days 5 and 6: the Pass and the ride to yakima

these first two days of riding have been difficult but extremely gorgeous. we left Seattle with live news coverage from Olympic Sculpture Park and headed down Alaskan Way then we took a bike trail over Mercer Is. to Issaquah.

from there we received an awesome Issaquah Fire Dept. escort on to I-90. we climbed on I-90, taking every exit to be sure we weren't hit by cars exiting the highway. we exited just before the big climb for lunch and took a newly paved forest service road up to the top of the pass, though safer it was a much steeper.

from the top of the pass it was mostly down hill from there i personally hit 46 mph, very fast and fun. i was in the first group to head in to Easton, Jake didn't quite make it.

the route planners didn't quite anticipate how long it would take for the whole team to make to Easton and because we had a planned sponsored dinner with the Cle Elum Eagles Club they had to pull the majority of the riders to make it there on time. after the dinner a quick chain lube and off to bed after a tiring first day.

on the second day (Thursday) we started off with an amazing breakfast provided by our lodging Double K Christian Retreat. out of Easton we had an intense tail wind, we barely had to pedal to average 30 mph for the first half of the trip. once past Cle Elum we were on to Ellensburg and from there we took Canyon Rd. to Selah, this route had some brutally long uphill battles incorporated in with it. i tried to keep up with the first group most of the day, and after one of my riding partners had a flat, Jake passed me, and i wasn't able to catch the him or the first group the rest of the day.

for lunch we ate turkey and ham sandwiches and grapes. once in Yakima we arrived at lodging, Eisenhower High School, and prepared to stay in their yoga room. it was just a little awkward to be walking around a high school 24 smelly guys in spandex just as school got out, but we all made it through. for dinner we ate at a UW alum's house and had Mexican food prepared by his mother who was in fact Mexican, it might have been the best Mexican food i have ever had, tacos and tamales. after dinner i was picked up by my aunt Joann and she let me use her warm shower (the school doesn't have them for some reason, i was the only one on the team to get a warm one!) while i was at my aunt and uncles house their were incredibly nice enough to offer to have the whole team over for breakfast, the whole team is looking forward to a warm breakfast instead of bagels and bananas.