Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Warhorse

Quite an intimidating name Papa Rice chose for his bike but it fits to a T.  We camped in Kettle Falls after meeting up in a cute natural food store. We were faced with a bit of a predicament because Papa had to find a place to stash his rig so he could later take the Amtrak back to it. Ideas were thrown around and we finally settled on going separate ways and meet back up in a campground just outside of Newport so that Hannah and I didn't have to bike as far.

An expected long day required waking up at 5:30 and leaving by 7. To our amazement we were actually punctual which, if you know the Rices, is a pretty good accomplishment. Just ask our pseudo sister Lizzy. Anyway, Papa Rice's journey began driving to Spokane and dropping off the Ford Exploder, finding an REI since he forgot a sleeping pad, and loading up his bike. He galloped on the Warhorse a commendable 59 miles his first day! I could tell at the end of the day by our conversation over the phone that once he reached Newport he wasn't going to move which left us with the decision of either sticking to the original plan or going all the way to Newport but we'll get to that later.

 Meanwhile, our day started with dropping down into Colville from Kettle Falls then climbing our way out. We stopped for our first break at 35 miles where we sat on a rock overlooking a waterfall. That and a trail mix were what we needed to ride until lunch which didn't happen until we hit almost sixty miles. Our conversation was short and consisted of only requests to pass food. It was like we couldn't take in calories fast enough. The only consistent sound was the background music by Juanes, Hannah's artist of the month and only soundtrack on her iTouch but it's growing on me. Awhile after lunch we were greeted into an Indian reservation with a couple of dogs chasing us. Hannah had told me prior that this kind of thing does happen and to just yell "go home!" and the dogs will eventually go home. That's exactly what we did when we were ambushed by the canines. Since I was leading I was stuck fending off the big black ravenous dog while Hannah lucked out with the short stout white one. Fluffy, he was the complete opposite, continued to chase me into the oncoming lane but after a few squirts of water and Hannah's blood curdling "go home!" yell, he finally let up. We finally made to Usk at 88 miles and to our dismay we had another 17 to go until meeting up with papa in Newport. The winds were clearly not in our favor seeing as how if we had a tailwind we would've been at our destination by then. We sat outside a gas station regaining our energy with a Take-5 and contemplating wether or not we should camp in Usk or push to Newport. We had made up our minds that we'd just stay in Usk...until a wave of crazy hit us. We bit the bullet and decided to crank out the last 17 miles and after splitting another Take-5 and a Snickers ice cream bar that's exactly what we did. We took turns pulling and was able to keep an average speed of 17mph, making our estimated hour and a half time into only an hour and fifteen. I don't know anyone that would've been laughing and joking around with me while biking in a headwind and watching our miles slowly tick to 107. It was either due to our pure enjoyment of biking or that we had a mad sugar rush, probably the latter. Either way that has been the funnest and hardest day I've had so far and I'm so glad Hannah was there pedaling beside me the whole way.

When we finally reached the American Kampground in Newport it was 7:45. We started at 7:45 and didn't end until 7:45. An adventure filled 12 hour bike ride deserved nothing but a spaghetti feast. We ran, more like waddled, to the store across the road and got our supplies. Epic meal time! Once again our conversation was limited to "can you pass the salad/bread?".

It was great to finally be reunited with Papa and we have a good story because of it. But after it was all said and done I asked Hannah "can we please have a 30 mile day tomorrow?"

Happy Pedaling!

Chloe