There are no organized rides that I have done as often as the 7 Hills of Kirkland. I started doing it in the early years, when there were only 7 hills, in the middle years, when 4 additional hills were found, and more recently, when a final 3 hills were located, giving a 40 mile option with 7 hills and about 3000’ of climbing, a 59 mile “metric century” option with 11 hills and 4600’ of climbing, and a full century with 14 hills and 7000’ of climbing.

It is well-organized, has good food stops, and strawberry shortcake at the end. And, if you like hills, you will like this ride, where even the short version has some very steep pitches (Winery hill hits 18% or so on one pitch). It has one flaw, however.

It is held on memorial day, and late May in Seattle is not a reliable source of good weather. 3 days before the ride, it looked like there would be a window of nice weather on Memorial day, but it shrunk and moved.

I got up at 5AM so that I could be sure to start by 7AM; the weather forecast was rain by 10AM. I got there, parked, and got my wristband. I rolled out by myself at 6:23 AM; I don’t ride hilly rides with friends because the majority of them are mutants and I’m tired of having my legs ripped off by them.

One of the problems with starting right at the beginning of a ride is that you have little chance to pass anybody; those who start behind you who are faster will catch you and go by, and everybody else is already behind you. Market, Juanita, and Seminary are quickly dispatched, and on the section before the next, I pick up a companion. We chat as we ride up Norway and head over towards hill number 5, but my light Karma catches up to me and I lose him up the hill. I had planned to skip the food stop the first time, which was a good idea because they aren’t quite set up yet.  I head up towards hill #6, Seminary. On the descent down Boneyard (also a nice climb), it starts to spit, which is not unexpected.

Seminary is the steepest hill on the whole ride (18% or so)m, but the pitches are pretty short, so it’s not that bad. Head back to the food stop to use the facilities, refill my water bottles, and head out. It is spitting a bit more seriously now, and I gingerly pick my way down the steep descent to Willows. Last year a rider in front of me crashed on this descent, so I’m extra careful. I head south, and then turn off on 116th towards the east.

I had signed up for the full century, but my legs only feel average and I’m not excited about the rain; the century route takes you out in the Snoqualmie valley and up behind Duvall, and when the clouds get there, they tend to drop their moisture.

Anyway, at the end of 116th there’s a short but steep climb. I stand up to get some extra power, and my rear wheel starts spinning up. I make it to the top, and start heading up the Education hill climb. This section ends with a descent down 104th to Avondale. It’s a 18% gradient, and it ends right at a stoplight. I’m not excited about in the dry, much less the wet, so I take an alternate route; I head north until I hit 116th, and take that descent; a much nicer way down. A quick trip south, and I head east to climb up Novelty Hill. I said earlier that Seminary is the steepest climb, but I have a special place in my heart for Novelty. I’m not sure why, it just seems like a slog to me. Just after the roundabout I picked up another rider, and we together made the decision to only ride the metric. A quick trip on Union Hill Road (not an actual hill), back down Novelty (passing lots of soggy riders climbing up) then up old Redmond road, then back up 116th to the second food stop.

Where we were greeted with cheers – we were the first cyclists into the food stop, and the volunteers were happy to see us. We spent about 5 minutes; I had a ham wrap and a couple of salted new potatoes.

Then, all that was left was a trip up Old Redmond Road, a descent down, and a quick run along Lake Wa Blvd. Then chocolate milk from Smith Brothers  (my favorite), and multi-berry shortcake (not just strawberry!). Picked up my Jersey, changed clothes (I was pretty damp, except for my feet, which were soaking despite my booties), and then a trip to Qdoba for lunch.

Stats:

60.2 miles
4462’ of elevation gain
14.5 MPH
2389 kJ

Strava ride

9 steps, turn. 9 steps, turn. 39.

9 steps, turn. 9 steps, turn. 40.

40/69 is pretty close to 40/70, or 4/7, and since 1/7 is about 14%, that means I’m a little over half done. My legs are burning. It seemed like a good idea at the time…

That’s not really true. It – where “it” is climbing up Seattle’s tallest building – had seemed like a moderately stupid thing to do.. That was why I signed up. Everybody should do something in their life that is, to the general population, more than a little stupid.

I’ve done a bunch of these on my bicycle, but given the limited amount of time I have to train and my constitutional laziness, I’ve pretty much maxed out what I can do there with moving into “really stupid”.

This event, however, seemed like the right amount of something different. Climbing up stairs is a little like climbing a hill on a bike, especially if you stand up on the bike. I regularly double-step run up the stairways I encounter during the day, and last summer when we did a cave tour in Idaho, I did 400-some stairs, all doubled. Seems like I could do 1311 stairs at once, and 788’ of vertical doesn’t seem like a lot; I’ve done 10x that in one day on the bike.

That sort of overconfidence is part of what makes it stupid, as is overlooking the fact that I won’t be in good shape in April. So, I signed up, joining a team organized by somebody who works at my company.

I’m cranky. This was expected; in virtually every event I do, I get 75% done, and I get cranky. My pace is designed  – to the extent that I could plan for an event I’d never done – to make the effort not be too sucky, but a) it’s hard enough to pick a good pace when you don’t understand what the event will be like, and 2) hard efforts always hurt. My legs are getting shaky and I am no longer doing doubles. The numbers keep (slowly) counting up, and I start to feel a bit better. I pass a few people – there’s nothing like the suffering of others to make you feel better – and finally, I am on the last flight. Just a few more stairs, and…

“Honey?”

“What?”

“I’m going out to run some errands.What do you want for lunch?”

“Whatever. If you can wait for me to finish, I’ll go with you.”

“What are you writing?”

“I’m pre-writing my report for the Big Climb. It’s easier if you have a script”

“Cool. When is that, again?”

“Three weeks from Saturday”

“Hmm. Aren’t you going to find it hard to climb 69 flights of stairs while at the same time skiing in Montana?”

Crap. I signed up for the climb in the fall and forgot about it when setting up our ski trip.

Now, one could argue that signing up for an event and then scheduling another activity 500 miles away on the same day is a wonderful example of “stupid”, and I would not be one to disagree, but it wasn’t the kind of stupid that I was looking for. That kind of stupid I did every day. Friends had sponsored me for the climb, and, while it was for a good cause, I knew that if I pressed them, they would admit that their real goal was to see me suffer. And I felt obliged to satisfy them. But this was our first ski vacation in 7 years, and it wasn’t really feasible to move it around.

I couldn’t be in two places at once, but perhaps I could suffer in some equivalent way…

Stupid Big Climb

It’s April 14th. The weather looks kindof sunny at 7AM; it may rain, but it probably won’t be much, unless there are thunderstorms, in which case we’ll probably get hail like yesterday. And it’s 37 degrees. Welcome to springtime in Washington.

I had hoped to get by with arm and leg warmers, but it’s too cold for that. I don a long-sleeved base layer, jersey, winter jacket on top, shorts and winter pants on the bottom, and feet with neopreme booties on my feet. I carry some lighter clothes in case it warms up, a light shell in case it rains, bottles of accelerade mix and Nuun, and a baggie of triscuits. Given my current weight, I’m guess Eric + bike = 210 pounds or so.  I head out of the house around 8AM.

Prologue

3.5 miles

The prologue takes me to the beginning of the event; it’s a time to stretch my legs a bit and try to get warmed up. I’m not as cold as I expected to be, but on the downhill, my face tells me that, yes, it is in the 30s. I’m feeling okay. My legs are a big sluggish after hard rides on Tuesday and Thursday.

I turn on my nano, and hear the following:

My baby took our love
And then she rolled it up
Rolled it up a hill
Like a ball of snow
Like a snowball grows
Until it gets too big
Until she lost control

And it rolled back down
And it rolled back down
And it rolled back down
And it rolled back down

She took a tiny bit
And rolled it up again
Slower than before
She went a step too far
She had to let it go
I saw it go straight down
My baby turned around

Started up again
Started up again
Started up again
Started up again

which seemed like a perfectly descriptive description of what was to come. Except for the snow and losing control part.

Marymoor Westside

76 steps, 95’

There is, AFAIK, no official name for these stairs, but they are on the west side of Marymoor and near a park named “West side park”, so I’ve chosen an obvious name.

There is space to roll your bike next to you while you climb, so that’s what I decide to do. The stairs are made our of wood, and the sections between them are also sloped, so you’re both walking up hill and climbing steps at the same time. There are, however, only 76 of them, so they go by pretty quickly. I top out, and get back on the bike.

Portage #1

3.0 Miles

I am now on the first Portage (rhymes with “triage”) section of the event. After a somewhat painful climb out of the neighborhood, I wind my way into Redmond and take Willows road to the North. I have a bit of hydration on the way there.

Willow-Rose Hill

114 steps, 62’

Another small set of stairs, this are hidden up just south of where the Pro Sports Club Willows location is. They are made out of steel, and are a bit hard to climb with my cleats (SPD-SLs, if you wish to keep track) because the stairs have the metal on edge. I put my bike on my right shoulder, and climb on up. I try to do doubles (two stairs at once) but end up running out of breath, so I slow down to singles.

Portage #2

3.8 Miles

Another steep climb out of the neighborhood, and a bit of tootling around puts me on 132nd, heading north. I work my way west, under 405, and towards the next climb.

Forbes Creek

210 steps, 132’

Our next climb is a set of wood stairs that look nice from the bottom. Looks, however, are deceiving; they aren’t terribly regular, sometimes tilt left or right, and sometimes have puddles in the middle of the flat parts. I pass a couple coming down with a dog on these. I carry my bike on my left shoulder this time.

Portage #3

1.7 Miles

Happily, not a steep climb at the end, but some flat and then a nice gradual descent, and a quick section, which takes us to…

Forbes Creek

210 steps, 132’

Yes, up the same set of stairs again. Apparently, the organizers needed a bit of additional elevation, and these were the easiest to do twice. The climb is just like the last time; I get out of breath, the puddles are still there, and I meet a couple coming down with their dog. I think that it is a different couple, but I’m not sure.  I carry my bike on my right shoulder. I have a short piece of foam pipe insulation on the top tube, and that is helping protect my shoulder.

Portage #4

11 Miles

By far the longest one of the day, this takes me from the top of Market hill in Kirkland all the way to the Mercer Island business district. This involved a couple of actual hills, which I haven’t been riding up today so far. My legs feel okay, but I’m a bit tired, so I have some more triscuits and nutrition drink along the way. I’d always wondered why the Mercer Island business area is so concentrated in one part, and when I rode through it today I realize that it’s down in a bit of a hollow, doesn’t have any views, and therefore the land was cheap compared to the areas with views.

Mercerdale

315 stairs, 232’

There are a bunch of different stairs here; this section has the most elevation gain.

They look so nice when you approach them, with a nice grassy lawn and nice guardrails. Don’t get complacent; not only is this the biggest climb of the event, it has the most challenging stairs. It is really hard to get into a rhythm on these stairs; they will have 4 stairs, then a flat spot, then 2 stairs, a flat spot, etc. Sometimes the rise is 7”, sometimes the dirt has washed out a bit and it’s 10”. I have one incident where I whack my toe on an extra-high stair and almost manage to trip. There’s no real way to double these, so I just walk them up. Inexplicably, there is typically one guardrail on the end of the step, and the other is about 3/4 of the way towards the other end.

Portage #5

7.7 Miles

The weather has finally warmed up, all the way into the mid 40s, and I’m hot and sweaty. If I was smart, I would have done this at the bottom of the climb, but I wasn’t, so I stop to switch from fleece hat to headband and from full gloves to lightweight ones. The official route here follows the I-90 trail back to the east, but I recommend using the traditional north island bike route instead of the main route. I had one close call on this section; as I’m approach a sport where people are waiting for the bus (and riding on the sidewalk because that’s where the trail is here), a guy walk out towards the curb looking down at his briefcase.

Back over the bridge to the mainland, and then a quick few miles to the start of the last climb. Note that the indicated route has some gravel path to ride on; I felt okay on my 700x25mm tires, but thinner ones might be a handfull.

Kelsey Creek

163 steps, 142’

Not only are these the last stairs, they are the best ones of the day. They are made of wood, but with a very consistent spacing and small landings when they need one. They can easily be doubled if you have the legs for that. I walk up the last flight, take a small path up to the street, and I’m done.

Epilogue

4.3 miles

The epilogue takes us back to our starting point. It start with a nice steep 12% climb, and then brings us back to 140th in Bellevue, and from there, it’s a familiar route to finish.  I have a bottle of Endurox, take a shower, and head to Qdoba for lunch.

I’m pretty happy overall. I felt strong most of the way, though I did go anaerobic on every one of the climbs and had to slow down a bit. I did this on a lark, but I might choose to do it again.

Here are some stats:

Vertical: 795’
Portage vertical: 2038’
Total Distance: 35.9 miles
Maximum Gradient: 102%
Garmin calories: 2406 
Portage kJ: 1266
Moving time: 2:49
Total time: 3:15

Map

(click to go the Strava ride description)

As I lay face down on the massage table, listening to the calming sounds of distant ocean surf and trying not to whimper, I indulged in a bit of musing. A massage is much like a long hilly bike ride; I pay money for a massage and suffer through the pain knowing at the other end, my muscles will be loose and I will feel better. Similarly, I pay money to go on long organized rides and suffer on the hills so that I can… well, I didn’t get any farther than that, but I’m sure there’s some reward at the end.

I also considered a dilemma that one might at some point face . Let’s say that – hypothetically of course – that you knew of a ride that was a better version of RSVP. A nicer route. A better destination. Limited to 50 people. Would you tell people about it? Or would you want to jealously hoard it, so that it wouldn’t attract too many people in the future? While you ponder that question, let me tell you about a ride I went on recently…

The ride started Friday morning at Magnuson park, near where Cascade has their offices. The spouse and I arrived at the start at 6:15, and I then needed to decide what to wear. There are two different schools of thought in this area – the Coats and the Pockets.

The Coats really don’t want to be cold; they therefore wear whatever it takes to be warm, even if it means they have to carry a coat or vest far longer than they would like. The Pockets, on the other hand, don’t want to wear anything that won’t fit into their jersey pockets, so that when the day warms, they can be unencumbered. Whether you are a Coat or Pocket is not fixed; it depends on a complex interplay between temperature, expected effort, and available jersey pocket volume. I run a few probable scenarios through my head, decide that today I’m a Pocket, and settle on arm warmers, leg warmers, toe warmers (my shoes have vents), and a extra-thin vest on top.

That would have been perfect *if* I had only worn something over the top while I was waiting for the ride to start – an unaccustomed luxury due to my wife hanging around until a few minutes before the start. As it was, I was chilly as we rolled out, and it took half an hour to get comfortable.

The first section is quite boring, so while it passes, let’s talk about my pre-ride preparation. For this trip, the items I take are divided into three different groups:

• Things that I will need the first day while riding.
• Things I will need that night and for the second day (goes in my backpack)
• Things I will need after I arrive at the destination (goes in the suitcase the wife is taking).

I do my best Santa impression, and hope that I’ve remembered everything and it all ends up in the right place.

My training is best described as “suspect”. I’ve done a lot of rides this year, but I’ve only touched the far side of 50 miles once – and just barely at that – so the 100+ mile first day has me a bit apprehensive. I *have* been working on getting stronger, and I’m hoping my new nutrition approach will work out.

In my jersey pockets, I have the following:

• 8 oz or so of beef jerky.
• 16 Triscuit-brand crackers.
• 3 packages of my accelerade-based drink mix (1/1 dilution with maltodextrin + added salt).
• 1 tube of Nuun, strawberry-lemonade.
• 1 US Passport.
• 1 small tube of sunscreen

Interesting yet? No, still boring…

On the bike, there is:

• My GPS (Garmin 705), pre-loaded with the routes for both days.
• My windows phone, also loaded with routes for both days.
• A set of route directions, also for both days. Not really – I put the second day’s directions in my backpack to save weight.
• Salt tablets and ibuprofen in a TicTac container in my bento box (this lives on my bike all the time).
• Wallet + tools + tube & inflator in my tail wedge.
• One bottle of Nuun, one bottle of my drink mix.

Leaving the Woodinville park, I’m in the front, so I lead the group through Woodinville. There are 9 of us, only two of which I know. W rides on the Tue/Thu night rides that I lead occasionally, and D used to lead that ride in years past. We spin through Woodinville, and I lead the group up the first hill. It’s a not a particularly steep climb, but it steep enough I’m usually well in the middle of the pack, with climbers up ahead. I climb steadily, roll through the turn, and finish the climb. At the front.

WTF?

In the group that I ride in, there are two kinds of hills on which I can compete. The first is gentle 2-3% hills, where my 6’2” 175 pound frame (sometimes I call myself “Hincapie-sized”) puts me at less of a disadvantage. The second is short hills, where I can stand up and generally overpower the rest of the group. On the longer ones, I’m never at the front. Since I’m at the front on this one, either everybody in the group is seriously sandbagging it, or I’m one of the stronger riders in the group.

We head north on the traditional route; up to Paradise Lake road, across 522, and then north into the Snohomish valley. The day can only be described as glorious. I end up riding with D and L, and we are a pretty good group, and roll into our stop at the bathrooms on 1st street in Snohomish (26 miles). There we are met by our SAG car driver. The rest of the riders roll in, everybody takes a quick nature break, and I hop into a coffee shop and buy a thick slice of banana bread.

This ride is officially an unsupported ride – it will not features the big food stops that you find on the big rides. For the money I paid – and it was not particularly cheap – I get the following:

• A truck to carry my bag to the hotel at the end of the ride.
• SAG support (though I’m expected to be able to fix most things on my own).
• A bus and truck ride back to the start Sunday morning, which I won’t use as the spouse is driving up.

Other than that, you are expected to be able to forage along the way.

From Snohomish, we hop on the Centennial trail. We will be on this for the next 22 miles. It’s pretty simple riding, on an old railroad bed. We do climb 300’ along the way, but like most railways, the climb is very gradual. After the trail ends, we ride on sidewalks into Arlington, without incident, except at one railway crossing that is at a severe angle to the trail. We follow the signs and dismount to go over, and I am just getting back on my bike when I hear a crash, and turn around to see D lying down with her bike on top of her. I’m really not sure how she managed to crash while off her bike, but she is okay and we roll into Arlington, stopping at the Haggens market for lunch. I get a panini, a bag of chips, and a coke zero. Actually, I only get half of a panini – they are huge (perhaps 40 sq in) and I know that my stomach would not be happy if I eat that much. Our support drivers are there, and we all enjoy lunch sitting at tables in the sun. This is a lot nicer food than is featured at the average food stop, and I’m happy to pay for it.

So far, the ride has been pretty easy. Having done this route before, it’s exactly what I expected (though a bit slower than expected). If we were doing the RSVP route, we would head north to Mount Vernon and then head west. On this ride, we’re going to head west immediately into Stanwood before turning north for a run along the coast. After a few miles I find myself back at the front of the group, and pull for about 20 miles into a bit of a headwind. I don’t have any speed goals, and we decide to keep the group together because nobody wants to ride into the wind by themselves.

I stay at the front for such a long time time for a number of reasons. I’m comfortable doing it, I have the power in my legs to do it, and it hurts less.

That last one probably requires a bit of an explanation.

I do not have a great relationship with my bike seat. It is better than the other ones that I have tried, and on the kind of rides that I usually do, it’s fine. When I climb up hills, I am putting a fair bit of pressure on the pedals, which significantly reduces the amount of weight on the seat. Descents are fast, so I’m not sitting down for much of them, and on the flats, I’m generally in the 17-19 MPH range, which also takes a bit of weight off. On this ride, I’m going slowly and I don’t have any hills. I’m standing up every few minutes and changing positions, but it only helps a little. It’s making my traditional neck issues flare up as well, so it’s not the most comfortable riding I’ve ever done.

And so, I stay on the front, where that little extra effort makes it more bearable. We are winding through bucolic farmland with a wooded ridge on the right. It is wonderful, except for the periodic olfactory assault that wafts from the dairies along the way. The road is named “Old Pioneer Highway”, which makes little sense. I’m pretty sure that none of the Pioneers built highways. What would they drive on them?

We ride out of the shelter of the ridge, and the famous Skagit Valley headwind joins the party. We are now heading mostly north into at least a 5 MPH headwind; I’m working pretty hard just to keep us at 16 MPH, and even that is too much for the group, so we slow down to about 15MPH. I’m starting to feel pretty tired, and on the theory that I’m dehydrated and down on food, I drink the rest of my nuun and empty my pockets; finishing off all of my Triscuits, the rest of the banana bread, and about half of the beef jerky. This less-fun section takes us through Conway and, on the exit, we stop at snow goose produce, for ice cream. Well, I don’t have any ice cream – I settle for some ice-cold water to replenish my bottles – as lactose and exercise are not good companions in my stomach. Some of the others got “immodest” ice cream cones, which – and I assure you I am not exaggerating – hold at least a pint of ice cream.

Ice Cream Stop. Left to right – Suzy, Captain John, Skippy the wonder squirrel, your author, Sir Arthur Fuzzybottom III.

At this point, our plan is to head west and ride on roads right next to the water, but the wind has slowed us down considerably and we need to make up a little time, so our host and part-time SAG driver G makes an executive decision to just ride north. This will cut a few miles off the route, but limit how much time we spend in the headwind. There is much rejoicing. Right before we head out,  I take a salt tablet and a couple of ibuprofen. We do the slowest paceline rotation I’ve ever been on (I don’t know – 14.5 MPH or so), nobody is having any fun at all, and the miles slowly pass. We finally hit the start of Chuckanut drive, with 92 miles on the clock.

There are some nice roads in the Puget Sound area, but few roads are as picturesque as Chuckanut drive is; it’s really the highlight of the whole trip. It alternately climbs and descends right along the edge of Puget Sound, and you get incredible views of the sound as the road winds through the forest. It’s pretty good in a car, but nothing comes close to riding it on a bicycle.  I’ve been feeling much better on the last few miles, so I’m on the front, when the group breaks as G. flats. He sends word forwards to go ahead and not wait for him, so we head towards the start of the climby bit. I’ve picked up the pace a bit; since I’m feeling better, I’m curious what I have in my legs. D and I are riding together, and we hit the first climb, which is about 125’ but not very steep. I ride fairly hard, D drops back a little, but catches up at the top.

I put a little more power in on the next hill. My legs feel fabulous. I go much harder on the next hill, and it’s clear that I have a lot left, so I go very hard up the hills and recover on the descents, and before I know it, I’ve traversed the 10 miles and 7 hills, and am waiting at the park at the exit. I pull off, have a bit of cookie that I picked up at a quick stop in Conway, and the SAG wagon pulls up. I tell them I’m going to wait for D to show up, and they drive off. She shows up a few minutes later, and we ride through Bellingham to the hotel.

After I check in and shower, I head out to meet the group for dinner, and we head out to a nice Italian place. I eat a salad, some bruschetta, spaghettini pomodoro, and part of the chicken parmesean from another rider’s dinner.

Stats

Distance: 107.16 miles
Time: 7:13
Average: 14.8 MPH
Average Heartrate: 116 BPM
Garmin calories: 6345 (not even close to 900 cal/hour. Maybe 500)
Average Cadence: 77 RPM
Elevation Gain: Unsure – my GPS was acting up. My guess is around 2000’.

The pace is pretty darn slow for that long of a ride. Note the low cadence – that means more pressure on the pedals, less pain in the butt…

Here’s the strava for the first day.

Day 2

I sleep well and get up at 6AM, head down to the hotel’s breakfast buffet for small bowl of cereal with very little milk, and a hard-boiled egg. I take a bagel to eat later.

We roll at out 8AM. After 15 minutes, my legs feel pretty good, and the rest of me… well, you can take it for granted that both my neck and my butt will be hurting until the finish, so I’ll stop talking about that. We zig-zag north and east through the farmland – thankfully the wind is much diminished – and we make good time. I split the group a couple of times, and slow down so that we can stay together. At Sumas we cross into Canada, and a few miles later, stop for lunch at a dairy (35 miles). I have a nice ham sandwich, chips, another Coke Zero, and once again, eat my lunch sitting out in the sun. At this point, our group is swelled to 11 as we are joined by another couple riders.

We head out after lunch; I’m trying to ride gentle for the group (my pulse is 105), and I split the group again. I drop back to talk to G’s wife, R (she is current riding and G is driving the SAG car), and she suggests that I just ride ahead. I am joined by D and L, and after some discussion, a target speed of 17 MPH is established. We settle into a nice paceline rotation on the straight sections. Well, that’s not exactly true – we are trying to navigate based on the cue sheet (I have my GPS but navigation mode uses lots of battery, so I don’t use it all the time), which uses road names that do exist in the proper arrangement but has distances that appear to be mostly fictional (I’ve decided that “historical fiction” is the proper classification for the cuesheet). Sometimes the turn we want is half a mile instead of 4 miles, other times it’s the opposite. We’re up to the 18-19 MPH range when we aren’t craning our heads looking for road signs or turning around to find a turn that we missed. I am happy that we are together; I am not sure that I would have found all the turns if I was on my own. We stop at a starbucks near Promontory for a nature break, and I pick up a nice oatmeal cookie and some water. We’re at 52 miles; the cue sheet says that the whole ride is 81 miles, but the mapping I did before suggests that it’s 75 miles. Either way, we have at most a couple of hours left of riding. The day so far has been very flat, and it’s pretty much going to stay that way.

We head back out. We’ve been staircasing to the northeast; head some to the north, then head some to the east. Eventually, we’re going to have to cross the Trans-Canada highway, and we head north on a Chilliwack river road, which winds around quite a bit and takes us to where we are right next to the highway. Then we turn east again; it’s not quite time to cross the highway. We are pretty consistently in the 19s as we just want to get the ride over. We are riding into Rosedale looking for a park with restrooms, when my bike makes a strange ping. It first, I think that it’s just a stone that got picked up, but L tells me to stop, as I’ve broken a spoke on the rear. We have about 11 miles left, so I squeeze it between two spokes where they cross and decide that the wheel is true enough to ride on. I take it easy for a few minutes, but the bike seems fine.  We are nearing “the bridge”.

The bridge will take us over the Frasier river. We arrive to find that it has no shoulder at all, and we decide to ride it as fast as possible. I’m at about 20 heading up the slope, 30 down the slope, and 25 on a really long flat spot, until we finally get across to a spot with a shoulder. The cars are generally well-behaved, but they’re going about 35 MPH faster than we are, and did I mention that there is no shoulder?

We go through a few more small towns, wicking it up to 20 on the flats, and after a while longer, we finally arrive at the finish. We ride into the resort, and check in.

The remainder of the day is taken up by the aforementioned massage, beer and apps, a nice dinner with very good company, and a soak in the hot tub. Then a well-deserved sleep.

The next day started with a light room service breakfast, and then a trip back home. The trip home seems really strange; not only do you get places much faster, but 60 MPH on Canada route 1 is very different than 18 MPH on the backroads through farmland.

Overall, it was a very nice ride. The route is nicer than RSVP, the ending point is prettier (though there’s more to do in Vancouver), and the lunch stops are very nice. I only have one reservation about recommending it. It’s that the current route can’t really support more than 50 people (not coincidentally, 50 is the limit on the ride), and it would be unfortunate for it to become a victim of its own success. The slow speed was a choice that I made – I could have ridden on ahead earlier on both days, but I didn’t want that kind of ride.

Stats

Distance: 75.30 miles
Time: 4:41
Average: 16.1 MPH
Average Heartrate: 102 BPM
Garmin calories: 4275
Average Cadence: 72 RPM

Here’s the strava for the second day.