Waking up at 1am to make it to the start of a 4am bicycle ride really makes you think about things. Am I going completely insane? Am I already there? Did I just pay money to sit on my Brooks for 380 miles?

Jane and Norman were just coming home from a night of debauchery and general good times just as I was getting ready. They acknowledged my loss of sanity and wished me well.

Matt gave me a call early in the morning to let me know that he forgot his shoes at work in Redmond. His girlfriend was nice enough to give him a ride out there and all the way down to Eatonville an hour and a half away. I made my early morning trek solo and did my best to start waking up.

I pulled in to the motel around 3:30 (Matt right behind me) and did a quick inventory check. There were roughly 20 other riders at the start, everyone looking fairly antsy with nervous excitement. Jan Heine and Ryan Hamilton promised probably the hardest ride of the season, and they weren’t about to disappoint.

We rolled out of Eatonville together. I saw Bob Brudvick and Robin Pieper shoot off the side like they were starting a breakaway group in the tour. I never quite got settled into a great pace out of the gates though. I didn’t have a chance to pick up knee warmers and had full tights in my bag, but I was sure that I wouldn’t need them since the ride basically started with 4,000 some odd feet of climbing. I had a hard time getting warm of course. It would have been wise to have them on at the start and just remove them on the way up. Hindsight is like that though.

I lost Matt pretty early on. He got in to a good rhythm that I wasn’t able to match going up towards Paradise at the top of Mount Rainier. Eventually I found a good tempo and was met up with Joe (I think I caught his name… sorry if I’m not getting it right). We chatted about bikes and life and whatever else keeps your mind off of going uphill for hours on end.

We were starting to peak Mt. Rainier in to Paradise right about the time the sun was rising. The views were beyond stunning. I remarked that I had never been up near the mountain when I could actually see it. I felt like I was close enough to touch it.

Paradise had an inn with a nice little cafe that was willing to give me some water. I felt pretty confident that I had all of the food I needed until the next control so I wanted to get moving. I eventually caught up to Jack, Dan and Andy who were all keeping together for the day. We were all enjoying the amazing decent down Rainier. It screams down a long road with perfect visibility for miles. Even people that don’t like descending would feel confident keeping off of the brakes down this. And the views of the valley… god, they were beautiful.

I rolled down with the trio all the way in to Packwood. We were getting food and drink when Matt rolled in behind us. He apparently had a sit down breakfast in Paradise and I didn’t even notice his bike sitting outside. He shortened his time at the control so he could roll out towards Randle with us.

I felt great by this point. I had finally found my legs and we were making good time. The five of us were chatting and keeping each other company in general. I rarely have a chance to talk to Jack on shorter rides because he tends to push so much harder than I do. One of these days I’ll start training to pick up my speed a bit. Of course, I’ve been saying that for a while now.

At Randle we saw Geoff at a grocery stop. He was kind enough to direct us toward some Ensures (my new favorite on the road snack). We layed around for a bit but were out of there before noon. Things were looking pretty solid. I had been buzzing mental calculations all day in my head about when we might make it to each stop and when we might get to the overnight. I had a rough idea of somewhere around 1 to 2am for our overnight into Naches. It wouldn’t be easy, but I felt like I was giving us plenty of buffer.

We all pacelined to the split off out towards Mt. St. Helens. This was our next big climb of the day. Jan had scouted a road that was closed to car traffic (relatively… a few didn’t read the signs), but was washed out in spots. We had an option of staying on the traffic filled roads or setting out on an adventure where we might have to carry our bikes over some sections. We all chose “adventure” (turn to page 36).

Matt and I were dropped by the trio pretty handedly on the uphill. I didn’t really mind at this point because we had found a nice and comfortable climbing pace. It is pretty important to feelt comfortable when there is a good chance that you will be climbing for hours. Unfortunately, this meant that for long periods of time, we were only averaging about 5 mph. Comfortable? Sure. Burning lots of time? Oh yeah.

The views were at least as epic as seen on Mt. Rainier. The trail went straight through much of the blast zone and the trees were still descimated. Thousands of trees all angled over, not quite down on the ground, but dead to be sure. It has been years since the volcano erupted, but the signs are still everywhere. I meant to get more pictures of all of this, but I was working so hard all the way up.

The last few sections of forest road 26 were especially brutal. The hike and bike parts sounded fun on paper but were actually pretty annoying after half a day in the saddle. There were a few loose gravel sections and a few parts that were just plain rocks. The elevation really kicked up towards the end too. My legs were just aching and I was low on water. There was no tree coverage by this point even though the sun wasn’t especially hot. It just added to the uncomfort.

Jan had a control set up where FR-26 and FR-99 met. He gave me a little bit of water to hold me over for the 7 miles out to Windy Ridge. We were scheduled to see him again on the return, so we kept moving.

Windy Ridge was pretty stunning. I would have spent more time soaking it all in if I weren’t so damned thirsty. Jan held promise of more water and some food, so we kept moving.

I could feel my ankle starting to pester me. To tell the truth though, a lot of my body was yelling at me. It always does that. I didn’t put much thought in to it.

We spent a little more time with Jan than I had worked out in my head. Mark Thomas had caught up with us and he was giving Jan a bad time about their differing descriptions of the word “difficult”. The climb to White Pass that was coming up? No big deal says Jan. Mark just laughed it off. We killed some soda, sandwiches and filled up on water. It was time to leave.

After a 4 mile climb up Indepedence Pass, the descent back down towards Randle held some amazing switchbacks that had just enough room in the curve to limit the braking nesessary. It was quite fun. The less my legs spun, the more my achilles tendon started to flair. It was swelling at the time, but I didn’t notice.

I had reworked the math in my head to where I thought we might make it to Packwood by 8pm. The rollers out of Randle had other ideas. I didn’t have it in my legs to power over most of them, so I spent a lot of time spinning. Mark kept me company through most of these portions. My ankle was starting to seriously hurt. I really questioned the logic of cresting 2 more passes on it. If there was an overnight before hand, maybe… but I still had White Pass before that. I wanted to ask Mark if he had ever DNF’d before, but I lost the nerve. I felt about as weak as I’ve ever felt. Close to tears, if not already there.

I could see Matt slowly pull away, never that far, but I knew he had more energy than I did. Even Mark started to get out in front of me. My pace was starting to look pretty pathetic.

I started to get these visions of ways that I might be able to get out of this ride. I had no cell phone reception. The only 24 hour store in Packwood is a Shell station. I drove our car down to Eatonville. I had visions of curling up in my newly purchased emergency bivy outside of the gas station. It didn’t make logical sense of course, it was just my mind playing tricks on me. I felt like I was going completely insane and every part of me just hurt.

Right when we pulled in to Packwood, I got on a pay phone with Jane. I asked her if she was still with Norman, and what the possibility of them actually getting me was. She said they could, and asked if I wanted it. I decided to let it soak in for a minute. I didn’t commit. I sat down and had some food and something to drink. Everyone I’ve heard from states the logic of just waiting a bit and seeing how you feel after some rest.

My ankle decided for me. It wasn’t getting any better, and the rest of my muscles were cooling down fast. If we were lucky (I figured at the time), we would get into the overnight at 4 or 5am. If I was lucky, I might get an hours worth of sleep. I just couldn’t handle it. I wanted my bed.

I told everyone that I was calling it a night. Matt told me that he wanted to stick around with me. I know that he didn’t want to leave me out there alone, and I know that he was pretty tired too. I felt pretty bad at the time. He was killing his Super Randonneur shot for me this year. It was great having him there though. We spent probably 3 hours at the Shell station entertaining and being entertained by the locals.

Nice doesn’t really describe what Jane and Norman did for us. They cut their night short to drive a 5 hour round trip to pick up a couple of guys that didn’t want to ride their bikes anymore. I am glad that I have both of them in my life.

I passed out in the car right away. Sleep never felt so good.

I have plenty of regrets about stopping the ride. I knew that I would. When it comes down to it though, I needed to make sure I stay healthy above all. There will be more chance for adventure in my life. I’ll see to that.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 15th, 2008 at 7:33 am and is filed under bicycling, sir. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.