Blog
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Day 62: Jesus for 300
Cedar City, UT to Milford, UT — 59.2 mi, 1525 ft This morning was just like any other day, except there were two of me. My twin sister was going to bike with us! The plan was that she’d ride the 60 mile day with us, stay with us at the church for a little McCay^2 sleepover, and then she’d leave the next morning. Hopefully, she’d get a snapshot of the Spokes day to day…
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Day 61: A Tale of Two Cities
Zion National Park, UT to Cedar City, UT — 45.6 mi, 3737 ft It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. If you recognize that line from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities (the namesake of this blog), you might have some foresight into how this day will play out. In this analogy, my day was akin to life in London and everyone else’s day was more like Paris: safety…
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Day 60: An Ode To How Spokes Ended Up In Vegas
Rest Day in Zion National Park (or Las Vegas) — 0 mi, 0 ft Today real early I awokeTo the sound of Tatiana who spokeIt’s time to get upBut I was fed upTo wake up at 6 everyday is some sick joke At least today we’re going on an epic hikeA million degrees in Utah, it’s just not right to bikeSo we head to the Visitor CenterWith Caroline’s family as our mentorsWho know everything about…
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Day 59: The One Where “7 MIT Students” Almost Becomes “6 MIT Students”
Bryce Canyon National Park, UT to Zion National Park, UT — 100.3 mi, 4402 ft Preface Like many popular stories, the ending of this one, as evidenced by the title, is arguably the most interesting. I urge you, my dearest gentle readers, to avoid skipping to the end so as to experience a full and faithful retelling of the day and to be immersed in the bizarre events as sincerely as we were. Especially on…
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Day 58: we had a bryce day :)
Rest Day in Bryce Canyon National Park — 0 mi, 0 ft Technically, this blog starts at midnight when some of us were watching the first 5 minutes of Cars 2 after having finished watching Cars. Everyone was super tired after a ~50 mile day but the absurdity of Cars 2 required a quick preview. The Cars vs Cars 2 debate is also a highly contentious topic on the team, only after the infamous “Best…
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Day 57: What are Utah king about?
Escalante, UT to Bryce Canyon National Park, UT — 47.9 mi, 3961 ft The name Escalante sounds a lot like escalator, fitting for the name of the town closest to the Grand Staircase National Monument. Pastor Richards, our host, treated us to a wonderful protein-dense breakfast this morning. The breakfast casserole with eggs and sausage was very tasty and very filling. Today is my driver day. I usually hate driver days- I came here to…
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Day 56: a series of reflections
Capitol Reef National Park, UT to Escalante, UT — 68 mi, 6031 ft A common enough question I get asked by either Tatiana or Aarushi is: what do you think about on your rides? Half the time I don’t know what to say, I’m just dissociating up the climbs. Otherwise, I’m trying to lock in and listen to my audiobook. But mostly, I’m thinking about thinking. Thinking about what I have said, what I will…
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Day 55: Hello Down There
Rest Day in Capitol Reef National Park, UT — 0 mi, 0 ft Video script: I woke up this morning in our massive four person tent but just aarushi and I shared it since Tatiana was staying at a hotel nearby with her boyfriend, Noah, who was visiting. Looking around the campsite it seemed like I was the first one awake because my circadian clock is tuned too well. We began a very slow and…
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Day 54: maybe mars is a small town in utah
Green River State Park, UT to Capitol Reef National Park, UT — 94.3 mi, 4398 ft Just finally starting to feel cool in the stuffy 2-person tent I share with Carmen, duty unfortunately called at 5 am for us to break camp and hit the road. I, of course, would be hitting it on 4 wheels in the car with Carmen for my “driver” (passenger princess) day, but the rest of the group would be…
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Day 53: Reliving History
Moab, UT to Green River State Park, UT — 55.6 mi, 1805 ft I often think about how this crazy cross country biking experience the seven of us are having feels so extraordinarily unique to us, but in actuality is anything but singular. Not only have we met multiple cross country riders this summer (shoutout Stanford Spokes), but we are literally living the exact same days as the MIT Spokes team before us, and probably…
MIT Spokes 2026 