"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly know how far one can go."

How about going 774 miles in 89 hours and 2 minutes? That's what Jack and I did recently--completing a goal we had set at the beginning of this year...

Actually, my goal was to ride a complete brevet series--something I had never done before... Before Jan., the farthest I had gone was 200 miles... We decided to buy a tandem (since I was always drafting Jack's wheel anyway) and ordered it before Christmas...We missed out on using it for the 200K, but were able to ride the rest of the series on it... Cascade was our goal for the summer, then Jack decided that the 1000K would be good preparation for The Cascade 1200K... I actually think he was right--doing the 1000 really helped us be ready for the 1200....

We were given 93 hours to complete this ride, with 3 designated overnight stops. Our goal each day was to ride that day's mileage, hit the overnight control, then--eat, shower, sleep a few hours, eat some more, and head out to do it all over again... Here's how it went for us...

Sat., 6/26--Day 1: 223.7 miles

About 90 + riders started in front of the Guesthouse Inn & Suites in Monroe, WA at 6 a.m. We were the only tandem on the ride, but had company in the "funny" bike category, with a recumbent and a trike along for the ride...

The day started out cool and cloudy--perfect riding weather... There was just over 53miles to our first control in Cumberland, a manned stop at a grocery store... Jack went in to pick up his "performance enhancing drug" (chocolate milk) and we met up with Jack's son and his family, including our newest grandson, born just 11 days earlier! We stayed for a few minutes chatting with them, but then it was time to get moving... We continued for the next 45 miles mainly on 2-lane roads with a "peek-a-boo" view of Mt. Rainier... I tried several times to get a picture--through trees, or the clouds surrounding it, succeeding only once with a good shot... On to the town of Eatonville, where we stopped at Subway for lunch... Most of the riders had stopped at the bakery, but we thought a quick sandwich and chips would hit the spot... Jack was able to get some better pictures of Rainier once we stopped at Subway...

After our lunch, we headed towards Packwood, our next control (mile 158), before we started our first big climb up White Pass--a 20-mile climb to 4500 ft. But before the climb, we came to what I believe will be my son's retirement community one day--the town of Morton (his last name)--supposedly the Heart of East Lewis County... A small, quiet town, perfect for just hanging out...

In Packwood, we stopped at our control, a Shell station, for water and some food before the long climb... Actually, the climb was great... We seemed to have a good pace going, and were climbing well... It was amazing--at times we were higher than the treetops, and it was a LONG way down... At the summit, we geared up for the evening, then descended as night began to fall... A quick right turn about 7 miles down, and we were headed to the Clear Lake control at mile 188... We fueled up on some food (Cup-a-soup tastes great when riding) then took off to "follow the yellow line" (as our route sheet said to) on the road to our overnight in Naches... (pronounced Nah-cheese) The road was very dark, surrounded by trees, so I'm guessing the yellow line was great for navigation...

Being on the back seat, I don't get to see too much of what's ahead of us! Once we hit Highway 12, we had a tailwind, which helped push us along to Naches... We made good time in the glow of a full moon, arriving at Naches Middle School at 12:25 am... Time to eat, shower (not for me--the water was cold!) and sleep on mats in the gym for about 3 hours... Along with many other riders... Not too bad for my first "group" sleep, although I don't feel I slept all that much...

6/27 Day 2: About 208 miles

Up before 5 am for breakfast and on to the Lodgepole Campground at about 3600 ft.--just short of Chinook Pass... This was back the way we had come into town the night before...

Jack wasn't "feeling it" that morning--think he'd woken up in the middle of a REM cycle and was struggling as we headed to the climb... We stopped at his store--Whistling Jack's--in Cliffdell, to get some "fuel", then proceeded to climb... We even pulled off once so he could rest, but he wanted to just get there, so we pushed on... At the campground, he drank a coke and seemed to perk up... The descent helped...

Back in Cliffdell, we stopped at Whistling Jack's again and had some lunch before heading out to Fruitvale, somewhere near Yakima... We kept running into Wolfgang, from Germany, who seemed to be having a great ride himself... As we rode, the day began to warm up... When we got to Fruitvale, we had soup and rolls outside of the Fred Meyer grocery store... Seems to work well for us--food in liquid form... Several other randos had eaten at Starbucks and were taking off, leaving us water and ice, as good randos do... This is where we met up with our new friend, Larry, from PA... Not sure he was actually ready to leave when we were, but he came with us, and his company was quite enjoyable...

This day's terrain was SO much different than the first day's... After our stop, we rode on a bike trail for about 8 miles, then out to SR 24... Here it was open fields, low mountains, and very few (if any) trees... Larry was great about taking turns out front, blocking the wind for us, and we'd do the same for him... We started to catch some of the riders in front of us, as we were riding at a decent pace...

We crossed the Columbia River (wondering why it was WAY over here) and then saw our next turn...The route sheet said--yes, up that hill! L Road was a 1/2 mile climb---at about 19%... Jack told me we were "going low" and we proceeded to climb up (paperboy shuffle style) with no problem... We stopped halfway up to take a picture of the valley below, and were watched intently by the other riders as we started out again on the hill... We took off like we'd been doing it our whole life, and motored to the top, while we waited for other riders to walk their bikes up... It was a tough little climb, especially when you added the heat of the day to it...

The next control was Mattawa on our way to the overnight in Quincy... This was a great control-the staff waited on us hand and foot, filling us up on sandwiches and chips, fruit and drinks... It was getting dark, so on went the night gear for the ride to Quincy High School... This was an interesting section of wide open spaces, with climbs and down hills until we crossed over the I-90 and onto the main road into Quincy... I think we hit our top speed for the ride on one of the down hills--48mph--in the dark! It was getting late, and our hope of getting into Quincy by midnight had come and gone, but we did manage to arrive before 1:30, after missing a turn in town... Time to eat, take a shower (the water was STILL cold, although not as cold) and off to sleep on the mats in the wrestling room...

6/28 Day 3: 180 miles

We awoke before our wake-up call--something about a "body clock"... Had breakfast and hoped to be on our way by 6, but think it was closer to 6:30... Said goodbye to Quincy High--the home of the "Jacks"--man, Jack's got his name all over the place! Our friend, Larry, rolled out with us as we headed to our first control at Dry Falls... We were climbing a good portion of the 42 miles there--gradual at times, more steep at others, and passed a beautiful lake on the way--Soap Lake... Dry Falls was truly amazing--kind of like looking at a mini Grand Canyon... At this point, we seemed to be riding near the same group of riders--they'd pass us, we'd catch up, and so it went throughout the day...

We left Dry Falls and turned onto Hwy 2, then SR 172 for a LONG stretch of almost 25 miles on our way to Farmer... I wondered if Farmer was a town--Jack said it was like a grange hall, a meeting place for the farmers in the area... We went through a lot of farmland, areas where they were growing wheat and it was becoming a fairly warm day... Farmer turned out to be a building on the corner of the road, all by itself, complete with 2 outhouses... This, too, was a great control, with more sandwiches, fruit, cold drinks, and ICE! Water bottles were filled for us with ice and water, and all the riders took shoes off as we ate and rested up...

It was pretty much more of the same as we headed to Bridgeport, on the way to our next control in Malott... Not much out there but fields... We had a turn coming up, but no street sign, so we flagged down a car to ask... She had GPS, and said we were on the right road, so we continued... At one point, we saw a sign that confirmed it, but my concern was we were heading down hill---and if we were wrong, we'd have to go back UPHILL to find the right way... Luckily, once we came to the bottom of a great downhill section, we were in Bridgeport, complete with a bridge over the Columbia (again?)... We stopped at a minimart for drinks and snacks with several other riders, before heading off to Malott...

Only about 12 miles to the control, where we again were treated great... More sandwiches (I told Larry--after today--no more sandwiches! I'm having a big piece of chicken!) The control was at the base of our next big climb--Loup Loup, of which there was little Loup Loup--and Big Loup Loup... Little Loup Loup just meant it wasn't as LONG, but it was pretty steep... Big Loup Loup made up the majority of the 13+ miles to the summit at 4020 ft... By now, it was getting dark, and the descent would be in the dark, and fairly steep... We were warned to watch for deer running across the road,(great) so we weren't anxious to be going too fast... Which meant we rode the brakes off and on most of the way down... It's amazing how quickly the tandem will pick up speed! It took us awhile to get down almost 10 miles of road...

On to Winthrop, a small town on the way to our overnight at Mazama... All day long, Mazama was what kept us going... Because it was a "special overnight"--with a private room, a bed, and a HOT shower! Part of the awesome accommodations that the Seattle Randonneurs made for us... Larry needed to eat, so we were hoping something would be open in Winthrop at 11:45 pm... As luck would have it, a small store/gas station was open till midnight, and we got food and drinks to get us to Mazama... Another 20+ miles, and we would be in bed!

Checking in at Mazama was GREAT---we were told that Jack and I had a room "reserved" for us, close to the front... I was impressed, trying to figure out who had gone that extra mile for us--turns out it was Tracey--great guy from Canada who was down with his whole family helping out... But, along with that good news, came some bad news... For those of you used to reading my reports, you know we've had our share of "mechanical issues"... And now, on the 3rd night, we had another... Another broken spoke on the back wheel... We think it happened on the descent of Loup Loup... I thought I heard a noise, but the wheel never got wobbly, and we didn't notice it till we stopped at the control... Then Jack heard the piece rattling inside the wheel...

What a bummer! It's 1 am, and at that point, I wasn't sure we would be able to go on, but we had a guardian angel by the name of Eamon who happened to be working on bikes each evening... Jack gave him the extra spoke we carried--he told us to go to bed, and we hoped when we woke up, it would be fixed...


6/29 Day 4: About 162 miles

We slept really well in our room, got up and prepared to ride... Once we went outside, we found our bike fixed and ready to go! It was at that moment I knew we would complete the ride... We had come to the ride with the goal of finishing... Now that the mechanical problem had been solved, I just knew we would be fine...

Well... We still had to climb over Washington Pass and Rainy Pass, but once we made those climbs, we felt we'd be home free... Jack had told Larry not to wait for us--in case there was a problem with the bike... So, the tandem hit the road alone... We felt good climbing, setting a steady pace... Even caught up to Jeff Loomis, whom Jack had ridden Goldrush with last summer...

When we reached the summit of Washington Pass at 5477 ft., the sag truck was there... Great to see those guys out there--they were visible at many of the stops along the ride, keeping an eye on us riders... And always, very encouraging... We had some Gatorade, checked on our friend, Larry, who was sleeping by the side of the truck, then took off to complete the next climb to Rainy Pass...

It was absolutely stunning to see those mountains in front of you, on all sides of you... Huge chunks of snow lay by the side of the road, where they'd fallen off the cliffs... Water was everywhere--that's one of the things we noticed on this ride--we saw more rivers, streams, lakes, and waterfalls--water always seemed to be right next to us as we rode...

We made it to Rainy Pass Summit (4855 ft) took pictures, then prepared for the LONG descent to the valley below... More layers on, more food for energy, then we got moving... Funny thing is, I got really sleepy on the way down... Resorted to taking some No-doze for the first time in my life, so I'd stay awake... I guess 9 hours of sleep over 3+ days isn't enough!

We passed some beautiful lakes, Diablo and Ross... A local told us that Ross Lake actually extends a mile into Canada... It was pretty windy going down--cross winds at times, and a headwind at others... I am not happy in the winds going down mountains, but I managed to keep it together... Jack does an awesome job of keeping us safe, so I just have to trust him... We finally made it to the Skagit General Store in Newhalem for a brief rest and some soda... Our goal, though, was Marblemount, our next control... Another Chevron/minimart for food and drinks, before heading off to our final control in Granite Falls before the finish in Monroe... About 67 miles...

During this section of long roads through Rockport and Darrington on the way to Granite Falls, both Jack and I were feeling really good... He had this crazy energy--he felt strong, he was happy, and he made me laugh most of the way to Granite Falls... Yelling at the cows and horses, hooting and hollering up the small climbs... He even accused me of "sandbagging"--he said I was riding so strongly on the 4th day of a ride of this length, I must have been dogging it before this... Right!

But because we were riding well, we passed several riders along the way...
Some of the sections through here were long... And a rain shower must have moved through the area, because the roads were wet... But once we arrived at the McDonalds in Granite Falls, we could smell the finish... Only about 21 more miles to go... I had secretly hoped we would finish by midnight, giving us 3 hours to spare... It seemed we might do even better than that...

We saw the recumbent rider, Tom Russell, already there, so we ate dinner with him, as other riders began to pull in... It started to drizzle a bit as we prepared to leave, but once on the road, we rode away from any rain... We stayed with Tom, as he had pre-ridden the course in his car, so he knew the way to the finish... It was rollers and flats to the finish, with some steeper descents, but the bike was handling really well...

We rode up to (and almost into) the Guesthouse Inn at 11:02 pm... Walked into checkin to cheers from the riders already there... What an awesome feeling! Turned in our brevet cards and receipts (a CA thing, Mark Thomas told the girl checking us in) and hugged Tom's wife, Bobbe, who had helped out at Mazama... Next up, beer and pizza, and just unwinding from being on the bike...

I would have to say that all the training, all the rides we did, including the 1000, truly prepared us for this ride... Having experienced sleeping, then getting up to ride again, gave us more confidence this time around... We worked out the small "kinks" from the 1000, and were able to ride according to "our plan" this time around...

People tell us all the time that riding a tandem will either "make or break" our marriage... I think we've done remarkably well in the short span of time since February... Are there still some kinks? Yeah, I'm sure... But, we trust and respect one another, and we have the same mind set going into the rides... To finish, and to finish strong... It was a great experience, seeing so much of the beautiful state of WA... Next up--Paris or bust!