I’ve noticed that many of the online ride diaries are posted on MySpace.com, which is fine, except you must be logged into to view them. I’m a member, but I’ve decided not to post links to blogs that require a login - it just isn’t right.

This page may evolve and change as I add more links.

Blogs & News Links

• Olympian Article
• Eric & Shaunna’s Ride Diary - Newlyweds do the STP!
• Chester Owen talks about how he both loves and hates the STP, and why he didn’t do it this year. His points are valid.

Photos

• My Caropepe Flickr Photos of the 2006 STP
• All Public Flickr Photos of the 2006 STP
• STP 2006 at Blogspot - Photos of the event.

Day Two Totals

Time: 6:38:20
Max. Speed: 34.8 MPH
Avg. Speed: 14.8 MPH
Distance: 98.94 Miles

We started the day with a great breakfast of fruit, bagels & pancakes at our host’s house in Chehalis. In an odd twist of chance, Mountian Bike Hall of Famer, Gary Klein lives across the street from where we stayed. A little bit of bicycle history right in central Washington.

We hit the road right around 6:15 AM and, boy it was chilly, especially in the shadows of the early dawn hours. Things began warming up as we worked our way through the farming communities of Napavine, Winlock, and Vader, before stopping in Castle Rock, then again for “lunch” in Lexington Riverside park.

Then it was only a 12 or so miles to the Lewis & Clark Bridge in Longview. The route to the bridge was pretty ugly, taking us through an industrial area of Kelso, with lot’s of traffice and bad roads. Once at the bridge we queued up before being escorted across by a local motorcycle club.

If asked about the Oregon portion of the trip, I’d have to choose my words carefully. On the one had I wouldn’t want to knock the organizers, since they don’t have much to work with: the roads are chip sealed, there is a lot of traffic, and there aren’t many good places to stop. On the other hand, riding chip sealed roads, dealing with fast moving traffic, and enduring “rest” stops with no shade or water (Scappoose/The Bike Shop, St. Helens, OR) isn’t a lot of fun.

It was on these rolling roads that I pulled away from Brian a bit, then lost track of him. Of course this was also the only time we encountered any mechanical problems when his rear tire developed a slow leak, forcing him to stop and repair it. Although I ended stopping and waiting for 15 minutes or so so he could catch up, I still felt bad about not being able to help out on the repair.

The final few miles into Hollady Park were crowded with cars (none of the streets were closed), and bikes (we kept getting bunched up at the traffic lights — no police directing traffic). So we had to pay a great deal of attention to stay safe, not the easiest thing to do after two, eight-hour days on the bike.

At the park we grabbed our bags, changed, and bought some food. Karen was still on her way so we had a little time to kill before she showed up round 4:00 PM.

Final Statistics

Time: 13:33:19
Avg. Speed: 15.00 MPH
Distance: 204.25 MPH

Total Time: 6:54:59
Max. Speed: 32.3 MPH
Avg. Speed: 15.2 MPH
Distance: 105.31 Miles

We rolled out of the UW Husky Stadium parking lot around 5:45 and planned on hitting all of the major rest stops and a few of the “mini-stops”.

Our first big stop was in Kent at the REI store. There was a ton of people, but there were plenty of facilities and no waiting for anything.

Our next notable stop was the mini-stop in Puyallup, 43 miles in to the ride and one mile before the “big hill”. I suppose this is a chance to rest and recharge before conquring it. Turns out it’s not too bad: 6% for only a mile and a half.

Our next stop was at 50 miles in Spanaway. This was the lunch stop; we chowed on PB & J sandwhiches, bannanas, and fruit.

We skipped the 75 mile rest point and pressed on as the route left the roads and continued on the Yelm-Rainier-Tenino trail, a paved rails-to-trails path through the woods. This was completely enjoyable and continued on for about 10 miles. I probably paced us a bit too fast through this section, but it sure was fun!

There was a nice mini-stop at 86.6 miles where we rested, drank, and rested some more. Then it was on to the halfway point of the whole trip, Centralia. At the Centralia Community College there were tents, music, food, and even a beer garden. Most people stopped here for the day.

But not us.

Our host family was in Chehalis, about another five miles up the road from Centralia. So after a quick stop we continued on.

Speaking of our host family, what a wonderful service they provide! Let’s see, in order they provided us with bike storage, showers, cold (and frosty) beverages, pasta dinner (with cheesecake), and, a few minutes from now, a nice bed. Oh yeah, this is all wrapped in a 1912 Arts & Crafts house that they’re fixing up. Very nice!

We couldn’t ask for anything more.

Tomorrow we get up at 5:00 and do it again…

We’ve got everything packed up, labeled, lubed, and pressurized, and are ready to go.

Our host family is in Chehalis so that’s we’re we’ll be spending Saturday night. My plan is to make a couple of posts once we arrive there and get settled in, but I don’t know what kind of connectivity is available. So we’ll see what happens.

Off to bed now, talk to you soon!

Turns out his freewheel is old and a bit worn. This isn’t a part that, A) is repairable (too many small difficult to deal with parts) and, B) isn’t typically carried in stock (at least for Brian’s wheel set). Because the freewheel is only used when coasting — the wheel itself is spinning, but the gears aren’t — the wrench’s advice was to “live with it” for the STP and to “keep pedaling”.

So after watching 5 hours of Tour coverage on Thursday OLN go Floyd!), we headed out for an easy training ride to keep the blood flowing. After hearing about how crazy the parking situation is with 9000 riders trying to find a spot, we wanted to scope out other options.

We rode down through Golden Garden’s park, and past Shilshole Marina, before hitting the Burke-Gilman trail. We looked at parking in Fremont and at Gasworks park. But the best option seems to be parking in the U-District and riding the Burke-Gilman for about a half mile and taking one of the bridges to Husky Stadium and the start line.

Today we’re going to run some cycling-related chores, do a final clean/check of the bikes, pack our bags, have some pasta and get ready for our 4:00 AM wake-up call tomorrow.

You can bet we’re getting pretty darn excited….

Ride Statistics

Time: 1:58:44
Max. Speed: 33.0
Avg. Speed: 12.2
Distance: 24.18

We stopped and had lunch with Karen & John Gilbreath at the Red Door in Freemont. Since I’m (semi) officially on vacation now, we decided to have some beer with lunch. Mmmmm Beeer. Once we got to the house we turned on stage 10 of the Tour de France and Brian took little nap (right)…

My training has been going quite well of late. On Sunday I tried to do an easy spin up to Edmonds as a follow-up to Saturday’s big ride. It turned out to include a lot more climbing than I had hoped, but I felt great nonetheless.

Sunday 7/9/06 Stats:

Time: 1:41:52
Max Speed: 43.8
Avg. Speed: 12.22
Distance: 20.75

After taking Monday (7/10) off, I rode my bike to work yesterday and felt great. This ride is just over 9 miles each way and is a wonderful way to get in a hour and half of riding earch day.

I was going to ride again today, but logistics worked out such that this wasn’t in the cards. This afternoon we’ll enjoy some quality garage time putting Brian’s bike together and shooting the bull.

I choose today’s route based on two criteria. First was the Seattle Bicycle Touring Club’s map of North Lake Washington Loop (pdf). The second was Robert Scoble’s garage sale where he was selling his famous red couch.

My route took me south on 8th Ave NW to the Burke-Gilman trail. I then followed the BG through the UW and past Kenmore, before turning south on 96th Ave NE and heading towards Robert’s House.

His wife, Maryam was wonderful, offering me water and ice for my water bottle, before calling to Rob that a “friend” of his was here. She was right, if by “friend” she meant someone Robert has never met before in his life…

Robert & I talked about his impending move to Half Moon Bay, CA, his upcoming OffTheGrid event at his mom’s house, and showed me the 60″ HD rear-projection TV in his living room.

I needed to get on with my ride, so I headed south on 84th Ave NE, which connected up with Juanita Drive. I then rode through Kirkland, then proceded to get lost in Bellevue. The directions had me going left on 6th Ave NE to 114th, but with recent construction, this has changed. I probably spent 30 minutes trying to find the right street…sigh.

From there it was pretty straightforward: across I-90 with a quick stop in Leschi at Il Vecchio Bicycles (to ask about touch up paint for the De Rosa). Then I headed through the Aboretum, back to the Burke-Gilman, and home.

Final Statistics:

Time: 4:37:20
Max. Speed: 33.7 MPH
Avg. Speed: 13.4 MPH
Distance: 62.12 Miles

Technorati Tags: bicycle, Seattle-to-Portland, scoble

Once we got out of Shilshole Marina I pretty much handed over the driving chores to my parent’s. My mom drove most of the way across the sound while Sam drove back. We were out for about 4 hours total and everyone had a safe and wonderful time.

Here’s a link to some photos on Flickr:

http://flickr.com/photos/caropepe/tags/j80/

It’s only taken 20 years to get them on a boat - be sure to ask them about their great adventure!