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Curlew Lake State Park, WA to Duck Lake, MT
455mi
(Just like the other two, this blog was drafted back in late August, but I never got around to publishing it, whoopsie! – Joseph, 1/26/26)
It IS still summer, right? Well, it sure didn’t feel like it when I woke up shivering from how cold it was outside. Here we were in Northern Washington, only a few miles from the Canadian border and I really wished I had a beanie and socks. It was partially our fault, since we decided not to put the rainfly on our tent last night. Though rainflies are made to protect from rain, they also help to insulate the tent. I got up, put on two jackets and sped over to the bathrooms, which were unfortunately quite far away. Thankfully, the bathrooms themselves were pretty toasty, providing me some relief from what felt like a winter wonderland (there was no snow, no ice, no Christmas tree, just the cold).
Eventually we got ready and left pretty quickly. Although we were too cold to properly enjoy it, it was a very nice and peaceful stay in the park by a very pretty lake. The cold wasn’t the only reason why we were so eager to get out of our campground. Today was going to be (as many days will be) a long day and Glacier National Park was near the end of the drive. We wanted to make it to the park with as much daylight as possible, so we could enjoy it. Pretty early we stopped by a random overlook, hoping to catch some nice views of the mountains. Disappointingly, a lot of the views were obstructed by trees, but we did find some wild blueberries on the way. We continued on to a gas station in Kettle Falls, where we attempted to fill up on some gas. However, we were getting a strange problem. Every time we would pull down the lever gas would fill in the car for all of 5 seconds and then stop as if the tank was full. I can assure you, the tank was nowhere near full. Poor Ramona had to press down on the lever probably 20 times just to get us 30 dollars of gas, before we gave up. We thought maybe the gas tank was broken, so we moved to a different one, but it did the same thing.
We continued onwards and stopped down the road at a cafe inside of an antique store. It was really cozy, we sat on a couch and planned the day, while waiting for our order of a sandwich, burrito and a chai latte. It was taking a while, so Ramona ventured across the street to exchange our propane tank, since we thought our stove was not working because we were out of propane. This was something we would later find out to be not true. Eventually I left the cafe with our food and walked across the street. Before I could get to the gas station, Ramona walked out with the same old propane tank, but now twice as heavy. The gas station clerk was confused by Ramona’s request to exchange the gas tank. Instead, like it was common sense, he topped it off using the gas cylinder outside and pulling at least five different levers. We found out the tank was half empty as opposed to being fully empty. This also meant it was half full and our stove troubles were probably not because of an empty tank. That was quite suspicious. But we thought maybe with double the gas we would get double the pressure and the stove setup would work again. Spoiler alert, that was not the case. But that’s all for later.
So, we continued on. Passing through Colville, we saw a self-serve carwash. At this point, cosmetically, the car in shambles. Now, I normally wouldn’t care too much about this, but the windshield was so dirty that it couldn’t be considered fully transparent. This was an especially big problem in the mornings when the sun rays would illuminate the whole windshield, obscuring the road in front of us. Driving blind on windy mountain roads is less than ideal for obvious reasons. And so, we gave our car, Bertha, some love. Clean for the first time since we got her, she was shining.
Leaving Colville, we continued on, soon crossed into Idaho, blogging all the while. Now, I of course could not write out the blogs, so as I drove, I would tell Ramona what to write and she would type it up for me. Thanks, Ramona! At some point we were passing by a big lake (Lake Pend Oreille) that we could see through the trees. We wanted to stop by and take a closer look, but there were no real overlooks. So, at some point we stopped at the side of the road and walked to the lake. We definitely did not need to cross any railroad tracks or anything. Note that to actually touch the water we needed to descend a steep hill full of loose rocks. With our terrific balance, we managed not to fall into the water, but there were some close calls.
We were once again running low on gas, so we stopped. And once again we were having the same problem as before with the gas only filling for a couple of seconds before stopping. At this point we started to suspect that maybe the car itself was the issue. I decided to do what I always do when I realize that there is a problem that I don’t have the knowledge to fix and pulled out Google. I managed to find a pretty helpful video explaining what was probably happening, but the solution would involve removing the gas tank of the car, which was not going to happen on Bertha without the help of a mechanic shop. As we were trying to figure out what exactly we were going to do, Ramona tried filling the tank once more and to our surprise gas started filling up as if there were no problems in the first place. At the same time, the gas tank door magically fixed itself and was able to fully close for the first time in days. We don’t have any explanation for why things started working again, but I am not one to question good fortune.
We continued on and at some point, something that hadn’t happened in weeks happened once more – our time zone changed, but this time the time skipped forward instead of back. The good thing about time zone changes is that it doesn’t actually change how much sunlight you have left, so we still had a good couple of hours to spend inside of Glacier National Park. We eventually arrived at the West Entrance of the park and checked out the Apgar Visitor Center. Inside, along with my routine of getting a National Park sticker, I also got a beanie and some thick socks – two things I would have really liked to have last night. We asked the park ranger what to do as we drove through Going to The Sun Road. Along with stopping at various overlooks, she recommended that once we get to Logan pass, we hike to Hidden Lake to watch the sunset. We still had roughly 3 hours before the sun sets, so I concocted a plan to make dinner at the top of Logan pass. I figured that cooking couldn’t get much scenic than this. Plus, it would be very efficient, since we knew that we were getting to our campsite after dark. Armed with a plan and some time, we ascended up into the park.
At first, the drive was very nice, following the shore of Lake McDonald for miles. Then the road veered away from the lake and started climbing. At some point the road became very narrow with barely enough space for two cars to fit between the rock wall and the cliff edge. I’m sure at this point the mountain views became very scenic, but I was too busy trying not to crash and die to notice. However, Ramona did snap a lot of pics (update: Ramona’s phone died a few weeks after this and we lost all of her photos from this day of the trip, RIP). We stopped at a few of the overlooks, so that I, too, could enjoy the views, but we didn’t linger for too long.
Eventually, we made it to the top of Logan pass. There was a visitors center up here, but we were too late and it was closed. We drove around to the end of the parking lot and set up our makeshift kitchen overlooking some beautiful views. We turned on our camping stove and put on a big pot of water to boil. Except, it never boiled. As previously mentioned, filling up our propane tank had not solved any problems. But we were hopeful that eventually the water would boil. So, an hour passed. It wasn’t enough. We were ready to call it quits. That was until a nice couple passed by and asked us what was going on. We told them about our plight. And they went back to their car to grab their small propane can and a small burner. They wanted us to use these to troubleshoot and isolate whatever the problem was with our stove setup. The first thing we tried was connecting the propane can directly to the stove. Seemingly, it worked flawlessly. The next thing we tried was hooking up our propane tank to their small burner. It did not work. So, we figured our problems did not lie with the stove itself, but rather our propane setup. They offered us their small propane can, but we declined, since it was a bit late to cook and we thought that we would surely be able to figure it out tomorrow. In hindsight, we should have just taken their can… But that’s a story for tomorrow. We chatted with them until the sun set. The hike was definitely not happening. We packed up our stuff and left for our campground at Duck Lake.
One thing I was glad about was that I would be able to descend Logan pass with some daylight left. It did not seem like it would be fun to drive in the dark. We caught some views of Saint Mary’s lake just before darkness fell. I did the last 40 minutes of the drive in the dark, always on the lookout to make sure I don’t hit any wildlife.
Before we arrive at our campsite, we stop at the Leaning Tree Campground, only a few minutes down the road from our campsite. This was where we were told there were showers and laundry available. At this point, I had completely run out of clean clothes, so the laundromat was well appreciated. We left our stuff in their laundry lounge and showered as the washer went through its cycle. After some warm showers, clothes went in the dryer, and I attempted to call the other Spokies. The connection was good enough that they could hear Ramona when she was talking to them, but the moment I took over the call, they couldn’t hear me. The connection wasn’t good enough to do anything else, so we waited patiently until we had clean and dry clothes. With our business at the Leaning Tree Campground done, we drove a few more minutes down the road to Duck Lake. After missing our camp site at the first drive through, we went all the way to the end of the campground, which was in complete darkness. We set up camp, brushed our teeth and promptly went to bed. This time I slept with a beanie and socks. I did not wake up in the middle of the night from cold. Yay!
Humbug Mountain State Park, OR -> Seattle, WA. 485mi
(This post was drafted in August. Ramona transcribed my thoughts as we drove across the country. I never got around to publishing it until now, whoops! – Joseph, 1/23/26)
I woke up as we have many times this summer: in the tent from the rays of the sun. As I get out and look at our campsite, I see two tents instead of four and am reminded that we are three instead of eight.
We pack up fairly quickly and get on the road, since it will be a long day of 9 hours of driving. The plan was to drive along the Highway 101 along Oregon’s coast and then eventually head inland through Portland to Seattle.
Our first official stop for the morning was the Sea Lion caves, which were two hours away. While Charles was driving us there, I decided I wanted to do a morning beach stop. I found a pretty isolated beach in a place called Seven Devils State Recreation Area. We pulled into the parking lot. As I was hoping, the place was nearly empty. There were only two other cars in the lot. The three of us got out of the car and ran straight to the beach, only stopping when we felt the cold water on our feet.
I look around and am amazed by the sights I see. In the front of us: the vast Pacific Ocean with a wall of fog running parallel to the shore. To our left and right: beautiful sandy beaches and rocky cliffs. With nobody else around we frolicked along the beach, doing whatever we pleased.
Charles found a washed-up kelp plant and started swinging it around. Ramona climbed up a cliffside and walked around prickly plants. I Jumped around the sand dunes and picked up blocks of hardened sand. Charles also attempted stand a log up in the sand and succeeded (for a couple of seconds). Once we were all satisfied, we headed back to the car. Once we were inside and getting ready to leave, we realized that we had spent way too much time in this unplanned stop.
We continued onwards to the Sea Lion Caves. We arrived at a building a few hundred feet above the water. We were told that there were around 30 sea lions in the cave and in peak season you can see hundreds. We were indecisive if we wanted to spend $18 to see 30 sea lions instead of hundreds. But eventually we decided that 30 sea lions are still a lot of sea lions and went in. We descended down 200 feet into the cave. They had some exhibits and further down was an opening in the rock, where through metal bars you could see where sea lions are gathered. Sea lions are quite the goofy creatures. For some reason they were all trying to fit on this one rock in the middle of the day. I can only assume it was the cool kids rock and everyone who couldn’t fit was lame and a loser. Eventually we decided we’ve seen enough, ascended back up and got back on the road.
Our next stop was Thor’s Well – a set of rocky outcroppings on the coast with a lot of underwater holes that at high tide can create some very cool natural phenomena such as geysers, loud booms and some generally volatile water. We arrived right at high tide and saw some cool stuff. Me and Ramona almost got taken out by a wave, but we survived by standing on top of a rock.
Our next stop further up the coast was a beach town named Cape Kiwanda. But before we could get there, I had an advisor meeting scheduled to register for my classes. I was a little worried about this, because for most of the day, outside of towns, I had no cell service. And towns were few and far between in this area of the country. Luckily, we managed to make it to a town where I had good signal. I was dropped off at a cafe while Charles and Ramona went to find some fish and chips. After troubleshooting many problems and attempting to join the call for more than half an hour, I was finally able to talk to my advisor and register for classes. Unfortunately, this meeting had lost us another hour and a half. At this point it was already past 3pm and we had 6 hours of driving and multiple stops left. We knew we were getting to Seattle pretty late. But we still wanted to see some sights. So, we headed onto Cape Kiwanda.
We parked next to the beach and went to check it out. Charles had been hyping this place up all day. It was a frequent vacation spot for his family. We came upon a beautiful beach with a huge rock coming out of the water directly in front of us. To our right was a pretty big dune. We went into the water and pretty immediately our feet started to go numb from the cold water. So, Charles, being the innovator that he is, started stomping in place in order to bury his feet in the sand. The sand provided an insulating effect against the water, allowing him to stand and appreciate the views. I proceeded to do the exact same thing. We then headed over to the sand dune and saw a lot of people climbing up its face and then running down. We followed their lead and started our own hike up. For some reason this became one of the most difficult hikes I’ve ever done. Every time I would take a step my feet would sink back into the sand back to where I started. It felt like I was making no progress climbing up this dune. It was like I was on a Stairmaster. Eventually though, I made it up to the top of the sand dune and there were some nice views. Then we prepared to run back down. Charles went first. He sprinted down the face of the sand dune, swinging his arms around and made it pretty far down upright, until he fell near the bottom. Face first into the sand. Ramona was up next. She copied Charles’ strategy of swinging arms, but midway through she transitioned into a roll. She made it down just fine. I was last and was really afraid of falling, so I started running down a bit more cautiously. But I picked up speed and then started jumping down the dune. I too transitioned into the roll at the end for the full experience. Charles was a bit jealous that he had not also rolled, so he went halfway up the dune and also rolled. He however did not have my flawless rolling technique. So, when he stood up, we saw his face, caked with sand.
At this point I was getting a little hangry. I had not had enough food and was starting to suffer for it. But everything in Cape Kiwanda was way too expensive. So I decided to get food at our next and final stop at the town of Tillamook. For those unaware, Tillamook is the name of a popular dairy brand in the west and in their namesake town they have their factory which also doubles as a tourist attraction. On our way out, Charles backs the van out of our parking spot and, with our bike rack, pierces the back lights of another car. Yikes.
The owner of the car was nowhere to be seen, so we sped away as fast as we possibly could! Just kidding. We left a note and the owner did eventually contact Charles and file an insurance claim. With this, we lost a few more precious minutes. At this point, Tillamook Creamery was going to close basically at the time we would get there, so made a beeline to the creamery in order to get some ice cream. Funnily enough, when we do get there, all of us get milkshakes. They were quite good. Unfortunately, as we were walking out of the creamery, Charles dropped his milkshake and lost half of it. rip.
Now it was my turn to drive, and I looked for food in town. I found a highly rated taco truck that was still open. We get over to the truck only to find it closed. I was pretty sad about this, until a lady came out from behind the truck. I can tell that she probably speaks Spanish, so I ask her, in Spanish, if they are closed. She says that they are closed, but she can whip up something quick for us. And so, she whips up some delicious steak burritos. The best part is that they are pretty cheap. With haply taste buds and a full stomach we continued on.
At this point the sun was setting, and we still had almost 5 hours of driving to Seattle. We were set to arrive at Charles’ house after midnight. So, we locked in, stopping only for the occasional restroom break or for gas. Eventually, we see the Seattle skyline. A welcome sight after this long, long day. A bit later, we arrive to an even more welcome sight – Charles’ house. And with it – Charles’ boat. A few years back he had bought a broken boat and attempted to fix it, unsuccessfully. Maybe one day he’ll fix it. Or maybe it will sit in his parents’ lawn for all eternity. We go inside and see that Charles’ dad is still awake. It seems that being a night owl runs in the family. He heated up some rice and meat dumpling-like dish that Charles’ grandma had made and frozen for a late-night snack. It was quite delicious. He also set out a tub of watermelon, which I nearly completely demolished. Ramona went to sleep, but I stayed up chatting with Charles’ dad the next 45 or so minutes. Then I too went to sleep. I needed all the rest I could get, because Charles would not be coming with us for the rest of the trip, so I would be the only driver for the rest of the country. This is where the real struggle begins.
Final day in San Francisco
Today was the first of many goodbyes. Most people were going to leave on the 21st, however Greta was leaving on the 20th. She wanted to see her sister before she moved into UVA and leaving on the 21st would have been too late. So, instead she had a 6am flight. So she stayed up with Charles, who then drove her to the airport. Me and Sarah also woke up in the middle of the night to say our goodbyes.
And then there were seven.
I awoke again at 9am and saw Ramona was also awake. So we decided to make the most of it and pack the car ONE LAST TIME.
For context, we booked a round trip car rental and me and Ramona were going to drive the car back to Boston. This is in contrast to last year’s team who booked a one way rental, so they had to deal with the logistics of packing up and sending the bikes and camping gear back across the country. Since we were bringing the car back, post trip logistics were a lot easier.
Packing the car for our upcoming road trip was not much different than usual. We’ve done this for 75 days, so we’ve gotten pretty good at it. We consolidated some of our boxes, threw a bunch of stuff out and changed the organization of the car to make grabbing food items easier. With most people’s personal belongings out of the car, we also managed to fit 2 bikes in the car in addition to the 3 bikes on the rack. We managed to finish most of the packing by the early afternoon, so we had a lot of free time.
We decided to go out and explore San Francisco! By we I should say me, Sarah, Ramona, Tian, Ishaq and Charles. At some point, me and Sarah were unintentionally split up from the rest of the group. So we decided to go to Ghiradelli Square to get some shakes and chocolate. The rest of them went to Japantown after seeing the Painted Ladies. Then me and Sarah met up with the rest of the team in Japantown where we had Thai food for dinner. This was the team’s Final Supper (sadness).
We then went into the mall and after failing to find a bakery, we settled for crepe shop, where me and Sarah had some delicious fruit crepes. It was getting late, so we decided to head back, but we were in the technopolis that is San Francisco, so what better way to get home than to call some autonomous taxis! The six of us split up and got into our cars. It was quite the futuristic experience.
Everyone spent their last night here doing their own thing. We tried to get to bed early, because Ramona was going to wake everyone up early.
So that concludes the very last, final Spokes blog…
or does it?
Stay tuned for our post-Spokes blog series which will follow me and Ramona on our 10-day road trip back across the country, featuring Charles for the first two episodes!
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Moab, UT -> Green River, UT — 56.8mi, 1900ft
It’s that time of the week again, its Joseph’s blogging day! But it’s also my driving day, woot woot. This morning, we would finally leave the Schmitt’s, who pretty much enabled us to go full vacation mode while in Moab. It would be back to reality for us. The thing was, the people weren’t ready. In fact, the spokies were very disorganized today and locked out. As people were leaving, Charles remembered that he shipped his cycling shoes to Moab, then spent half an hour finding if they were shipped to the Airbnb we stayed at. Simultaneously, everyone decided last minute to go to a cafe in Moab before the first rest stop, but Ramona never got the message. I too pulled up to the cafe, partially to hang out but also because I was ravenous from a smaller than usual breakfast. I got myself a fire sandwich.
After Charles eventually realized his cycling shoes weren’t delivered, he too started heading towards the cafe. Hearing this news, I also remembered that Ramona was nearly at the first rest stop and I still needed to get groceries before I left Moab. You see, Moab is a bit of an oasis in the desolation of southwest Utah. Green River, our destination for the day, was a lot smaller and I suspected there wouldn’t be as much variety in groceries. I rushed to the grocery store to buy ingredients for today’s dinner, a gnocchi and rigatoni soup, as Ishaq went off on his own sidequest: buying new Specialized tires. Ishaq’s tires may have been slightly leaky, but it wasn’t enough to warrant getting new tires. This was entirely a luxury purchase (Ishaq paid for it himself of course). Ishaq delivered me his new tires as I was walking out of the grocery store. I then rushed over to the first rest stop, where I was sure people were already waiting. Ramona had long since passed the first rest stop after refilling her water and I figured she was going to get to the second rest stop before me. The big issue here is that our last two rest stops were in the middle of nowhere on the side of the road, meaning that the bikers wouldn’t be able go self supported. This meant that I really had to be able to support the bikers and be there, especially in the heat. This is the start of my driver struggles. I get to the first rest stop, a gas station, where everyone but Ishaq is waiting for me. I get them all sorted, then wait for Ishaq to eventually show up. While he was getting himself sorted for the next stretch, I went to fill up on gas and realized that gas was pretty darn expensive out here, so I only put in like 5 gallons. It’s enough to get me to Green River.
After Ishaq left, I rushed to meet Ramona at the second rest stop, passing the bikers along the way. They seemed to be struggling a bit. This road was heavily trafficked, high speed, and there was almost no shoulder. This is probably the worst possible combination of conditions for a biker, and I was a bit worried for them. Charles was stopped on the side of the road, seemingly to take a breather from the stressful biking. I eventually make it to the second rest stop, but then realize that making a sharp left turn on this single lane highway with cars going 80 was going to be impossible. I pass the stop and pull off a bit later. I prepare to make a very scary u-turn. It’s like making a U-turn on an interstate, but you can’t even see the cars coming until half a mile away. I manage not to die and finally meet Ramona, who had been waiting for around 15 minutes. This is where everything goes wrong. Ramona’s back derailleur cable had snapped, leaving her unable to shift gears. This wasn’t something we could fix ourselves, so Ramona’s bike would have to get to a shop. This was very inconvenient. There were no bike shops in Green River and tomorrow was not a rest day, but a long cycling day through a desolate part of Utah, meaning that driving a long distance for a bike repair was not an option. Our only two options were to either have Ramona be a passenger princess until we reached Escalante three days later or to speed back to Moab, where bike shops were abundant. We decided to speed back to Moab. As we were preparing to drive back, some of the bikers arrived and I was able to serve them, but for those who were further behind, I left them a care package of waters and food that I would later pick up. The plan was to drop Ramona off in Moab, drive the 40 miles back to rest stop 3, then drive back to Moab to pick Ramona up, then drive all the way to Green River to set up camp. This was going to be complicated and very annoying for me, the driver. But alas, this is part of the job.
I drive back to Moab and drop Ramona off, then prepare to make the drive back. This is when I receive a text that the bikers had found a wacky alien themed gas station/convenience store, where they were able to fill up on water. I ask if everyone’s good with me staying in Moab, as this would make the day a lot easier logistically. I do worry about Greta, as she chose to take a stint on a dirt road to avoid the scary highway and she wouldn’t pass by the ufo store. This meant doing 30 or so miles in the Utah heat self supported. She said that she was fine with it, so I decided to stay. I go back into the bike shop and see Ramona intently watching the mechanic do his thing. She really likes this mechanic, he’s very down to earth and knows what he’s talking about. I go to the food truck park that we had stopped at two days ago and grab myself a fire quesadilla. I’m just able to finish my quesadilla when Ramona finally comes out with her fixed bike.
We rush out of Moab, hoping to catch the bikers before they reach the third rest stop, but then realize it’s a pointless effort and change course straight to the campground. We arrive and see half of the cyclists sitting around, waiting for us. We set up camp relatively quickly and laze around for a bit. We actually have electricity and good signal for once, which is a nice change from most of our camping. Some people go for a dip in the Green River and I eventually start to set up dinner. Ruth goes to a laundromat and I cook up a feast. There’s not much else to report for the night, it was pretty calm following a bit of a hectic day. I got good sleep, rare for camping nights. See you next time, where we ascend into Zion’s backcountry!
Black Hawk, CO -> Frisco, CO – 69.75 mi, 7,848 ft
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
…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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Lakin, KS -> Lamar, CO — 77.25 mi, 1,490 ft
I awoke at 4:30 am to Ruth full on launching herself onto the bed where Charles and I slept. Ruth cracked her nose on Charles’ knee upon impact, causing sudden onset bleeding. I was pretty bewildered, but it turned out that Ruth couldn’t bear to share the same bed as her partner for the night, Ishaq, for any longer. Ruth gets pretty terrible sleep already, so an active sleeper is a bad person for her to share a bed with. She switched places with Charles, and we all went back to sleep.
We later awoke played out our usual morning routine. The inn that the church in Lakin had graciously provided us rooms in had self-serve breakfast, a nice change from our usual make-your-own breakfast. Eventually, we got ready to leave. Today was an unusual combination of people for me. Charles, Greta, and Ishaq would be my riding partners for the day. I had ridden with Charles and Greta a few times before independently, but Ishaq is usually chasing PRs, so it’s not often I get to ride with him, much less everyone in such a large group. This group was full of a lot of the speedsters of the group, though, which led to a fun dynamic for the day. Ruth, Tian, and Ramona left earlier than us, but we eventually caught up. They would leave rest stops before us, but we would always catch up. At one point, we passed them while performing the Indonesian Boat Racing Dance Formation, which we later all attempted as a big group.
Pretty early in the ride we crossed into Mountain Time, a first for my 19 years on this Earth. A short while later, we crossed into Colorado! This marked the end of our 8-day stretch in one of the flattest states in the Union. It’s not like we had left the Great Plains yet, though. Eastern Colorado contains the High Plains, and it’s pretty darn big. We wouldn’t be able to even see the Rockies for another two days. There is some interesting stuff in this region of Colorado, though, like the site of the Amache Internment Camp in the small town of Granada, CO. It’s a bit strange being in the middle of nowhere and then passing through a site where thousands of Japanese Americans were held in WWII. Apparently, the townspeople treated them well, but they were still treated like POWs by the government. We weren’t able to see the site up close, but I could see the ruins from afar.
After our stop in Granada, I was feeling particularly good. In fact, I could feel endless energy emanating from my legs. It was go time. I turned on the music and led the pack for the next 10 miles. I was zooming. A quick 30 minutes later, we made it to our first gas station in Colorado. Charles bought a bunch of scratch offs to commemorate our new state, and wouldn’t you believe it, he won big time. This win was big enough to offset all of his losses in Kansas. Colorado was off to a good start.
We eventually made it to our church in Lamar, and sure enough, I set a lot of PRs. I was averaging 23 miles an hour for that stretch! What a good day for cycling… as long as you ignore my seemingly chronic finger numbness. It really doesn’t want to go away. RIP my nerves, I guess.
I spent some time before dinner hashing out details with Ramona about our road trip back to Boston. For those of you who are unaware, once the team makes it to San Francisco, most people are going to eventually fly back to wherever life takes them next. But not me or Ramona. We’ve been tasked with driving our van, gear, and bikes back to Boston. It was cheaper than buying a one-way rental and logistically simpler than shipping a packed van’s worth of gear. That’s not even mentioning the free road trip I get out of this. The quickest route back to Boston involves passing through a lot of the same regions of the country we will have just spent nearly 3 months cycling through, and that seems a little lame. We will instead drive up to Seattle, then cut across the Northern states and hit some awesome national parks. After zooming through the Rust Belt, we will end this 10-day road trip with a journey into Northern Vermont and New Hampshire. I’m really excited for this drive, but I have to get to San Francisco first!
Dinner time came and our lovely hosts at the Lamar Christian Church invited us to their Friday community dinner. There was a great variety of food brought in from various members of the church. It was quite a feast. They also do a weekly viewing of a TV show, this time the House of David. It was very dramatic and entertaining.
Following dinner, I, Sarah, and Ruth went on a walk around town. We had a great time.
Crossing into Colorado is a sign of the beginning of the end of one of the longest stretches of the trip. The Great Plains have been both boring and eventful and were the first segment of this trip completely new to me. I’m glad to be leaving, but the many days on Highway 50 have been a nice kind of predictable. I knew what to expect day after day, whether good or bad. It gave my mind space to think about other things. The Rockies will bring real challenge back to the trip. Tune in next time to the single hardest day of the trip: crossing the Continental Divide.
Rest Day in Kansas City, MO
Yo yo yo! It’s Joseph, back at it again from Kansas City (the one in Missouri). I’m finally out of the trenches, and all my deep thoughts and introspection go to a complete halt unless I’m in complete misery and questioning my life. That’s why this time I’m doing a bit more of a silly blog. I’m sure as you will have heard from Greta (when she eventually publishes yesterday’s blog), we had a great learning festival followed by an awesome dinner out with some of the sponsors of the program we taught at. Meeting influential members of the Latino community anywhere is always a treat and our VIP level treatment has elevated Kansas City to my favorite stop on the trip so far. Kansas City continued to be a surreal trip even after last night, though.
We awoke with plans to go to The Children’s Place, a specialized trauma treatment center for very young children. The visit was set up by the aSteam Village sponsor. We were given a tour of the facility and then split up into groups of two or three to play with the children for an hour, followed by a little fireworks show. We weren’t allowed to take any photos and aren’t at liberty to talk about many details, but I can personally say that the kids were great and everyone had a blast. The adults there are doing some very important work and have my full respect.
We got back to our Airbnb and had a couple of hours to spare before our dinner plans with the learning festival sponsor, supposedly some amazing barbeque (Kansas City is known for it). Charles wanted to run some errands, so me and Ruth joined him. There were a few errands to run, but one was more important than the others. Enterprise said that we had to renew our car contract every thirty days and wow would you look at that we started Spokes a month ago! So, we drove to the nearest Enterprise thinking this would be a 15-minute errand. Then everything went wrong. For the past thirty-something days, our car rental process had gone too smoothly. No car breakdown or troubles with authorized drivers. Of course, all good things must come to an end. See, our 2024 Chrysler Pacifica had very recently been recalled due to a side airbag malfunction, along with 250,000 other Pacifica’s in Enterprise’s nationwide fleet. Enterprise told us we could keep the van until the end of our trip, but when it came time to renew our contract, the local branch said they could not renew a contract on a recalled vehicle. The only option here would be to get a replacement minivan and renew the contract with that, but it just so happens that those 250,000 Pacifica’s are most of Enterprise’s minivan fleet, so there were no available minivans or any seven-seater SUVs in the entire Kansas City area. We drove across state lines to two more Kansas City locations including the airport in an attempt to find an available vehicle, but no dice. At this point, our only option was to forego the Cambridge Enterprise’s pleas to get our car switched and continue on with the recalled Chrysler Pacifica with an overdue contract until we can eventually get it replaced, maybe in Denver… The legality of this decision is dubious. One might even say that we’ve committed Grand Theft Auto™.
After our quick errand turned wild goose chase, we came back to the AirBnB with nothing to show for our efforts. Our barbeque dinner with the sponsor was cancelled for unrelated reasons, but he instead generously doordashed us food from the barbeque place. It was quite delicious. The team all gathered together for our fourth iteration of the Spokes Movie Night, where we watched Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. I had been wanting to watch the movie for quite some time now and I was not disappointed. The main female lead’s name in the movie was Ramona, so it became a running joke that our Ramona had seven evil exes and all that. The best thing to come out of it was probably the song in the movie called Ramona. I had the bright idea of making a three minute long edit with the song. Please enjoy the fruit of my labor.
MIT Spokes 2025 