MIT Spokes 2026

Author: MIT Spokes

  • Day 66: POV I’m a Bike

    Day 66: POV I’m a Bike

    Ely, NV to Eureka, NV — 79.2 mi, 4543 ft

    The state I am in is a bit hard to describe. I am having the best time of my life and seeing sights I never thought I would get to see, but at the same time, my chains haven’t been lubricated in days. My tires get pumped sometimes, but not every day. My front and back wheel axles both keep coming loose randomly, my left brake is sticky, my gears don’t always shift, and the grips on my handlebars have seen better days. I know that Tatiana loves me, but boy is this trip rough on me and all the other bikes. The loss of Drewbike was especially tough on all of us, and I feel like it’s been an adjustment for Drewbike2 to fit in, considering his hydraulic brakes and bright pink color. I’m honestly just glad we don’t have to make it back the other way!

    Regardless of how I am doing physically, my favorite part of the trip so far has been getting to see the Spokes members bond and have a magical time. Last night, I got to sleep another night in the library with the Spokes crew instead of in some shed, and I saw a few of them go crazy with laughter while working on a massive puzzle. Tatiana seemed to be going especially crazy, singing a song over and over again and even harmonizing with Drew? I’m not really sure what was going on, but maybe it isn’t meant for me to know. When the team said they were going to go watch a movie at 11 pm and still wake up at 6 am the next morning, I had a sneaking suspicion that they were being overly ambitious with their plan. Regardless, I turned in for the night, waking up only briefly when they snuck back into the library room at 1:30 am.

    In the morning, it was evidently clear that no 6 am movement was occurring, and instead, I saw the first signs of life at 8 am from Nunu and Nate, who were sleeping in the library’s office. Today is a very special day, as it is Nate’s birthday!! I had previously overheard the team’s secret plan of waking up extra early and being completely silent in the morning to celebrate Nate. All summer, he kept asking for us to play the quiet game, so I thought it was a great idea and was ready to be silent myself (though I had no faith in Tatiana), but it seemed like the morning took a different turn. When Nunu started giggling in the library’s office, and Tatiana immediately said happy birthday to Nate, I knew that the quiet game was over.

    Regardless, the team was in a great mood, largely added to by the fact that a kind woman from the White Pine County Library had brought a phenomenal tray of breakfast burritos and cinnamon rolls for the team to enjoy. While all of them were getting ready, I was still standing untouched in the corner. Instead of spending her time lubing my chains, Tatiana decided to have a gun show in the restroom. Of course, I wasn’t there, but she generously gave me this photo to include in my blog.

    Finally, at 9:40, Tatiana came up to me for the first time to refill my water bottles. I can’t complain too much, because the new pink water bottle I get to carry around is SICCKKKK! As she walked away, I noticed that the rest of the team was suspiciously taking turns writing something at one of the library tables. Of course, Nate decided to walk towards them, inches away from spoiling his birthday surprise. Tatiana very unsubtly attempted to distract him, but I do think that Nate may have seen the card they were working on.

    At 10:00, Tatiana brought me outside, and I got to enjoy the sunshine and fresh air with my bike friends. Tatiana finished packing things and putting on her sunblock, and at 10:15, we were off!

    The first stretch was longer than the team had been doing the past few days, but I was so excited because all the bikes stayed together! Usually, Tatiana tends to bike a little… slow… so I don’t get to bike with my friends, but this stretch was different! The group discussed all the blogs they wanted to write (including this one) and the plan for the Spokes end-of-trip party. Tatiana also made some calls to finally schedule her long-awaited leg waxing appointment at Lake Tahoe and called her boyfriend Noah! I feel like I get to eavesdrop on so many of Tatiana’s conversations with the team and with her family, even though most of the time it sounds like Tatiana’s family either can’t hear anything because of the wind or there is no service in the first place.

    At the first rest stop, it was time to unveil the big surprise! As I learned, the reason the first stretch was so long was to give Drew extra time to race to the grocery store and buy cake and a car full of Nate’s favorite snacks! There were Nilla Wafers, peach rings, Cheez-its, navel oranges… everything our birthday boy could dream of. The team had a hugely fun birthday celebration for Nate, consisting of an oversized party hat, a hand-decorated birthday cake courtesy of Drew which had Nate at the center of a Venn Diagram comparing cyclists and feminists, and a bunch of those birthday kazoo type things. The team also presented Nate with the birthday card and a silly magnet of a goofy woman on a bicycle. It made my bike-heart happy to see the team so joyously celebrating Nate!

    Just before getting back to the road, I heard the team making a Spokes playlist, which Tatiana would end up listening to for the rest of the day. The goal of the playlist was to capture songs from the summer that would remind the team of Spokes, and it made me nostalgic to hear Tatiana humming songs from the past two months throughout the day’s bike ride. If you’re interested, you can listen to it too! 
    https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7J8mwEkqZCYOeyR4odLpQZ?si=HXUjlnkzRkmT2k4UYcIHEw&utm_source=copy-link&pi=5KvOhV-_SFaP6

    As we set off for the second stretch, I heard Natebike behind me make a weird sound, and then for some reason Natebike and Nunubike stayed behind. I kept thinking they would pass me like usual, but 5 miles in, they were nowhere to be found. At this point, Tatiana was worried, and after a few calls I understood that Natebike’s tire had popped and that Drew would drive back to Ely for a new tire. 

    At the next rest stop, we knew that Drew would not be able to make it back in time, so I lay on the ground next to Aarushibike, Carmenbike, and Carolinebike while the four girls found shade under some heavy machinery on the side of the road. I could tell that their energy was a little bit low in the heat, but they tried to be positive, and Tatiana suddenly remembered the Rice Krispie treat she had hidden in my saddle bag.

    Eventually, the four of them decided to get back on the road again, and we finished our second big climb of the day under Nevada’s scorching sun. I could feel that Tatiana’s pedaling was starting to slow down and she seemed more exhausted than usual. When we came to the last rest stop of the day, it became evident why. Tatiana and Caroline were both feeling quite ill, possibly catching onto whatever Aarushi and Drew had been experiencing.

    Beyond the brutal heat, I also saw the Spokes team assaulted by flies, with the pesky creatures attacking all of their food and everything in sight. Drew was going especially crazy from this, since he had to drive the minivan with all of the flies trapped inside! Luckily, Nunu happened to have bought a fly swatter earlier in the trip, and Nate decided that this was the opportunity for him to wage war on the flies. See the video below for a live-action of Nate’s fly assassination attempt.

    After accepting their fate and the flies’ dominance, the team was ready for the final stretch, a 1,500 ft climb over 9 miles. I could feel Tatiana seriously struggling on this climb, forcing herself to pedal even though she felt extremely ill. At some point, Aarushi and Aarushibike noticed how tough it was going, and Aarushi started to retell another one of the Percy Jackson books to help distract Tatiana. I think it worked, because her pedaling did get faster and she started to take less frequent breaks!

    Eventually, Tatiana, Aarushi, Aarushibike, and I finished the climb, and sped through the downhill to meet up with all of my other bike friends at a gas station in the town of Eureka. The church we would stay at was 18 miles north of our route, and Drew was already unpacking the car at the church so that we could shuttle. Tatiana was in a pretty rough state, so she quickly bought an Arizona iced tea from the gas station while we waited for Drew to come back. When he arrived, he told all the bikers that he had bought pizzas for them to eat and loaded me on the back of the van for my joyride.

    As soon as we got to the church, Tatiana was ready to crash, and quickly showered, ate pizza, and hit the hay to try and recover from the illness. 

    As for me, I got to enjoy a night out under the stars, watching Carmen, Aarushi, and Nunu cowboy camp to enjoy the beautiful night sky. 

    With all my bikey-love,

    Tatianabike

  • Day 65: The Legend of the Rider in White

    Day 65: The Legend of the Rider in White

    Learning Festival in Ely, NV — 0 mi, 0 ft (or 36.44 mi, 2254 ft)

    Today, we woke up strewn across the floor of the library of a high school in Ely, Nevada approximately 5 miles away from a 0% contained wildfire. Certainly not what I foresaw for my life if you asked me a couple of years ago. 

    Spokes can be described as a fluid since the team expands to fill up all the space (and time) it is given. In this case, the library of a high school.

    We need to be at the learning festival location by 9am for our learning festivals. We woke up at 8:30am. It goes without saying that we did not eat breakfast as everyone ran around between hallway bathrooms trying to get ready quickly (except for me, who limped around since I cut the bottom of my foot on a rock in a lake at Great Basin National Park back in Baker, NV). 

    We drove over to the library where the LF was being hosted “only” 10 minutes late, after texting the library that we would be a bit late, and quickly scrambled to get the LF boxes out of the car. At that moment, we got a text back from the library staff that they weren’t expecting us until 11:30am. Strange…

    Not that strange, actually. Turns out that this LF was scheduled for 11:00am to 5:00pm (as opposed to the usual 9:00am to 3:00pm) and that we had just forgotten. Suddenly, a call we received from the library staff the previous day in which they ended the call with “See you all tomorrow morning… or I guess, afternoon actually” made sense. At the time, we had just ignored it as strange, but clearly, we are the strange ones. 

    What follows was a textbook example of the Spokes planning process. I’ll try my best to recall all steps throughout the process, however, strong disclaimer that there were certainly more steps that aren’t included:

    1. Let’s go wait at a cafe.
    2. Drew doesn’t want to wait at a cafe, and wants to go back to the high school and will bike to the library later.
    3. We start driving to the high school and then will drive to the cafe.
    4. Our bikes are still sitting at a random campsite. Since at this point the wildfire doesn’t seem to be a concern anymore (see below), it’d be good not to leave them there more than necessary. Otherwise, since the LF ends late, we’d have to go pick them up at night.
    5. We need somewhere to leave the LF boxes since the 5 bikes at the campsite don’t fit in the van unless the boxes are out. Let’s go leave the boxes back at the library.
    6. Bringing the bikes back will cut it close to the start of the LF. Since there’s only ~15 students signed up for the LF, we can do 3 groups of 5, run 3 workshops at once, and let the pair running the fourth workshop go get the bikes.
    7. Nate has nothing to do and is down to go get the bikes, meaning Drew should come go as well. 
    8. Drew has some work to do and would rather stay. Nunu can join but then two workshops are understaffed. Drew will help Caroline for the first workshop to avoid understaffing.
    9. Since the bikes are going to be in the van during the LF and we’ll need to put the LF boxes in later, some people will need to bike back to the highschool after the LF.
    10. The bike rack is back at the high school, good thing we’re going to drop Drew off there anyways.
    11. Time to drive back to the library to drop off the boxes. Unfortunately, we don’t actually know which building the library is.
    12. Walk into the first building we see and be told it’s actually a courthouse. Someone shows us the way to the library while we carry the LF boxes. 
    13. I walk back to watch the car because I’m not much help limping around. We left all the doors open, the car running, and the keys inside the car. 
    14. We drive cafe people to the cafe, at which point they realize they’ll have to get back to the library and they don’t want to walk. New plan: they’ll order while we go back to the highschool, then we’ll pick them up on the way back to go get the bikes, and drop them off at the library. The cafe and library are on the way to the bikes so it’s not too egregious.
    15. Drive Drew to the high school. Pick up the bike rack. 
    16. Grab breakfast from McDonalds since the cafe people aren’t ready yet and we haven’t had food. 
    17. Pick up cafe people, drop them off at library, and go to get the bikes. 

    Nothing too interesting on the car ride to pick up the bikes, but Nunu and I did discuss how typical this inefficiency has become lately. At the same time, we seem to do inefficiency so efficiently.

    Still there 😁

    We got back to the library just as the first workshop was finishing up and Drew and I jumped into our electric motors workshop for the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th slots. 

    This “motor” spins so fast the camera frame rate can’t capture it. Turn up your audio to hear it whir. 

    At 1:45pm, we stopped for lunch. With the kids being watched by the super helpful library staff + Tatiana + Caroline, the rest of us went to a nearby burger place to pick up lunch for all 7 of us. We came back with this haul of huge burgers with a ton of fries. Too bad we aren’t biking today, it’d be great fuel.

    Picture of some rabid animals not waiting for the rest of the team or for the picture to be taken to devour their meals.
    Towards the end of lunch, Tatiana and Drew led the kids in a game of pictionary.

    After finishing up lunch, we went back into teaching and wrapped up the learning festival around 5pm. Tatiana had taken the kids to some bouncy castles at a festival across the street from the library, so we waited for her to come back with the kids that hadn’t been picked up yet, as well as for Aarushi and Carmen to get back from looking at the town’s main street, to take a picture with the library staff. Unfortunately, Aarushi and Carmen took so long that the other staff member left.

    After we finished packing our stuff and cleaning + vacuuming the room we held the LF in, we walked across the street to spend some more time at the festival. We checked out the booths, some people got matching temporary tattoos, we played Connect 4, and Carmen and Caroline raced each other in an inflatable obstacle course.

    Pictures of the festival, which was thrown by the city’s police department.

    A photo finish! Apparently, Carmen and Caroline kept getting cut in line by little kids while inside the obstacle course, so it took them like 5 minutes to get through.

    After about an hour of loitering at this festival, I was getting bored, which translated to me complaining to Nunu about not being able to finish yesterday’s ride and fence-sitting the idea of finishing the ride today. 

    We had stopped the ride partly because of how hazy/smoky it looked along the route causing concern about bad air quality, but also because we were worried the wildfire might cause road closures along our route since it had doubled from 4k to 8k acres that morning. Additionally, the wind had shifted to blow the fire towards the road we were biking on, and we were worried we’d be separated from Drew (who was waiting for us in Ely, read yesterday’s blog for more context) if the road got closed. 

    In the end, we were probably the only people concerned about the fire in all of Ely because no one in the town showed any urgency or concern about the fire (as a football coach at the high school put it when I asked him about everyone’s lack of concern, “There’s nothing we can do about it, so why worry.”) 

    As soon as we had arrived in the town, however, and certainly by today when the air was clear and the fire had stopped growing in size, we realized that we may have been overly reactive (e.g. moving our bikes out of the town, cancelling the ride, etc.) – what’s new? In the grand scheme of things, erring on the safer side was the best thing to do, but I personally don’t like missing out on any biking and somewhat felt like we had quit/given up on yesterday’s ride. 

    After conveying my displeasure at not rising up to the challenge of the wildfire at length to Nunu, she said something along the lines of “If you really wanted to finish the ride, you should’ve planned ahead better earlier to do it right after the LF ended. If you’re not gonna do something about it, stop complaining” (she didn’t say anything close to this, but I read between the lines). 

    Feeling inspired by Nunu’s tough love, I decided I would finish yesterday’s ride. 

    I asked around to see if anyone else was interested but I just got various versions of “No”, “Why would I do that”, “You’re weird”, and an “Any other day I would” from Drew (but I’m pretty sure this is the second time I’ve heard this 🤔). 

    So at 6:20pm, Nunu, Caroline, and I drove back to the high school (and then drove back to the festival because Drew had the key, and then drove back to the high school). I quickly got ready while Nunu and Caroline went to pick up some drinks for the team from McDonalds (including a big lemonade for me to fuel up on, as if the giant burger from earlier wasn’t enough). Nunu dropped Caroline off with lots of assorted gear/stuff to put back in the high school, including our dinner that the library had very kindly cooked for us, and then Nunu and I drove off 30 minutes to the point where we had stopped yesterday’s ride to complete the last ~35 miles of the ride.

    Around the same time, we received this picture of the team receiving massages that were “for the firefighters”… 

    A bit after 7:30pm, Nunu dropped me off to start the ride. She also kindly offered to drive support car for me since she was just going to work on her blog in the car anyways. So with that, I headed off on my ride, dressed up in a pretty cool looking outfit if you ask me. 

    I felt like some kind of assassin off to eliminate some climbs. At some point yesterday, someone (possibly maybe me, but not sure) came up with the name of “The Rider in White” for the mysterious masked biker riding through the wildfires of Nevada. 

    At this point, the sky was a super pretty pink color and the vibes were pretty amazing. Unfortunately, this was because the sun was setting. Oh well, I knew I’d be spending most of my time biking in the dark when I signed up for this.

    Would most people bike 36 miles to see this view? Probably not, but it was still nice.

    I biked through the valley, enjoying the lovely sunset and last bits of light, before the sun set and I began the 2000 ft, 8 mile climb out of the valley that would comprise the hardest part of the ride. An additional benefit of this ride was that, since I was the only one biking, I was free to bike as fast as I wanted without having to wait for anyone else – so I decided to take advantage of the ride to push myself more than I’m usually able to during rides. 

    Part way through the climb, I came up on the first rest stop that had been included on the route. I decided to call ahead to ask Nunu to look for a bag of peach rings from the snack box so that I could just grab them and keep biking without stopping (these peach rings have 20g of carbs in 3 rings and a total of 90g of carbs in the whole bag, meaning they’re a great way to shove fuel into your body). When I rolled up to the car, my amazing driver had them sitting in the passenger seat for me and I was able to grab them without my Garmin even pausing the ride.

    I finished up the climb (after spending ~50 minutes on 8 miles, the entire ride took 2 hours so…) as well as the bag of peach rings, and enjoyed a quick descent back down the other end of the mountain before the route flattened out again (only slightly worried about a deer jumping into the road and ending the summer early). 

    As I came up on the last rest stop, I called Nunu to let her know that I had great momentum and was gonna skip the rest stop. I felt pretty bad that she had spent the time driving/waiting around and in the end I didn’t even spend any time stopped, but at that same moment I looked up and saw the brightest stars I had seen all trip as well as views of the Milky Way. I told her this which seemed to maybe make the ride worth it because she seemed very excited about the stars. 

    I arrived at the high school a bit after 9:30pm, having spent a total of 2 hours on the ride. I headed into the library where everyone was seated around doing their own thing. Nunu and I made ourselves some taco bowls for dinner, and then her, Drew, and I headed to McDonalds for yet another round of yummy drinks. 

    Some of us took less orthodox methods of transportation to McDonalds.
    A totally reasonable amount of drinks. For Nunu, a large water. For me, two large waters, a medium mango pineapple smoothie, and a medium lemonade. Definitely an overzealous order since only the smoothie got finished. 

    Drew headed back to the high school while Nunu and I drove a bit out of the city because I wanted to take another look at the stars. Unfortunately, I didn’t get much chance to really appreciate them while riding since I was focused on biking fast and kept nearly swerving off the road whenever I stuck my head out to look at the stars above me. 

    We spent some time lying on the floor enjoying the stars for the first real time this trip, and seeing like 5-10 shooting stars. 

    Some time towards the end of our time stargazing, it passed midnight and I turned 23. Happy birthday to me or something.

    We drove back to the high school where we found the entire team about to start a movie… Clearly none of us have any concern about our hot 80 mile ride tomorrow. 

    Meanwhile, I showered and then headed to bed, wondering if the people of Ely were telling each other the story of the Rider in White, who biked in the night through the flames of the wildfire.

    – Nate

  • Day 64: Is something burning?

    Day 64: Is something burning?

    Baker, NV to Ely, NV — 61.7 mi, 4469 ft

    I woke up super sick, unprepared to bike. It was the first day where I would have to SAG on a non-mandatory basis. Or was it? The potential savior of my pride was a wildfire that was blowing smoke into the valleys through which we needed to bike. Nunu transported me to Ely as the rest of the team monitored the air quality. As it increased steadily into “very unhealthy” ranges, they decided to call off today’s route. I’m someone who values the sanctity of our cross-country crossing, and introducing discontinuity into our route typically upsets. However, I was not at all upset about this one, because there was no way I could have biked- I was so sick. And this way, I can upkeep my record of not having any non-entire-team sags.

    I’m writing this blog a little while after the trip ended. Our schedule in Nevada became very very tough- as you’ll soon find out… eventually. It’s a little too far back to give a typical detailed chronological play-by-play. So, I’m going to pivot a bit.

    Once I got to Ely, Nunu left to go shuttle the bikers through the wildfire smoke. Meanwhile, the pile of over-the-counter medicine I consumed was starting to relieve some of my symptoms, so I gathered up the energy to walk to the Carl’s Jr in the gas station across the street from the high school that was hosting us. 

    I ate a bacon cheeseburger as I talked to some of the dozens of firefighters who were on lunch break. It tasted surprisingly good, which made me think… I should write a burger ranking blog. I ate a lot of cheeseburgers on the trip, so this list will not be comprehensive. If I don’t remember the burger, then it probably doesn’t belong here anyways.

      5.   In-n-Out.

    Following my well-documented In-n-out experience in CO Springs, I figured I had to include it on this list for the sake of giving my opinion on In-n-Out burgers. I think that In-n-Out is like the Chick-fil-a of burgers. People like it because it’s a consistent, easy, cheap, and reliable 6/10 meal. Not because its a great burger.

      4. Dairy Queens throughout Virginia.

    There were so many Dairy Queens in Virginia. I feel like dairy queen gives you everything you need for a biking day. Burgers, Fries, Soda, Ice Cream. DQ makes the list because somehow, the burgers always come out hot and fresh. I like how they mix up the types of cheese on the double. 

          3.  Freddy’s in Colorado Springs.

    This chain never disappoints. Smashburgers hit so hard on a biking trip. I really loved their shoe string fries. You can grab like 20 of them at a time and dip them in the jalapeno fry sauce. Super tasty… earning number 3.

          2.  TJ’s Mainstreet Grill in Overbrook, Kansas

    In the era of private equity owned restaurants, finding a quality non-fast-food burger can be tough on the wallet. TJ’s really impressed me with the value. A double bacon cheeseburger will set you back $7. I was expecting them to bring out a burger with 2 dimes as patties. I couldn’t be more wrong. Between the buns layed 2 massive ⅓ pound patties and a generous portion of juicy bacon. It wasn’t just the value that sets this burger apart, it was the taste as well. Truly the most magnificent way to finish a 90 mile day, earning the number 2 spot

    1. Milt’s in Moab Utah.

    When I finished my ride into Moab the morning after our storm delay, I rode past this white shack that looked kinda like the old retro McDonalds but without the arches. The smell from outside captured me, and I couldn’t take my mind off of the idea of eating a burger there. Later, at our AirBnB, I convinced the rest of the team to have our lunch there. Our team, particularly the female members of our team, seem to have a problem with burgers. They’ll hype up dry pasta and reheated lasagna every day like it’s cocaine but turn their cheek to a delectable cheeseburger (I think they are being performative). I don’t know what their deal is. Anyways, this is the first time I’ve seen them all united in pure pleasure and satisfaction at the taste of a burger, earning it my number 1 spot.

  • Day 63: Romanticizing the Mundane

    Day 63: Romanticizing the Mundane

    Milford, UT to Baker, NV — 84.9 mi, 4,539 ft

    Video script:

    Today was the day we would cross into our second to last state of the whole summer, Nevada! We were biking from Milford, Utah to Baker, Nevada over 84.9 miles and 4,539 ft of elevation. I was not particularly looking forward to today’s ride since it predicted a lot of climbing and possible strong headwinds but when was I ever? To be honest, this summer has given me a love-hate relationship with biking. Because when the alarm blares at 6am I seriously feel like I want to do anything other than get out of my cozy sleeping bag and bike all day in the hot sun for what feels like forever. Then again, I just know that when the summer ends I will seriously miss this crazy lifestyle we’re living.

    With no choice but to bike, we all geared up, said our goodbye’s to our driver of the day, Bacon, and then were off. I like the feeling of the momentum from those first few pedal strokes of each day with my whole team around me—it’s like we are seriously seizing the day and it’s the start of a new adventure as we usually have no idea what the day ahead holds.

    Unfortunately, the day ahead was holding a few big climbs and absolutely nothing to stimulate the mind as we biked in a straight line through this desert-like landscape. At the same time, it was kind of beautiful. I’ve never been on such an expansive road before that I could see literally multiple miles ahead and behind. Things that seemed close because I could see it in the distance, actually took much longer to pass by than I thought. This also included our support car, Mr. K, that is easy to spot from her bright orange camper top which always seemed so much closer than it felt to bike to.

    As I approached the first rest stop behind Nate and Drew, I was confused because I only saw their bikes at first sitting on the side of the road. Eventually, I found them tucked away behind a bush taking shade from the sun. Nate complained that he was feeling an incoming bonk so I dug through my bike bag and pulled out a week old bag of gummy worms that had melted into a gummy worm chunk! It actually wasn’t good but sometimes you just gotta eat even if you don’t feel like it. I also forced myself to take some bites while we waited for Bacon to come from the grocery store. Eventually, Caroline found us sitting sadly under this bush and joined us. Suddenly, Mr. K sped by! Nate yelled after her, “nooo come back.” Caroline called Carmen to turn around and all was well. Plus, she brought a delicious snack haul with her complete with all our favorites: crunchy green grapes, cheez-itz, nilla wafers, wheat thins, nature valley bars, pop tarts, soda, and a new one… peach rings! Now these peach rings were a serious trend setter for the rest of the trip (and I know this because I am making this after the trip has ended) because, as Nate and Drew love to talk about, the macros were great. You just needed to eat 6 peach rings to have enough carbs in one rest stop. After we devoured two bags, they sent Carmen back to get more peach rings for the next rest stop.

    Then there was more of the same biking, biking, biking. Now, here’s some clips of something interesting and novel, more biking! Okay now another rest stop… and now some more biking! To spice it up a little, we decided to pull out our tubs of macaroni salad and potato salad gifted to us by Nate’s family. Maybe not the wisest dairy heavy snack to have mid bike ride (especially as a lactose intolerant person) but they were yummy and we were bored and hungry.

    After some more biking and rest stopping, we finally reached the Nevada sign! Since we needed to wait for the whole group to arrive so we could all take a picture together (which would take maybe half an hour), we decided to all squeeze into the car to take refuge in the AC. This meant two people in the driver’s seat, two in the passenger, and one squeezed in the second row next to all our snacks. And our awesome driver, Carmen, sacrificed herself and stood outside next to the car and under a blanket for some shade. We all doomscrolled for a bit on our phones which was an insane dopamine hit after rarely scrolling all summer and after an extremely understimulating day of biking. When the whole team was finally gathered, we did our usual circular debate about helmets or no helmets and how to pose and blah blah blah. Then we all watched Carmen struggle to figure out how to take a selfie. For some reason her instinct was to take it with her left hand while standing to the right of the group? It was very funny.

    For the last 8ish mile stretch to our destination for the night, I drafted Drew who was drafting Nate in a sideways formation to try and minimize some insane crosswinds. When we pulled up to this adorable cafe-inn situation called Stargazer Inn & Bristlecone General Store, they had a sign outside welcoming us! We were so excited and were greeted by a very sweet cat and sweet staff who gave us a delicious dinner with yummy sandwiches, blueberries, chips, juice, and cookies. Looking around the store at all the brochures, I realized we were right next to Great Basin National Park! Caroline, who has of course been here before, told the group that she recommended we go take a look and it was only a ten ish minute drive. I was really really excited to hear this and one of the ladies at the cafe corroborated Caroline’s words and told us about this very short and beautiful hike we could do to a lake to go swimming. These are actually my buzz words and I was so determined to go. I tried to convince everyone else to join but this of course sparked another one of our favorite past times, discussing things in circles. Some people were very tired from the bike ride and wanted to rest while some people were interested in visiting the national park but only at night to go to a stargazing lecture and some people realllyyyyyyyy wanted to go swimming in a magical and secluded lake in the mountains like wow doesn’t that just sound awesome like who wouldn’t want to do that? Anyway, we decided to stop discussing and just take action since we were wasting precious time and so the plan was in motion. It was almost 5PM and we would go to the church to unpack everything, gather all our laundry, and then everyone would go to the local gas station to take showers and do the laundry. Then by 5:30PM the hiking and lake swimming people would leave, do the 30 minute drive to the trailhead, hike and swim for an hour, and head back to the church at 7PM to pick up the stargazing crew and drive back to the visitor center to join the stargazing lecture at 8PM. Haters will say that this was an extremely optimistic schedule but I will say that I was determined to make it work.

    The hiking swimming group ended up being myself, Nate, and Tatiana. The drive up was so beautiful as we went up some steep switchbacks into and above the clouds before eventually reaching the peak and seeing some very grand cliffs. Then the hike itself was one of my favorite hikes of the whole summer. Not only were we basically the only ones there but it weaved through a beautiful forest of tall birch trees and in the clearings were picture perfect views of the cliffs that surrounded us. It was also late afternoon and the sun was shining through the trees at a magical angle and wow it seriously looked like a fairytale. The three of us might’ve however come slightly unprepared as it was quite a rocky and uneven hiking trail and we were all either wearing slides or flip flops so here’s a clip of Nate struggling to keep his flip flops on.

    When we finally reached the lake, we saw some deer grazing and I just thought like wow, if I was a deer this would be my dream home. We did some lazing around on our picnic blanket we brought with us and then also did some swimming in this extremely cold lake. But this swimming was more like squatting in and violently shivering because it was very very cold. The bottom of the lake was also extremely muddy and rocky and there were thousands of tiny small bugs on the surface of the water? To be honest we’ve had much better swimming experiences this summer but at least we’ve done it all. Unfortunately, in the chaos of trying to quickly get out of the lake and wrap ourselves in our warm towels, Nate cut the bottom of his foot on a sharp rock. This was a little more dramatic than perhaps it needed to be because as the sun was setting and our friends were waiting for us to come pick them up, we were racing back down this trail as Nate hobbled and limped down using me as a crutch. When we eventually got to the car, I pulled out our handy dandy first aid kit and our gallon of sterile water. I told Nate to lie down horizontally and stick his foot upside down out of the car and proceeded to drench his foot in a waterfall of water in an attempt to rinse out all of the dirt. Tatiana has a big phobia of blood so she sat in the back of the car and cheered us on from afar. We then sanitized it with an alcohol pad and I did some makeshift bandage situation with some nonstick gauze and medical tape—call me surgeon Nunu.

    We made it back to the church exactly on time, as I knew we would, and loaded everyone in along with some more mac and cheese salad and potato salad for the road. Drew decided to stay back since he wasn’t feeling well. During the drive back, we noticed that the sky was bright pink and very hazy which was some subtle foreshadowing into the kind of ride we were about to have tomorrow. Luckily or unluckily for me, tomorrow was my driver day. We then arrived back at the national park and walked the red lit path toward the stargazing lecture. I was initially worried because the haziness in the sky made it difficult to see very many stars but the smoke shifted just enough for us to peer through.

    During the lecture we learned about the history and the technology behind the telescopes that have been able to let us see stars and then took turns looking through them at various stars in the sky. We started by looking at the middle of the handle of the big dipper which we learned was actually visually made up of two stars and supposedly only those with really really good vision could make out that there are actually two stars. Indeed, when I peered into the telescope I saw that there were not only two stars in that spot but many many many stars surrounding them. It just reminded me how vast the universe is and how small we truly are. Yet we are still able to have these insanely fulfilling experiences and days full of adventure and even despite everything else going on in the universe we are so lucky to have had the chance to be here together in this specific moment.

    We decided to head home a bit early and when we got back Drew sounded very sick indeed so I gave him a Nyquil. He foreshadowed to us that he might be taking a rest day tomorrow and be my passenger princess. With that, we all got ready and went to bed among the pews of this small church in Baker, Nevada. Who knows what tomorrow has in store for us because every day I wake up and we end up doing something unexpected and it’s so so fun to look forward to and I just hope the summer never ends.

  • Day 62: Jesus for 300

    Day 62: Jesus for 300

    Cedar City, UT to Milford, UT — 59.2 mi, 1525 ft

    This morning was just like any other day, except there were two of me. My twin sister was going to bike with us! The plan was that she’d ride the 60 mile day with us, stay with us at the church for a little McCay^2 sleepover, and then she’d leave the next morning. Hopefully, she’d get a snapshot of the Spokes day to day experience. 

    McCay^2

    We set out at 10 am, a little later than what was probably ideal with this insane heat. Within the first mile, we came across a farmer’s market that was directly along our route. It was a test of strength that absolutely no one stopped to buy anything. Probably a record. 

    I had Simon use my bike and I took Aarushi’s, the driver for today. We only ever had 6 garmins, so the driver usually hands theirs off to Nunu, who just switches between them. But since Drew’s garmin is stuck on the side of a cliff in Zion, we now only have 5. Anyway, there aren’t enough garmins to go around. So when we had to make a sudden and sharp right turn, we didn’t signal well enough and Simone didn’t have enough time to process it before she ran into Nate’s back wheel. It was crazy. She practically dove off of her bike, did a side roll on the ground, and immediately popped back up like nothing had happened. Everyone was seriously impressed. Ironically it looked like it had affected her the least.

    We kept biking through the heat, had our buns rest stops on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, and went over a few mountain ranges.

    I honestly felt kinda bad about all of this, since I had invited my sister to bike on this nasty hot day, and all she got to show for it was a scrape on her knee. Around mile 20 I got a call from Nunu asking about a package that was supposedly delivered to our airbnb in Cedar City. And so with my mom planning on driving back to check for it, I also asked my dearest sister how she was feeling. She was rightly feeling hot, tired, and no longer having fun. So at mile 22 she decided to get in the car with my mom and escape from this ride. I mean if I had the option, I would’ve taken it too.

    We continued until our next rest stop at a gas station, where I said goodbye to my family for the next two weeks. 

    I took some delightfully boring pictures of the desert we biked through. 

    Whenever we passed a crop circle, it felt like the temperature lowered significantly. Now I just looked this up to check if I’m crazy, and apparently it’s a real thing. When plants absorb sunlight, they release water vapor through pores in their leaves in a process called transpiration. The liquid water in the plant has to absorb heat from the environment to turn into a vapor that’s released through the stomata, meaning the surrounding air is cooler by a few degrees. Fascinating.

    As we entered Milford, Nunu, Caroline, and I saw this truck on the side of the road, which I feel needs an explanation. It’s a waste disposal company; “iGOTPOOP.com has been serving the people of Utah since 2003.”

    We got to the church and saw this Bible Jeopardy on the wall. Caroline was the self appointed Jeopardy host. “What category would you like to pick?”  I chose Jesus for 300. She said, “This is how many disciples Jesus had.” I guessed either 7 or 12. Well, there wasn’t an answer on the back of the card, and so we had to look it up. It was 12. 150 points for me. I’m not very good at Bible Jeopardy, in case you couldn’t tell. But whoever in this congregation made this game seems very lit.

    We then began the search for the showers that were supposedly in the church. We had looked everywhere, in all the side rooms, closets, in the back of the kitchen. The only place we hadn’t looked was in the chapel. Behind the stage, on either side were two closet doors. There’s a reason this was the last place we checked. Why would they be there? There is no way that could be the case. But as I opened the door, there it was, a shower. Wow. There was even another on the other side of the stage. After our nasty ride, our tired brains thought this was the funniest thing ever. The thought of walking between the pews in our towels and behind the sanctuary just to shower. What are we even doing with our lives?

    For dinner we got these delicious burgers and sandwiches at Scotty’s Diner.

    We worked on our overdue blogs when we got back, until Aarushi had the genius idea of doing yoga outside. So Nunu, Caroline, and I followed Aarushi’s lead, which admittedly was a whole lot more stretching than actual yoga; no Adho Mukha Svanasana to Bhujangasana to Virabhadrasana I and Virabhadrasana II for us. Although we did do a little Savasana, or corpse pose, just for fun.

    Then Tatiana, Aarushi, and I decided that tonight would be the perfect night to Cowboy camp (inspired by Stanford Spokes). With partial cloud cover and a baseball game that was still going on at 11:30 at night, perfect conditions for star gazing, we set up our sleeping pads. It was actually incredibly comfortable since the grass was like an extra cushion. At around 11:50 pm, I saw the sprinklers turn on in front half of the church’s lawn. But we were around the back. The sprinklers wouldn’t get us on this side. I was too tired to care, and just left it up to fate. 

    At 12:40 am I was woken up to screams and cold water being shot into my face. The sprinklers got us. We truly are geniuses. We picked all of our half soaked sleeping bags up and ran inside. I promptly fell asleep in the aisle between two tables of a kids room, underneath a slightly warm and slightly wet sleeping bag.

    We’ll eventually get this Cowboy camping thing right. 

    Remember to learn from your mistakes,

    Carmen

  • Day 61: A Tale of Two Cities

    Day 61: A Tale of Two Cities

    Zion National Park, UT to Cedar City, UT — 45.6 mi, 3737 ft

    It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. 

    If you recognize that line from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities (the namesake of this blog), you might have some foresight into how this day will play out. In this analogy, my day was akin to life in London and everyone else’s day was more like Paris: safety and peace vs chaos and hunger. Not to say I didn’t experience any chaos as well, but I escaped the worst part of the day as I took a driver day to spend some more time with my family. They had driven down from our home in California (12 hours!!) to visit me for our rest day in Zion. They were also staying an extra day beyond what they initially planned as well since our plan to hike the Narrows moved to today and we needed an extra car, since we had to split up yesterday to get Drew a new bike. All that to say, I wanted to spend some more quality time with them since they were doing so much to just see me. 🙂 I know my last couple of blogs haven’t been biking days… I bike, I swear.

    Hiking the Narrows in the morning necessitated a 5 am wakeup, as we needed to pack up the minivan, pack up my family’s stuff, and prepare the airbnb for checkout. We moved fast, getting out of the door at 6:20 am. Our goal was to beat more of the line for the shuttles that we experienced yesterday before Angel’s Landing, so I ran in to hold our spot while the rest of our 11 person party meandered in, with some slightly dirty looks from the people behind us. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

    Once on the shuttle there, I caught up with Aarushi + Carmen on their time in Vegas after we split up. They didn’t come back until 1 am, well after I was asleep, so it was literally the first time we had the chance to debrief our days. 

    Our hike today in the Narrows took us through the Virgin River where it carves out a narrow slot canyon. Walking through the water meant we needed appropriate gear, available at the nearby outfitters that seemed to be having incredible business. I would say more than half the people in the Narrows had the distinguishable red rental boots and complimentary hiking pole, and each rental was $30 a pop 😳 I was initially going to just wear my hiking boots and steal a stick, but got convinced by the rest of the group to get a rental. My grandpa and dad did just fine though in their ordinary sneakers and scavenged sticks, so maybe I could’ve saved my money… not that I’ve made the best financial decisions on this trip anyways. 

    The trail (river?) was beautiful, full of towering walls of rock around us and clear water that cooled our legs as we trudged through it. Since it was still early morning, the sun was not yet peaking through the top of the canyon, so we enjoyed the shade while we still could. On the way, Aarushi, Carmen, and I discussed the hypothetical godly parentage of our team as the resident audiobook listeners of Percy Jackson during some of our rides. You can see the final consensus on Aarushi’s Day 53 blog, which also may give you some insight of how backlogged our blogs are (oops).

    We walked for around 1.5 miles until 10 am before we decided to turn back. We, being the entire group except Nate and Nunu, who wanted to go on for a while longer. There was a slight debate on what to do, as in usual Spokes fashion (had to give my family the full experience), but we ended up on this plan that Drew communicated to them when they were ahead of us. 

    Our extremely long and unnecessarily complex plan:

    1. Nate + Nunu keep going and plan to finish ~ 1 hr later than us
    2. The rest of us leave the Narrows
    3. We ride a couple stops to Zion Lodge
    4. Eat lunch and refuel at the loge
    5. Drew + Tatiana go all the way back to the visitor center where the minivan is, and drive it to the lodge so that everyone can change into their biking gear and be ready to leave when Nate + Nunu meet back up with us
    • IMPORTANT NOTE: Cars are not usually allowed to drive to the lodge, due to the shuttle system. Thus, this entire plan hinges on being able to bypass the gate that prevents most cars from entering. Nate + Nunu (who aren’t with us) know the code, after acquiring it to go rescue Drew 2 days before. We have just a vague concept of the code. You might see where this is going…
    1. All leave the lodge
    2. Drop off our rental gear at the visitor center
    3. Get back in the minivan + my dad’s car back to the Airbnb to start the ride

    As Nate beautifully put it the day before, “there are too many cooks in the kitchen, none of the cooks know what they want and the kitchen is also on fire.” This analogy doesn’t exactly work for this scenario, but I do think it is very true for many of our days.

    Once Drew came back and shared this plan they had come up with, the rest of us had some concerns, namely: what if we don’t know the code? Drew was under the impression that we didn’t need the code. We informed him that we didn’t have it, only guesses. That immediately threw a wrench in the plan, but without signal and with them being separated from us, we could only stick with what was agreed as to not cause more confusion. Not all of us wanted to eat at the lodge as well, since the food was a bit overpriced and incredibly mid.

    Brady starting a war with Drew that he couldn’t win

    Regardless, we got off at the lodge and lay in the shade of the tree. Aarushi ended up caving to her hunger and got a hot dog served in a pretzel bun?? Not sure what was going on there.

    Aarushi’s face says it all.

    Now with glorious free wifi from the lodge, we reconnected with Tatiana and Drew, who let us know that lo and behold, they didn’t know the code and couldn’t get in :/ And Drew got on the shuttle to try to get back to us, but ended up taking it in the wrong direction away from us? Nate and Nunu were still MIA and we were hot and hungry, so we decided to abandon the plan and just rendezvous at the visitor center. Funnily enough, as we got back on the shuttle towards the visitor center, Nate and Nunu were getting off that bus, back from the hike. This resulted in a very movie-like moment of our two groups looking at each other and not being able to fully communicate what happened due to the rush of getting on the shuttle, just a couple of “WE’RE GOING TO THE VISITOR CENTER” shouts before the doors closed. What would we do without our phones. 

    Finally back at the visitor center, we stripped off our wet gear and returned it. At this point, my family had been waiting a long time for everyone and had already gone so much out of their way to be our chauffeur for the past 2 days, so I didn’t want them to wait another what was likely going to be at least 2 – 3 more hours. I decided to leave early with them to grab lunch and hang out for a bit before they went home, which the team were kindly supportive of. With that, I split off, and we headed for Cedar City.

    At Cedar City, I got to indulge in some luxuries that hadn’t been available for a while: poke and boba. Our stretch of national parks have meant we’ve stayed away from a lot of major cities with diverse food options. As much as I think it was definitely worth it, it was also nice to get some different flavors in my mouth 😋

    I can’t wait until SF for even better asian food

    Then we headed to the Southern Utah Museum of Art, a free museum that has a special place in my heart. I visited it in the past with my family, and its cool exhibits and the fact that it was free had a lasting impression on me. It was just as gorgeous as I remembered, especially the park outside! There was a scent-based exhibit that allowed you to interact with some curated smells, my personal favorite was the Rockville Troposphere — beautifully floral and sweet. I also found some landscape paintings that truly blew my mind. This entire visit reaffirmed my itch to go home and just spend a day painting. I miss manipulating colors and form, almost as much as I miss my own bed.

    While we were there, we coincidentally ran in Carmen’s mom and sister, Tara and Simone! They were spending the night with us in Cedar City, so it was nice to meet them a little bit before everyone else. 

    I said goodbye to my family, as they really needed to start driving to get home. I got dropped off at the airbnb Carmen’s family was generously providing us, and relaxed there for a bit as I waited for the rest of the team to arrive. It was 5:00 pm at this point, but to my surprise, they had only started the ride at 3:00 pm, so I had a long wait ahead of me. I made myself comfortable on my bunk bed and napped. Now I’ll give my best recount of the ride as I nap, according to survivor testimony. 

    Pre-ride (12 pm – 3 pm)

    • Team debates the route. The most direct route is I-15, but several want to avoid the interstate at all costs. The route team manages to find some side roads that run parallel to the interstate to minimize time on it.
    • Everyone is slightly grumpy due to knowledge of hard ride ahead and 100+ degree heat
    • Change and wait out heat for a bit
    • Drive back from Zion NP to the airbnb to start the ride 

    Ride (3 pm – 10 pm)

    • Ride is extremely hot, as expected, and also pretty uphill in the 1st leg
    • There were legitimate concerns of Aarushi passing out
    • The gas stations were like oases of AC and bathrooms
    • Direct quotes:
      • “It felt like getting blasted in the face by a hairdryer”
      • “My phone overheated”
      • “It felt like my skin was melting”
      • “If a dragon blew fire on us it would be better than this”
      • “This is some type of cruel punishment”
      • “I hope Tatiana (the driver) isn’t happy when I get there or I’ll be mad”
      • And the likes
    A crazy gravel hill + I-15

    Once they all arrived, we had an amazing dinner of homemade butternut squash pasta and chicken, with brownies for dessert. I still dream of that pasta to this day…

    See you soon, 

    Caroline

  • Day 60: An Ode To How Spokes Ended Up In Vegas

    Day 60: An Ode To How Spokes Ended Up In Vegas

    Rest Day in Zion National Park (or Las Vegas) — 0 mi, 0 ft

    Today real early I awoke
    To the sound of Tatiana who spoke
    It’s time to get up
    But I was fed up
    To wake up at 6 everyday is some sick joke

    At least today we’re going on an epic hike
    A million degrees in Utah, it’s just not right to bike
    So we head to the Visitor Center
    With Caroline’s family as our mentors
    Who know everything about Zion, shuttles and hikes alike

    We stand in line for the shuttle
    30 minutes we await, befuddled
    On what we should do
    Carmen and I need to move
    We have a long day ahead full of trouble

    Recall that right now, Drew’s bike is at the bottom of a cliff
    Carmen and I volunteer to road trip to find him a new whip
    So we must finish the hike by ten
    Which is only an hour away by then
    It seems like Angel’s Landing will be summitted another day, RIP

    We decide to still hike as much as possible
    Ascending up Walter’s Wiggles*, the scenery seems impossible
    How can red rocks be so pretty
    To have to turn back is such a pity
    So we instead decide to do something irresponsible

    The wiggles
    look like ice cream

    Carmen and I race up, rock scrambling the ridge to the summit
    Dodging slow families left and right, to our death we hope we won’t plummet
    We take jumping photos at the top
    Then we run down, no stops
    By 11 we’re back on the bus, glad we didn’t kick the bucket

    I drive back to the Airbnb to get Drew
    And call lots of bike shops, hoping one will pull through
    With a bike ready for pick up today
    So Drew can get back on the road without delay
    Finally Trek in Las Vegas calls me back, “WE GOTCHU!!”

    So this turns into a story about how MIT Spokes goes to Vegas
    A coffee, an iced tea, a 44 oz Pepsi, and three hours it takes us
    After a pit stop at In-and-Out
    We show up and check out
    The pink bike Chadd at Trek has all ready to go for us

    Meal of
    kings and
    queens

    Drew takes it for a joyride, his first order of business
    Around the parking lot he goes, full of impulsiveness
    Grinning ear to ear,
    Forgetting yesterday’s fear,
    Drew looks like a little kid opening his presents on Christmas

    With the mission accomplished, we then decide to do
    What anyone who comes to Vegas decides to do
    We hit the club
    Ready to pull up
    In sports shorts and flip-flops, lookin’ too fly to be true

    Except then it takes us an hour just to drive down the whole strip
    And another hour to find reasonably priced parking for the whip
    Now Drew’s feeling tired
    But Carmen and I are still wired
    We promise him just one hour for our worldwide trip

    At 6:58 we start in Lake Como, watching the Bellagio fountain show
    We then walk to Paris, where slot machine after slot machine is aglow
    Drew takes a souvenir off the streets
    Carmen gets called fine by a guy rappin a beat
    At 7:58 we’ve looped back to the start, on the dot because I’m just like that, yo

    All summer in a day*, all Vegas in an hour
    In the City of Sin, imagine the willpower
    No money was spent
    Our temptation zero percent
    Only pavement we pound, only climbs we devour

    We make our last pit stop a photo by the famous sign
    With no parking in sight, we leave our van on the curb, misaligned
    We sprint up real quick
    Ask a stranger to take a flick
    We’re back within a minute, thank god our fender has no fine

    To Arizona’s Favorite Mexican Food we go, Filiberto’s
    Drive-thru burritos so hyped up by Carmen that we must go
    Didn’t eat anything on the strip
    In promise of delayed gratification, but RIP
    The only Filiberto’s in Nevada is temporarily closed.

    I wish I was home for the feast Caroline’s grandpa had cooked up instead
    Instead of picking yet another fast food place on Google Maps, I pled
    Curry Pizza House, I said
    Let’s go there instead, but
    Drew still bought fried chicken and bread.

    Finally it was time to head home sweet home
    Carmen drove this time; I was coming down with some syndrome
    Suddenly ill in the backseat
    I needed to take a couple beats
    And when I wake up, it was 1 am, we were home.

    Biked a century yesterday, then hiked Angel’s Landing today
    Road tripped to Vegas, got a bike, walked the strip, pretty eventful, I’ll say
    In four hours we’d be up again
    Hiking the river of the Zion Canyon
    It’s hard to believe so much can happen every day,
    But that’s the story of how Spokes went to Vegas today.

    *21 famously steep switchbacks up to Zion’s famous rock formation

    *All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury is my all-time favorite short story

  • Day 59: The One Where “7 MIT Students” Almost Becomes “6 MIT Students”

    Day 59: The One Where “7 MIT Students” Almost Becomes “6 MIT Students”

    Bryce Canyon National Park, UT to Zion National Park, UT — 100.3 mi, 4402 ft

    Preface

    Like many popular stories, the ending of this one, as evidenced by the title, is arguably the most interesting. I urge you, my dearest gentle readers, to avoid skipping to the end so as to experience a full and faithful retelling of the day and to be immersed in the bizarre events as sincerely as we were. Especially on days like this one and in its aftermath, I want to thank all of our supporters and the powers that be for keeping our team safe, happy, and on the road.

    Chapter 1: Trouble is Brewing

    Our team has quite the attachment to “Cars,” a genius franchise whose arid Arizona setting closely resembles the Utah scenes we rode by this week. So when Nate turned on Cars 2 the night before in his effort to spend some of his pre-driver day rest with his family, the event quickly turned into an “everyone except Drew watches Cars 2.” As Nate already mentioned, the later bedtime combined with some medical discussions in the group led to the team agreeing to move wakeup time to 7 am. Unfortunately, at this time, Drew was already asleep and missed the memo.

    In the morning, I woke up at 7 am to a faint piano melody and a fully dressed and ready Drew. He was confused as to why he had not been told about the wakeup change, as well as the negative implications of the decision considering that a storm was supposed to cross the exact path we were riding on later in the day. Since he was already ready, he decided to do a quick breakfast (AKA shoveling half of the leftover birthday cake into his mouth) and get started on the ride. Apologies again, Drew, for the miscommunication.

    Chapter 2: Gaining Momentum

    For the rest of us, the morning continued like usual, albeit extra sad as we prepared to say our supposed goodbyes to the Mustafa family (hint: they showed up again at the first rest stop, so we didn’t have to miss them for too long!). We ate delicious bagels with cream cheese, finished up the cut watermelon, and packed our stuff in the car. Nunu decided that she would join Nate on his driver day due to continued medical issues from the night before, and the rest of us lamented about the century that was about to ensue.

    The biggest change in the morning routine for me personally was the trauma that I carried from getting pepper spray in my mouth the night before. When I finished breakfast and checked on my pepper-sprayed bag in the washer after its SECOND wash cycle, I could still see pepper spray residue covering the inner lining, forcing me to handwash it for a second time. The taste of the pepper spray from the night before was so terrible and long lasting that I suddenly was painfully aware of everywhere I put my hands, and wanted to make sure I didn’t get it in my mouth again, or worse, in my eyes. In this vein, I asked Nunu to apply sunblock to my face, which ended up being an extremely cute and loving experience. My score: 1, life’s score: 0. With all of us ready, the four remaining bikers (Carmen, Aarushi, Caroline, and I) said our final goodbyes and set out on our adventure.

    Only a few miles in, we were greeted by one of the most fantastic symbols known to biker-kind.

    This segment quite literally flew by, feeling almost like a well-oiled roller coaster ride for bikes accompanied by gorgeous views. I felt like some elite biking squadron with the four of us racing through the downhill turns and biking through beautiful combinations of forests and canyons.

    Chapter 3: Trinkets and Rocks and Storms

    I have to say, this day’s rest stop line up may have been one of the best so far. Our first rest stop came at the end of our beautiful downhill, and it was a cute shop with FREE COFFEE (?!?!?!?!) and a bunch of awesome trinkets, as well as the MUSTAFA FAMILY AGAIN! Personally, I was far more excited to see the Mustafas again than to have the free coffee, considering it was plain and black, and I prefer my coffee as “lots of milk and sugar with a little bit of coffee.” To each their own!

    Though I had been successful at avoiding my pepper-spray hands thus far, this rest stop tried to take me out through a new method. An unsuccessful water drinking and laughing combination led to a slightly comical scene of me choking on water. My score: 1, life’s score: 1.

    After Nunu performed some amazing sunblock application to my face, our fantastic four squad said goodbye, rolled out, and headed to the next rest stop, which was a well-placed gas station. At this stop, our team began to uncover the concept of Caroline-speak. Caroline is one of the most loving and calm members of our team. She is impeccable with her words, and as such, we have developed a dictionary to translate some of her phrases. 

    Caroline says: “Guys, wait, let me have a sip of my matcha mango drink before I share it”

    Translation: “SHUT THE FU** UP YOU GREEDY BIT**** AND LET ME HAVE A SIP FIRST”

    Caroline says: “Guys, please, for real, start to get ready; we need to leave in 5 minutes”

    Translation: “CAN YOU LOCK THE FU** IN AND GET READY YOU SLOW MOTHERFUC****”

    It’s a very helpful and accurate dictionary, if I may say so myself!

    We also quickly learned of the impending doom and danger of the storm that was supposed to roll through the area, as well as the next awesome rest stop of the ROCK STOP that we critically had to reach. I heard whispers that the Rock Stop was in fact shaped like a rock, and did in fact have “lots of milk and sugar with a little bit of coffee.” There was nothing that could stand in the way of me and this Rock Stop.

    At least that’s what I thought… until moments after we began biking, we heard huge crashes of thunder and lightning strike in the sky around our route. The four of us were on a downhill from the gas station, with no foreseeable structures to shelter us from the storm. Instead, we decided that our best course of action was to ditch our bikes near the road and huddle under a bush nearby, listening to Aarushi’s retelling of one of the Heroes of Olympus books to calm our nerves.

    In a few minutes, we noticed that most of the dark clouds had moved past our location and decided that the benefits of sitting at the Rock Stop rather than the side of the road heavily outweighed the minimal risks remaining of being hit by lightning.

    When we arrived at the Rock Stop, it was everything I could have imagined and more! There were lots of rocks, trinkets, donuts, coffee, cats, goats, AND BIRRIA TACOS!! You heard me right. I was so excited to split my tacos with Carmen and to have my 15,348th “lots of milk and sugar with a little bit of coffee.” Caroline, Carmen, and I spent some time relaxing and eating random things to wait out the next wave of the incoming storm. Aarushi, Nunu, and Nate fell deep into their respective phone conversations. Drew, as we remember from earlier this morning, was already many miles ahead in the supposed “storm.”

    Chapter 4: Yes Shirt, Yes Shoes, No Service

    At some point, we realized that the storm was not really coming, and that our group should get moving, especially since Caroline’s family was going to be meeting us that evening and we still had 50 miles left in our day. A call and text from Drew that he had already passed the next rest stop and that there were some “lowkey tough trails” coming up reinforced a slight sense of urgency. We began the uphill towards the next rest stop, motivated only by the promise of a beautiful downhill for the last 20 miles and a yummy dinner of Chinese food cooked by Caroline’s grandfather!

    With no great shock, at this point life tried to come for me again. As we made one of the big ascents, I felt my stomach begin to rumble, and a feeling of nausea overcame me. I called back to Aarushi and let her know that I needed a break and then proceeded to gag on the side of the road, unsure of what was going on with my body. 

    Throughout our entire trip, I have felt like there were days when I win, and days that life definitely wins. Days when I feel on top of the world, elated, and excited to bike. Days where I cry, struggle, feel exhausted, or simply don’t want to bike anymore. Honestly, it is very rare that I don’t experience both dichotomies in the same day. Bent over on the side of the road, with no service to call Nate and Nunu, I realized that the score had updated again. My score: 1, life’s score: 2.

    Eventually, I decided that the only reasonable course of action was to get back on the bike, so Aarushi and I restarted our ascent. We passed by a field of bison and an American flag, which made me feel quite patriotic (I think Spokes has made me a minimum of 5x more patriotic lol).

    As I was trying to take a photo of the bison, I also saw a bar of service finally appear on my phone, with an incoming WhatsApp call from Nunu. She informed us that they had left a package of supplies for Drew near the 83-mile mark at the end of the trail that he was currently on and were now returning to our upcoming rest stop pre-trail at mile 70.

    At the rest stop, we made quick time, remarking that Nunu had officially overtaken Nate’s driver day, pumping my stomach with some Pepto-Bismol, and lamenting about our inefficient Annual National Park Pass. The pass requires the holder to be in the car upon entry, but considering that Nate and Nunu did not have Aarushi with them, they had to buy another $25 entry. RIP. At least we get to support the parks!

    Chapter 5: Unbeaten Path vs Shuttling

    When our squad of fantastic four reached the beginning of the trail that Drew was on, we miraculously regained service for a brief moment, just to see a text that read “I recommend rerouting” followed by “this sh** is taking forever.” 

    For those who know Drew, these words are seriously unheard of. He is both a skilled mountain biker (not as good as Carmen :P) and a generally adventure-seeking person, so when Drew said he recommended rerouting, red flags began to raise in my head.

    The four of us tried to gain information on the situation, repeatedly calling and texting Nunu, Nate, and Drew on our single bar of service to understand what the best course of action was. Unfortunately, though we had one bar of service, they had none, so our questions remained unanswered. 

    Aarushi and Carmen also mentioned that the trail we were considering entering was not part of last year’s route. The 2025 team went on the main road through Zion instead and used the car to shuttle the team through a tunnel section that was closed off to bikes. Unfortunately, the 2025 blog from this same Bryce Canyon -> Zion day was missing, so Aarushi and Carmen didn’t have any further information on why last year’s team decided to shuttle. The two of them had made the decision to reroute us onto this trail so that we could avoid shuttling, but we hypothetically could backtrack and attempt to shuttle if we felt the trail option was not safe.

    With slight desperation and fear beginning to trickle into our mindset, we decided to ask the nearby lodge for their opinion on this trail and hopefully connect to their Wi-Fi. As soon as we showed them the trail we were considering taking, the outdoor guides began to resoundingly tell us about how dangerous the trail was, how it turned into a hiking trail that was impossible for a bike to tackle, and how parts of it had recently been completely closed, as demarcated on the route itself. We knew that turning back was inevitable and began to worry about the fate of our teammate, Drew, who was now possibly stuck on this trail and had sent no new messages.

    Though we now had service, Nate and Nunu still did not, so Caroline had the genius idea of calling her father, Forest, who was at the Airbnb. To our great luck, he had brought his bike rack on his minivan and had a great attitude about coming to rescue us and shuttling us across the tunnel.

    Chapter 6: Ignorance Is… Bliss?

    For the next half hour, the four of us got to experience a beautiful, majestic moment, zooming through the center of Zion on the way to the tunnel. The views were incredibly breathtaking, and we tried to convince ourselves that Nate and Nunu were already at the next rest stop or even all the way at the Airbnb with Drew, simply not able to communicate with us due to a lack of service.

    We waited at the entrance of the tunnel for a bit until finally meeting up with Forest. He informed us that Caroline’s brother, Brady, had identified Nate and Nunu at a lookout on the other side of the tunnel “by their hair and hats,” but he had no idea what the status of Drew was.

    After our efficient tunnel shuttle situation, Forest dropped the four of us off at the same lookout where they had previously spotted Nate and Nunu. Almost immediately, we received a call from Nunu that they somehow had picked up Drew? And they were on the way to the Airbnb? It was a relatively brief and ominous call, but we were relieved to hear that Drew had at least made it to the end of the trail safely. With peaceful minds, the four of us finished an incredibly speedy and gorgeous ride through the rest of Zion and the town nearby. For literally the first time in forever, I was at the front of the group, pushing the pace. I have to say, it was actually quite enjoyable, though I don’t foresee it happening again.

    As we pulled up to the house, we were met in the doorway by a showered and relatively positive Drew, who exclaimed, “Guys! Have you seen my bike??” We looked around, expecting to see his bike either scraped up or covered in mud, when he deadpanned, “Yeah, you won’t find it; it’s at the bottom of a cliff.” 

    Chapter 7: Trail Closed, No Trespassing, $5000 Fine

    While the four of us bikers had been enjoying Zion, Drew was on a completely different type of adventure. The trail he had begun to descend on first turned into a tough mountain biking trail, and then into a hiking trail that was impossible to descend using a bicycle.

    After a few miles of walking his bike, the trail suddenly displayed a huge “Trail Closed, No Trespassing” sign. Having already spent 2 hours descending the trail, and with nightfall rapidly approaching, Drew was stuck between attempting to hike back uphill with his bicycle or completing the remaining mile of the downhill trail. He decided to press forward, moving with relative success until he came across a final set of switchbacks which were adorned with signs forbidding entry. The signs threatened a $5,000 fine and warned of recent trail collapses, but Drew saw no option other than pushing forward if he wanted to safely get off of the mountain.

    Suddenly, with his bike on the outside of the damaged switchbacks, Drew felt the rocks below the bike give out, and a rockslide began under his feet. Escaping by a hair’s breadth, Drew was left at the edge of the cliff, watching his beloved bike tumble down out of reach with the rockslide.

    For two hours after this, Drew precariously sat on the edge of the cliff, crying, praying, reflecting on his life, and seriously thinking about his own mortality. He knew that he had no option but to continue downwards, at risk of being stuck on the rock face in the dark. Eventually, Drew used the self-proclaimed “butt scootch” method to wiggle down the steep rock face, constantly fearing for his life and simply having faith that he would make it down.

    When he got to the bottom, he realized that he was right next to one of the shuttle stops, and akin to a madman with twigs and mud caked across his hair and body, he desperately climbed on the next shuttle. He still had no contact with any of the team, so as any logical person recently faced with death, he jumped off of the shuttle when he heard that cheeseburgers were available at the lodge.

    At this same time, Nunu and Nate were on the aforementioned lookout when they realized that over 4 hours had passed since they placed Drew’s supply drop at the end of the trail, and it was still untouched. They began to panic and tried to drive to where they thought he would be, until they were blocked by pesky “reservation and shuttle bus only” gates. This, however, did not deter the power of friendship, as they resolved the problem by explaining the situation and begging the security guard for the code.

    By some miracle, Nate and Nunu pulled into the lodge just as Drew was finishing his cheeseburger, and he spotted the unmistakable orange camper top of our car. Drew ran to the car, extremely shaken up but beyond relieved to be reunited with Nate and Nunu.

    Chapter 8: Safe and Reunited

    After hearing Drew’s story and realizing how differently our day could have ended, our team was hit with a wave of emotion. Aarushi and Carmen expressed the responsibility they felt for making a route that put Drew in a dangerous situation, even though he did not blame them, and the team agreed that there were many factors that contributed to the day’s events. Some of our warmest hugs and silent tears were exchanged as our team experienced the gratitude of continuing as a team of 7, rather than a team of 6.

    As it always does, dinner helped lift our team’s spirits, and Drew got to fill in some of the more intricate details of his adventure and emotions. Caroline’s grandfather made the traditional dishes of egg and tomato stir fry, hua juan (flower rolls with pepper corns), beef and potato stew, bone soup, cucumber salad, and string beans.

    Our team discussed the plan for acquiring a new bicycle and gear, which involved some discussions of possible trips to Carson City, Salt Lake City, or even Las Vegas. We also began an operation to fundraise enough money to cover the unexpected costs. I guess you’ll have to read the next blog to find out what new city the team unlocked! 

    Eventually, overcome by mixed feelings of relief, consciousness of our mortality, and gratitude in our hearts, we all hit the hay, ready to keep on keeping on with the next day of Spokes.

    With love and gratitude to the universe for keeping us safe,

    Tatiana ❤

  • Day 58: we had a bryce day :)

    Day 58: we had a bryce day :)

    Rest Day in Bryce Canyon National Park — 0 mi, 0 ft

    Technically, this blog starts at midnight when some of us were watching the first 5 minutes of Cars 2 after having finished watching Cars. Everyone was super tired after a ~50 mile day but the absurdity of Cars 2 required a quick preview. The Cars vs Cars 2 debate is also a highly contentious topic on the team, only after the infamous “Best Burger” debate, so it felt necessary. Somehow, there’s an argument to be made that the movie Cars 2 will have long lasting effects on our summer – you’ll have to keep reading + read tomorrow’s blog to find out why though.

    After sleeping around 12:30am, we woke up at a sloth-like 10am. The team all woke up super slowly, with some people not getting out of bed until 10:30am when breakfast was ready. 

    My parents were visiting us for our rest day in Bryce Canyon. I’m super lucky that I got to spend time with them along the trip, and the rest of the team was super lucky to be blessed by their super good food (I’m a little biased, but it was actually super good). 

    A picture of dinner last night that’s too pretty to not include. We had carne asada, pork ribs, corn, and mexican rice 😋

    For breakfast, my Mom made a spanish breakfast dish called huevos ahogados, which is a poached egg and tomato sauce dish adjacent to shakshuka. 

    Breakfast looked like this but less staged. Just as tasty though.

    After breakfast, we lounged around for two hours. The fatigue from biking and national parks was really starting to show at this point (Bryce is the fourth national park we’ve been to in the past week). While everyone was very excited to go check out a park as cool as Bryce, everyone was also super tired and no one had the motivation to wrangle the group into getting ready and leaving. 

    Around 12, Caroline, resident National Parks enjoyer, decided enough was enough and that it was time to leave.

    From 12-12:30, I sat in the living room and witnessed what I could only describe as if I was sitting in the main “hangout” area of a 90s sitcom. The characters kept entering and exiting the scene but were never all in the scene at the same time because no one wanted to wait if everyone else wasn’t ready. Peak spokes behavior. Eventually, though, the episode came to an end and all the characters arrived in the living room at the same time and we were able to leave. 

    We drove ~5 minutes to Bryce Canyon to do the Sunrise Point/Wall Street hike – the canonical Bryce Canyon hike down into the canyon and through the hoodoos1. The hike was ~2 miles, ~600 feet of elevation gain, and absolutely stunning. 

    Bryce Canyon and many Hoodoos.

    The hike into and out of the canyon required hiking some very tight switchbacks which was super easy on the way down… Unfortunately my sister and mom had a less enjoyable time on the way back up, prompting the team to donate most of their water to them and ask many times if they needed to stop in the shade (they often did). 

    At some point, the team introduced my parents to the term “Aarushi Gap”, which describes the observed phenomenon of a gap in a group of bikers where Aarushi is the leading biker following the gap. My dad really enjoyed this term – using it often throughout the hike (not necessarily at Aarushi’s expense, but not not necessarily). He even attempted to push the frontier of the Aarushi Gap research space by proposing the Aarushi Gravitational Gap Conjecture (AGGC), which states that those near Aarushi will be pulled towards her and slowed down accordingly, after observing that my Mom was walking slowly with Aarushi far behind the rest of the group. I think the AGGC is likely based on a confounded variable though: my Mom was just tired and Aarushi was nicely waiting for her.

    The many switchbacks coming out of the canyon.
    My mom very tired after hiking said switchbacks and draining the team of most of their water. She also wasn’t happy that this would be how she’d be featured in the blog.

    After certain members of our group had recovered from the hike, we drove over to a few more view points and then the visitor center. At one view point, we spotted a food truck called “Hoodoo’s Food”, which Aarushi claimed should be renamed to “Hoodoo’s Foodoos”.

    Loitering at another view point. “Hoodoos Foodoos” behind the team not shown.

     

    I got this shirt that says “Have a Bryce Day” and a sticker that said “Hoodoo You Love?”. I’m a big fan of hoodoo wordplay.

    We then left Bryce and went to this shopping area and looked around at a souvenir shop for a bit. 

    Afterwards, my parents got their second taste of average Spokes behavior when we stood around in the parking lot for 5 minutes trying to decide if we wanted to get ice cream, get a burger, or go home. In the end, Nunu asserted a decision by jaywalking across the street to the ice cream place, prompting everyone to follow. Drew went to get a burger though, no surprise there. 

    After getting ice cream, Nunu jaywalked (criminal behavior) back to the other side to go to a cafe. Then Caroline did as well. The rest of us stood around in the parking lot for literally 10 minutes waiting for them, and then of course the rest of the team eventually followed into the cafe.

    At this point, my parents (and me too) wanted to go home – my parents because they needed to finish dinner, I was just bored. As we prepared to leave in my parents’ rental car, the rest of the team came running out just in time and joined us on our way back home.

    We all drove back to the Airbnb around 5 and lounged/napped for 2 hours while my dad finished slow cooking the pork shoulder that would become our pulled pork dinner. I spent my 2 hours taking a nap, eating watermelon and cold leftover steak from last night, and going on a 6 mile run. My hopes for the summer are to not lose all my running progress since biking doesn’t translate super well to running, but its not looking good 😢

    I got back around 7:15, showered, and put Cars 2 on the TV in the living room. Eventually, the entire team was in the living room watching Cars 2 until dinner was ready. 

    We enjoyed a delicious meal of super tender pulled pork, homemade pickled onions, and a super secret recipe pasta salad and potato salad (the secret ingredient is finding a nearby grocery store). 

    🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤

    After dinner, my parents surprised me with a birthday cake since my birthday is next week and they wont be here for it which was fun.

    I’m not sure why the only picture I have is of Drew holding a knife but that’s life.

    Then we got ready for sleep. For Tatiana, this entailed cleaning her bike bag in which her dog mace had exploded the day before. This inevidabtly led to lots of coughing and some tears after Tatiana found out the pepper spray was certainly not washed out of the bag. Poor Caroline also fell victim to some pepper spray since she was on laundry that day and needed to go into the laundry room where Tatiana was cleaning her bag. 

    Disclaimer: this is a reenactment of the pose Caroline was making 10 seconds earlier. If you look closely, you can see she’s laughing that I told her to get back in that pose and not actually coughing. I didn’t have my phone out but I swear this is actually what she looked like though.

    The next step for getting ready for bed is brushing your teeth. If you’re Tatiana, this means you wash your mouth with the hands you were using to clean out your pepper-sprayed bike bag. You can imagine how that went. 

    Thanks for the extra blog content Tatiana.

    I’m driving tomorrow so I put Cars 2 back on so I could watch a bit more with my parents, but the rest of the team has a 100 mile ride into Zion National Park so they needed to sleep in order to wake up at 6am in the morning. 

    So explain to me why the entire team, besides Drew, ended up in the living room watching Cars 2 as well until 11pm. This prompted them to push the wakeup time to 7am without telling Drew. 

    Surely this won’t have any implications tomorrow. Oh boy, what a cliff hanger. 

    – Nate

    1 Hoodoos are tall, thin spires of rock sculpted by rain, ice, and wind in arid regions like badlands. They feature a soft rock pillar protected by a hard rock capstone (National Park Service). Hoodoo’s Rock formations [are] formed by erosion. Freezing snow, wind, & rain have all played a part in creating the spectacular Hoodoo’s (the back of my shirt).

  • Day 57: What are Utah king about?

    Day 57: What are Utah king about?

    Escalante, UT to Bryce Canyon National Park, UT — 47.9 mi, 3961 ft

    The name Escalante sounds a lot like escalator, fitting for the name of the town closest to the Grand Staircase National Monument. Pastor Richards, our host, treated us to a wonderful protein-dense breakfast this morning. The breakfast casserole with eggs and sausage was very tasty and very filling.

    Today is my driver day. I usually hate driver days- I came here to bike- but today felt oddly refreshing. 

    Before leaving, we took a picture with Pastor Richard’s dogs.

    Nunu was feeling sick, so my first task as driver was to buy medicine. I delivered to her on the side of the road. 

    The first leg consisted of an 18 mile stretch with a massive climb. I drove to the top marvelling at how combustion engines make life so effortless. However, after setting up a picnic blanket with snacks in the shade, I quickly got bored and decided to bike down and do the climb myself. 

    Apparently, escalante roughly means “climbing”… checks out.

    The view at the top of the climb.

    The tasty protein dense breakfast we had this morning made us forget to eat the carbs we need to bike. In response to seeing nate extremely exhausted at the top of the climb, I decided to use my bike to shuttle food to the Spokies who were still pedaling. Tatiana seemed particularly hungry as she gobbled down a Nature Valley strawberry wafer bar like Oddysseus’s soldiers in Circe’s house.

    The rest of the day proceed normally– a descent, a climb, 2 more rest stops, same ol same ol…. The last rest stop was at a coffee shop next door to a convenience store that sells cheeseburgers. You can guess where I ended up. (For my next blog, I will be ranking all of the burgers I’ve eaten on this trip.) While I waiting for my burger, the one and only, Claudia Mustafa, mother of Nate Mustafa, found me in the gas station. I turned around and saw the faces of the rest of the Mustafas as well. I spoke to them briefly and pointed them in the direction of Nate, who was busy dealing with the final climb of the day.

    Long story short: This gas station bacon cheeseburger was one of the best $7 I’ve ever spent- I’ll go into more depth in my upcoming cheeseburger blog.

    We finished the day at the AirBnB generously provided to us by Nate’s family. Nate’s dad made us dinner with some of the best meat ever shoved into a tortilla. The view of the sheared mountains in the distance complimented the meal perfectly as the sun set on the horizon.

    It’s dark outside now? You know what that means! The Drew blog is over. As the sleepiest Spokes member, I typically have  no knowledge of anything that happens after dark. Maybe tomorrows blogger will fill you in… 
    – Drew