Florida Bike Trip Day 2 - St. Augustine Beach, FL

66 miles down the coast. I’ve done this ride before; once in the opposite direction when I did the Atlantic Coast in 2022, and once in the same direction when I went by myself from Jacksonville to Disney World back when I rode by myself, before all these shenanigans with Bike the US for MS even started. So many things have changed since then; my friend Jamie who I went to visit has a partner, my mom has passed away, we sold the timeshare at Disney, I have a different bike, I ride with a charity instead of alone. So much water under that bridge. I’ll have to look back in time and see where I stayed that time; I remember being at some park off the side of the road, sleeping in my tiny crappy tent and wondering what the heck I was doing. I’m still wondering what the heck I’m doing. In fact, in many ways I’m less sure of what I’m up to than back then.

Today’s ride was uneventful. We went to Seafood Kitchen for lunch, which was amazing. I’m also really amused when my Bike the US life intersects with my real life; sitting at lunch with my dad but also half of my bike team was a bizarre experience. So many shadows; mostly of my mom and my grandmother. So much history in this area. I feel both uniquely unwelcome here but also a child of this place. As we rode past the beach houses I remembered when we would come down here for a vacation and I would be so bored I would spend all day in the ocean, until one time I spent so much time in the salt water that I irritated my esophagous and started coughing up blood and my parents freaked out. I am a child of all these memories and they combine to produce me, a unique creation.

http://www.biketheusforms.org

https://www.biketheusforms.org/our-routes/

https://www.biketheusforms.org/ms-bike-ride-florida/

Florida Bike Trip Day 1 - Fernandina Beach, FL

Here we go again! This time it’s 10 days from the northernmost edge of Florida down to Key West. I flew in to Jacksonville yesterday and spent last night with my Dad and Janet; always great to see them. Today we had lunch at Safe Haror and then I rode myself and all my stuff up to the starting line here in Fernandina Beach, riding against the route. I haven’t been doing much riding lately but still it’s very easy cycling and so everything went well! I got pretty dirty from the water and mud kicked up off the road but that’s about it. I’m looking forward to 10 days of fitness, eating better, hanging out with old friends and just relaxing. So good to see friends like Carla and Duncan and Dan Boatright and, well, almost everybody on the trip! I had dinner with Sully and Rob Morris and Rob and I talked about the joys of home ownership; he is an architect and a house remodeling consultant. Oddly, I was in this exact place two years ago when we rode the other direction; we even ended up eating at the same Mexican restaurant I ate at two years ago. Time flies. Begin back in Florida is interesting and coming here to Amelia Island brings back memories; riding through the beach trees along the paths makes me feel like a kid again. Here’s to 10 fun days on the bike!

http://www.biketheusforms.org

https://www.biketheusforms.org/our-routes/

https://www.biketheusforms.org/ms-bike-ride-florida/

Bible SapAM (Blog Day 1)

One of the oddest things about owning my own home, or at least one of the most unexpected, are these letters that I receive. I call them “Bible Letters”, because, essentially, that’s what they are. They almost always have some sort of handwritten component; the one I got today had a completely handwritten address (including my name, which is a bit creepy, but I think you can get that from the city rolls). They also usually have some kind of automated part; in my case, the letter itself was printed, though a font was used that made it look kind of handwritten. The return address - which was sort of nearby - was done using a stamp. These letters always take the same form: they start out by saying something about how the world is confusing, or difficult, or complicated, and then they inevitably turn quickly to quoting the bible. The details vary. There’s never really any overt reference to a specific religion, though of course they are always Christian. They seem to genuinely come from an actual, individual human being. I don’t get the sense that it’s anything more organized than a single person sending these out, and I think the return address is a real person (though I’ve never looked into it). And it seems like an awful lot of work.

I would never have imagined that someone would go to that much trouble. And I never got them until I owned a house. It’s…odd, and slightly creepy, though also perhaps a bit heartwarming? I don’t know. I have mixed emotions. What do you think?

2023 GAP/C&O - Day 6 - Arlington, VA

For the second time I rode into DC yesterday. It was a very challenging day of riding; I’m worn down from the three trips. The trail varied in quality; parts were really nice and smooth, but the last 10-15 miles were very rough and more suited for a mountain bike. Overall though it was an amazing trip.

One highlight was Great Falls, which Ted says is the second most water flowing over a falls in the United States (the first obviously being Niagara Falls). To get there you have to hike about a quarter mile over some walkways that take you through a high island which they called a river bed forest, and it was pretty magical. Then the falls themselves; well, words won’t do it justice, just look at the pictures.

Grabbing the bike from a bike shop took me down to Alexandria, right where I got the most amazing ice cream sundae last year while biking the Atlantic Coast. Didn’t have time to go back there though.

Then we had a celebration at a local pizza place and I made a couple of new friends. It was fun to connect with Jeremy on this trip; he’s a really interesting guy who’s a neurologist that runs research studies into ALS and has some good ideas about running some trips for ALS research in addition to MS. Then I met another alumni Amanda who I’d run into before and has a lot of enthusiasm for BTUSFMS. Then it was up super early to head to Reagan airport.

I feel ready to head home energized by both the organization and more generally my life goals, which is the best present that any trip or series of trips can give you.

2023 GAP/C&O - Day 5 - Brunswick, MD

A much more pleasant day of riding with no accidents, and more to look at. I got to cross West Virginia off my list by carrying my bicycle across the foot bridge into Harpers Ferry, where the civil war started and they have a museum to John Brown the abolitionist (who I know precious little about).

Ted took us on a field trip to Antietam Cemetary. It was a good ride and I enjoyed the cemetery, where his great great uncle is buried. But all I could think about - because of the Ukraine war - is how stupid wars are, and how many young people had to die for this one. I’m not a Civil War buff, I guess.

The path itself improved greatly, which is good because my ankle was giving me all kinds of fits. It got better as the day went on because we weren’t bumping around quite so much.

I can’t believe the trip is almost over, this is our last day of riding tomorrow.

Also I got to see a Paw Paw for the first time. Somebody was asking about why Paw Paw, WV is named that and we happened to ride past some on the ground so Ted showed us one, but it was too rotten to eat.

Oh! And I won the wildlife photo contest with a picture of a blue heron I took the other day.

2023 GAP/C&O Day 4 - Hancock, MD

Today all the interesting parts shifted from what was going on around us (rocks, bridges, towns, etc) to the actual drama of the riding itself. We switched trails from the GAP to the C&O. The GAP by the way is the Great Allegheny Passage (named for the mountains not the river), while the C&O is the Chesapeake & Ohio. The GAP is a “rails trail” meaning it’s an old railroad line, but the C&O is a canal towpath, meaning the area next to a canal where horses would tow boats from the shore. What this means is that the path went from being wide enough for a train to wide enough for a horse; e.g. not wide at all, and much less improved. That means mud, and boy did we have mud. The last 15 miles we switched to a neighboring rail trail, but the first 45 miles we had mud, mud and more mud. I was once again so grateful for my bicycle because I ask it to do all these things it isn’t made for and it never complains.

What did complain, however, is my achilles, which is very inflamed. It got pretty painful today but I am soldiering through it.

I feel very lucky to be here doing this, and today served up a reminder of that. At about mile 40 I rode up on a scene of several of my teammates, including Nick the doctor, standing around a man who was obviously down and off his bike. He turned out to have a very, very bad concussion and I ended up riding like a crazy person for about 5 miles so that I could get enough cell service to notify my teammates to call an ambulance. I think the guy’s gonna be fine but it was pretty scary.

Other than that, it was just a nice, challenging day of riding. The scenery has gotten much more lush and lowlands, meaning kind of a swamp. Every time I’m in this part of the US I think about the Civil War and basically all these guys standing around in swamps just waiting to get dysentery.

2023 GAP/C&O - Day 3 - Cumberland, MD

Today was a nice pleasant day of riding. Weather was a bit overcast and slightly chilly, which is honestly perfect. Path was very pleasant, hard packed gravel. Visited a variety of scenic tourist-y type things along the way, like tunnels, and vistas, and train stations.

One highlight of the day was stopping at a tiny diner in Meyerdale; I ended up being the only one who went to that diner. The waitress was a younger woman who had a shirt on that I thought had a cool design with the Cat in the Hat and it was about cancer so I told her I liked it and asked where I could get one but she said it was a shirt she had made for a friend of hers. Then she got quiet and said that her friend hadn’t made it. So we had a good long conversation about her friend and about my brother. It felt good to tell that story to someone because it has a happy ending. Plus the patty melt was good.

Dinner was a crab place here in Cumberland. Shower was at a YMCA. We’re staying at a church. It all feels “peak Bike The US for MS”.

My right achilles started acting up today and it’s swollen as all get out. I hope it improves tomorrow. Can’t wait for more riding. Really enjoying the trip so far.

2023 Gap/C&O - Day 2 - Ohiopyle, PA

Day 1 was 74 miles, all along the GAP, which I now know stands for Great Allegheny Passage. Ironically we didn’t really ride along the Allegheny river much today, but we were by river(s) the whole day, surrounded by what Ted called a “tunnel of green”. I rode for a while with Ginger and Fred. We stopped at a bench that Fred had installed to honor his older brother who passed away, installed on an overlook at the start of the rapids in the Youngegheny river. Ohiopyle, the town we are in, is a little tourist town that’s here mostly to service whitewater rapids tourists who get in this river and then go down about 5 or 6 miles to a pull out and do some class 3 and 4 rapids. There are some falls in town that I went to look at.

The riding itself was nice, if perhaps a bit dull. I am having a bit of trouble with my lower back so I was glad to get off the bike. But it was a nice day of riding along some pavement and then a lot of hard packed gravel, so hard that it was fine on my road bike. We hit a little bit of mud but nothing special. Had lunch in a bike-themed place called the Kickstand Kitchen, where I had a polish sandwich with pierogies and sausage on a bun. Tasty but heavy.

I talked to Chet and Phil at dinner (pizza) about fundraising and how I got involved with the organization. All in all, a very pleasant day. Looking forward to more tomorrow as long as my butt doesn’t hurt.

2023 GAP/C&O - Day 1 - Pittsburgh, PA

Yesterday I arrived at my friend Ted’s house and spent a nice dinner with him and his wife and a few of our old friends, before waking up today and journeying down to the hotel we’re staying at tonight. Fred Zelt took us out on a tour of Pittsburgh. I learned a lot about this city, which I’ve only been to once, and only briefly. It just goes to show what you don’t know about what you don’t know. One thing I didn’t fully realize was that there are so many rivers and bridges - I guess that’s the “Three Rivers Stadium” idea. But I now know it’s the Ohio, the Allgeheny, and the, uh, M-something.

We went to Bicycle Heaven! That place is amazing. We could only be there for about 15 minutes but you could easily spend an entire day there. It reminded me (in spirit) of the pinball hall of fame in Las Vegas; it’s a one man show of one person’s dedication to cycling, and to collecting bicycles and bicycle memorabilia from all throughout American history, including such gems as Pee Wee’s original bike.

We also went up a funicular, which was awesome and really reminded me of Stuttgart.

Then we had german food at a Hofbrauhaus, and some amazing beer. I can’t wait to ride tomorrow. It’s so great to reconnect with old friends.

2023 Idaho Hot Springs Loop Day 9 - Boise, ID

Ah, back to civilization. A hard 40 miles took me down out of the wilderness and across Highway 21 and then through Boise. It was a challenging ride but not particularly interesting so I won’t dwell on it except to say that everytime I end up back in civilization it’s an interesting transition. Physically you start to see more and more evidence of humans, and your brain goes into this weird place where suddenly these things that you took for granted, like coffee shops and strip malls and watered lawns, feel extremely odd and out of place. But then the feeling fades and you end up in the Boise airport on your laptop waiting for your flight.

What are my main takeaways from the trip? First, that I need to have more male friends. Sitting out in the woods with another kind, gentle man for a week was a really good experience. I love my women friends but I need more male energy in my life. We shot the shit about politics and life and love and everything. Also, I learned a lot about how I will approach mountain biking as a hobby. I didn’t hate it, I didn’t love it, it was a mixed bag, but I think I will be much better prepared for my next trip. I further cemented my mixed feelings about bikepacking; I just don’t really enjoy carrying all my camping gear on the bike.

The last night, I listened to a talk by Timothy Snyder that really stuck with me, possibly because I was in the right frame of mind to be receptive to it because of the week in the wilderness. He spoke about the idea of “freedom to” as opposed to “freedom from”, what he called “positive freedom” instead of “negative freedom”. “Freedom from”, or negative freedom, is the idea that to be free we need to remove obstacles. Freedom from tyranny, freedom from patriarchy, freedom from racism. But what he speaks eloquently about is that freedom only means something if we use it to do something; that’s the “freedom to” part. He then goes on to talk about values, and how they are real things that we can use our freedom to work towards and choose between. And it’s true; what matters is not that we are literally without barriers; what matters is what we choose to do with our freedom.

2023 Idaho Hot Springs Loop Day 8 - Cottonwood Creek Campground, ID

Yesterday (I’m writing this from the airport) was nice. We started the day at the Twin Springs Resort and were in no hurry to leave it, so we bummed around and sat on their porch for hours and hours, talking about politics and solving the world’s problems, while watching the locals drive up the dirt road and stop and talk to Leon about whatever and whenever. I went in their hot tub 3 separate times, did some homework, and took a nap. I’m going to miss this trip.

Kip wasn’t feeling so well, and he eventually got anxious to get on the road, so we headed out and did about 12 miles over some really bumpy roads but past some beautiful terrain. I actually was out pacing Kip, which is how I knew he really was sick. When we finally got to camp he said he wasn’t sure whether he could keep going or turn back to Boise with me and I encouraged him to do what was best for himself (spoiler alert: he kept going). We camped next to a guy named Michael and his dog Tucker who was just bumming around the US in a camper; he lives in North Carolina and works in IT. I’m finally getting the hang of the riding and camping, just in time to go home! :)

I fell asleep listening to Timothy Snyder talk about philosophy and watching the beautiful stars overhead. A good day. Tomorrow will be conclusions from Boise.

2023 Idaho Hot Springs Loop Day 7 - Twin Springs Resort, ID

Again, the word “resort” in the title here is doing a lot of heavy lifting. This place we ended up in is about one part nice cabins in the woods, and one part Middlegate, NV. A very nice caretaker named Leon lives here and he and his buddy keep the place tip top. Everything is fed by geothermals; they even use it for the electricity.

But enough about that; yesterday was a great day. We woke up and had about 20 miles of riding and about 8 different hot springs in front of us. Spoiler alert; we ended up going to 3, not counting the one we started at and the one here that we ended up at. All three had good and bad sides. The best one was a spring called Loftus; that was the last one we went to and the guide book described it as “beautiful” so I said we had to try it. It was somewhat man-sculpted, but it was a beautiful shangri-la pool with a natural shower. If I lived in Boise I’d be there all the time; we’re only about 40-45 miles away. We keep meeting more and more cool people; another whole younger family stopped by last night and we chatted with them for over an hour; they were from Wisconsin but had lived all over this area.

The second hot springs was Browns Creek, which was basically just an amazing natural shower. We had to ford the river to get there, which was mildly terrifying, but it was worth it. What a great shower.

The third hot springs was Dutch Frank, which was “nothing special”, but of course that still means it was spectacular. We went to that one first (chronologically) so we were still starry eyed.

Anyway, the “hot springs” trip finally came through! With hot springs!

We couldn’t stay at a cabin last night; they are perpetually full. We did stop by and look at their onsite two bedroom house, which I called the Scooby Doo house because it looked kind of terrifying. So we just cowboy camped on a lawn out under the stars. I slept well.

I’m really enjoying the trip and love hanging out with Kip. I will also admit that I’m ready to go home.

2023 Idaho Hot Springs Loop - Day 6 - Granite Creek Hot Springs, ID

Calling where we stopped today “Granite Creek Hot Springs” is both true and a bit misleading. A more accurate description would be “along side a dirt road in the middle of nowhere next to the Boise River”. Our goal today was to make it to the first hot springs on the trajectory away from Pine, and we did - actually we made it to the second one. But first was 11 miles of paved road to Fayetteville, where I bought a grapefruit water from a nice lady running the bar there. Then it was off on a dirt road up 3000 feet to Rocky Bar. I was really worried about this trip because it was going to be at least as hard as the first two days of riding, which totally kicked my butt. But actually, I got through it with flying colors. Don’t get me wrong, it was hard, but I didn’t have those moments where I wanted to die. Actually parts of it, especially on the way down, were kind of fun. And the scenery was beautiful. We rolled in to Phifer Creek Hot Springs, but it…wasn’t that great. It had gotten turned into just a shower, and it was only sort of warm. I used it anyway, but we ended up deciding to go on down the road; a guy in all camo named Dwayne told Kip that the next hot springs was way better, and he was right.

We had some trouble finding it, but once we did, yeah, it was nice. Deep, and hot. We ended up sharing it with a family of 4 folks; a 75 year old woman who used to commute to Washington DC, her boyfriend named Frosty, and her son who worked at Costco and his wife. They had a Corgi named Rocket who loved the water. I had a great time. I ended up spending an extra half hour in the spring after everyone left just thinking about my life. We made dehydrated camp food and slept out under the stars.

It was probably the best day of the trip so far.

2023 Idaho Hot Springs Loop - Day 4/5 - Pine, ID

The day before yesterday we took a rest day in Stanley, and then yesterday we ended up taking a van ride down about 80 miles or so past Ketchum/Sun Valley and then over towards Pine on Highway 20.

The rest day in Stanley was nice. Stanley is a very small and very touristy town but it's OK. There is a bakeryt here which was amazing and a grocery store which was really terrible. The library was very pleasant; I got caught up on some school work for my psychology class on fight or flight or freeze. I started reading a research paper for my research class which I thought was about 8-10 pages but turns out to be 49 pages long. Why does research have to be so wordy? Kip and I went on this journey where we thought we were finding a new hot spring, only to go in a giant circle and end up...back at the hotel's hot springs. There's some kind of metaphor there. We went in that hot springs twice more. We met a guy and his family; he was a single dad working in construction who was raising three kids all on his own. The oldest kid was 16 and he said he wanted to go to trade school instead of college. It's interesting to be out here on the road meeting new people from different situations. It's never boring, and everyone has been really nice so far.

The van trip out here was nice; the driver was Kip's age and we had a long conversation. He worked in admissions for higher ed for Boise State and I asked him some questions about that and then Kip and him talked politics for a while.

We did end up riding yesterday; we got in 18 miles of some of the most beautiful riding I've ever done, down and along a reservoir and through some really desert terrain. It re-inspired me for today, which is starting with 2900 feet of vertical climbing (!). The terrain reminded me of the terrain out by Antioch.

2023 Idaho Hot Springs Mountain Bike Loop Day 3 - Stanley, ID

Whew! If I thought yesterday was tough, today was a killer. We woke up in the cold; I couldn't pitch my tent properly and so the dew came through and soaked the end of my sleeping bag. We got a good start and did an easy first 15 miles but then had to climb again and I just fell apart. I ended up talking to Kip about how wiped out I was and we agreed to take a rest day tomorrow. My bike started squealing to high heaven - it was the front disc brake - so I rolled into town right to the bike shop, where the guy had the garage door open working on bikes in the front yard. He fixed me right up and we had a great chat about both having gone to UBI for bike school. He told us to stay at the Mountain Village Lodge because they had their own hot spring (!), so I finally got to go in a hot spring! It was awesome; right overlooking a river. While we were there 3 older ladies stopped in and it turned out they had lived here for 25+ years, and one of them was the old mayor. They were a little drunk and she told us about how terribly sad it was that none of them can even afford to live in the town they grew up in. Housing is a real problem in the US. There was also a couple from Michigan, and I realized the only time I'd been in Michigan was that trip long ago to Detroit. We've met a lot of really interesting folks, and I'm really tired. We're going to spend tomorrow in Stanley and then take a bus down to Ketchum and ride from there.

2023 Idaho Hot Springs Mountain Bike Loop Day 2 - Deer Flats Campground, ID

Yesterday was one of the most challenging days of pure cycling that I've maybe ever had; right up there with that 200 mile day I did years ago. The scenery is beautiful but I can barely take it in because I"m just staring at the ground, afraid of getting in a wreck. Picking your line on these dirt roads in a mountain bike is a very different riding experience. The day started out with us foolishly wasting our first 15 miles on trying to find a hot springs that we never did find, called Molly Hot Springs. When we finally got started from Warm Lake, we had to go straight up 2000 feet at about a 5-6% grade. I literally couldn't do it; I ended up walking a good chunk of it and by the time I got to the top I was destroyed. But then we immediately ran out of pavement and had to do the next 20-25 miles on dirt roads, which sometimes were OK and hard packed, but sometimes were really sandy and a bit treacherous. It is so much harder mountain biking than road biking.

We stopped by a little lodge called Deadwood Outfitters, but we didn't want to stay because we wanted to get a few more miles in. That was a big mistake for me because I totally bonked and was completely out of juice. But I made it to this little campground.

Everyone so far has been very nice. I somehow lost my hiking poles so my tent won't stand up, but I'm making the best of it. The worst problem has been how surprisingly cold it is, it's interfering with my sleep. But today we make it to Stanley and I can get a hotel room.

2023 Idaho Hot Springs Mountain Bike Loop - Warm Lake, ID

Today was a travel day, getting up to meet Kip. I'm pretty tired because I didn't sleep well last night, but I rallied to the airport with Nataly's help and here I now am in Warm Lake, Idaho. The lodge here is very nice; a bit of a soft landing for our big trip. Kip got to catch the end of the Oregon-Texas Tech game (Oregon won) so he was happy, and I got a shower, so I'm happy and looking forward to a great night sleep under the stars. Unfortunately my bike box opened in transit and my trekking poles fell out, and those are what I use to prop up my tent, but Kip is the consummate outdoorsman so he cut me two pieces of stick that did the job (possibly better than the poles did). Tomorrow we get an actual breakfast and then it's off on the first day of riding.

One more comment; I just watched a video on food deserts and dollar stores in America, and it was interesting to see it firsthand as we drove through Cascade, ID. The town had a Family Dollar and a local grocery store, D9 Groceries. But we couldn't go to D9 because it closed at 6. So we ended up shopping at the local gas station, and bought exactly what you're imagining; garbage American food. I tried to find some semi-healthy choices, like a tuna fish lunch pack, but I also ended up with trail mix and a can of Chef Boyardee. I already miss Grocery Outlet.

The plan is to ride for 7 days down to Ketchum and then back over to Boise, where Kip leaves me behind and keeps riding the full loop. I’m excited but also nervous.

2023 Olympic Peninsula - Day 6 - Seattle, WA

Another trip comes to an end! It’s always hard to know what to say at the end of these rides; each of them is different, and I feel a sense of pressure to come up with some kind of grand overarching statement about what I learned from the trip, etc. But the dominant feeling this time is just of having a good time with some old friends and meeting some new ones.

The ride itself on this day was fine; a short ride, about 25 miles on easy roads into the rest stop, then another 15 or so down to the ferry, a long ferry ride to Seattle and 20 minutes of urban riding into the hotel. Then a nice celebration ceremony with sandwiches and beer, a speech about Multiple Sclerosis and our donation. It was great to listen to how the Swedish center uses the money; they have interesting “adventure” programs for the folks with MS to give them access to things they might have felt they left behind, like skydiving or cycling. Then it was showers and milling around until it was time to go to the bar, which we closed down, then closed down a second bar. Some highlights included the Ukrainian-inspired Red Ale at the Flying Bike brewery, and meeting Mason, a friend of Don’s who was one of the “original 4” that rode in 2007. I have a dream of doing a photo essay about all our jerseys and maybe Mason can help out.

It was great to make new friends, like Nikki, Cassie’s friend with MS who came, and Chelsea, a local from Seattle that just showed up to have a good ride. I am rooming with Dr. Nick, Nick Patrone, and I was reminding him about a lunch he bought me on my very first Trans Am ride, and how I had no idea what this whole thing was going to turn into; a genuine community.

Oh, we also talked about a BTUSFMS Ragbrai trip next year! That would be so fun.

Can’t wait to see folks for the Gap/C&O in six weeks!

https://www.biketheusforms.org/olympic-peninsula-bike-tour/

2023 Olympic Peninsula - Day 5 - Shelton, WA

Different days teach me different things about myself, or about biking. Today taught me that I can’t eat like I’m 26 anymore! I’ve been eating such garbage this week; a steady diet of cheeseburgers, chocolate milk, donuts and tortillas. What makes it worse is that in the lead up to the trip I was actually doing a pretty good job of eating a healthy low-carb diet. So my body has now revolted and I’m experiencing some pretty exciting gastrointestinal pains. It definitely took the edge off the last 20 miles or so.

We have another beautiful outdoor setting to camp in, at a high school nearby. Mexican food, a couple of beers, sitting around under the stars. It’ll be sad for this to end again. It’s been a nice trip; met some new folks, reconnected with old ones.

https://www.biketheusforms.org/olympic-peninsula-bike-tour/

2023 Olympic Peninsula - Day 4 - Amanda Park

Today was, in many ways, not an especially unique or meaningful day of riding.  We spent the entire day on Highway 101.  We stopped at some interesting tourist sites, like the Tree of Life, which is a tree that is growing suspended over a giant gap in the rocks.  I rode with Kaylyn for a while and talked to her about her upcoming wedding and how expensive they can be.  When we got to camp, someone had brought us extra pizzas.  I rode down to a local lake and took a bit of an open water swim in lake Quinlaut.  But for all its seeming normality, it is the sort of day that I will always treasure.  Surrounded by like-minded friends, engaging the social part of my brain that I so rarely get to engage in my daily life.  At one point I was riding through some greenery in the middle of nowhere and I suddenly thought to myself “this is enough.  I am enough”.  In that moment I didn’t feel left out or confused or old.  The moment passed of course, and later I felt all of those things, but for a brief shining moment I knew where I was, and where I belonged, and that was enough.

Later, I picked an entire basket of blackberries from some bushes near our campsite, and there were so many, I offered them to anyone who wanted them.  Abundance, in all things, is such a satisfying feeling.

Anyway - a good day.

https://www.biketheusforms.org/olympic-peninsula-bike-tour/