Bruce from near Chicago. Bud, Bill, and Bruce all know each other and have now been dubbed the Killer Bees. We all piled into the van with our things, then drove out to Snohomish. I am the only rider who brought my own bike, so the other riders spent time with our guides Kevin and Brad putting on pedals, and adjusting the fit of the bikes provided by Bicycle Adventures. the tour operator.
By about 10:00 am, we were finally ready to roll. About the first third of the ride was on the Centennial Bike Trail. The pace of each of us was similar enough that we spent much of the day traveling as a single group. Here is a photo of us on the bike trail.
As the day progressed and we made our way farther north and in particular east, we began seeing the Cascade mountains in the distance.
Here we are on the road looking towards the mountain range we cross tomorrow.
Along the way, we crossed over a number of scenic rivers.
As we closed towards the end of today's ride, we passed this meadow with cows grazing.
When we arrived in Marblemount, the first order of business was drinks and nachos. Here are my 7 compatriots for this journey: Ruth, Aileen, Bud, Bruce, Bill, Doug, and Jesse. Many who know me well know that I struggle tremendously with names and faces. As such, these is definitely a chance that I have mixed up Bruce and Bill. Because I have no ability to visualize images in my mind, even if I have their names correct tonight, I may struggle to match names and faces tomorrow. Fortunately, with only 4 rider and 2 guide names and faces to learn, I should be good fairly soon.
Tomorrow, we bike over the Cascade Mountains. The good news is that the ride is actually 5 miles shorter than today and the temperatures should be significantly cooler. The bad news is that we have about 7400' of climbing.
Just as a reminder, if you want to see where I am and the route we have taken, you can see that live at https://share.garmin.com/kensbiking. Also, if you want to receive an email with blog posts when they are published, subscribe above.
It is late, so I am off to bed.