Big Ride Updates...

0A.Training: 9 days to go.

73 miles on my first really hot day and everything hurts: my feet, my hands, my left knee, my neck. Nothing feels quite right. The pedals seem to be pushing through the souls of my feet; the handlebar seems too low. And why should I be getting some sort of "itis" in my knee after 6 months of training without problem? It's too late to change now. I've ridden 2293 miles since January and now is not the time to change anything. So, I just kept riding and reminding myself that there is no hurry, no rush. It's not a race. Besides, my excitement keeps welling up through all these little worries. I'm excited that this adventure is about to begin. I'm excited that so many people have donated to the Association: $11,278 and still climbing. I'm excited to be riding for so many generous donors and for the many people I know who have lung problems. In my mind I'll be reciting lists of names when our swarm of "Big Riders" points east out of Seattle and heads up into the Cascade Mountains on the 19th. I'm excited that I (we) will be on some different roads. For 6 months, it's been Manakin, Three Chopt, Shallow Well, Seay, Pinhook, Factory Mill, Taylors Creek, Bienvenue, Millers Lane and all of the "church" roads: Jerusalem Baptist, Hopeful, Octigon, Berea Baptist and Dunn's Chapel.

0B. Training: 8 days to go.

This morning was my last ride in preparation. My knee started hurting within the first 10 miles, so I cut the ride short and headed for home at a very slow pace hoping not to do any real damage. I iced it and took some anti-inflammatory pills. This evening it doesn't hurt, but I can feel a "rub" when I flex my knee. That is not good. No more riding this week. Lots of ice and rest. I'll even take the elevators instead of the stairs at work.

I spent the afternoon getting my bike ready for packing. The instructions made it sound so easy. N,ot so. I quit for the day with all the necessary pieces disassembled or loosened. The problem now is getting it too fit in a box. I really don't have one big enough, so I gave up for today.

1. Sunday June 18, "Big Ride Across America" Orientation.

Well, that's what it's supposed to be, but I am feeling just the opposite. I'm in a college dorm facing east, and from this third floor window I can see across Lake Washington into the Cascade Mountains. Mt. Rainier was visible last night on a beautiful clear evening, but is hidden in the mist today. Riders are gathering from all over the country and excitement is everywhere. "We're not in Kansas anymore Toto". This adventure will be as far removed from my normal Richmond, MCV routine as Oz was from Kansas.

And here is another Kansas connection. This morning I ate breakfast with Rusty Walters, 31 years old, married, nursing home administrator. Rusty is from Oletha, Kansas and began his "Big Ride" preparationsat the last minute, in late April. He and his wife had decided to move and Rusty was leaving his job. His wife challenged him to sign up for the ride while he was "between jobs" and could concentrate of training and fund raising. Rusty was certain that he would be short of the $7000.00 minimum and would have to take at least $2000 out of his own pocket. But when his mother told him that if was going to ride for the Lung Association, she would make another effort to quit her 33 year cigarette habit. Rusty was proud to tell me that he was just $200 short of the minimum last Wednesday when his local paper ran a front page story on the Ride and his efforts, and included the address for additional gifts. Rusty will go over the top for certain.

And, best of all, Rusty's Mom decided to begin her quitting before the Ride started and has been an "ex-smoker" for two weeks now. It's the longest she has been without a cigarette in many years, a great start to a successful "quit".

My son has signed in; we are both, officially registered and our bikes are ready to go. Let me tell you about Nathan. He's 28 and is a "retired" ornithologist. He worked for several years as a sea-bird researcher before deciding on a career change, to medicine. He returned to school, finished the required courses and has been working in a surgical research laboratory and volunteering in an ER for the last year while he waited for the outcome of his medical school application. He will be attending UC Davis in the fall, but first, he has to (gets to?) ride 49 days with his Dad. This will be a novel experience for us. We rode together only one time during our training for this ride, but we have been e-mailing and phoning regularly sharing our excitement and anxiety. Now let the adventure begin.

2. Seattle to Skykomish , WA 6/19 Mile 64

Total 64 Two hundred and one riders gathered at 6:30 am to initiate the "American Lung Association 2000 Big Ride Across America". This is the BIG RIDE, a ride across the country, our country, across the continent. Flying, it takes about a half day to make the crossing. In a car it's about a week. And by bike it's 7 weeks if a rider is willing to pedal for a major portion of six days out of every seven as we will. Our average will be 80 miles a day. That should be about 6 hours of pedaling. That is a long time to keep up any activity. If you are not familiar with cycling distances, here is a comparison with running. The cyclists "marathon" is 100 miles; each day we will complete eight tenths of a "marathon", like running 20 miles every day. This is a long ride: 3250 miles measuring by distance and seven weeks by time.

Our ride today took us out of Seattle's streets and onto a bike path winding along the shore of Lake Washington and northeast. By about 20 miles we were back on state highways with wide shoulders (most of the time) and beginning the climb and coast routine of riding in foothills. None of these climbs were very long. At about 40 miles we reached the small town of "Startup" which was NOT named for its place in technology; it was named for its geography. It's the place where the road "starts up" into the Cascades. We passed "The Reptile Man", the "home of Bigfoot" (a small shop where "Harry and the Hendersons" was shot), "Ou-La-Latte" (we did not stop) and a salmon fish farm. By the time we reached Skykomish at about 3:00 pm, we had climbed about 3200 ft, and lost 2200. And tomorrow we will climb enough to clear our first "pass" at about 4300 ft.

There is another parent-child rider team on the ride, Janet and Carol from New Jersey. Janet will be a high school senior in the fall. While Carol has been riding longer and participating in "fund raising" rides for years, it was Janet who suggested "something big" for the summer. Carol researched several rides, but Janet kept insisting on something "bigger". Eventually Carol came across the "Big Ride" and determined that the organization and the cause were worthy, and Janet decided that "across the country" was big enough. They are two of the reasons that current donations to the ride now exceed $2,000,000 !!!!

3. Skykomish to Cashmere, WA 6/20 Mile 69.2 Total 133.2

Here are some other Web sites to look up to get other views of Big Ride: www.foxsports.com and look down toward the bottom of the page (so I'm told) www.radioshack.com where you can find our exact location on avery detailed map or at least the location of the sweep vehicle that brings up the rear. www.gorp.com for another report on the ride, but get to it through the bigride site and click on the "2000 Riders" box. It's easier than finding it on the Gorp site.

And don't forget www.bigride.com.

After a night in Skykomish I can tell you that the name must be in a native word that means "trains should sound their horns here". We heard six trains all together and each one delivered a long blast. It wasn't as bad as it sounds because I was tired enough to drop off quickly after each one.

Today it was up and over America's youngest mountains, the Cascades. At about 79 million years, they still show their volcanic origins in the shapes of the mountains and their water worn valleys. We rode out of Skykomish in cold air wearing several layers, but within 45 minutes as our gearing went lower and lower, we began to shed layers. We climbed 1500 ft over the first 12 miles and then began a 4 mile climb up another 1600 ft through pine forests and eventually past snow fields. It was slow going all the way to the top at which point we replaced all those layers to begin our descent. I've been asked "How fast do you ride?" Today, the answer was somewhere between 4.2 and 42 depending on which side of Stevens Pass we were on.

Jim Hosp is 63 and a retired surveyor and construction worker/manager. He has been a rider for a long time, but decided to join this ride because he always wanted to ride across the country (like me) and because he thinks "the air is worth protecting". He worries that provate citizens don't have enough voice in public decisions like air quality and wants an non-profit organization (the ALA)to act as an advocate and watchdog. Nathan was introduced to Jim through the Santa Barbara Lung Association. Soon they were sharing training and fund raising tips and several training rides. Now here he is Jim leading us down the hills, and straight to the ice cream shop.

4. Cashmere to Grand Coulee WA 6/21 Miles 103.2 Total 236.4

We completed our run down the western slopes of the Cascades and bottomed out at the Columbia River at Wenatchee. We crossed to the east side and rode north along that broad river (about three times wider than the James at the "Nickel Bridge"). The flood plain on both sides of the river was verdant with orchards of apple and cherries and we enjoyed the taste of big red, cherries fresh from the trees at a small road-side stand. Beyond the orchards were bluffs rising 1500 ft and more and they were dry and forbidding looking. This part of Washington is in the Cascade "rain shadow" and although there is lots of water flowing by in the Columbia, little falls here. At about 10 miles we turnedwasnland, and up, out of the river basin. The grade is about 6-7% (so said Jim Hosp and it was later confirmed by the sign at the top announcing the grade to trucks heading down the other way). It doesn't sound like much even as I write this. There are steeper sections on Patterson, but there are none that are so long. Within the first half mile, each of the riders found a gear setting that could be sustained (mine was my absolute lowest). The terrain quickly became a dry western brown and still we climbed. The flora changed to scrub bushes and tough pines, and still we climbed. The sides of the dry wash canyon became steeper and narrower and the climb went on. The sun rose high enough in the sky to scorch us and no breeze touched us, and higher (and slower) we pedaled. The sky narrowed to a small "v" in front of us. Ten miles at about 4-5 mph and all of this at the start of a "century" day; my spirits were as dry as the landscape. I planned to stop at the crest to point my camera back toward the canyon and memorialize this twisty narrow canyon climb, but it never happened. Over the course of about 200 yards, the road turned, flattened to just a slight up-grade, the wind grabbed me as I cleared the rim and my speed jumped to 17 and then 24, and in one brief flash, the canyon walls melted away opening the sky to a 360 degree panorama and the horizon line leaped forward about 50 miles. Bright blue sky all around and lush green wheat fields stretching to the horizon. Fantastic! What a feeling! My soul was soaring and my spirit rejoicing as I "raced" into Waterville exceeding the speed limit of 35 for our first "rest stop".

A good tail wind is a wonderful thing. I rode the rest of the century riding with that wind like the dandelion seeds that raced with us. The road was smooth for long stretches and very broad. Traffic was light. The only sounds were the slight "rush" of the tires over the balcktop, and a whistle of wind punctuated by the cries of meadowlarks from the wires overhead and the occasional Doppler effect automotive noises. Toward the end of the ride, we rode in a "coulee", a broad canyon with steep side walls. I'm told this one and others like it are the product of erosion by the Columbia and its tributaries, some temporarily dry at this time of year and others dry after the river changed its course thousand of years ago. Ours eventually led us to the Columbia in the "Grand Coulee" and its dam which created Lake Roosevelt.

Our home for the night was a very comfortable high school football field as these pictures of Nathan before and during a good nights sleep.

5. Grand Coulee to Spokane, WA 6/22 Miles 89.9 Total 326.3

"…..and the skies are not cloudy all day.." Today was another glorious day on the range, but the sky was only half of the story. For mile after mile we rode across rolling swells that seemed like waves made solid. The wheat and barley fields are a rich, bright green flowing up to the horizon where the cloudless blue takes over. It's as if the world had been divided into two colors with a junction at the horizon that shifted and rolled as we flowed by on our two wheels. The texture of the green "waves" shifted with the wind like the iridescent sheen of silk or a hummingbird's crop. Waves of wind marched through the millions of bearded spikes of wheat, making an "s" sound. And soaring, wheeling over this "ocean" were swallows and swifts as if they were imitating sea gulls over water. And the sky was truly, not cloudy, all day. (photo: big rider in a blue/green world; the crest of a "wave" before Wilbur, Washington)

Occasionally, we rode through glacial rock deposits. These ancient patches looked as if someone had dumped loads of dark gravel in random clumps across the landscape. Wildflowers and thistle, and sagebrush filled the spaces between these rocky outcrops. Daisies, black-eyed susans, bachelor buttons, western dandelions with seed heads as big as tennis balls and a variety of purple and pink flowers I don't know accented patches of brown, green and red grasses making a Monet-like canvas of subtle color stretching for miles to the horizon. And then, suddenly we were out of the glacial debris and back to a bi-colored world.

Craig Bright is 48 and works for an internet support company in silicon valley. It doesn't take long to know that Craig is on the "sales" side of the business. He is a great talker. He heard about the ride in late March and signed up in early April and obtained his $7000 fund raising goal by June 1. Those sales skills made a task that most of found difficult, "very easy" for Craig. "It's just like the work I do for the "Red Cross". Craig is on this ride in honor of his brother who has lung cancer and in memory of his mother who died from the disease, facts which almost left him without words.

6. Spokane, WA 6/23

7. Spokane to Sandpoint, ID 6/24 Miles 79 Total 405.3

Bob delights in telling us that his wife was not supportive of his riding. She told him "make sure the ride leaders know that if you are hit by a car, that they should bury you on the spot, and with your bike". At 66, Bob and Jim Hosp have constituted the beginnings of "the old farts" riding team. I'm too young to be a member, but they occasionally let me ride with them.

We continued on US Route 2 out of Spokane north and then east, into Idaho and Sandpoint, population 5208. The town sits on the north shore of Lake Pend Orielle, the most beautiful lake I never heard of. Lots of other people have heard about it and most of them are in town for the summer. Green pine and fir forests rim the lake climbing hills that rise 600 to a thousand feet above the lake. What a wonderful place for summer boating and fishing.

At the end of the ride, when we pull into our new "home" at the local football field, city park, or fairgrounds; we check-in to assure the ride leaders that we are accounted for, then park the bike. The "luggage truck" is parked close by, an 18-wheeler with shelves built into both side and space assigned to each rider for gear. My space is on the top row about half way back and I usually need to climb the other shelves to get my gear. Next find an open space on the field and set up the tent in tent city, a ten minute process with lots of stooping and bending. Then it's on to the showers. Yes, real hot water showers --- in a truck. One side for boys and one for girls. Sinks are outside for shaving and other needs. Next, is dinner. We have had catered meals (from the same company that supplies the shower trucks and services to forest fire fighters), or some towns have provided meals through school groups or fraternal organizations. Tonight we eat with the Eagles, Airie # 3808, as soon as this thunder shower passes through.

8. Sandpoint ID to Thompson Falls, MT 6/25 Miles 87.6 Total 492.9

Idaho state route 200 heads south along the banks of Lake Pend Orielle. The views of the lake and surrounding marsh-lands were spectacular. I saw a moose, numerous Osprey nesting and fishing, a coyote, and lots of warblers and cedar waxwings feasting on huckleberries (I don't know what huckleberries are, but the signs proclaim that we are in the huckleberry capital of the world, and we have seen advertisements for huckleberry ice cream, milkshakes, shortcake and muffins). When the lake ended we followed the course of Clark's Fork River south into Montana. One the map it all looks very flat, following the banks of lake and river, but the road rose and fell as it climbed over the skirts of the mountains ringing the lake. Up and down, rise and fall, pedal and coast, up and down, but mostly up, up river, up higher into the mountains. We passed a forest with a floor thick with ferns and meadows dusted with daises, as if snow had fallen overnight in selected sunny pastures. The air was cool and dry, the sun warm, and the wind right in our face. It was not strong but it was enough to slow us down and make the climbing more difficult. I met Nathan at the Montana state line for the second of our state line pictures. We had to wait in line for our turn, it was a photo-op for everyone. We rode most of the day together, with Nathan in the lead "pulling" me along, playing catch-up. Tonight I am weary; my muscles have no power. Tomorrow is 102 miles farther up into the mountains.

Anxiety is rising along with the altitude. More and more the question are about how much climbing we will do and when will we cross the Rockies and the Continental divide. (It's not tomorrow, but you can look it up on your map.)

Here are two of our riding companions, Amber and Shannon, both students at Chico State University in California who are sharing a last summer adventure. Shannon is getting married in the fall; her boyfriend proposed just one week before the Big Ride started. Together, and they always are, they are "Team Chico".

--- Paul Fairman, Big Rider #2152.
< pfairman@earthlink.net>

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