Blog
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Day 52: I Spy 8 Breathtaking Arches
Rest day in Moab, UT — 0 mi, 0 ft As Nate began to describe in yesterday’s blog, one of our team’s superpowers is that our very own Caroline Huang is a National Park (and monument… and historic site…) expert. She has been to over 150 of these National designations, earning junior ranger badges from the majority of them. Therefore, when it comes to National Parks, and Caroline says walk, we walk. When Caroline says…
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Day 51: does it count as a rest day if we have to bike?
Hittle Bottom Campground, UT to Moab, UT — 32.14 mi, 1703 ft We didn’t finish our ride yesterday so we have to spend today biking to finish the ride. Strictly speaking, we don’t “have to” since we could’ve just SAG’d the last 30 miles of yesterdays’ ride after we got caught in a pretty bad thunderstorm. But we also don’t “have to” bike across the country. We had left our bikes locked up at a…
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Day 50: 100 miles in 100 degrees
Grand Junction, CO to Moab, UT — 122.5 mi, 4092 ft (actually 87.9 mi, 2257 ft) I try to imagine the sweat on my skin is the glaze of a Krispy Kreme donut. That’s the only way to get through times like these. Only the occasional gust of wind provides some unsatisfactory relief in this land of nothing taller than a toddler. The hair on my arms and legs, usually black, have been bleached blonde…
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Day 49: MIT Soccer (fans)
Parachute, CO to Grand Junction, CO — 53.5 mi, 1427 ft Nothing will motivate our team more than… the World Cup final! Yes, you read that right. On any other morning we would snooze our 6am alarms and take a couple extra minutes sleepily packing up our things but this particular morning was the morning of the World Cup final. You would think we were a soccer team instead of a biking team with how…
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Day 48: the menagerie
Glenwood Springs, CO to Parachute, CO — 47.6 mi, 1705 ft This third stretch of the trip has become far more. The first was spent trudging up and down PUDS in the east and midwest, the second staring at endless planes of farmland biking on highways. In the third, we have seen shorter mileages and many more centuries, far less elevation and far more striking landscapes. Longer rest stops and fewer sidequests, more luxurious housing…
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Day 47: hot springs and hot people
Learning Festival in Glenwood Springs, CO — 0 mi, 0 ft The nice thing about learning festival days is that we can sleep in. 8 am most days is a late start — thus, our 8 am alarm on these days is a sweet treat, and we had a nice rolling start to the day. To make things even better, we decided to stop by a coffee shop for breakfast, a semi-regular routine ahead of…
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Day 46: 100 PICTURES ARE WORTH 100000 WORDS
Breckenridge, CO to Glenwood Springs, CO — 105.7 mi, 3537 ft 7:00 AM 8:00 AM 9:00 AM 10:00 AM 11:00 AM 12:00 PM 1:00 PM 2:00 PM (switch to drivers Nunu and Caroline POV halfway) 3:00 PM 4:00 PM 5:00 PM (back to Aarushi POV) 6:00 PM 7:00 PM 8:00 PM 9:00 PM 10:00 PM 11:00 PM 12:00 AM In honor of (my) first century, I finally brought out the digicam to take 105 pics…
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Day 45: I’m On Top of the World
Idaho Springs, CO to Breckenridge, CO — 56.0 mi, 5927 ft Though I am not a native Coloradan and have never officially lived in the state, I would consider it one of my homes. Specifically, the ski slopes dotting its landscapes that have hosted my family and me year after year for our annual spring break trip. Today was the first day that we would be officially passing through resorts that I had grown up…
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Day 44: MIT Paddles
Rest day in Idaho Springs, CO — 0 mi, 0 ft Per usual, we woke up this morning. Not per usual, I woke up and the car was already unloaded and ready for us to drive off and spend our rest day white water rafting! Even more not per usual, I ate my breakfast of assorted snacks we had in the car with this crazy view from the porch of our Airbnb. We left at…
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Day 43: The Warped Wall
Denver, CO to Idaho Springs, CO — 45.8 mi, 4612 ft After a few days of beating around the bush, it finally came time to face the rockies head on, resulting in an elevation graph that looks very much like the notorious final obstacle from the TV Series, American Ninja Warrior. But, before that, we biked out of Denver and into Golden, Colorado. I’d never heard of golden, but it holds a lot of sentimental…
MIT Spokes 2026 