Seattle to Portland Ride Reports--put 'em here!

[Eden]

Its a total of 204 miles with the option to do it in 1 or 2 days. It's a relatively flat course, a bit more rolling on the second day. Its a big ride with now 9,000 entries allowed.

www.cascade.org

[salsabike]

Chris and I still have a lot to learn about tandem technique, especially for hill climbing. That is, there are several significant hills on our normal training route, and we've gotten much better at them. But there's knowledge out there we need to tap, still. Someone on TE posted a link on how to climb different KINDS of hills, and I looked at it Sunday night. It was very cool. The guy talked about convex vs. concave hills, and connected hills like these rollers, and mountains, and how each kind had to be approached differently and why. Very useful. Wish there was tandem-specific training out there somewhere.

Anyway, most of STP is a nice ride, especially the rollers. But wish I'd read that hill link a week ago! Isn't it always the way?

[Shiraz]

Hi Everyone,
Here is a quick write up of the STP ride:
We left for Seattle on Thursday evening after a major repair job on my shifter. We took my husbands off of his bike and the mechanic put it on mine. We stayed the first night in Boise, Idaho with my daughter and then took off bright and early Friday at 0630. Our plan was to get an early start and make it into Seattle with lots of day light to find our hotel, find the starting point, estimate the time it will take us in the AM to drive to the start line and pick out a meeting point to hook up with our friends who were staying at the dorms. Since we gained an hour and really made great time we stopped at the Hyatt Vineyards . What a great place! We shared a 2005 bottle of Muscat wine, enjoyed the view of Yakima Valley and talked endlessly about the ride we were about to experience. We made it into Seattle and around 4:00 found our hotel, drove down to the college to get a visual of the the starting place, made phone contact with our friends and had a sea food pasta dinner on the Wharf.

We settled into the our rooms, laid out biking cloths, pinned on the numbers and tried to sleep. The alarm clock buzzed right on schedule at 0330, tried to gag down oatmeal, banana, coffee and water. We found a honey bucket for a quick pit stop then made our way down to the starting line to meet up with our friends. We took off at 0530. The first crash we witnessed happened within the the first mile or so at the first bridge right in front off one of our riders. The guy only had scraps and bruises but made the rest of us a little nervous. It is different riding with so many people and watching for traffic. My husband said there was also a pile up right behind us at the start after we left.

I was happy to say that the hills in Idaho definitely paid off because both of my riding buddies and myself rolled up the hills both days. There is something to be said about training on hills and in the wind and Southeast Idaho has both all the time! We formed a strong pace line and rolled along with an average speed overall of 18mph. A very nice man named Sal from Salem joined us and we kept it going. We arrived in Centralia at 1215 with 5 1/2 hrs of actual riding time. We were all very pleased and felt great. The atmosphere at the midpoint was great and loved the scenery. We meet up with our husbands had lunch, made planns to begin our second day ride at 0530 again and then we drove to Tumwater to find our hotel. We showered and drove into Olympia and had microbew beer, yummy salmon sandwitch and salad at a local place called The Fish Bowl. It wasn't fancy but we really enjoyed it. My husband and I ended up relaxing back at the hotel by 6PM and our friends opted to check out the local casino. I was sound asleep by 930PM and glad for the comfortable bed.

The alarm clocked buzzed again at 0330 and we packed up and headed the 20miles back to Centralia. My girlfriend and I headed to the Honey Buckets and found out after settling in that neither one had toliet paper . NOTE TO SELF... ALWAYS CHECK BEFORE SETTLING IN. My friend heard someone outside the stalls and hollered for him to please check the other stalls. Only one bathroom had any paper. He could have made a million dollars from us! Two nervous morning stomachs would have paid any amount of money !!

Our friends were running late and so we started out at 0630 instead of 0530. It did give it time to warm up a tad and the sun came out. The bad part was I had ate breakfast at 0400 and worried that I would get hungery and bonk. So I downed some red bull. The ride was beautiful and the rolling hills were enjoyable. The traffic was a little bit more than I enjoy and with a strong pace line we were passing a lot of riders so it was a little nerve racking at times. I could not believe how amzing it was to cross the Lewis and Clark Bridge. What a view with all of the riders! It is really beautiful country to ride in!

All of the stops were well supplied and very friendly. Lots of honey buckets with not a lot of wait time. The lunch stops were great and the food was great. They had PJ sandwitches, cookies, fresh fruit, cliff bars, refill on gatorade and water supplies. I was very impressed with the entire ride and the organization.

The last 15 miles seemed to go on for ever with lots of busy traffic and some stop and go at the lights with steep hills but the finish line celebration was well worth it. People were cheering you on and really made you feel great. They gave everyone a finishers patch and we wore proudly.

I was amazed at all of the different types of bikes and riders. Many riders of different ages, sizes and shapes. It was impressive to know that many of these riders would be riding for a long time to finish, but they were out there and determined. I am sure the feeling of acomplishment would be overwhelming for each of them and their families.

We stayed our last night in Beaverton at a nice Marriott and enjoyed sharing stories and making our husbands hear all about the ride over and over. It felt like a great accomplishment and I would definitely do it again.

We visited two more vineyards on the way home so the trip home was a 14 hour day. Glad I had taken another vacation day on Tuesday to recover!

Anita