Salsabike - Thanks for the trip report. I had heard rumors about a car-bike incident. I hope that was the only one.
Mimitabby - I understand your son's girlfriend's pain. Read on...
My STP experience was overall pretty good. First, I'll start with an apology. I am new to the group riding thing and I didn't know all of the "rules": hand gesters for slowing, pointing out road obstacles, yelling out "car back" or "slowing", etc. If any of you saw me, I hope I didn't make you too mad. By the second day, I was pro :o
Our goal was to get into the parking lot by 5:30am. Since this was our first STP and my first organized ride, we had no clue what 9000 riders really means. It took us 30 minutes to get into the parking lot. We started in the 6:20am wave.
I really love the ride down through the Arboretum and along the Lake, so the morning was super fun. The REI mini-stop was crazy busy! That's when I realized how huge this ride is. The "big hill" wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Luckily, there was room for 2-3 deep riders, so everyone could go their own pace.
Things starting breaking down for me at around mile 75. That's when it felt like I was growing new bones in my butt. Then I bonked at mile 85. We dropped from 19mph-ish down to 15mph. I couldn't ride any faster. After the Centralia stop, my energy recovered in time for the Napavine hill. Wow - that will hit you hard in the gut. For the ride between Centralia and Vader, it was a mental game for me. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy it to the full extent like Salsabike. We pulled into Vader at 4:30pm and we were very happy to be done for the day.
We stayed at the Vader Lions Club and camped outside. The ladies who run the fundraiser there are very nice. They provided us plenty of food and good showers. I'm sure I was fully zonked out by 8:30pm. My only complaint about Vader is that there are trains that run through all night long.
We were on the road by 7:30am on Sunday. I absolutely loved the ride between Vader and Castle Rock. It was a nice morning and the rollers were fun on fresh legs. I was having a great time.
The Longview bridge is when things starting going a little sour for me. The Longview bridge was great, though. We were at the back of our wave and it was so cool to see a huge sea of riders going across the bridge. The rest of the ride - yuck! That constant uphill grade on the highway was no good. At about mile 180, I was very glad to have stayed in Vader rather than Centralia. I believe I would have had difficulty talking myself through to the end had it been a 100+ mile day.
We pulled into Portland at 1:30pm and it was neat to see all the people cheering. The organizations that put the ride on did such a great job! I definitely liked riding in an organized ride - very little route finding. It's nice just to ride and not have to constantly route find.
I do have a ton of questions now - I have to go post in the other forums. Thanks again everyone for the support after my crash. I had no problems with the knee during the ride.
