MIT Spokes 2026

Author: MIT Spokes

  • Day 72: The Dilly Dally Club Strikes Again

    Day 72: The Dilly Dally Club Strikes Again

    South Lake Tahoe, CA -> Placerville, CA — 88.8 miles, 6,731 ft

    Welcome to my last blog! We got an early-ish start to this morning (by Spokes ’25 standards) since Dan and Natasha were also headed out of town for a trip. This proved to be a great decision as we had a longer ride for today — almost 90 miles with 6,700 feet of elevation gain. But today would also be an excitingly speedy day, finally leaving the higher-elevation southwest for good with 11,000 feet of descent on the day as well.

    The Spokies started the day together as we rode on this delightful trail surrounded by tall evergreens. What a terrific greeting for our first California ride! It was so refreshing having my line of sight interrupted by trees and a curving roads once again. After a full summer of biking, fresh of yesterday’s rest day, the legs felt fresh. To use a Joseph-ism, we were ZOOMING.

    Joseph had let us know that after packing up the car (which is always a bit slower after a rest day) he was going to go shopping in South Lake Tahoe and he might miss rest stop 1. We reached rest stop 1 and everyone else had forged on, so after a quick bathroom break, Greta, Sarah, and I continued up the first climb of the day.

    When we got to rest stop 2, Joseph still wasn’t there to meet us. Ruth and Ramona had already moved on. Joseph was only a few minutes away from the rest stop, so the rest of us decided to wait for him and admire the pretty lake and skip stones.

    Joseph made up for his lateness with the best possible excuse one might have for such a grave transgression. He had set his mind on one-upping Ruth’s best-driver-ever submission on day 70 with one of his own. He opened the minivan door to reveal bag upon bag of groceries. There were the all the essentials and classic Spokes hits we’d requested for food, of course. Then, fresh apples, oranges, peaches, and a whole watermelon he was planning to cut up for us at the next rest stop. For our delicacies, we had a whole pack of Oreos and a family size Blue Machine Naked smoothie. AND, there was a “mystery surprise” that would be revealed later. I love mystery surprises.

    Let me tell ya, the Blue Machine smoothie was simply mindblowing. Transcendental. (This is one of my three very-late blogs that I’m filling in retroactively and I still remember how great that smoothie felt going down the hatch). We were like hyenas. People were greedy. Okay, I was greedy. And Ishaq. When Joseph came back to show off the next bag of groceries, half the smoothie was already gone.

    The peaches were so juicy and sweet as well. There were only a few peaches, so those who wanted peaches shared. We left one for Ruth and Ramona to share at rest stop 3. After the feasting frenzy had died down, Tian was still holding that last peach. “Guys… what if I just ate the peach.”

    “No, Tian, we need to save it for Ruth and Ramona,” the virtuous crowd protested.

    “I’ll share it with you Tian!” Greta piped in evilly.

    Despite the virtuous crowd™ restating our position that this was a terrible, mean, no-good, poo-poo thing to do, Tian bit into the peach. Greta and Tian shared the peach. They ate the last peach! The peach meant for Ruth and Ramona! Shame them!!!

    We all agreed we should simply omit these items from the shopping haul at rest stop 3 and Ruth and Ramona would never have to know. (The rest of us except for Tian had been complicit in the great Blue Machine disappearing act, so it was kind of a glass house type of situation). Sorry Ruth and Ramona. And sorry you’re finding out this way. You snooze bike faster you lose 🤷‍♂️

    • There were so many lakes today
    • Another lake
    • Third lake, third shade of blue!
    • We did bike past a lot of burned trees in this stretch

    When I rolled in to rest stop 3, a feast was spread out on the picnic table we’d claimed. Fresh watermelon slices and my packed sandwiches awaited. Ruth and Ramona went for a swim in the lake. Greta and I went for a swim as well but the water was freezing so we dipped our toes and skipped some rocks. At this point I was already ready to crown Joseph best driver ever but we still had three more rest stops to go…

    By now you’ve probably noticed a few themes when it comes to the biking groups. Ruth and Ramona — the dynamic duo. Ishaq and Tian, frequently lone warriors but a ride with them is never a dull one. Greta and I have become the founders of what we have informally been calling the “dilly dally club.” As suggested by the name, the dilly dally club excels at dilly dallying. We are extremely distractable, make frequent stops, are chatty cathys, will wait for anyone (or use that as an excuse to dilly dally), and are always the last to leave the rest stops. The dilly dally club doesn’t have an official motto, but if it did, it would probably be something like “sure I’m ready to leave, just one more thing.” Dilly dally club membership varies day-to-day, but you can bet your bottom dollar either Greta or I are in it on any given day (usually both if neither of us are driving).

    So, Greta and I left rest stop 3 last and took on the last major climb of the day. As we neared the top, we suddenly ran into a long, backed-up line of traffic in our direction. We passed these cars on the shoulder until we reached the top and found out the cause for this traffic. A short stretch of highway was closed off for transporting logs (?) and only one lane was available. A flagger was holding up our side for the time being. Greta and I joined the other Spokies who had been waiting for much longer than we had and dismayed to see our dilly dallying rewarded. The dilly dally club strikes again!

    After a short wait (for the dilly dally club, I think Ishaq waited for like 20 minutes), our side got the go-ahead, and we kicked off the second half of the ride together, a descent that would take us from 8,000 feet down to 2,000. Sarah slowed down abruptly at one point, so those of us behind her (Ruth, Ramona, Greta, and I) who passed her while descending waited for her at a turnout. Unfortunately, a bug had flown into Sarah’s eye and she had pulled over and tried to rinse it out. Her eye was still bothering her, so Sarah hopped in the car to try and get some eye relief until it was safe for her to bike again. Ruth and Ramona, finally relegated to the back of the pack after their blistering start to the day, decided to join the dilly dally club.

    At rest stop 4, Joseph unveiled one of his surprises for the day (but not his last): ice cream! We busted out the spoons and bowls and all helped ourselves. Many of us topped our ice creams with Oreo chunks. Greta mashed her chunks up very fine and stirred it in with her ice cream until it became this spotty sludge. I thought it was gross until she explained she had basically made a cookies and cream milkshake. So of course, I had to go for thirds on the ice cream and give that a go.

    The sole surviving image of the carnage that was rest stop 4. Bad day to be a food item in the Spokes van

    The descent sped us along to rest stop 5, another lake. This one was in Sly Park Recreation Area, and had a small fee for vehicles, so we stopped at the parking lot near the entrance. Here, Joseph pulled out his final ace up his sleeve in his best driver ever campaign. He’d set out cups, orange and apple juices, and dry ice! We drank dry ice cooled juices and marveled at Joseph’s driver performance. Forget best driver day of Spokes ’25, today might have inducted Joseph into the all-time Spokes driving hall of fame.

    • Taking orders
    • Bro busted out the pocketknife too
    • Ishaq holding the dry ice block 🥶

    We clarified the access road to the recreation area was free for bikers, so Greta, Ishaq, Ramona, Ruth, and I dropped down to the lake. Ruth and Ramona achieved the rare double swim day. I joined them in the lake while Greta and Ishaq napped. With the sun getting pretty low in the sky, we all agreed to skip the last rest stop and head to the final destination in Placerville.

    The dilly dally club (with new members Ruth and Ramona for the day), chatted on the final biking leg for the day as the descent grade finally mellowed out. Ramona pitched us on her great idea for a piece of Spokes merch — a T-shirt designed like a band’s concert tour with “that one photo of us in front of the church” (she pulled over and showed us which one she was referencing, although we lamented that Ramona and Tian weren’t even in that photo!) and our learning festival dates on the back advertised like tour stops. We all thought it was a fantastic idea. We also discussed who would be down to get a tattoo at the end of Spokes, a la Spokes ’24, and, if so, what design we would want.

    • Dilly dallier recruited
    • The proposed front of the T-shirt

    The dilly dally club arrived at the church hosting us in Placerville just as the sun was setting. Dinner preparation was in full swing. I knocked out on one of the pews (oops). As always, we ate together and reveled in each other’s company. Dinner with the Spokies — at one point new, foreign, and a given that stretched into the far, distant future — now was all too familiar, joyous, cozy, yet concluding, enumerated by the days in the week we have left, a tradition fated to come to an end. The dilly dally club rehashed our conversation from earlier and we discussed merch, tattoos, and ways we wanted to honor this journey when we ride across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and finish Spokes 2025.

    • Dinner ft. iconic Ramona pose
    • Cursed filter applied to our Garden of the Gods photo

    This is my last blogging day. It’s been an honor recapping and reflecting on every eighth day of Spokes and sharing them here.

    Signing off,

    Charles

  • Day 70: hey what’s up hello

    Day 70: hey what’s up hello

    Fallon, NV to South Lake Tahoe, CA — 96.8 mi, 5,442 ft

    As today’s driver, I’m tasked with waking everyone up. Per Ishaq’s request, I blast Fetty Wap at 7:10am. It was surprisingly efficient: he basically leaps out of bed. Ramona is already up per usual, as is Sarah. Joseph and Tian sleepily arise, while Greta is technically conscious but still lying down. I’m about to jostle her awake until I notice a more concerning Spokes member. Charles has not budged. I rip his sleeping bag off. No movement. I try taking his mat from underneath and he finally awakens, retaliating by grabbing it back. It seems like a losing battle until Joseph pulls out the ultimate weapon: a spray bottle. One squirt and Charles forfeits. I look up, ready to attack Greta next, but fortunately for her she decided to leave the couch. Maybe fortunate for me, actually, since she later admits she would’ve been livid if she had gotten the same treatment (and Greta’s a fighter).

    This is my last driving day, so I’m determined to make it my best. I stayed up late last night putting gallons of water in the freezer, labeling the 3D prints from our last learning festival, and probably doing something else important that I can’t remember. I actually woke up at 6am, albeit unintentionally, and I decided to make the most of it by starting to pack the car. My efforts were successful: at 8:30am, all the girls had biked away. I’m pretty sure this is the fastest we’ve left in the morning (I’m patting myself on the back). The guys left a bit later, particularly Joseph, but everyone was out by 9am. My only fault as a driver is that I’m not a particularly good shopper. I guess I didn’t improve much throughout the summer because by the time I get to rest stop 1, only Charles and Ramona are left. I’m ashamed.

    I actually catch everyone at rest stop 2, our first cafe of the day. Cafe rest stops are typically longer than usual, since people tend to purchase and consume products from said establishment, but today was particularly long, since Charles decides to have a cup off with Greta. Ruth, what’s a cup off? you might be asking. Well, dear readers, a cup off is when two idiots spend 30 minutes trying to land a plastic cup in a larger pile of cups. It can involve a third idiot who sits next to the pile of cups and retrieves the throwing cup to make the two idiots’ lives easier. I was the third idiot. Neither of the two idiots landed the cup.

    I finally manage to shoo them away by promising that they can continue at the next rest stop. I look into Charles’ eyes and lie, because I know that the cups will not be available at the next rest stop. Ruth, why won’t the cups be available at the next rest stop? you might be asking. Well, dear readers, I plan on setting up a float station to cement my position as the best driver because I love my teammates and they love floats. Sure enough, 7/8 Spokies are delighted by the sight of vanilla ice cream and bottles of Fanta and Dr. Pepper (sorry Tian). We have an equally delightful conversation about the injustices of the justice system and whether or not we would press a killing button for $100,000. We also looked at baby photos and gambled. Just delightful.

    I admitted to my fellow Spokies that I was having trouble staying awake while driving, and Charles suggested an… interesting comedy sketch. It definitely kept me awake. I also called some friends (shoutout Taylor) to keep me occupied — we haven’t had a whole day with service in a while, and I wanted to take advantage of it. I did also watch the newest episode of The Summer I Turned Pretty, summaries of which I’ve been forcibly subjecting the other Spokies to for the last few weeks.

    The drive from Carson City to Genoa was gorgeous, with luscious rolling fields and cute houses speckling the landscape. I also learned from a street sign that Genoa, NV was founded in 1851, in case you were interested. At rest stop 5, I found a nice shady picnic table for us to loiter around. I also climbed a tree! (sorry it was after you left Ramona)

    The final rest stop was after a long climb, so I was expecting people to be more tired than they were. Everyone was doing great though (yay team). Tian’s front shifter wasn’t working so Ramona helped fix it 🐐 . Ramona also excitedly informed me that a magical tailwind appeared at mile 85.8, only to disappear a fraction of a mile later. Ishaq consumed Sprite, per usual, while Greta consumed stolen apple sauce, a first.

    Everybody had dispersed by 7:45pm, which, if you can’t tell, is late. While I was slightly concerned about this, it did allow me to witness a magnificent magenta mountain sunset while driving down, one Ramona described as “cotton candy.” I unfortunately don’t have pictures because I’m a safe driver 🫡 The beauty didn’t stop at the mountain — entering South Lake Tahoe gave me a sense of euphoria I haven’t felt since Day 46. What can I say, I’m a city girl at heart. 

    I pulled up in front of our Warmshowers hosts for tonight, Natasha and Dan. Poppy, their dog, trotted out to greet me as well. I got a tour of the house and started unpacking the van when Ramona arrived and very intelligently told me to consider shuttling the rest of the riders since it was now pitch black outside. I nodded at intelligent Ramona, and suggested my own intelligent thing: why don’t I go back and just give them bike lights instead? Joseph and Sarah arrive soon, I steal Joseph and Ramona’s lights, then go find the bums Tian, Charles, Ishaq, and Greta.

    After illegally parking in a fire lane, I find them munching on sweets at Insomnia Cookies. I trade them the lights for the cookies, then zoom back to our temporary home. I find the speedier Spokies showered and eating the delicious grilled food that Dan and Natasha served us. After everybody arrives intact, we all enjoy some dinner together while chatting with our lovely hosts. I also realize we entered California today! I can’t believe nobody told me.

    That’s it for today’s blog. I must mention it’s my last one 😢(I know I know, a terrible loss for the blogging community). Everybody has at one point or another written something deeply meaningful in their blog. Instead of doing that, I’m going to drop the Spokes rendition of The Breakfast Club trailer that we created at the high school in Ely.  Despite the audio and general quality being quite bad at times, I did spend a substantial amount of time editing this for absolutely no reason, so I hope you enjoy! Peace out ✌️

  • Day 69: Highway to the Danger Zone

    Day 69: Highway to the Danger Zone

    Learning Festival in Fallon, NV

    (This draft was made back in August, but I never published it, whoops!) (Published on 1/23/26)

    Highway to the … LAST LEARNING FESTIVAL! Today was a momentous day – the day of our last learning festival. It really feels like things are starting to wrap up. It’s like the first sign of the end. 

    I woke up on the couch of the Youth Center’s Teen room. Then I went to the Youth Center’s industrial kitchen to grab breakfast. It truly was the breakfast of champions. I had everything elementary school me could have wanted. Chocolate milk, prepackaged cereal bowls, even tangerine juice. After enjoying my long breakfast, I went to go help with setup for our workshop. 

    We had a pretty decent sized group this time around with 6 to 8 kids per group. But even though it was our 10th time doing this, it wasn’t easy. The kids were a rowdy bunch. They asked a lot of great questions, but they were also easily distracted, for example, by all of the balloons in the corner of the classroom. Fair. There were a couple of mishaps. One of our soda bottles cracked and sprayed a kid with baking soda and vinegar. I was also subsequently sprayed by said bottle. Later in the day a scuffle broke out between two of the kids. I broke them up. I was also pretty tired, so at some point I started dosing off during Sarah’s chemistry section. But we made it. After our learning festival wrapped up, I felt a little bit relieved. Teaching kids is tiring. 

    • CHARGE, MY SOLDIERS!

    Afterwards me, Sarah, Ramona and Greta hit up a cafe. Looking at the menu, I saw that you can choose up to 5 fruits to add to your smoothie. I like to get the most bang for my buck, so I got the crazy combo of mango, banana, blueberry, peach and pineapple. It was delicious. Felt rejuvenating. 

    We headed back and people went off to do their own things. Charles and Ruth were still working on the prints, so everyone gathered there. At some point we managed to find Ruth’s Scratch account and looked at all the games she made as a middle schooler. Ruth was very embarrassed. Afterwards me and Charles did something we had been wanting to do for a while – play two-player Flash games. Specifically, we played Gun Mayhem 2, a Co-op 2D platform shooter. Together we cleared the campaign of the game. And then we played Gun Game, a game mode where each time you kill your opponent you upgrade to a new weapon. And after you get through the 15th weapon, you win. We played 10 rounds and Charles won… none of them. 

    Afterwards I went to go take a quick nap and woke up when I saw a message in the group chat that Ruth was going to show us the completed The Breakfast Club trailer (see her blog). Needless to say, it was absolute cinema. Iconic. Afterwards Ruth showed us the video she had put together for her 2.009 (MechE capstone project class) team. I then went to sleep, knowing that tomorrow would be a long day. 

    Tune in next time for my final blog …and the final blog of Spokes!

  • day 66: home means the hills ⛰️

    day 66: home means the hills ⛰️

    Ely, NV to Eureka, NV — 69.8 mi, 3252 ft

    giving you my WARMEST of welcomes (truly, it’s pretty toasty out here…) from the silver1, battle born2, and (tragically) most mountainous state in the union, the one i happen to call home—nevada! your friendly neighborhood nevadan sarah is here to give you the details on our stretch from ely (pronounced e-lee) to eureka! 💡

    like many a day with spokes 2025, this one actually started very, VERY early. as in just past midnight from the previous day. this came courtesy of a late-night, spontaneous decision headed by ruth to film a spokes version of the trailer of the classic 1985 film “the breakfast club.” roles were assigned, clips were filmed, and everyone eventually set off to bed: as of writing this (slightly delayed) blog, the full production is in the final stages of editing by ruth, so stay tuned!!! 🙌🏻 so, the spokies ACTUALLY started our real day pretty late, not waking up until well after 8am in the otherwise desolate halls of white pine high school. i hit a quick shower (mostly due to the freezing temperature and EXTREME water pressure…i thought my skin was going to get blasted clean off), ate some granola, packed up, and set off around 10:30am…yikes 😬

    after turning onto highway 50 to head out-of-town, i felt the familiar dread of looking down at my bike computer and realizing that the next turn was not for another 60-something miles 😐 i think i am ever so slightly addicted to the variety of data in order to keep me stimulated on the ride, but we all have our own coping mechanisms…right? it’s ok, though: i had left that morning with greta and ruth, and we eventually caught up with tian to have an almost all-spokes-girlies leg 1 (minus ramona, who understandably sped off a little earlier in the day after waking up at 7am. we all aspire to be like ramona). we passed a sign that said ruth (and took a picture with it, of course), talked about the potential state of our lives in the next 25-50 years, and before i knew it, we saw charles in the distance with the van. joseph eventually catches up to the rest of us after leaving last because he is slow to get ready in the mornings but refuses to get up earlier to compensate, instead resorting to putting in high intensity first legs (had to call you out on it…sorry not sorry). i had the absolute PERFECT combo of snacks—salty cheez-its and half a cheese stick, a few sweet strawberries, and some refreshing lemonade to wash it all down 😮‍💨 and set off in a wonderful mood to start our 1st summit of the day!

    hey girlies!!!
    ruth 👀

    for my non-nevadans (which are probably all of you besides my family and friends—hello!), the title of this blog is a reference to nevada’s state anthem, “home means nevada,” with the first set of lyrics from the chorus going “home means nevada, homes means the hills”! and boy…they were not wrong writing that. pretty much all of our days in nevada have been up-down, up-down, and today was no different. after a decently comfortable climb to the top of robinson pass (elevation 7,607 feet), we reaped the lovely reward that is the downhill to cruise into rest stop 2, which was the side of the road (like usual these days). while i hadn’t wanted to get my hopes too high, by this point i was confident in saying that the winds today were MUCH better than my 1st day back home. the wind is probably my biggest mood-killer: the turbulent ride into nevada a few days prior made slow climbs even more painfully drawn out, turned speedy, fun descents into tedious balancing acts courtesy of some intense cross-wind and gust action, and constrained flat sections into a constant, agonizingly slow push against an invisible wall. if my vocabulary doesn’t give a good enough indication, i was NOT a happy camper. 

    moving on from the pessimistic though, i left rest stop 2 maintaining my good spirits for the next climb and the rest of the ride. i passed by some lovely lavender fields and flocks of sheep 🪻🐑 stopped by a historic marker talking about the silver rush of the late 1800s (and the ghost towns that followed), and pulled into rest stop 3 (sadly, the desolate nature of northern nevada has led to some plain naming and placing in rest stops for our rides). i was happy to see ramona for the 1st time that day, but i was even more curious about what she had strapped creatively to her bike bag—an abandoned nevada license plate she had found on the side of the road. i definitely did not start scheming of ways to get it off her hands…i guess i already have my own, though (even if its attached to the back of my car back in vegas). i ate some of the yummy sandwich ruth had made me (thanks ruth!) before setting off for legs 4 and 5. these weren’t too eventful, besides two more summits climbed, named little antelope (elevation 7,438 feet) and pancake (elevation 6,517 feet) summits, respectively.

    • country roads (highway 50) take me home (nevada)
    • what a find

    naturally, the highest summit to be climbed that day was in the very last leg. our route planning site says it was almost 1400 feet over about 8.5 miles, but i think our garmin bike computers said something more like 1100 feet over 5 miles. no matter the exact numbers, it was a slow and steady one. the REAL strategy i have realized that works best for climbs is actually NOT trying to drown out your miserable thoughts and aching legs with loud, hype music (while that does work pretty good)—it’s actually distracting yourself by yapping with someone else! since the shoulder was too small for pairing up with one of my fellow spokies, i called one of my friends from back home (who actually goes to college in northern nevada! go pack) to catch up on life. after she kept me distracted for a solid 30-40 minutes (even amongst the occasional gust of wind that made me unintelligible—bless your soul, farrah 💗), greta and ruth caught up to me with about a mile to go. with loud downhills and the end in sight, i let my friend go, and the trio yapped our way to the top. at pinto summit (elevation 7,376 feet), we met up with joseph, took some pictures, and got ready to make the final, speedy push into eureka! 

    while our route for the day ended in eureka proper, our actual destination for the night was diamond valley baptist church—about 18 miles north, or COMPLETELY out of the way and off our overall route. ishaq was speedy enough to do the extra mileage before dark, but the rest of us decided to at least partially shuttle in stages via the car. ramona had went up with the grocery crew of charles and tian earlier, so joseph, greta, ruth and i chilled out in front of a convenience store while we waited for the car to return. joseph and i got snacks, and in the meantime greta and ruth decided that they wanted to bike the 18 miles…you go, girls! 🔥 after trading lights to appear as bright and visible as possible on the road, they set off, and eventually tian showed up for me and joseph. we gladly racked our bikes and hopped into the tian biker uber :))

    • the climb…
    • …and the summit!
    • hello eureka!

    after arriving at the church, joseph realized and informed tian that the car had about 20 miles of gas left, the nearest gas station was 15 miles away, and closed in about 10 minutes. oh, and greta and ruth (who went on an escapade involving rodeos and quesadillas…quite the shenanigans) should probably be picked up since it is now DARK, and the road is a bit sketch. thankfully, all parties arrive at the church safe and sound (if not slightly traumatized). for dinner, charles serves…questionable fried rice (which some of us flamed a little too hard, sorry charlie), and BOMB ramen and potstickers. we all shower in the girls bathroom (since that is the only shower in the building), and lay down to sleep on the PADDED! PEWS!!! i slept not only SUPER comfortably, but peacefully knowing that i would be taking a break and behind the wheel the next day!

    “but sarah, where’s the philosophical spiel? you’re in your home state, after all!” and you’d be right! while i am technically back “home,” the north is a bit different from the south. they share similar climates and scenery—hot, dry, and mostly barren—but the northern mountains i was complaining about earlier do provide ideal conditions for the occasional flora and fauna, which i much enjoyed while flying down the other side of these climbs. surprisingly, though, it was in the more unassuming, recognizable valleys in between where i felt the most awe. i grew up surrounded by sights like these, yet seeing them in this totally new context (and slightly different location) made me feel a fresh appreciation for their simplicity. after weeks of stunning scenery including lush forests, vast fields, towering peaks, and vibrant canyons, home, in its simple familiarity, has become a comforting mental palette cleanser. i found a sense of peace and beauty in the seemingly plain and boring, in how the landscape didn’t demand too much of your attention with complex intricacy or mind-blowing sights. the scenery was content to be just what it was, and i was content to exist in it—simply. just me and my bike, in the valley of my thoughts and nostalgia…

    how’s that for a mental tangent? well, if you thought that was bad, get ready for my next blog…which will also be my last official spokes 2025 blog…totally not feeling a LOT of feelings about that….hahaha…💔💔

    with that, i’ll see you on our LAST RIDE before we head into san francisco!!! 💗

  • Day 65: the late night zoomies club

    Day 65: the late night zoomies club

    Ely, NV -> Ely, NV, 0 mi, 0 ft

    0 miles today, so teaching! Somehow, even though this is the second to last learning festival we are doing, the thought of kids and lessons made me nervous.

    We woke up and left the high school for the library, only 15 or so minutes later than planned. The library, across the street from the middle school, had a nice lawn and a pond next to it. We made it there just when it opened and set up half in a conference room and half outside. This was definitely one of the smaller learning festivals with around 12? kids and one adult. I always like working with only a few kids in a group, since I can listen to them more and ask more questions, as opposed to making them do things. The adult was a new addition. A retired? special ED teacher, he wanted to join for the classes. This made me even more nervous – a teacher would be there observing me trying my best to teach. But it ended up being completely fine. It was actually really nice to talk to him about the lesson and teaching in general, especially special ED, afterwards. Unexpected, pleasant surprise. The kids were also great! I met multiple people, whose favourite subject in school is math and found out about some teenagers have been dirtbiking since 3 years old. Kind of crazy! (We had passed some tracks for dirtbikes when riding into Ely yesterday, so it checks out. Dirtbiking and mountain biking appear to be common hobbies here.) We ate lunch outside, it was a calm and sunny day.

    Afterwards, we let Charles and Ruth work on their 3d prints, which always take longer than expected and this time faced some extra difficulty due to a corrupted SD card (an ordeal that extended into the next day, respect to Charles for not giving up on any of the prints!) And we left Greta with them to blog. The rest were shuttled back to the high school. Joseph and Sarah went to do laundry (and checked out a cafe too I think?). I was going to join a meeting, but due to my poor mental math abilities, missed it by an hour. I did some other work, until the people left at the library got back. Me and Charles (who was awarding himself for finishing the learning festival by procrastinating on his blogs) joined Ishaq for the grocery store to pick up the ingredients for a Thai green curry and some other red type of curry. The grocery store was actually huge and very well stocked, we got all the ingredients, found a basil with all the roots and contemplated making it a Spokes pet and got a huge melon. Then we got to cooking. Ruth also made a crazy amount of sandwiches for everyone for the ride tomorrow.

    The scenery was amazing: us under the bobcats in the evening sun.

    Halfway through cooking Ruth, whose stressed about the unwritten blogs for both Charles and Greta, kicked Charles out of the cooking team and made him write his blog. (So he sat there and wrote his blog.) She also had an interaction with Greta about the blogs, but ended up not making her blog, since she had already dropped a blog that day. Anyways, the meal ended up absolutely delicious and we enjoyed it on the spot, sitting on the ground.

    While not blogging, Greta had gone on a run and returned absolutely ecstatic over the sunset and huge moon she had seen. So, after dinner, we too went to see the moon from the bleachers. I walked around the football field, a place I have never found myself on. It’s a pretty big field.

    Afterwards, even though there were definitely tasks to do, I got a bout of sleepyness, so I lay down on my mat and soon found it impossible to get back up. Not quite asleep, but not awake either, I vaguely remember there was some more evening shenanigans by the awake Spokies – sliding around the hall in socks, maybe a movie? They were suffering from the late night zoomies.

    I later was informed it was the recreation of the trailer for the 1985 movie The Breakfast Club. After seeing it in some part of the editing process, I can say it is a work of art. Keep an eye out for Ruth publishing it someplace. In the meantime, for a teaser, you should look at the original here (link in text: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGuWbVb1210)

    But yes, short blog this time, seeya in a week for one last biking trip blog encounter.

  • Day 64: The One Where We Almost Lose Sarah

    Day 64: The One Where We Almost Lose Sarah

    Baker, NV -> Ely, NV — 61.7 miles, 4,472 ft

    (This blog was written 3/14/26 from what I remember, with the help of our shared photos album, the route for the day, the day’s Strava captions, and a few other Spokies’ recollections. The details I do remember, I remember like they were yesterday. The details I don’t; well, they’re lost to the cold-hearted machine that is the passage of time. Let’s all pretend they aren’t as important as what I’ve documented here).

    The biking Spokies had a bit of a staggered start today. Ruth and Ramona left early, per usual. Greta, Joseph, and Sarah, our resident coffee stop fiends, ate a lighter breakfast and went for coffee at the town’s only café (also Baker, Nevada’s general store and inn) right around the corner. This part of Highway 50 in Nevada is desolate. Not a single viable coffee shop rest stop on the route until our final destination.

    Yay… the loneliest road in America yay…

    The past few days, I’ve been coordinating with Evan, my roommate-to-be in San Francisco when I move there at the end of Spokes. He’s been apartment touring and filling me in with his thoughts on the places he’s checked out. My service has often been spotty in rural Nevada but we’ve called briefly a couple times at rest stops so I can weigh in. I’m trying to be helpful, but I’m completely incapable of figuring out my apartment preferences through just photos and videos. I think I lack object permanence or something, because I’m convinced I need to actually be there to have any clue about what I want in a prospective apartment. And biking across the country, especially this part, is certainly not helping me with apartment visualization. So I’ve been reduced to thanking Evan for doing all of this and happily deferring to his judgement. The best I’ve offered in the way of preferences has been a “windows are nice… I guess?”

    This morning, I responded to a few more apartment tours Evan had done and I was the last of the bikers to leave. I swung by the café and he rang me, so I sat on the porch outside and he filled me in on our apartment search. Our call was starting to run pretty long as we spent some time catching up and I remember looking inside the café window to see if Greta, Joseph, and Sarah were still there. At one point, Greta left the café on foot running back towards the church where we’d stayed. I thought it was odd but she came back with a backpack so I figured maybe she’d had some work she needed to get done in the morning.

    When I wrapped up my call, I was in good spirits. It looked like I wouldn’t be spending the first part of the day biking alone! But these spirits quickly came crashing down. Joseph filled me in. Sarah had had an allergic reaction to a bite of Greta’s lemon blueberry muffin. When she had immediately realized something was up, the servers at the restaurant had looked up the muffin in the recipe book and saw that it used almond flour. It was pretty bad so Greta had run back to the church to grab Sarah’s EpiPen and gave her the shot. When I walked in, Sarah was beginning to do better and was recovering in the bathroom. I felt awful as we sat around waiting for Greta and Sarah to emerge. Greta appeared and let us know Sarah was OK and she and Joseph helped Sarah out to the table.

    It was a relief to see Sarah was going to be alright but she looked rattled and was definitely not herself. She said her throat still felt tight and her breathing was shaky, but it had reduced a lot since the initial reaction, which had been the quickest ramp-up she had ever experienced with her nut allergy. It was the first time Sarah had used her EpiPen. I learned that the EpiPen is a temporary treatment; you’re supposed to go to urgent care afterwards. Ishaq and Tian pulled the car out front while Sarah called her mom. The nearest hospital with an urgent care was about 45 minutes away. So, the plan became: Ishaq and Tian would drive Sarah to the urgent care. They’d leave a water jug behind at the rest stop for Ruth and Ramona. After dropping Sarah off, they would come back to meet us at the rest stops and perform their driverly duties, until Sarah was discharged from the hospital.

    The mood had lightened a bit so we joked that this was Greta exacting her revenge on Sarah for attempting to kill Greta’s grandmother, Cathy, back in Glenwood Springs. Sarah swore off lemon blueberry muffins forever. Greta, Joseph, and I bid Sarah well and said bye before they drove off.

    Hitting the road for a full day of biking after one of your fellow Spokies almost dies (not to mention biking alongside her almost-murderer) made for a sobering ride initially. But I was proud of how everyone handled the situation with their thought, care, and preparedness. Kudos especially to Greta and Joseph for their response at the café and Ishaq and Tian for stepping up as drivers! I was pretty tired since I hadn’t slept well the night before, so I trailed Greta and Joseph as they shared their first (!) yap ride of Spokes.

    At the “rest stop,” we found the water jug tucked under a bush. We snacked and refilled our waters. I took a 20 minute nap under the beaming sun. When we were ready to leave, we realized we had a problem — the water jug meant Tian and Ishaq would have to come back for it if we didn’t want to litter. We all tinkered with how to bring it along with us until Joseph came up with a fantastic solution:

    • Joseph’s genius solution

    Highway 50 was super boring. Worse, the wind had picked up and turned into a treacherous headwind. To keep morale up, we jammed out to music on Greta’s speaker. Finally, we busted out my ultimate pump-up music for biking — white-girl hardstyle. Immediate pick-me-up. We were bopping, we were swerving, we were cruising (like 11 miles an hour into the winds lol).

    Joseph probably burned himself out or he simply wasn’t feeling it after the events of the morning, because when we reached rest stop 3 at the base of the day’s big climb, he had nothing left in the tank. After resting up for a bit, he decided he didn’t want to finish out the climb. Since there were already 3 bikes on the bike rack (Ishaq, Tian, and Sarah’s), we had to take his rear wheel off to make his bike fit in the car. That left no room in the back for Joseph to sit. I jokingly suggested Ishaq could bike instead.

    Innovation that excites

    Boy when I tell you this man’s eyes lit up. “Charles you’re a genius!” Can you tell Ishaq really loves biking? What a stunning turnaround for the man once known for his heart not being in it. Ishaq changed into his biking gear, took his bike off the rack, and traded places with Joseph. Greta and I groaned because now he was going to push the pace of the climb.

    Ishaq promised he would stick with us for the climb. After about a half mile of calling us slow, he gave in and dropped us. We met up with him again at the final rest stop of the day and chugged some Sprites with him.

    In the final leg of the day, we caught up with Ruth and Ramona, who had ditched their bikes on the edge of a pullout on the side of the road. Our confusion quickly gave way to understanding when we saw a narrow path leading down to the lake, and then, two bobbing heads swimming. Greta, Ishaq, and I pulled over as well. Ruth and Ramona swore the water wasn’t cold (it was frigid) and convinced us to go for a swim. It was very refreshing, though, and we were dry pulling into the town an hour later.

    As we arrived in Ely, Nevada, ready to put this cursed day behind us, Greta, Ishaq, and I decided to celebrate. We thought it’d be fun to take our bikes through the McDonald’s drive-thru and get McFlurries. But their ice cream machine was broken. Classic Mickey D’s. Ishaq got an iced lemonade. We hit the Carl Jr’s drive-thru next. I got a cookies and cream milkshake, which was simply heavenly. Vibes were great.

    • 55 burgers 55 fries 55 tacos 55 pies 55 cokes
    • 100 tater tots 100 pizzas 100 tenders 100 meatballs 100 coffees
    • 55 wings 55 shakes 55 pancakes 55 pastas 55 peppers 155 taters
    • Ruth and Ramona’s sidequest
    • Ramona, meet American high school football. American high school football, Ramona.

    Our place for the night was White Pine County High School. It was so surreal sprawling out in the empty lunch hall of a high school to lodge for a night. For many of us, it had been years since we had stepped inside a high school. Our hosts had ordered us pizza, which was super nice of them. Sarah was doing better, but was a bit sleepy when we arrived. Good thing we all weren’t biking tomorrow!

    There was a pole vault pole in the cafeteria, so I asked Sarah to show us proper pole vaulting form. There wasn’t an actual pit, so a few of us gave it a shot on the grass outside, rather unsuccessfully. Ishaq and I also took turns hurdling each other (pinky promise that’s what’s going on here)

    Some of the Spokies set up the projector and watched the Princess Bride. Joseph, Sarah, and Ramona went to bed early. I filled out some apartment applications and ID verifications Evan sent my way. I ended the day like I started it — in a small, rural town in southern Nevada trying my best to figure out the logistics for starting the next chapter of my life, a painful reminder that Spokes must eventually come to an end. Thankfully, no one had a serious allergic reaction while I was off doing my apartments thing this time around.

  • Day 63: Personal Reckoning

    Day 63: Personal Reckoning

    Milford, UT -> Baker, NV; 83.4 mi; 4,414ft

    By now, you, my dear reader, may have heard us describe the Spokes 2025 journey in terms of TV show seasons (if you haven’t, it’s because my teammates haven’t published their blogs yet). We are currently well into Season 4, which I predict will be a season of personal reckoning. Charles (maybe?), Greta, and Ishaq all had their canon events for season 4. My major event occurred yesterday when I fell on a gravel descent. This was my second gravel fall of the trip. I was shaking and moving so fast down the descent that I didn’t have enough time to protect my head. Thankfully, my helmet took the hit like a warrior. After screaming from the pain of the fall, I had enough sensibility to move to the side of the road and assess damages. I skidded on the left side of my face during my fall. Although there were bruises all over my body, the damage that will be most lasting for me is the scrapes on my face. As an aspiring actor and model, my face is of great importance to me. The mental anguish as I wait for my face to recover, hopefully without scars, will be tumultuous. This is my personal fight for season 4 of Spokes.

    Due to my injuries from yesterday, I am once again a passenger princess. Fulfilling my role, I slept in an extra hour, a luxury for Spokes. The typical leave time for Spokes 2025 is 10 am. We are not an early crowd. We are an embarrassment to our predecessors. Ishaq came to inform me that the rest of Spokies were dilly-dallying for the past hour, so actually, I woke up just in time to eat breakfast with the Spokies.

    Then came the laundry scandal. Despite Ishaq laboring away at 2 am, washing two days of laundry, he missed a bag of Charles’ clothes. Poor Charlie here thought he needed to throw out all his stinky clothes, which were permanently ruined by Spokes. Never mind that. Fortunately (?), he just had to wear his own filth today.

    Team Greta and Tian left Mt. View Church in Milford, UT, at 11 am and went shopping for some last-minute groceries. Greta already did a mega grocery run this morning for tonight’s dinner, but we needed some more bread for tomorrow’s sandwiches. At the parking lot, a Sprite from our car fell onto the floor and sprayed us with Sprite perfume. Thank you for this surprise, Ishaq (our Sprite-addicted Spokie).

    Some fresh meat
    Jamming to musicals

    Greta and I jammed and sang along to my musicals playlist. At the second rest stop, Greta started creating the sign for her lemonade stand. If she could put half of that energy into her blogs, maybe she wouldn’t be 3 blogs behind ;( Her lemonade stand was a hit, especially with Sarah. Sarah was so happy that she made a Sarah Star. Charles showed off his special skill, double dipping. Our blue corn chips are so crushed such that Charles needed to scoop the salsa multiple times to achieve an equal chip to salsa ratio. Well, luckily, the Spokies who cared about multi-dipping were not at the rest stop with us (namely, Ishaq). Greta poured the salsa onto the jar’s cap and scooped the sauce with her little chips. That’s why she goes to MIT.

    Rest stop 2’s really nice tree translated to a long-long rest. This was noticed not only by Spokies but also by a third party (revealed shortly). Right before driving to the next rest stop to catch the other Spokies who had gone ahead, Greta started flirting with Charles’ bike, Junior. “You are just my size”, Greta said. Greta wanted Junior to become hers. Junior was already having a tough day and needed comforting. Charles attributed Junior’s malfunctions to Ishaq’s bike cleaning last night. Laundry was not the only thing Ishaq cleaned last night. He was struck with inspiration to deep clean everyone’s bikes, and may have unintentionally loosened everyone’s brakes. Joseph’s bike was also struggling.

    When the van finally caught up to Ishaq at rest stop 3, he had been waiting for 40 minutes. During his joyous wait, he flagged down a random car to ask about our whereabouts. The driver said they saw “6 bikers that didn’t seem like they were going anywhere,” describing us under the (cursed) tree. The driver also passed Joseph and was tempted to disclose the news of his unfortunate predicament. The driver felt so bad for Ishaq that they offered him a whole box of food because the rest of the bikers weren’t coming anytime soon. Ishaq took up the driver’s gracious offer. Although Ishaq waited a long time, he was having a lot of fun kicking up dust and watching it fly into the distance.

    Greta and I learned that the cross-winds were really intense today, resulting in slow going for all the bikers. Joseph took an hour to bike 7 miles. The miles of nothingness also created a mirage where it feels like you are not getting any closer to the next checkpoint, no matter how long you bike. Meanwhile, Ishaq and I played Star Realms (an amazing deck building game) at rest stop 3. Greta locked in and blogged. Greta and I also hatched a plan to drive to the church we are staying at today, so Greta could start cooking. I would drive back to finish serving our bikers at the rest stops. Ishaq and Joseph (when he arrived) knew of our plan. I told Greta not to let anyone else know, so I could play a fool and trick everyone into believing that Greta never existed. If that ploy fails, I plan to say that I ate Greta.

    Greta and I zoomed to Baker’s church. While she was getting the church keys from the general store, I started unpacking the car. We discovered that the church doesn’t have a kitchen, and the bathroom was clogged. We went back to the general store to figure out the bathroom situation and to use their bathroom.  Finally, with Greta’s support, I returned to the 4th rest stop excited to fool the rest of the Spokies with my trickery and acting skills. Unfortunately, Joseph spoiled my fun and already told everyone what Greta and I were up to before I got back to rest stop 4. I need to choose my partners in crime carefully in the future.

    At the fifth and last rest stop, I finished up my quesadilla as I watched more shenanigans unfold before me. Although we don’t have service and haven’t crossed the border to Nevada yet, Ramona’s phone and watch were updated to Pacific Time. Ramona’s watch doesn’t automatically update the time, so this occurrence is really strange for her. Perhaps Ramona had been operating in the wrong time zone this whole time? Who knows?

    By the time I returned to the Baker church, Ishaq and Greta had churned up a whole food operation. Dinner was ready in no time. Greta made delicious soup (and chicken, which I don’t eat). Another thing I am impressed by after 60 days of Spokes is how much people take on their roles in stride, whether it be cooking, laundry, or unpacking the cooler. Spokies know what needs to be done and aren’t disgruntled when they are reminded to do their tasks. Sometimes, Spokies embrace their task with pride and enthusiasm. After dinner, all the Spokies dispersed to do their own tasks. The showers were close to a gas station in town. So most Spokies needed to trek to get to the shower. Also speaking of Baker, NV, did you know we single-handedly increased the town population by 150%?

    As I am getting ready for bed, the guilt of not biking is eating away at me. I recently started feeling really proud of myself for conquering hills. Even if it takes me hours of pedaling, I now know that I am more than capable of trudging my way up. Ishaq spoke previously about how one of the wonders of this experience is being able to see how far one has grown. I am very satisfied with how much I’ve grown on the bike. I remember how my legs used to feel like jellyfish after every ride at the beginning of the trip. Now, even after a four-thousand-foot hill, I can walk around just fine. It frustrates me that my growth is temporarily stunted by my injuries. With only 9 biking days left, I don’t want to miss out on any. However, whether or not I can biking tomorrow is still a question mark for me. With pain that has yet to recover, I am not sure if I should wait to get better or take on more challenges in stride.

    I have also been thinking about my face the whole day. One thing I realized after my face injuries is that I am beautiful. It’s such a shame that I wasted time thinking that I was ugly when I had such a smooth, cute face. Now that my face is filled with bandages, I can’t help but sigh every time I look at the mirror.

    But like joy, frustration and sadness are a part of life. I don’t feel like my usual self today, and I also hate to worry my teammates. I wonder when I will find my footholds again in the next few days. Welcome to my day of personal reckoning.

  • Day 62: Elapsed Time Warriors

    Day 62: Elapsed Time Warriors

    Lava Point Campground, UT to Milford, UT — 89.5 mi, 3,849 ft

    I’m exhausted when I wake up at 7:30am, which is entirely my fault because camping seems to bring out the insomnia demon within me. After packing up the tent and my belongings, I head to the campground table to make some brekkie. Greta has a terrible habit of THROWING AWAY avocado halves I’ve left in the cooler, so this time I leave nothing to chance: I make myself a scuffed avo toast using our overly crumbly marble rye bread because the ~artisanal~ bread I bought yesterday was devoured before I could have a piece. It was still quite yummy.

    Now, Lava Point Campground has no service, as is expected of a campground. Greta and I were silly and did not upload navigation to our bike computers the day before, so we’re reliant on others to guide us today. We start off by following Charles, Ishaq, and Sarah, but I ditch them for Tian at the first rest stop because she doesn’t spend an eternity on her breaks. We descend upon a nasty gravel descent that I take slow and Tian takes slower. I resolve to meet her at the next intersection. Ramona does not take gravel descents slowly, so she zooms past the both of us. At the end of the worst part, I see Ramona sitting at an intersection in the distance. I assume it’s the second rest stop and sit down next to her, but she clarifies that she also does not have navigation. So we sit. And wait. We actually have service here, but can’t seem to upload the route to our bike computers. So we sit. And wait some more. A couple minutes later, Joseph, today’s driver, passes by us, explaining that Tian fell and he’s on his way back up to pick her up. He points out on RideWithGPS which direction we should go, then dips. This is when Ramona realizes that we can just navigate from our phones! Equipped with a bunch of screenshots of the route, we head to rest stop 3, a cafe in Cedar City.

    When we get there, Tian and Joseph are inside. This is when I realize that Tian took a real beating. Like really bad. We get her some ice for her face and eat our lunches in silence. I was trying and failing to think of ways to make her feel better, when Charles pulls up and buys her a drink from the cafe. Very sweet. Despite the bruises, Tian manages to keep her sense of humor, joking that her “modeling career is ending before it began” (she’s probably only 50% joking though). Ramona and I head out shortly after, as we typically do, leaving as Greta starts doing her very legitimate tarot card readings. 

    Over the next stretch, something magical happens, so faint that I barely even notice it. But Ramona’s spidey senses perk up. “Is that… a tailwind?” I gasp. Yes. Yes it is. It’s fleeting, which makes it all the sweeter. For the next five miles, I daydream of tailwinds carrying us to SF. Sigh.

    Now sometimes (actually a lot), Ramona talks to me while we’re biking and I have no idea what she’s saying. This is partially because of the wind, partially because Ramona speaks quietly, and partially because I’m a little deaf. This time, I hear her mumble something incoherent then promptly swerve to the left side of the road. I’m slightly concerned because I see an oncoming car, but I trust Ramona with my life so I follow her anyway. Soon, I understand why. She’s led us right into some sprinkler mist! Slightly wet, she looks back at me with an evil grin, and I grin back. Typical Ramona shenanigans.

    When we arrive at rest stop 4, I look at my phone and learn that Ishaq’s rear derailleur broke. Luckily, he was in a bike shop to look at the gash in his tire from an earlier ride. I’m pretty sure everyone but me and Ramona went to the bike shop to check out something or another, but I have no idea because we are far far away from them by this point. Ramona and I have enough water and snacks to keep biking, so we leave again.

    Over the next 10 miles, very little happens. Ramona recites poetry to me, something about a dream in a dream. We point at a lone cow on the side of the road. We look in awe at the barren landscape around us, a landscape so desolate it’s hard to believe civilization was all around us only an hour ago. Where’d it all go?

    At rest stop 5, Ramona and I are tired and have maybe 4 oz of water left each. Joseph would be there in 30 minutes. We both hate waiting, but not having water is a pretty big deterrent. Ramona is leaning towards staying, while I’m leaning towards biking the 11 miles and hoping not to get dehydrated. The next rest stop is a gas station we can refill at, and the next stretch is completely downhill, which is convincing enough that Ramona agrees to leave. We are the true elapsed time warriors.

    While gravel downhills are the bane of my existence, paved downhills are quite the opposite. We max at 37 mph without pedaling. Impeccable. We get to the gas station in under half an hour with water to spare. After refilling and snacking, we head out for the last 18 miles. Mother nature decides to bless us again with tailwinds, and we arrive at the church slightly before 7pm.

    The rest of the night is pretty boring. After showering and helping unload the car, I work on this blog. Others are washing bikes, calling family, sending emails, cleaning dishes, or napping. This might have been the quietest post-ride ever. Joseph makes quesadillas for dinner, but by the time they’re ready I’m utterly exhausted and have gone to bed. I’m sure your quesadillas were fire though, Joseph.

  • Day 61: The Legendary Metal Dorito

    Day 61: The Legendary Metal Dorito

    Zion, UT -> Lava Point Campground, UT — 29.75 mi, 4,975 ft

    Hi hi, It’s Joseph again1 with a blog for the shortest mileage day of the trip! Don’t be fooled though, today was anything but short. It was also the day with the largest single climb of the trip…

    It was a great start to the day. I had gotten great sleep for the past two nights in a row, a rarity on this trip. I felt ready to tackle this day head on. Today, as is usually the case, the team left at different times, though unusually enough, I was not part of the last group to leave. I spent the first hour speeding along a slight descent and attempting to catch up to the frontrunners of today2 as I approached Kolob Terrace Road, where we would spend most of our day.

    The climb
    The views

    Allow me to give some context about where we were headed. Zion National Park is bigger than some people realize. There’s the main section of the park inside of Zion Canyon, where most of the tourists go and where we hiked Angel’s Landing the day before. Then, there’s the Kolob Terrace, the high elevation area of the park, many thousands of feet above the bottom of Zion Canyon. Our destination for today was Lava Point Campground, near the top of the terrace and named after Lava Point, a vista with views spanning the entire park.

    Back to the biking. The climb started and I managed to catch up to Tian and Sarah before the first rest stop, and then made it to the rest stop, where Ruth and Ramona were. The car had earlier passed me, then not 5 minutes later turned back around. I didn’t see it again for another half an hour. I wondered what happened, but I didn’t see a second bike on the car when it drove by the second time, so I assumed it was fine. Turns out that Ishaq accidentally ran into The Legendary Metal Dorito™, a mystical weapon used by the gods of cycling to strike down anyone who dared to ride too fast, fly too close to the sun, if you will. Ishaq had done just that, and he paid dearly for it. In one swift motion his tire was slashed open. The Specialized tire he had gotten a week or so ago was slain. It was no more. Ishaq, devastated by the loss of his companion, turned to The Metal Dorito and promptly curb stomped it, returning it to being a regular dorito shaped piece of metal. He called Ruth in and snatched her wheel.

    The Metal Dorito

    Back to me, I guess. I spent a while at the first rest stop, since just as I was about to leave, the rest of the gang showed up. Eventually I leave to catch up with the frontrunners3. The views were becoming increasingly scenic, with the road winding up and around jagged cliffs. We started the day in the plain dessert, but as we climbed the landscape became greener and meadows and groves of pine trees started appearing. It took an hour to make it to the next rest stop only six miles up the road. The climbs were generally fine, but every once in a while, the grade would become very steep, but everyone kept on chugging along just fine.4 After the next rest stop some of us split up into pairs. I started cycling with Charles. Sarah paired up with Greta. Often times it’s hard to chat with people on the climbs, but the road was empty enough that we could do it comfortably.

    At this point we were fully in Alpine forest and it even started to become a little chilly. At the third rest stop we arrived to find Ruth watching TSITP aka The Summer I Turned Pretty. After being a responsible support vehicle for the morning, she had embraced the bum driver lifestyle. After the last rest stop me and Charles continued the climb, feeling like the end was now in sight. Eventually we make it to the top and we hear the familiar and loved beep of the Garmin, signifying the end of this immense climb. We waited at the top for Sarah and Greta to complete the last couple of miles together.

    We pull into the campsite and see the tents already set up thanks to the efforts of Ramona, Ishaq, Tian and Ruth.5 Though seems like it wasn’t easy for them, as the wind caused stuff to ascend, including causing one of our tents into the forest. There were no showers at the campground, so I devised a plan to go to Kolob Reservoir for a dip. When we found a spot to pull over to the water, we realized the water was very cold and the shore was really muddy. Most people opted not to go in all the way if at all, except for Charles, who went for a full plunge. I also went in and dunked my head in the water to get the dirt out of my hair. I promptly ran out of the water violently shivering and dried myself off as quickly as I could.

    that is not where the tent should be
    “showers”
    greta after “shower”
    my freshly washed hair and ruth way too excited

    On the way back to the campsite, I sneakily took us to Lava Point, where we soaked in the views – the product of all of our climbing today. It was also the only place where we had any service in the area.

    ruth and ramona enjoying the views
    Lava Point viewpoint
    ramona and the view
    greta playing the tian and ishaq drums
    the views were quite nice

    Then we headed back to the campsite where Ruth cooked ramen for dinner. I actually quite enjoyed this meal. I ate more for this camp dinner than I almost ever do, so good job Ruth! Not much else happened that night, though the night sky was as beautiful as it had been the rest of Utah.

    dinner in progress
    adding seasonings is a team effort
    yum
    my egg is the best one there
    ruth in a tree
    ramona not in a tree

    If you take anything from this blog, let it be this. Don’t bike too close to the sun, otherwise you too might get struck down by The Legendary Metal Dorito or similar phenomena.

    Ishaq and what struck him down
    1. And Ramona transcribing (the next three Joseph blogs are being written in the process of driving back across the country) ↩︎
    2. Editor’s note: spoiler: he doesn’t ↩︎
    3. Reminder: he doesn’t ↩︎
    4. Don’t quote me on this. ↩︎
    5. Listing in order of arrival ↩︎

  • Day 60: maybe paradise is a laundromat in utah

    Day 60: maybe paradise is a laundromat in utah

    Zion, UT – 0mi, 0ft

    It’s 9:35pm. Charles and I are sitting in TABS laundromat in Hurricane, UT, listening to the hissing, humming, and squeaking of Speed Queen Commercial Washers. I recently returned from a 20 minute quest to acquire quarters spanning Pizza Hut, Ernie’s General Store, Taco Bell, Little Caesar’s, and Alfredos. Said quarters were ultimately acquired by knocking on the drive-thru window at Alfredo’s (a Mexican restaurant, obviously). We are running five loads of laundry simultaneously. We will not leave this laundromat until 11:27pm.

    hi charles!
    our new home

    Spokes has been full of experiences, like this one, that I can only describe as surreal. “What is going on? How did I get here? Why am I doing this?” Right now, as I write this blog, I am sitting on the porch of a general store in Nevada, in a town with a permanent population of 16. All I can hear are crickets and the occasional click-clack of Charles’ and Tian’s keyboards as they blog beside me. There are twinkling Christmas lights adorning a house across the street. It is August. It is 11:50 pm. I am once again waiting for the laundry.

    Like I said, surreal. But sorry, I got ahead of myself. Let’s get back to the day at hand.

    On Day 60, I woke up in a grain silo. I dilly-dallied my way through the morning, packed myself a pb+j, and joined the other Spokies in the minivan, squeezed between the sliding door and the folded, untethered middle seat. We drove to Hoodoo’s General Store, where Ishaq purchased $25 worth of snacks in exchange for free all-day parking. Ishaq generously shared his snacks with rest of the team. (We joked early on on in the trip that Spokes was like Groundhog Day and we each had some vice that we would need to overcome in order to escape. Ishaq’s was his poor sharing abilities. I’m happy to report he will be escaping Spokes when we reach SF.)

    At Hoodoo’s, we met up with our new friend from Bryce, Cameron. He was wearing a bright orange shirt and appeared far more prepared for this hike than most of us, with our drawstring bags and tennis shoes. Together, we caught the shuttle into Zion National Park. We unloaded half a mile later and walked through a maze of empty line lanes, which made me feel like I was at Busch Gardens, or the airport. We re-boarded a different shuttle and continued our journey towards Angels Landing. I passed the shuttle ride watching Ishaq and Tian play Star Realms and the rest of the team play naptime whack-a-mole.

    Finally, we arrived at our stop and found the trailhead. The trail began with a bridge crossing a very enticing looking stream. We resisted the urge to abandon our hiking plans and spend the entire day kicking our feet in the sun-dappled water. It was a hard choice. Propelled by the beautiful sights ahead of us, however, we began the climb up to Angels Landing. The first mile and a half of the hike consisted of very steep, narrow switchbacks. We took our time, stopping to rest at the few shaded areas we could find. We discussed how terrible biking either up OR down this trail would be. Ramona is the only one who stands any chance at all of surviving the bike down. The rest of us, Charles observed, would be biking the Devil’s Takeoff. No thank you. After many, many, MANY switchbacks, we made it to the ranger station at the entrance to the last mile of Angel’s Landing. Because this is such a popular hike, entrance to the trail is controlled by a lottery-ed permit system. We were lucky enough to get two permits, so the rangers gave us all the ok to complete the hike. After the ranger station, Angels Landing turns into an steep, adrenaline (and endorphin)-pumping scramble along the rocky ridge line of the canyon. I’d seen pictures of the hike totally swamped with people, so I was happily surprised that we passed few people along the way.

    We spread out across the ridge, each step demanding careful attention. Metal handles and chains attached across the rocks helped guide us as we ascended… up and up and up. It was a beautiful day. Blue skies, hot but breezy, a couple wispy clouds. Looking out across the red canyons, I couldn’t believe I was still on the same planet I’d been in just a couple days ago. I still don’t understand how it is possible to have lush, green areas like Zion in the midst of endless, desolate desert. The park was named Zion after the biblical place-name often used as a synonym for Jerusalem and embodying the idea of a place as “refuge” or “sanctuary”. If I was a Mormon pioneer discovering Zion1 in the late 1800s, I too would have thought I must have stumbled upon some sort of holy land.

    Once on the summit, we all sat together and ate our lunches staring out across Zion Canyon. Best pb+j view ever. We made friends with a concerningly friendly squirrel. He really wanted our sandwiches. Unfortunately for him, I wanted my sandwich more. We sat on the top of Angels Landing for what felt like forever but still somehow not long enough. We’ve seen so many beautiful sights on this trip, I sometimes fear I’m becoming less observant of the beauty around us. Not today.

    At some point, we left the top of Angel’s Landing and made our way back, all the way down to the river we saw on our way up. This time, at last, we took off our shoes and socks and waded in. Most of us found nice big rocks to sit on and chatted or sat in silence while water gushed around our legs. The sun hung lower in the sky than it had in the morning, and the light dancing on the water made it even prettier than before.

    As usual when we are gathered around a body of water, a couple of us started skipping rocks. This particular stream had lots of smooth, flat rocks conducive to elite-level skipping. Unfortunately, despite trying my hand with some objectively perfect rocks, my rock-skipping skills remained unimpressive. Fortunately, they were still better than Ruth’s. It’s a great quality of life that there are almost always people both worse and better than you at things. Nonetheless, my competitive spirit was fired up so I probably could have stayed there for hours, skipping rock after rock incredibly mediocre distances. Practice makes perfect progress, right?

    With a glance at my watch, however, I remembered that we remained in a very real predicament. After our decision yesterday to “save laundry for tomorrow”, the clock was ticking down before the laundromat closed and the entire team reached laundry-pocalypse. Several Spokies had already warned me that they had “no clothes left” after two days without laundry. It was time to leave the stream and head back out of the canyon.

    We reversed our morning commute to return to our host, Robin’s, house. I originally planned to buy post-hike gelato from the general store, but I was so excited for dinner at Robin’s house that I decided to save my appetite. The night before, our first night at Zion, Robin cooked us what is without a doubt the most delicious meal we’ve had this entire trip. She told us she would be cooking “casserole and salad”, which was intriguing but didn’t strike me as anything out of the ordinary. I was imagining some sort of cheesy rice dish and maybe a caesar salad. No. Robin cooked us no less than 6 separate dishes, all packed full of vegetables, flavor, and love. Chickpea, couscous, and feta salad. Eggplant and tomato with mozzarella and polenta. Beet and jicama salad. Black bean, corn, and pepper salad. Wild mushroom casserole. Mac and tuna. I might be forgetting one. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. It was insane. Anyway, Robin was cooking for us again tonight so we skipped gelato and headed straight back for dinner and to complete the rest of our tasks for the night.

    Now, the laundromat in Zion closed at 10. We got back to Robin’s place around 7, and dinner was ready at 7:30. We knew we’d be cutting it close, but we were so excited to eat that we decided to do laundry after dinner. In the meantime, there were several tents and camping mats that needed cleaning after our stretch of camping in Utah, so Charles and I passed the time before dinner cleaning and setting out to dry our camping equipment. In the meantime, Ruth and Ramona made sandwiches for everyone. (They’re the best!!)

    We finished up the tents with a little extra time to spare, so I cleaned my drivetrain and lubed my chain, both of which were long overdue. Before I knew it, dinner was ready!!!!!!!!!!!! (Yes, it deserves all those exclamation marks.) I told Ruth and Charles, who were accompanying the grocery and laundry trip, that we had 15 minutes to eat. Ruth easily accomplished this feat. I went back for seconds at minute 12 and barely cleared my plate. Charles got to minute 15 with an entire bowl of chili left to eat. I gave him a tupperware and told him to pack it for the road.

    Our laundry mission was becoming dire. With an hour and forty minutes until closing, we zipped out of Robin’s driveway and towards Zion Park Laundry. As we pulled into the parking lot, however, we found a very unwelcome site. Laundromat shuttered. Machines piled outside the building. The interior half ripped apart and empty. A sign on the window said “closed for the next month”:| The nearest laundromat still open was more than twenty miles away, in a town called Hurricane (but pronouned her-a-kun, according to our native Southwesterner, Sarah). This would have been an absolute disaster, except Ruth was already planning to drive to Hurricane to go grocery shopping at Walmart. We quickly made the decision to tag along with her.

    Thirty minutes and one beautiful sunset later, we pulled into a (fully functional!), somewhat antique laundromat. I haven’t spent much time in laundromats outside of Spokes2, but I think Ramona’s fascination with and love for them has rubbed off on me. In addition to the laundromat adventures I recounted at the very start of this blog, Charles and I supposedly worked on our blogs in the laundromat. I believe we wrote a combined total of about six sentences.3 Somehow, we completed all the laundry, folded all the dry clothes, and finished our blogs before Ruth finished grocery shopping. She arrived, however, bearing strawberries and chocolate, so we forgave her. Actually, the timing was quite perfect! We reunited, bid goodbye to our dear friend the laundromat, and once again hit the road. We pulled back into Robin’s driveway around midnight. I took a shower, Charles did some adulting to find an apartment, and Ruth finished making everyone sandwiches (real Spokes angel 🫶). Finally, I returned to the grain silo and went to sleep. As far as I know, I still haven’t turned into grain.