Well, it is a little hard to sit here and think that I just dipped my back wheel into the Pacific Ocean and I have to ride a bike for 3800 miles to the Atlantic Ocean for a dip of my front wheel. But as the old saying goes – “A journey of 1000 miles begins but with a single step”.
We met our guides in Portland and 9 AM this morning and right before that I had a slightly tearful goodbye with Val. But the plan right now is for her to meet us in Madison, WI on the 3rd rest day on September 12th so it’s really not that far away. We departed pretty quickly for the 2 hour drive to Astoria on the coast where we had lunch near our hotel at the Cannery Pier and got outfitted with our Trek SL-7 bikes. We had a few orientation talks afterwards and then changed into our cycling clothes for the first 15 mile spin down to the Pacific at Fort Stevens State Park. Standing on the beach and looking across the ocean made it seem like it will take forever to reach the Atlantic. Nothing makes me feel smaller than looking out over the ocean.
The ride today was an easy ride of 30 miles but we did have some pretty strong headwinds on the outbound leg. The energy among our group was high and you could pretty much feel the tension ease once we actually started to get moving. But we all took our turns with the picture and did a group shot before we started our first leg back to the East Coast. We were all ready for that ice-breaker.
I think we have a great group of riders on our trip. The demographics are all over the map with 14 men and 10 women (and 4 married couples – 1 of which is riding a tandem bike). I’d say the youngest is maybe in her 40’s and the oldest in their early 70’s. I am sure after a few days of riding we will sort out into 3 groups of riders with similar abilities so that our guides can better manage the spread.
So Day 1 is in the books! Tomorrow is our first 100-miler headed back to Portland with some decent climbing in store.