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.

The Finish Line! Tandems are heavy!

It was a long day even though it was only 35 miles. Thru Marin County along bike paths with hundreds of San Francisco riders, thru Sausalito to our first view of the Bay Bridge! We massed at the Marin side of the bridge watching the tourists ride across

The ride to the hotel was interesting, an altercation with a Mini car just across from the hotel added to the adrenalin of the day.

Check out the route map & elevation here http://www.gpsies.com/map.do?fileId=gqqhhrdwkoqypefg&referrer=trackList

The rest of the day was sweeping rollers, high with hairpin turns so no momentum to head into the next uphill. The final indignity was the mistaken directions that sent all the riders to the wrong camp.

According to one bike altimeter it was over 5,000 feet of climbing!

Laundry, lunch and a nap took up the afternoon and we ended the day with a brilliant meal at a local legenadry restaurant Rendezvous. The pistachio soufflé was lovely.

Back on the bike tomorrow we follow route 1 into San Fran in three days.

We’ve been having trouble getting and staying fueled. The food is plentiful now, but you either get protien or carb never both at the same time and it got to Moira today. She bonked big time after several of the smaller climbs today and it ended our day, we SAGed into our day off.

Even in the car this trip was harrowing I cannot image doing it on the tandem!

Were looking forward to our day off, we’re celebrating our ninth anniversary a day early!

In the afternoon we hit a local bike shop and was able to get new tires for the tandem. This was a REALLY good thing as we had not been able to find them before in any of the shops along the route.

In the late afternoon we turned onto the Avenue of the Giants on Humbolt Redwoods State Park! Gorgeous is the best word for these beauties! Imagine a whole forest of what appear to be old growth trees, a canopy that allowed dappled sunlight thru and a lovely coolness after the heat of riding on the highway all morning.

It was 77 miles today and they just flew by! At camp we spent time on cook crew and changing the tires on the bike. It gets dark very early these days so we completed the tire change by the light of our head lamps. Great day!

We hit a few more lighthouses today and it was hard to get pix due to the light fog, we could certainly hear them!

Immediately following the lighthouses was another if the epic climbs that othis trip is full of, 1,400 ft in elevation with 3 summits. To say this was tough on the tandem is an understatement. We made the climbs but had a reoccuing mechanical issue with the bead on our front tire popping out which meant we went very very slow on the descent. Not our favorite kind as we usually run very fast. The road surface was also nasty with grooves and twisty turns.

Unfortunately we had to stop riding again due to the mechanical issue as it made riding further unsafe. Doug spent several hours in camp changing the tires back to our old ones so we could ride again tomorrow, earning the nickname of ‘mechanic’.

This ride is gorgeous and the hardest thing we’ve ever done! (including the Big Ride Across America). The hills are epic and Moira is taking a real beating physically. So far both knees are aching, toe taped, elbow braced, hands numb and let’s not even talk about the saddle area!

Doug is doing better,however his hands are always sore from the brakeing on the downhills.

It’s a ride of attrition for us at the moment. At least it’s pretty!