Glenwood Springs, CO -> Vega State Park, CO — 56.6 miles, 4887 ft
Sometimes on Spokes we are faced with tough decisions. Which lesson should sit out at the upcoming learning festival? When should the driver leave rest stops on days when everyone gets spread apart? Do we end Spokes today and just stay with our hosts forever until the end of time? Unfortunately on the last count, while the answer is clear, the decision to leave our hosts is always a tough one. It was hard getting out the door in the morning and saying bye to Barb, Lindsey, Birdie (their dog), and their fantastic cooking, but we all eventually lumbered towards our bikes and headed towards our first rest stop of the day, a free hot springs a few miles out from town.
The hot springs were surprisingly hot (I know, not sure what I was expecting). The Rs (Ruth and Ramona) got there first and changed into swimwear and bathed for a bit. The rest of us (minus Tian, who skipped the stop) pulled up a short while after and waded.
View leaving Grand Junction
Our fav dynamic duo hits the hot springs first
dap…..?
DAP!!!!!
Drying off
Once again, we peeled ourselves away from a place we could stay forever and biked together to the next stop. For some reason, we often ride together when Sarah is the driver for the day. It’s not on purpose, I think…? Or perhaps Sarah has some deep, sinister vibes that subconsciously poison the will to form a seven-rider peloton when someone else is driving 😬
I was feeling a bit slower today on the bike and my chain was making weird noises, so I troubleshooted at the second rest stop. I also found out the sushi wrap that Ruth had made me last night went missing! Not a great rest stop. And right before we set out again, Ruth broke the news that Ozzy Osborne had died. After explaining to some of the team who he was (and also why it was incredible that he made it to 76 in the first place), I put in my AirPods and played my favorite Black Sabbath songs. RIP Ozzy
In between rest stops 2 and 3 lay a long gravel climb. Despite the surface and the elevation, the climb was a reminder of how far we’ve all come as bikers since the start of the trip. When all of us are getting faster and more skilled on the bike, it’s hard to tell how much I’ve improved sometimes; however, I know a climb like this would have obliterated me on the first week of the trip. Now, it’s quite manageable. We reached the top and waited for one another. I took a scenic piss.
At the top of the climb
Tian selfie
Greta cannot figure this 0.5 selfie thing out
Ruth nails it first try
After leaving the last rest stop for the day, I biked with Greta and Ishaq to the campground. I finished my Ozzy tribute ride and took my earbuds out, Greta marveled about the Earth being round (?), and we tackled the final climb with some help from Fiona Apple over Greta’s speaker. The views coming into Vega State Park were gorgeous and our campsite was right next to the lake.
Ramona went for a shower/swim. The others went for actual showers. I helped Sarah chef up her signature Spokes meal — grilled cheese. After taking some very involved, personalized orders, we decided that the meal sounds a lot better advertised as custom melts instead of just grilled cheese. When it was my turn, I put literally every possible topping available on my two melts, made my bowl of tomato soup, and rocketed off to heaven. After dinner, Ruth, Joseph, and I drove to the campground facilities (rather far away since we were at the other end of the lake) and I showered while they did the dishes. I came out to see the sunset bathing the sky in warm red, yellow, purple, and pink hues. I helped out with the last few dishes, joining what was easily the most scenic dish washing experience I’ve ever had. Ruth and I also tried the tiny playground slide and I stung her with a nasty shock at the bottom. It was bad. Joseph heard and saw the spark from 20 feet away. We both screamed.
Dinner ████████▒▒ 80%
Campfire ft. Ramona making smores
Golden hour views from the dish washing station
Greta and her garbanzo beans
Late night campfire relaxation
When we got back, some of us sat around the camp fire, relaxed, and stared at the mesmerizing flames. Ishaq broke the tranquil trance from inside one of the tents by cracking a Sprite. After chatting for a bit, we dispersed for bed. Ruth and I played a couple hands of Gin Rummy with a cheeky hanging iPhone flashlight rig. Another Spokes day in the books — I feel maybe our coziest yet!
**EDIT: migrated the quiz to a new site! the old quiz was buggy, but has all the bios at the end if you’re curious.
Drop in the comments which Spokie you are most similar to!!
P.S. Sorry about the late blog! I officially entered (and am now exiting) the three-blogs-behind club 😞. Because I am vain and need the blog views (and I worked hard on the quiz :)), I am leaving this blog up at the top of the blog page and I will backdate it when someone else publishes a more recent blog.
Tian (I) woke up today with amazing sleep. Yesterday was a bit rough for me because my mind became very foggy and confused by the end of the ride. It might have been due to dehydration, a lack of calories, or a sudden rise in temperature, but today I’m back, better than ever, for a learning festival day blog!
Barb (Greta’s relative) made us an amazing breakfast of fruits, croissants, and peanut butter with banana on toast for me. The bread was so good! It reminded me of how much I miss a really good piece of bread. Sarah and Joseph (the learning festival floaters for the day) shooed us out the door in a timely fashion. They were so responsible, and that made me so happy. Honestly, how much we have grown as a team makes me shed a tear. What the people say about growing together might be true.
We arrived in the Garfield County Public Library in Glenwood Springs in a timely fashion and discovered that we would all be teaching in the same room! Cons: students are distracted by other workshops, and noise can be overwhelming. Pros: Spokies get to see each other run workshops, which builds camaraderie and togetherness. This is our 7th learning festival to date, and everything just ran as smooth as butter. Signups happened, groups were created, and we even tried a new rotation today due to Greta’s suggestion and Charles’ support. The small group size made the rotation work well, and I taught one less session! During my break, I sabotaged joined other Spokies’ workshops. In Ramona’s workshop, I made a Caesar cipher wheel and finished the cipher sheet (I wasn’t sure I could do it). In Greta’s workshop, I made oobleck for the first time and punched it. I was also regaled by Ishaq’s Tour de France talk and became interested in the race. We watched some of the highlight recap together, and I became more educated about the world of professional cycling.
Ishaq flexing his researchAmazing space for our 7th learning festival
The library had amazing facilities and also treated us to takeout lunch. We do love good Asian food and decided to all order from Kedai Pho & Japanese Cuisine. I am always craving Asian food, and the udon did not disappoint. There was a food mishap where Ishaq and Joseph’s meal didn’t arrive. Thankfully, this situation was resolved quickly by the library staff. Meanwhile, Ruth shared some of her meal with Ishaq.
Ishaq obviously loved the food
Ishaq and I have a machine learning festival workshop that we perfected over the past seven festivals. At first, other Spokies were skeptical about the fun-ness and hands-on nature of our class; however, we adapted our workshop to be engaging for all ages, from kindergarteners to highschoolers. We started each session with a presentation of how AI is present in our lives through ChatGPT, Snapchat filters, and self-driving cars. Then, we broke down machine learning into three simple steps: data, algorithm, and decisions. The majority of our class included four amazing activities/games courtesy of Ishaq and me.
Activity 1 trains students as pretend AI models. They are shown images that belong in category A and category B. They are then tested with new images that they designate as category A or B. We reveal what the categories are at the end of the exercise and score their accuracy. We review concepts like data cleanliness and AI’s pattern recognition. Activity 2 encourages students to draw happy and sad faces to train an online AI model. Students get to see in action how the lack of data often leads to misclassification and how difficult it is to produce good data. Activity 3 introduces the concept of unsupervised machine learning models. A pretend AI student classifies the drawings of their peers into categories with no guidance. Finally, Activity 4 introduces reinforcement learning where a pretend AI-robot student is guided by their peers through a maze, with a goal and a bomb. Other students give a number between -100 and 100 based on how the student robot is doing on the map. The student robot uses this number to decide its next move. A positive number rewards the student robot for doing well, and a negative number punishes the robot.
We worked out so many kinks in this workshop that I believe we have the best version yet. The activities are simple enough to scale down for a younger audience. I felt so happy and not as drained as I usually am after learning festivals. It is partially because the workshops went well; I taught 3 sessions instead of 4, and there were less students.
After the festival, Ishaq, Greta, Sarah, and I ditched the rest of the Spokies and headed back to Barb and Lindsey’s place, each with our own goals of napping, snacking, chilling, and blogging. I am in awe of Barb’s beautiful home and decorations. Soon, more of Greta’s relatives showed up, and Greta held a baby for the second time on this trip! I could never. We had the most delicious lentil coconut curry topped with mango chunks (courtesy of my amazing knife skills). This dinner was thanks to Barb’s hard work. During dinner, Joseph and Ishaq regaled me with Dragon Ball Z lore. Honestly, the lore was so ridiculous that I don’t know if they are lying to me or not. But, the creativity behind characters born in a no longer existing vegetable planet makes me believe that they didn’t make the story up.
I returned upstairs for my second serving of food and realized that birthday celebrations were in order for Ishaq. I returned downstairs to converse with Ishaq while everyone slowly trickled upstairs. Finally, I made the excuse of wanting to see what everyone else were up to and quite easily tricked Ishaq to follow me. Ishaq unsuspectingly walked into his birthday surprise. Happy 22, Ishaq!
Just as I thought the day was ending, we shuffled our way over to the freezing Colorado River. We played man in the middle, a game created by Charles, similar to dodge ball, except that the team escaping the bean bags was in the middle of a square play area. Ishaq took out Ramona with a hit to the face, which frightened Sarah enough to end the game. Luckily, she was fine. The Spokies entered the freezing river and swam along the current. Two pet ducks who were out for their evening swim also joined the Spokies.
Soon enough, the evening hit, and we were just about to leave when an ice cream truck pulled up out of the darkness. The duck owners were also trying to leave, but since the road was only one car wide, the ice cream truck and the duck owners had a faceoff. Unfortunately, the ice cream truck lost, but Greta and Charles acquired ice cream!
Well, everyone! Birdie just came into my room to sleep. I have been kicking this poor dog out of its bed for the last two days. That means it’s time for me to sleep too! Cheers to a blog published on time.
Frisco, CO to Glenwood Springs, CO — 93.9 mi, 3,266 ft
The morning is uneventful. We wake up, take down the tents in the backyard we didn’t even end up using, and wash dishes we were too lazy to do last night. I clean the rice pot 😫(cleaning the rice pot is not fun).
The bike ride starts off with amazing mountain views, ones that rival those I’ve seen in Switzerland — yes I did study abroad there thanks for asking. I’ve loved biking through Colorado and would honestly consider moving here, which is a pretty big deal because I’ve only ever considered the coasts before.
For our second rest stop, we enter an extreme tourist trap a cute market area called Vail Village. We hop off our bikes and thread our way through the crowds. I love markets and I love crowds, so I’m very excited about this rest stop. Once we park the bikes, we disperse. Sarah consumes a $6 loaf of banana bread and a lemonade with berry tea and passionfruit boba of an undisclosed price. Ishaq also finds himself with a most definitely overpriced drink. I don’t think I see Tian but I’m sure she’s having a great time.
I’m planning on laying in the sun and peacefully listening to the live music when Charles starts inquiring if anyone wants to play cornhole. I decide that yes, I do want to play cornhole, despite the fact that I suck at throwing and despite my fear of Charles trash-talking the fact that I suck at throwing.
Greta and I team up against Charles and Joseph. Ramona spectates. The rules are that a bean bag on the board is 1 point, and a bean bag in the hole is 3. The winner is the first to get 21, and opposing teams’ scores cancel each other out each round (e.g. if I get bean bag in hole but Joseph gets bean bag on board, the score is 2-0 not 3-1). Charles and Greta are standing across from me and Joseph. My memory is a bit foggy, but here is my best recollection of the events that took place:
Joseph starts out strong with bean bag straight in the hole. Greta and I think we’re cooked.
We shortly realize that was just a lucky shot and Joseph is in fact not good at cornhole.
Charles is also not good at cornhole.
Greta and I are good at cornhole.
Joseph almost gets bean bag in hole but it stops short. I shouldn’t be able to get my bean bag in hole without knocking his in, but against all odds I manage the impossible.
Charles gets a rare bean bag in hole, but Greta follows through with her own bean bag in hole, cancelling out all of Charles’ effort.
The score is 18-? (some low number). Greta and I need exactly 3 points to win. Joseph shoots. Bean bag off board. I shoot. Bean bag on board. +1 point. Joseph shoots. Bean bag off board. I can’t get a bean bag in the hole without going over 21 points, so I aim for bean bag on board. I get bean bag on board. +2 points. Joseph needs to get something if his team wants any hope of winning. Bean bag off board. I breathe deep. I hope for bean bag on board… bean bag hits grass… bean bag BOUNCES ONTO BOARD! +3 POINTS!! WE WIN!!!
If you didn’t read any of that, all you need to know is that Greta and I crush Joseph and Charles at cornhole.
Honestly, the middle of the ride was kind of forgetful compared to the epicness that occurred at Vail Village. The scenery turned more desert-y, and the air got a little warmer. I call my dad at rest stop 3, and he watches me eat spaghetti in front of the massive USPS sign I’m sitting in front of. It’s his brother’s birthday tomorrow, so my parents are preemptively celebrating at his house. I wave hi to my uncle and cousins, and they also watch me eat spaghetti in front of the massive USPS sign.
For the next stretch, I draft Greta for a while since I’m feeling lazy, then we catch up to Ishaq, and the three of us bike together.
I forgot to mention it’s Ishaq’s birthday!! Woo. We are secretly planning on getting him a cake, but Greta feels bad when Ishaq inquires about it. She cryptically responds with “good things come to those who wait,” which clearly indicates to Ishaq that we are in fact planning on getting him a cake. Good job, Greta👍
Rest stop 4 is actually laughable. We break at Dulce Tentacion, a very pink dessert shop. Everybody sits there silently for an uncomfortable amount of time, too tired to say anything. Except actually, Ishaq and I are full of energy so we’re just looking around and laughing at everyone else. I have no idea what’s wrong with the group but I’m having a great time.
Ramona and I continue biking together. We go through a tunnel with a sign that says “make noise through tunnel.” So of course we scream. (Since then Ramona and I shout anytime we’re in a tunnel together.)
Rest stop 5 is nearly is laughable as 4. Everybody is actually passed out, particularly Sarah and Joseph. Tian is nowhere to be found. I’m hungry so I eat mayo with rice — yes it was good. I have way too much energy for my own good, so Ramona and I head off again.
It’s so warm out that we start scheming to find a body of water to jump into. We did it yesterday, so why not two days in a row? We find a great spot to hop in the Colorado River. Unable to swim due to the speedy current, we resign ourselves to squatting. Ramona sees a fish, and I’m jealous so I also try to see a fish. Ramona is greedy so she wants to see another fish. We keep hearing splashing but turn our heads too late to see anything. After 5 minutes of fish hunting, we decide to give up on the elusive aquatic creatures and keep biking.
As we approach Glenwood Springs, Ramona expresses her disdain for the seven do not enter/one way/wrong way signs lined up next to each other at one road. I reply with “Americans are stupid.” She nods.
We finally arrive at Greta’s aunt’s house in Glenwood Springs. Barb and Lindsay greet us warmly, as well as their demure dog, Birdie. We have an incredible dinner of vegan quinoa curry, one that is also laughably silent and one that Ishaq yet again attempts, and fails, to revive. Oh, and apparently none of the nearby stores carry the type of fruit cake/tiramisu that picky Ishaq likes, so he actually will have to wait. Happy birthday, dude!
Today’s a big day. We’re set to cross over the continental divide, a true dividing line that separates East from West. And any big day needs a big breakfast. The team ate a final breakfast at Amanda’s place, preparing for the day with the single most elevation gain of the entire trip. Some people are nervous, some are anxious, but we’re all determined.
We set off at different times, with Ruth, Tian, and Ramona in front, Charles and Greta in the middle, and me and Sarah in the back. The big climb of the day was the long ascent to Loveland Pass, the highest point of the whole trip, but the climbs at the beginning were no joke either. I could see the glistening glaciers at the top of the Rockies in the distance. We would have to pass up and over those later in the day, but first we had to descend to the I-70 corridor, nestled in one the few valleys in the Colorado Rockies that go east to west and are big enough to hold settlements and something like a major Interstate. We descended 1000ft down a steep dirt road into the Black Hawk, the gambling capital of Colorado. There, Sarah and I stopped at our first cafe of the day, where Charles and Greta were also around… except Charles was busy playing poker at a nearby casino!
distant obstacles
glistening glaciers in the distance
top of the 1000ft descent (It was a rough ride down)
first cafe
Black Hawk!
Charles gambling
After I munched on a delicious cheese Danish, we continued on, climbing out of Black Hawk, up and over another steep mountain pass, then descending 1600 feet down a winding dirt road to Idaho Springs. It was both terrifying and beautiful, with the sharp drops being both an ever present danger and opening up wide vistas into the distant mountains and the thousands of cars zooming across these once impassible mountains. Sarah’s back tire kept on leaking, so I would wait at the bottom of a steep descent for her. This process happened multiple times until we eventually got off of the somewhat treacherous Virginia Canyon Road, leaving the two of us quite a bit behind the frontrunners of the day. We stopped at the second cafe in a row, and while I was inside, Ishaq seemed to go mad. He threw my bike onto the ground and chucked one of my water bottles across the parking lot! I came back to the scene of the crime confused and angry. Ishaq denies the allegations placed against him, but he has no alibi. I know it was you. Ishaq.
starting the 1600ft descent down Virginia Canyon Rd
views
more views + bike
I did Sarah right with this one
winding down the mountainside
the valley down below
cold-weather gear (it’s chillyup here)
uh oh, it became dirt and there’s no more guardrail
they say its called “oh my god” road
second cafe in a row
We continued on, slowly making miles as the elevation ticked up, foot by foot. There was beautiful scenery wherever I looked. Gushing rivers, evergreen trees moving against the wind, and boundless mountain vistas in every direction. Today felt like more of a pure adventure than any other day of the trip. I passed through Georgetown, a small town with a passenger railway going up to a mountain pass. I was very happy to actually catch the train making its way down the mountainside.
nice lake
more nice lake
on route 6
cool rail bridge
I wonder where it goes
above the valley we go
Nice vistas
so that’s where the railway goes
I caught the train on camera!
lively rivers all around
Bakerville to Loveland trail
At the third rest stop, I realized there really would be no catching up to the frontrunners of the day. They were only two miles from the top! We still had over 2000 feet of climbing over 10 miles to go. We continued on, slowly climbing ever higher. The road wasn’t actually all that steep compared to previous climbs, but the sheer elevation and endurance game meant that things were very slow going. I spent so long staring at each foot of elevation gained on my bike computer, watching the number get further and further away from anything I’ve ever done before. Eventually, I could see the top of the pass. It really does feel like I’m climbing up to the top of the world.
the high rockies in the distance
oh boy, here goes nothin’
ascending above the tree line
always gotta look good for the camera
just a few more pushes to the top
winding up for what feels like forever
the I-70 tunnel that bypasses Loveland Pass (bikes aren’t allowed)
A few minutes later, I saw the van, and the Loveland Pass sign right next to it. As I like to do when I’m close to the end, I sped up to reach the top. I had done it. I conquered the biggest climb, the highest high of our journey. Sarah trailed behind me, reaching the top a minute or so later. With this, Spokes conquered Loveland Pass. What a day.
the frontrunners at the top
views from the top
Triumphant Ruth
Ramona at the top of the world
Tian’s got heart
Greta posing at the top
first group photo (me and Sarah are mid-climb)
We made it!
dynamic duo fr fr
true nonchalant
the high rockies aren’t so distant anymore
we just climbed all that
Charles getting some time on the powder
…Except we still had 20 something miles left to go. And it was 5pm. So at this point I started zooming down the backside of Loveland Pass. What a lovely reward for our hours and hours of climbing. 2600ft of descent over 8 and a half miles. And just like that I was out of altitude. After waiting 10 or so minutes for Sarah (she is a lot more cautious on descents than I am), we continued on a series of bike paths towards the Dillon Reservoir, the big lake that the town of Frisco sits on. This part of the country really is just so beautiful.
descending Loveland Pass, very pretty
It just goes down and down and down and down and –
what a lovely trail
The Dillon Reservoir!
The cool mountain air kept my spirits up as we continued toward Sapphire Point, the site of our last rest stop. Unbeknownst to us, there was a wedding happening at the same time. So we basically became a bunch of wedding crashers. I can see why they picked this location for a wedding, though. Its absolutely stunning.
Ruth befriending a chipmunk
Saphire Point
Tian gotta get her pics in
wedding crashers
awwwww
awwwwww part 2
We descended down to the surface of the reservoir as we followed its coast into Frisco. Ruth and Ramona had the idea to dip into the water for a swim, and independently Charles and Greta came up with the same idea.
Ruth bathing in glacial waters
meeting up with Charles and Greta
they took a dip too
them struggling to step over the rocks
The sun slowly started to sink below the mountains as we made Sarah and I, finally ahead of the middle of the pack, made it into the quaint town of Frisco. Nearing the end, I saw two blobs ahead that looked suspiciously like Ruth and Ramona! We had finally caught up with them. It turns out that this duo had spent the last couple of hours goofing around in all sorts of places, including downtown Frisco.
biking into Frisco
Frisco’s downtown
I sped ahead of them to make it to the finish line as second of the group, very satisfied to have beat most of the team when I was so far behind… and also because I had a long, long drive ahead of me. You might remember that I lost my prescription sunglasses way back on Day 35. If you pay close attention to any pictures of me with shades from day 36 onwards, you might notice a different pair of sunglasses every day. I’ve actually been borrowing the driver’s glasses this whole time! It does mean that I am biking with impaired vision, but I’m not so blind that I can’t manage without. Its just very annoying, especially on gravel. Turns out that I had in fact left them at the church we stayed at in Macksville, KS and the nice people there had them mailed to Black Hawk, a place they would surely get to before us… not. They in fact were delivered the day after we left! I now had no choice but to drive all the way back to Black Hawk to grab them. What a tragedy. Thankfully, our Black Hawk host Amanda offered to meet me halfway in Idaho Springs. And so the plan was set. I would drive our van through mountainous I-70 in the cover of darkness to grab my shades. And that was AFTER one of the most physically intense cycling days of the whole trip. And to top it all off, our now nearly empty roof storage decided to start intensely THUMPing against the roof of the van continuously for the entire ride… I was quite shaken after that drive, and when I finally met up with Amanda she had the bright idea of taking the roof storage off of the roof of the car. The drive back was much more relaxing. And now I had my shades! Yay.
Driving to Idaho Springs
Entering the same I-70 tunnel I photographed from above
This thing is loooong
Everyone else eating dinner while I drive
It was a long day full of trials and tribulations, but also with adventure and beauty. So much experienced, all in one day. All the emotions I feel and everything I experience, this is what it means to live, to be human. I think to myself, what a wonderful world.
Ishaq on the blog, and we’re gonna keep this one short and sweet. Yesterday we had a great learning festival un Denver, but the real highlight gotta be what happened after. Yes the alum dinner that you can read all about in another blog, but even more epic, Joseph and I went on a spontaneous 10:30pm movie excursion to watch Superman. Absolute cinema 🙌. Lex Luthor truly taught me that I’m not hating to my full potential, but some of his actions were down right diabolical.
Post Superman
In other exciting news, we finally got a new car! Amy the white 2025 Chrysler Pacifica has now been replaced with Bertha, the grey 2025 Chrysler Pacifica hybrid. And today will be Bertha’s first ride 😎
Our new car Bertha!
Getting up this morning was quite the endeavor after getting back at 1am. In the morning, I was groggy and complaining about the impeding ride. Our host said to me that it seemed like my heart wasn’t in this trip. I proceeded to think about that for the first 20 miles 😐. The main challenge of the day is out first climb into the rockies. But first we had a great stretch on bike trails around Denver, and thanks to our host’s recommendation, I was zooming with my slightly overinflated tires. Greta and I met a chill biker named Joel at the second rest stop. His son was actually in the 2024 Tour de France, riding for EF, but we didn’t get his name 🥲.
After quite the hefty rest, I set off on the climb alone. 18 miles, 4300 feet, somewhat reminiscent of Shenandoah on day 3. I, however, am a changed rider, making this a little baby climb. I locked in and and just pedaled bruv. I wont lie, the final stretch to the peak had me huffing and puffing, moving at 3.5 mph, but we made it alright. All the other spokies has similar experiences, and it really goes to show just how far we’ve all come.
Denver view with a guy on a Specialized bike 🤩View heading into the rockiesAmanda’s Cat
Pulling into our host Amanda’s house near Black Hawk, I was hungry but energized and we all played games as we waited for greta in the van and all the other spokies to finish their climbs. The day ended with a top tier pasta dinner and some good games of horseshoe in the backyard.
TBH, theres def a lot of other stuff that happened today, but c’est bon. My heart definitely isn’t in this blog thing.
greetings from the mile high city (and home of the beloved broncos1)! 🐎 this is sarah, back with my 2nd learning festival blog!
while i like to give myself plenty of time to get ready in the morning on biking days, learning festival days have turned out to be quite the opposite. i woke up about 20 minutes before our planned departure time, quickly threw on my usual spokes t-shirt and black jeans, and headed downstairs to grab a quick breakfast. thankfully, ishaq was taking care of that: he was behind the stove cooking up some lovely banana pancakes! 🍌 i had mine with some jam, but sadly forgot to take any pictures :((
eventually, the 8 of us cram into our 7 passenger mini van (shhh…), and i take one for the team and sit in the non-existent seat in the middle row. we queued up a range of music to hype us up for teaching—from kanye to disney—and after weaving our way through city traffic, eventually made it to kipp sunshine peak academy, who is hosting kids from the boys and girls club of denver!
per usual, we start to arrange ourselves into various classrooms and begin setting-up our workshops. while originally in one classroom, joseph and i accidentally break the leg off of a table, and one of the staff move us somewhere else. whoops 😬 (to be fair, the building had sadly recently been caught in a pretty bad flood, which i’m guessing soaked up the wooden tables and made them pretty susceptible to damage). after everyone is settled, we make our way to the cafeteria to introduce ourselves, arrange the kids into groups (usually based on age, if possible), and lead everyone to their first “station.”
our host maud’s nevada mug!!!
whoops…
our new classroom 📚
for some reason, no matter how many learning festivals i do, i’m always nervous right before starting the day—it’s probably my life-long fear of public speaking. but, like always, i got into my groove, and things went pretty smooth from there! even if the kids are not super interested in the complex physics and chemistry behind real-life rockets and chemical reactions, seeing the their excitement when we finally go outside and launch them is SO much fun for everyone involved—college kids included (these things go seriously high, i’m talking dozens of feet above roof tops at LEAST!!!) for our 2nd out of 4 groups, we ran into a unique and unexpected situation: not only were they the youngest of our groups (ages 5-7, i believe), a majority of them spoke spanish as their first language. while i took spanish in high school, speaking was not emphasized nearly as much as it should have been (which is odd, since in my opinion, that’s the most important part…): i could catch a few words, but would be too slow in formulating a response (if i could at all—99% of the time i would be too nervous to speak anyway since it would be pretty clear that i do NOT speak spanish at a decent level). thankfully, besides the other teacher who was there helping translate a bit, i managed to snag a native spanish speaker for my learning festival partner—joseph was definitely MVP for this learning festival 🏅
prepping the rockets 🚀
teaching
herding the children
go ramona!
ishaq’s hat 🎩
hi greta!
for lunch, we were provided jimmy john’s sandwiches, chips, and oj! 🥪 i also took a cinnamon toast crunch bar cereal bar that was of questionable origin: i thought it was the kind that was mostly the sugary cereal with sweet icing drizzled on top and DEFINITELY not good for you, but it ended up mostly being oats with the rare CTC nibble. not worth it 😔 we got through our last 2 groups, and with a little drizzle of rain at the end, finished up our 7th of 10 learning festivals. joseph and i cleaned up the field, carried our materials inside, and took some time to decompress from the day while the others cleaned up their own workshops (MAJOR props to teachers who do this 7 hours a day…180 days a year…) he worked on figuring out some of our routes for the next few days in the rockies, and i texted some people back while giving my occasional input on some of his…questionable course choices (i am a notable member of team anti-loose dirt/sand/rough gravel). i hear rumors of video games in another room (sadly there are only 2 controllers), but eventually we finish packing up the car and leave—this time, i am in shot gun 😎
post-lf debrief
greta has opened her third eye 👁️
we came back home to a lovely taco dinner prepped and ready by our lovely hosts—MIT alumni david and maud! it was planned in advance to also be a denver area MIT alumni event, so once the spokies had had a bit of time to relax, alumni started wandering in, food was served, and conversations began. i decided to float around to make the most of this unique experience—suprisingly, this is only the 2nd time on spokes that we’ve interacted with other MIT folks! some notable characters included:
a fellow course 7 (biology) alum, who never used his degree except in one instance where he managed a project involving chemistry modeling software 🧪
his wife, who was an alum of “that other school down the river” (a.k.a. harvard): we had a lovely conversation about everything spokes, as well as northern nevada! she had traveled through there when moving from the bay area to colorado
a guy who went to the tour de france and shook lance armstrong’s hand! i think he was also the same guy who was also a member of the track and field team like me! he was mostly a sprinter, but was also occasionally thrown in as a long jumper. we bonded over the struggles of head winds in jumping events 🫠
li (who was there the day before when we arrived), and his daughter! i got to hear about an epic, 15-month long road trip across america he went on a few years ago! he also gave me some recommendations for other sights to see in the southwest—specifically arizona and new mexico ☀️
to be honest, i always forget that we are all MIT students, not just a random group of college-age kids. talking with the other spokies and alumni about dorms, courses, athletics, and so on really reminded me of that connection. it’s always interesting to get to chat with alumni, too—to see how the spirit of MIT has persisted across generations. even though so much has changed throughout the years, one thing always stays the same—the passion. i think that’s one of my favorite things about MIT: no matter our interests, whether they be in STEM, the humanities, arts, sports…our passions are never taken lightly, and that’s what takes us far. it also makes the people (my actual favorite part) so fun and exciting to interact with and learn from! 💗
the fixings 🍅🥑
yummm
treat!
eventually, the alumni make their way home, and the spokies start winding down to prepare for a LONG day of climbing ahead. but first, for those of you keeping up with the van recall drama…charles received a call from enterprise during our learning festival earlier in the day with the news that they had FINALLY found a replacement car for us!!! 🥳 so after a collective effort to fully unpack the van, we bid goodbye to charles, greta, and amy as they made their way to the denver airport to switch out for what ended up being the exact same car, except it was silver and a hybrid! her name is TBD…amy jr. was brought up, but i personally veto that—not creative enough. joseph and ishaq made the last minute decision to go watch superman (a 2 HOUR MOVIE) at 10:30pm—i declined their gracious invitation, as i wanted to get some decent sleep before (as previously stated) our LONGGG day of climbing ahead.
i went to sleep feeling grateful for the opportunity to (due to car switching that night and repacking in the morning) slightly sleep-in to a calm 8am, at that day’s driver (greta’s) discretion. the day ahead had in-store for us a lovely (awful) 5,000 feet of climbing over 50 miles…i was very nervous, but had resolved that i was going to take it slow and steady—as SLOW as i needed. this would be my first big climb since shenandoah on day 2, which i hadn’t fully done due to cooking myself the day before (because of my lack of knowledge of my lower set of gears…i will never live that down), and concerns for my breathing. what i think i lack for in physicality, though, i make up plenty in what my dad likes to call “mental toughness”—i may be the last to finish, but i will FINISH (which, spoiler alert: i DID!!!)
goodbye amy 😔
hello new van! name TBD
the next day’s ride…
with that, i leave you to read on ahead about beginning our epic trek through the rockies! see you next time as we cross the border from colorado to utah! 🏜️
beloved by my long-time family friends, the arons! if you’re reading this, thanks for all the lovely comments! colorado has been AMAZING!!! ↩︎
Hi, hi! This might be the latest I’ve published a blog yet. Various other things were occupying my mind, things like leaking tires and the learning festival in Denver, and upcoming Hors Catégorie climbs, and going to the sauna… I’m sorry! Regardless, I still remember day 41, because it was one of my favourite cycling days and I have LOTS of pictures, so let’s get into it!
Me and a newspaperRuth with a piece of newspaper after wrongly accusing Charles of making 2 mistakes on the crossword (he made 1).
I started the morning by checking the crossword puzzles some people had done the previous night. I came to the conclusion I would most definitely have not been able to solve them, but crosswording is a skill I do wish to acquire. However, me and Ruth did some easier ones, such as a word scrabbler. But she soon headed out on her side quest of getting her hair done. The rest of us did not start the ride particularly early, but at some point I stopped thinking about it, because it should have been a pretty short, easy day – almost 67 miles and reasonable elevation with no major climbs. The views were incredible, truly, I was still filled with awe whenever I noticed the mountains in the distance, even though we had been seeing them for the past two days.
Charles checking his tire pressure before the ride. If you look very closely, you can see the mountains behind the trees.Us setting offIshaq’s head and the view while stopped at a red light
Getting out of Colorado Springs was kind of annoying, with its many traffic lights and watching for cars, but then we made it on the trails. The trails! New Santa Fe Trail, Greenland Trail, some city bike paths on the way, Plum Creek Trail, Daniels Park trails and then bike paths in Denver. Many trails. Some gravel, some paved, with nice turns, little hills here and there and great views of the fields and the mountains. I have way too many pictures and none of them do the scenery justice.
One of the incredibly long trains that passed us.Charles apparently found some bones.Me happySarah climbing that hill
Somewhere in between those pictures was one of the best rest stops we have had, topped only by Buc-ee’s, maybe, it was a whole lake! While most people were paddleboarding or in boats, we feared not and got in the water. It was great!
Me looking like a seal.The brave people who swam across, some in the kit.Sarah conquering the lake.
But the adventures did not end there. Around mile 33 we found out that a road found on Ride with GPS does not exist in reality. Some of us, including me made the decision to continue on the highway, but others were determined to find the trail and instead went off road. So, while Tian, who had headed out first, was enjoying her boba at the next rest stop in Castle Rock, Greta, Charles and Ishaq were in some field, somewhere.
Tian and bobaOff-roaders
Anyway, after that we we were heading to a viewpoint in Daniels Park, which involved a short, but suspicious stretch of highway and then a category 3 climb. We got hit by a some slightly stormy weather, but it stopped raining before I got to the top. Tian mostly escaped the rain and Sarah hid to wait it out. But at the top we were greeted by some more incredible views.
Cows observing me climbing.Heading to Daniels ParkRainSarah being cheekyThe viewsTrail heading out of Daniels Park viewpoint
With that we were heading into Denver. That was a combination of paved paths and crossing 6 lane streets (which truly scare me, there is almost no gaps!). At the end everyone successfully, although slowly had made it to Denver, where we were welcomed by Maud and Dave, had some great food, before getting ready for the learning festival the next day, examining our slowly leaking tires and going to sleep.
Uncharacteristically, I have no pictures of that. But this day with its adventure and a bit of chaos probably goes into my top 7 Spokes days so far. It was full of awe inspiring views, challenging in unexpected ways and I got to spend it with some great people. Could not ask for anything more.
What’s up everyone, Charles here, back at it again with another b-logggg!
I woke up for the second time today at 8:30am and checked my phone. I had a new Whatsapp notification. The message informed me that Cathie, Greta’s grandma and our host, tripped over a duffel in the morning and hurt her shoulder and went to the hospital. This helped explain my first wake up of the day, which was prompted by a loud THUD from the floor above.
The Spokie responsible for this poorly placed duffel is named and shamed over breakfast. They feel really terrible about it, so we agree to omit the identity of this murderous culprit from the blog. Okay, it was Sarah’s duffel. But in all seriousness, hope you are resting up and healing well, Cathie.
Ishaq and Ramona serve up breakfast in the kitchen. Ishaq’s strawberry banana smoothie hits the spot, Ramona’s bacon is on point, and the pancakes are wonderful. We self serve bagels, yogurt and granola, and milk and cereal. I stream the day’s Tour de France stage (which we all loosely follow now, in part due to Ishaq’s incessant glazing of Tadej Pogačar) to the TV and we try to piece together what’s going on.
Morning view from the balcony. Colorado is really something else
We get good news from the hospital — nothing is broken for Cathie and she is coming back after an ibuprofen shot. In the meantime, Ramona and I strategize about my screw-in-tire situation. She calls a few bike shops and finds one that has our tire size in stock. I’m slated to get a slightly different tire than the other fifteen we have (first (and hopefully last) tire replacement of Spokes 2025!). It’s pretty comparable to the tires we have, maybe slightly better, with one crucial difference that sends Ishaq into fits. I’m getting a Specialized tire. This means nothing to us performance-wise, but the Specialized brand literally slaps a SPECIALIZED logo on your gear. As we all know by now, style points are strongly correlated with speed, so my dripped out rear tire replacement is going to be responsible for at least a 1 mph boost. I defend myself against plots to steal my new tire in the middle of the night. Ishaq contemplates purposefully running over a screw to get a new tire as well.
Although re-mounting the tire will be pretty cheap ($25 service), Ramona and I (mostly Ramona) decide we want to give it a go ourselves. The year is 2025 and everything we need to know for the repair is in a 10 minute YouTube video anyways. Ramona watches the video, nods along, and mumbles “it’s not that hard” at regular intervals.
When Cathie comes back, we make plans to sightsee the Garden of the Gods, a free local park with great mountain scenery and spectacular rock formations. Half of us go in David’s (Greta’s grandpa) car and the rest ride with Cathie.
The park is packed. On the ride over, we admire the scenery and comment on the various bikers we see on the trails. Coming into Colorado, I knew the state’s reputation for being very outdoors-y, but even still, I was surprised at how many people were out biking, running, and hiking. We found parking at the lot beneath the Balanced Rock and took some fun pictures:
Get it… cause the rock is balanced
Our pose so fire everyone behind in line copied us
Tian hittin that
Ramona getting jiggy
Joseph knows something we don’t
??
Boo
🥵
We then drove to the main lot at Garden of the Gods and walked on the trails that lead you to some of the other rock formations. We also climbed on the rocks, posed for some more pictures, and discussed our roles in a hypothetical Spokes horror movie. Also, an intense piggyback ride showdown took place.
Chalanting it up
We’re chill like that
Garden of the Gods was gorgeous
One of the rock formations
More views
Postcard worthy
Landscape view
Ishaq + Sarah | 1 – 0 | Ramona + Ruth
After returning to Greta’s grandparents’ home, we made tacos from last night’s leftovers for lunch and split up for afternoon activities. Ishaq, Ruth, and Tian finished watching Squid Games season 3. Greta went out for a run. Joseph and Sarah napped. Ramona and I went to the bike shop. We got my new tire, asked a lot of questions, and picked up chamois butter, more tire sealant, and new bike lube.
We also wanted to buy a pair of pliers, which Spokes has been sorely missing, so we stopped at Home Depot on the way back. The pliers at Home Depot are way more heavy-duty than we need ($15), so after some nifty Googling (I google “pliers”), we find that Ace Hardware sells pliers for far cheaper ($3.50) and go there instead. With our spirits buoyed by our cost-saving successes, Ramona and I head back, ready to fix my tire.
The repair goes smoothly. The part we were worried about — seating the new tire onto the wheel rim — works on the third try as we hone in on the pressure to pump our tire canister to (150 psi!). Ramona busts out her trusty method for spreading new sealant in my tire.
Backup career option for Ramona is pizza spinner
Dinner is at PF Chang’s courtesy of David and Cathie. After the meal, we ate fortune cookies. Joseph and Ramona pulled two *very* topical fortunes.
And people think the government doesn’t spy on us
Since Ruth has an appointment to get her hair done tomorrow, we help unbraid her hair. I work on one singular braid for what feels like forever, then promptly quit. The others are more successful.
Ruth’s mom screenshots this still on a FaceTime call. I am struggling mightily
We eat Cathie’s delicious apple crisp with vanilla ice cream afterwards. I solve a crossword in the papers with help from Ruth and Greta. Periodic shrieks emanating from the basement pierce my blissful crossword+dessert combo. I find out later that this is owing to the other Spokies playing, as Joseph said could only be described as, “Jenga, but the bricks were our bodies.”
We might be a little *too* bonded
We all go to sleep, some sweatier than others. Apologies for the late blog, and until next time!
Fowler, CO to Colorado Springs, CO — 99.7 mi; 4,127 ft
Why did the chicken cross the road?
I don’t know. Why?
To get to Colorado Springs, and the chicken is me.
Perhaps the best joke in the history of MIT Spokes 2025, courtesy of Ramona.
Ramona eating breakfast while calling family.
I woke up on the floor of the Trinity Lutheran Church, having had the best sleep I’d had in the past three days. Pew cushions did wonders. I was grateful for the driver (Ruth) alarm clock because I didn’t have to worry about setting my own alarm. My morning routine usually consists of packing up my sleeping bag and pad if we needed them, packing up my clothes and chargers, bringing my bags to the car, uploading the route onto my bike computer (preferably done the night before), pumping my tires, lubing my bike chain, filling my water bladder, and eating breakfast. I finished my tasks earlier than others today and set off before 8 am with the driver’s permission to tackle a long day and hills for the first time in a while.
On the road, I wanted to continue listening to my audiobook, The Hobbit, but alas, Spotify limited their audiobook listening hours, and I reached my monthly limit. A horrendous display of capitalism, if you ask me. So instead, I listened to 2000s pop on the first leg of the ride to the first rest stop. It’s fascinating how much popular music changed over the last 20 years. I also ruminated over the missing nose bridge on my sunglasses.
Changing landscapes and other Spoksies on their ride
After the first rest stop, I didn’t see the rest of the bikers for the next 80 miles and embarked on an adventure by myself. I skipped a second rest stop, which is a cafe in Pueblo, because I didn’t want to ride an extra mile into the city. However, I heard later that Pueblo is a cute city with many colors and tiny boats. After leaving Pueblo, I faced my first obstacle: a trail closure. Normally, I would’ve just biked past the sign, but the size of the sign made me pause. I rang up Ruth to inquire about next steps. Then, I saw another biker coming from the other side of the sign. Surely, the road can’t be that bad if other bikers are riding on the trail. Two thousand miles on the road have emboldened me to ignore signs. I pressed on and found out why there was a road closure. Construction for a new bridge caused chaos in a section of the road, but nothing I couldn’t walk through. Looking at the half-built bridge, I realized that any of the unsecured concrete platforms above me could crush me.
After more riding, I encountered Interstate 25 with a 75 mph speed limit. The number of cars on this highway was overwhelming, but the large shoulder offered some semblance of safety. The exits are the trickiest to bike across because you never know if a car is exiting when they are moving so fast. I was looking forward to rest stop 3, but surprise! It’s closed! I moved on, and after ignoring Joseph’s route that would have taken me off Interstate 25, I finally made it to rest stop 4. I am finally resting at a cafe after fifty miles of continuous biking. Luckily, the weather wasn’t too hot today, and 2 liters of water were enough to carry me through those miles.
I met Ruth! Finally, after hours of not seeing anyone. I heard about the epic battle of squirrels that stole Ramona’s Rice Krispies. An intelligent squirrel dug into Ramona’s snack pouch, climbed up a tree, and opened the package. A second squirrel became jealous and went up the tree. What happens next is only known to the two squirrels and the tree. Ramona, of course, was delighted by this event and didn’t stop the theft. This was the highlight of Ramona’s ride. Today was a particularly difficult biking day for Ramona, and her efforts to cheer herself up led to the birth of the best chicken joke in the history of Spokes. Charles got a stomach ache and ate a banana. He became enchanted by the phrase “Monkey no cramp” for the next few minutes and repeated it to everyone, slightly disappointed that no one got the reference.
For the rest of the ride, I took many detours from the planned route to avoid gravel. Greta thinks I have PTSD because of my gravel fall. My detours brought me on highways without shoulders and mud paths. The annoyed Colorado Springs drivers were not happy with me and drove very close to me. But hey! At least there wasn’t gravel. Speaking of gravel, I later learned that Greta rode into a bush and Sarah took her first fall of the trip during a steep descent. Luckily, they were ok. I, of course, walked down the gravel descent because I wasn’t about to risk falling.
Beautiful view right before gravel descent
My solo ride today was littered with thoughts. Looking at Google Maps, I realized we came halfway across the country. I felt an impending sense of ending. I dislike when things end because I am a creature of habit. I cope with endings by distancing myself from the thought of it. If we are meant to meet again, we will. However, this time, I am not only saying goodbye to a place or a people, I am also saying goodbye to a way of life, a journey. Despite all its difficulties, I enjoy my current lifestyle and the people I am spending 24/7 with. I am also surprised by how much I am getting along with my teammates and how much I like them.
Spokes had taught me a lot about myself. I realized that I need alone time in order to recharge my social battery. However, I am more capable of living and traveling with others than I formerly thought. With teammates who pull their weight, take responsibility, and care for others, Spokes is more effective and efficient together than any of us individually. I thought my biggest challenge on this trip was being vegan. While other Spokies joke about it, I found the crew to be respectful and accommodating. Perhaps, I actually don’t hate traveling with others, and I am more adaptable than I formerly thought. On the topic of adaptability, while I always enjoy a good bed (and prefer it), I can sleep almost anywhere. While I don’t regularly exercise, I can bike for hours every day. My newfound physical capability encourages me to pick up other physical challenges in the future.
Beautiful landscapes to accompany my thoughts
My travels around the world have made me more spiritual. I believe that everything happens for a reason. I couldn’t exactly place why I am doing Spokes right now. What lessons am I supposed to learn here at this time? Today’s youth suffer from the abundance of choices. My travels, in some ways, are a direct consequence of my commitment issues. Where do I want to live? What do I want to work in? How do I want to spend my life? I recognize that not everyone has this privilege. Privilege also comes with responsibility not only to oneself but also to the world. That responsibility can be paralyzing. In some ways, I am a chicken, too, and I am not sure why I am crossing this road.
With these thoughts swirling around in my head and music from The Greatest Showman in my ears, I pulled up to the beautiful home of Greta’s grandparents. Ruth had already unloaded the car. I finally saw the rest of my team and realized that I missed them today. David and Kathy (Greta’s grandparents) served delicious food for snacks and dinner. We ate the sweetest watermelon of the trip and tortillas with amazing toppings while watching the sunset from the balcony of their beautiful home. I also taught Charles a card game (Star Realms) and lost embarrassingly twice.
Little GretaSpokie Shenanigans in Greta’s grandparent’s home.
Since I didn’t get to spend much time with the Spokies, I asked them what their favorite things to do on the bike are to spice up this blog.
Ruth doesn’t like to think about anything when she is biking, but otherwise, she enjoys listening to music while riding (a recent discovery after 30 days of silent ears) and talking to people. She doesn’t like to listen to podcasts and audiobooks because she doesn’t like missing words.
Ramona is a big thinker and actually hates not having things to think about. Some recent topics she thought about are planning MIT classes and how to downscale the amount of stuff she owns. One thing she has planned is embarking on a self-supported bike trip once she returns to Latvia.
Ishaq enjoys going fast and riding hard. He will bend over, get on drop bars, and listen to music if it means he can go fast and ride hard. He enjoys talking to people unless the roads are good for going fast and riding hard. He enjoys riding with one other person, but specifically when you don’t know who is accelerating to go faster, yet still, you can’t be the person to say, ‘go slower’, so you have to go fast and ride hard. He dislikes riding slow. In other news, he enjoys shenanigans and antics such as swerving next to people, hopping on the bike, and yapping
Joseph likes going faster. He also enjoys riding with people, bopping to music, and enjoying the scenery.
Greta likes to talk. She also loves blasting music on her speaker that everyone likes. Otherwise, she enjoys calling people from the real world, including her mom.
Charles likes to think about existential dread. He also enjoys talking to people, which extends to calls with family. Otherwise, Charles listens to music.
Sarah enjoys calling her sister and friends while biking. She also enjoys listening to music, pop, Jpop, and Kpop.
Tian (me) enjoys a healthy balance of talking to people and being alone. She enjoys biking slow, even better if she barely notices that she is biking. While she is alone, she likes to listen to audiobooks when it is quiet and to summer pop when it isn’t. She saves her favorite playlist, music from musicals, for the latter half of her rides to lift her spirits. Otherwise, she occasionally thinks about logistics for Spokes and conversations to resolve conflicts. In general, she doesn’t like to think and lets biking be meditation.
Today, I was hit with the big trifecta of chores: blogging, laundry, and driving tomorrow. Since a driver’s power unofficially begins at the end of the previous day’s bike ride, I had many tasks to accomplish tonight. Naturally, I had to slack on one of them — this meant publishing my blog the day after. Apologies.
I wake up at 7am to Tian shrieking (she’s today’s driver). I mumble a half-asleep complaint and tumble off the three chairs I slept on. I roll up the sleeping mat I didn’t end up using, then pause right before rolling up my sleeping bag. I usually have a specific order I do my morning tasks in (put away sleeping gear, change to biking clothes, pack my bags, eat, pump bikes…) but today I had a crazy thought — screw it. Let me try something new. I leave my sleeping bag unfurled, brush my teeth, then eat breakfast with Ramona, who always wakes up earlier than the rest of us. Doing things backwards is refreshing after over five weeks of the same exact morning routine, and yes I know the fact that this was so exhilarating to me is slightly concerning.
Ramona and I — the dynamic duo — head out with Sarah and Joseph — the equally dynamic, albeit newer, duo. Ishaq had already left, and Greta and Charles are shortly behind. The high for today was 83 °F, so naturally Sarah, our Vegas native, felt “cold.”
A bit into the ride, Ramona receives a phone call. She initially tries to talk through the wind, but pulls over once she realizes she can’t hear anything. I dutifully pull over too, while Sarah and Joseph abandon us. It sounds kind of urgent, and I realize what the fuss is about as soon as Charles sends a picture to the group chat.
Good job, Charles
Greta had called Ramona, the gear expert, to ask for her expert advice on Charles’ screw-in-tire situation. Ramona agrees that Tian should pick Charles up and go to a parking lot where he can attempt to patch up the hole with a plug kit. Ramona begs Tian to let us know where they pull over so she can spectate (nerd). Tian unfortunately opts for a grocery store we had already passed to kill two birds with one stone, so Ramona and I continue pedaling to rest stop 1.
Rest stop 1 is short since Tian and Charles and the van with all our supplies are nowhere near. The unofficial dynamic trio of me, Ramona, and Greta, who we picked up at the rest stop, bike and chat. My dad calls me in the last 5 miles and I tell him how the day’s going so far. When I mention the lightning storm from two days ago, he mentions a similar story from his youth, when he walked for hours in torrential rain in the middle of a forest in Ethiopia. I love hearing stories from my parents’ youth. It’s almost like they lived full lives before I was born.
Unrelated proof that my dad is hilarious
At rest stop 2, a trusty Dollar General, Ramona and I pull up to a loud POP. Charles is trying out a new plug kit combo, and it apparently burst at 45 PSI right as we arrive. Ramona is excited that she finally gets to witness the (attempted) repair of our worst bike damage yet, so while Sarah, Joseph, and Greta leave, I dutifully wait by Ramona for another half hour (spoiler alert: I do not see Ishaq the entire ride, he’s too far ahead). We come to the conclusion that Charles should in fact not bike for the rest of the day, and that he should try to fill his initially tubeless tire with a tube, which will supposedly provide an impermanent but stable solution to the screw issue. I suggest to Ramona that Charles ride my bike tomorrow, since I’m driving and he has pretty short legs, but this great solution is ignored.
By this point, everyone is wayyy ahead of us, so Tian, Ramona and I agree the van can skip rest stop 3 so the others don’t have to wait for supplies as long. Ramona and I pull up to the gas station rest stop anyway to refill our waters with ice, and to our surprise, the van is there! Apparently, Tian is easily susceptible to the whims of others. Specifically Charles and his lottery addiction. At least he wins $40.
Ramona and I leave rest stop 3 at 2:10pm. We are informed that rest stop 3, a cafe, closes at 3pm. There are 11.7 miles. I am determined to make it. We zoom there, our last 2 miles at an average speed of 20 mph. Ramona casually called her parents in the midst of this speedy ride, one-handed — they had just finished eating dinner after a fun day of mountain orienteering and quarrying. We make it to the cafe a minute before closing! Turns out the baristas do not care at all about us staying overtime, because I lounge on the couch far after 3pm. Also shoutout to Tian for letting me try her pear peach apricot smoothie 😌
The last 18 mile stretch is surprisingly quick. Ramona and I arrive at our church for the night, and find it entirely empty save for all the Spokies’ bikes and bags. Apparently Pastor Wayne graciously let everyone shower at his house, so we make the long, 5 minute trek to his place of residence. Everyone’s finished showering, except Greta and Charles who are crazy and decided to go on a run (more so Greta, Charles was a bum in the car today). Ishaq asked for the password at the door, Ramona correctly answered “password,” and we were allowed in. I stayed at the Pastor’s house until everyone was done showering so I could start the laundry, then Greta and I walked back to join some church members at dinner. We were greeted with burgers and a mix of freshly grown fruits and veggies, including Fowler’s very own cantaloupe specialty. Yum!
Post dinner, I unload our food from the cooler into the fridge. Then I walk back to the Pastor’s house to do some more laundry, and Greta graces me with her presence on the walk. We run into a bunch of cats on the way! The cats apparently all live in one house!! I count 16 total!!! I go back to the church to get my phone to take pictures of the cats, and Ramona follows me out. We squeal at how cute they are — fine, I squeal at how cute they are. At the same time, the sky starts looking like a renaissance painting, so we take flicks of that as well. I knock out at 9:30pm after a long day, gleefully knowing that I’d get to wake everyone up at 6:30am the next day, however I want 😈
MIT Spokes 2026 