The Big Ride Family
We’ve had many folks ask us what we thought of the ride, the term we use most is epic, the hills were plentiful and high, the daily rides were long, the daylight short, the food was really challenging and frequently gone before we could get any, and even with all of those challenge we still had a good time. It’s the outstanding people who we remember more than any other single component of the ride.
During the trip we all received nicknames, Doug is Mechanic and Moira is GPS. As we hear from other riders, we all use our nicknames and they take us back immediately to the camaraderie of the trip. Laughing over dinner, becoming hobbits and eating “second breakfast” together at a local cafe on the route, commiserating about aches, pains and injuries, sharing remedies (Glinda!), building the village nightly and catching up on the nightly raccoon antics (who knew they liked Gatorade!). As Sister Sledge said so eloquently, we are family and became one during 15 strenuous days in late September 2008.
“Chile” sent a GPS version of the trip taken from his bike computer. The numbers speak volumes; we rode 980 miles and climbed 69,872 feet during the 13 days of riding. Each day of riding we climbed the equivalent of Mount Washington in New Hampshire!
This ride was epic and each and every rider was heroic to climb on their bike every morning and set off into the mist along the gorgeous coastline of Washington, Oregon and California.
