MIT Spokes 2026

Tag: cycling-day

  • Day 4: Country Roads, Take Me Home…

    Day 4: Country Roads, Take Me Home…

    Luray, VA to Waynesboro, VA — 62.5 mi, 3,900 ft

    Today we awoke in our campsite and EVERYTHING WAS WET!!! We had foolishly left all our belongings strewn about the campsite, including bike shoes we had to wear this morning and fresh laundry that now needed to be re-run. Although there had been no rain in the forecast, all our bike gear and camping tents were now covered with a generous layer of morning dew. After a couple of “it’s over” “it’s chopped” “it’s buns” “it’s cooked”, we packed up wet tents in wet bags and did some knee stretches (pictured below) and put chamois butter on our butts (not pictured) and I spent some time trying to pick which audiobook to listen to only to realize that not only do you need to pay for Audible you need to pay for the audiobook as well (!!) and after three hours we were ready to leave the campsite at 9 AM. 

    Realization number 1 today: America really is so beautiful. The song was literally made about this place (O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain!). We biked through rolling meadows and lush green grass everywhere and fluffy cows and houses with pretty porches and tantalizingly inviting pools. We were biking along the Shenandoah River, and when I realized that I was literally biking down the country roads John Denver was singing about, it felt like I could actually sense his deep nostalgia for the countryside and felt a surprising burst of American patriotism that I haven’t felt in a long time as he sang in my ears…

    Almost heaven, West Virginia

    Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River

    Life is old there, older than the trees

    Younger than the mountains, growin’ like a breeze

    Country roads, take me home

    To the place I belong

    West Virginia, mountain mama

    Take me home, country roads

    We kept the good vibes going for a long long lunch where we stumbled upon a perfect oasis where we had a glorious picnic, brought out our big floatie but never went into the water, and instead laid down on the grass and took a group nap. 

    Wow that was a beautiful sentence. Well-deserving of its own paragraph. Writing this blog is making me retroactively even more grateful for these moments. Sometimes you don’t realize how awesome you have it in the moment.

    Realization number 2 today: calling people and listening to them talk like a personal podcast is the hack of long-distance biking. I called my dad who is really good at debriefs and he told me the story of how he wrangled the thousand pounds of luggage I left him on his flight to California. I called my mom who is really good at reminding me of the things I haven’t done and she talked to me about how I need to eat a lot of protein and how I should become even more shameless in asking for Spokes donations. I called my best friend Albert who is really good at laughing and he told me about this new TV show Girls that he’s been watching and indulged me in my fantasy of daydreaming about all the things we will do when we both live in the Bay Area together post-grad. I called my other best friend Ria who is really good at talking in general and she didn’t pick up. I called my friend Maanas who is really good at giving advice and he gave me some more wisdom from his post-grad bike trip from UT Austin to Alaska. I called my teammates Nunu and Tatiana so we could talk even more while biking even though we already spend every single waking hour together. Becoming a Caller is actually one of my goals this summer. It’s such a good way to keep up to date with my friends lives as we all move to different corners of the world, and I am so notoriously bad at keeping in touch with friends that I don’t see regularly that it is a serious fear of mine that the strong friendships I’ve built in college will fade with inactivity. If you’re reading this, please feel free to call me anytime this summer!!! 

    Our ride ended in Waynesboro today as our next host, Pam, picked us up in her truck over the mountain to her house. (Don’t worry, we will resume biking from Waynesboro again in order to have a contiguous route across America). 

    When we arrived at Pam’s place, we were greeted by a literal enchanted magical fairy forest. Pam lives on Shannon Farm, a hippie community founded in 1973 and where she has been a member since 1979. My goal in graduate school at Berkeley is actually to become a hippie so this was an amazing pregame for me. As we gathered around the dinner table and feasted on the delicious barbecue pulled pork sandwiches and potato salad and baked beans and corn on the cob she had made for us, we asked her about her life and her community.

    Pam hands-down has lived one of the richest and most colorful lives out of anyone I’ve ever met. She was an activist protesting the Vietnam war in her college days, she’s been a nurse in clinics, peace walks, and wilderness all over the world, she’s raised two amazing children, she’s gone to Africa multiple times to rehabilitate chimpanzees and baboons and monkeys, she was the chairman of a primate sanctuary in North Carolina where she met Jane Goodall, and most admirably, she greets every person and experience she meets with a beautiful and warm and open heart. Pam, you are truly an inspiration to all of us, and I can only hope to internalize and pass forward some of the warmth you have shown us. 

    I forgot to bring my journal on this trip so I’m going to end my blog journaling to you all with some personal thoughts. This is the first time I’ve been a part of a team in my life, like not just a school group project or a friend group or workplace type team but a true, blood-sweat-and-tears sports team. We are all bound by this shared and really difficult mission of somehow biking across America, and I can already tell that by the end of the summer, we will know each other in different ways than the rest of the people in our lives are used to seeing. It’s also insane how competent everyone on the team is; everyone is constantly working to lift the entire team up and doing more than their share of work during tired evenings and rushed mornings. I’ve never experienced being the one that feels like they aren’t pulling their weight, especially because I didn’t come in knowing any special skills relevant for this trip like fixing bikes and mounting overhead storage on the car and efficiently packing gear and all. On top of that, I’m definitely one of the slower bikers, and I found out today that I’m apparently the slowest to get ready in the mornings too 😭😭

    Fighting these feelings of inadequacy is something I’ll definitely have to learn this summer. It’s good in the sense that it means I really am doing something that is out of my comfort zone, because I actually never do things that I’m not good at. It’ll be a learning experience to first just accept my weaknesses as they are presented to me (putting aside my pride, the biggest of my seven deadly sins) and then actively work on them for the betterment of the team.

    I do have a few goals I’ve been thinking about for this summer. One I already mentioned was to become a Caller and learn how to stay in touch with people. Another is to complain less. As the people in my life (especially my dad) can attest to, I enjoy complaining, but I enjoy complaining more as a shared activity, like let’s all complain about how annoying something is. But it’s really not the same when nobody else on the team is that into complaining so then I just seem like a big chud. I’m not going to list too many goals already on Day 4 because a laundry list of goals is ripe for falling through on all of them, so tune in for my next blog, every Thursday.

    Thank you for the many people who have been donating and supporting and keeping up with our journey, I love you all!!

    Aarushi ❤

  • Day 2: First SAG (and 2nd and 3rd and 4th)

    Day 2: First SAG (and 2nd and 3rd and 4th)

    Washington D.C. to Linden, VA – 88.6 mi, 4947 ft (5833 ft if you make the wrong turn)

    Def SAG (noun): Support And Gear. The minivan holding all the teams’ gear, food, etc.

    Def SAG (verb): a.k.a SAG out. To get picked up by the car during a ride, usually to be driven to the end point. 

    Before explaining today, I’d like to provide some context on the current state of the team. Two nights ago, the most sleep anyone on the team got was 4 hours. Last night, the team got 2 hours of sleep and then taught at the juvenile detention center for 7 hours. After driving an hour back, cleaning bikes, eating dinner, packing the van, buying groceries, doing laundry, and getting ready for bed, it was 11pm. 

    With this in mind, we decided to prioritize recovering our sleep before today’s ~90 mile ride by waking up at 7am instead of the 5am wakeup we had decided to do after finishing teaching. The plan was to leave the house by 8am to drive to DC, arrive at 8:30am, take pictures, and then start biking by 9am. That did not happen. 

    At 8am, half the team was still upstairs getting ready and all bags weren’t in the van until 8:30am. We ended up leaving at 8:40am and, because we were now driving into downtown D.C. at peak rush hour, we didn’t get to the Lincoln Memorial until 10am. 

    Huge shoutout to Aarushi’s uncle and aunt Nikunj and Deepika for hosting us + helping shuttle us to D.C. and to Tatiana’s mom Olga for returning the cargo van for us after we left!

    After taking a few pictures, Spokes 2026 was off from D.C. for their first ride of the summer!

    Spokes 2026 sets off from D.C.!

    The fanfare of departing from the Lincoln Memorial was short lived unfortunately as we immediately ran into a slew of technical difficulties (e.g. red lights for ages, falling walkie talkies, twisting ramps causing the first fall of the summer, making incorrect turns getting out of the city, etc.). After getting out of D.C., we biked together for no more than 2 miles before splitting up into faster and slower groups (despite planning to all bike together for 20 miles). 

    Biking out of D.C. along the Potomac River.

    Drew, Carmen, and I biked together for a bit before Drew fell behind a little. Carmen and I continued on to the first rest stop at mile 20 where we checked off the first bathroom break a la fresca and then regrouped with Drew. 

    Prior to the first rest stop Tatiana and Nunu both called me to let us know that Drew’s drivers license was found in the laundry machine back at the house, and so Tatiana would be driving back to get it and, as a result, wouldn’t be able to meet us at the rest stop. We decided to mess with Drew a little by asking him to show us his ID to make sure “he had the right one in case we get stopped by the police”. I’ve never seen someone so confidently claim they had their ID while already holding all cards in their wallet. (Note from the future: we are currently keeping a count of things Drew has left behind, we’re currently at 4 things in 3 days). 

    I’m sure it’s in there somewhere Drew.

    We then continued biking towards the second rest stop where Tatiana would meet us for lunch. We decided to have Drew and Carmen draft so that we could all stick together (Carmen said she was winded from getting to the first rest stop). This turned out to work very well. We were able to hold a solid 15-17mph pace all the way to the lunch stop and get Drew a new speed PR. 

    Discovering the powers of group riding.

    So far, and up to around mile 40, we rode along the Washington & Old Dominion bike trail, which was super nice: separated from the road, very green, and had occasional tree coverage.

    We eventually reached the second rest stop around mile 35 where we waited 5-10 minutes for Tatiana to arrive with Drew’s ID, set up sandwiches for lunch, and started eating. After ~15-20 minutes, the second group (Aarushi, Nunu, Caroline) arrived and joined us for lunch. 

    First Spokes Lunch!

    After everyone finished eating, we let the second group go ahead while Drew, Carmen, Tatiana, and I packed up lunch. We then set off towards the second half of the ride.

    The second half of the ride featured a bike park (that we were required to take a short detour at) as well as some nice views along a gravel road. 

    Eventually we reached the 3rd rest stop around mile 55. Nothing very notable happened yet but at this point we did realize that in 2 days we had eaten two 1kg bags of dried mangos.

    Nunu yearns for the mangos

    The story of a hero starts now. 

    It was currently around 5:30pm with 35 miles to go. Our Warmshowers1 host Jen wanted us at the house before quiet hours at 9pm when she puts her 2 year old baby to bed. As a result, I decided to bike ahead alone (since Drew and Carmen wanted more recovery time) so I could start showering and unpacking (+ because Jen and her husband Jim had very kindly offered to help drive any straggling members to her house to ensure we got there in time – I had 0 intention of letting this happen to me since I wanted to fully finish the ride). 

    So I then left the park we had been using as our third rest stop and turned right out of the parking lot back onto the road we had been biking along. Meanwhile, the rest of the team would spend 20-30 minutes more resting before turning left out of the parking lot to retrace our steps and continue along the road actually part of our route. 

    Unbeknownst to me, my bike computer had quickly rerouted when I made this right turn. Our bike computers have graphs of the upcoming elevation along the route and show stretches of steep elevation gain in colors ranging from green (flat) to yellow to red (steep). When I looked down at my bike computer, I saw shades of red that I had never seen before on that bike computer. 

    I chugged up a 1 mile, 500 ft elevation gain hill, before coming up upon a 4-lane highway with cars going 60mph that my GPS was telling me to cross and continue biking on. The highway had a generous shoulder so I waited for a break in the cars to cross and start biking uphill along the highway with cars and 18-wheelers zooming by. My elevation graph was showing deep red and purple(I didn’t even know that was an option), so I decided that I should warn the rest of the team that things were about to get pretty tough. 

    Luckily, the stretch along the highway only lasted ~5 minutes before I had to cross back over to the other side straight into a 1000ft climb. This would become my new highest climb (beating the 500ft one I had just finished), but after around 30 minutes of chugging up the hill at 5mph I reached the “flatter” section at the top and continued along the rest of the road. 

    After riding along the road for a bit, I got a call from Drew that no one wants to hear: that I was off route. My first reaction was that HE was the one off route, but after pulling off the road and checking the original route I confirmed that I was on a parallel road heading slightly more north. Turns out the whole team was confused when the horrible climbs and highways I had prophesied would arrive, since the route they were on was very reasonable. 

    At this point I considered my options: retracing to get back on route, which would be ~8 miles back and require me doing 43 miles in 2 hours i.e. not feasible; continuing on the current route which, after checking Google Maps street view, I found required biking on a four lane highway with no shoulder for bikes i.e. incredibly unsafe; or the tragic third choice of being the first person to SAG and get moved back onto the route. 

    With little other choice, I called Tatiana to ask her to come pick me up where the road I was on met the highway and have her transport me ~6 miles along the highway to get back on route. 

    Luckily the distance I biked along the road was around the same distance as the other road but with an additional 1000 feet of elevation gain so I still had grounds to stand on that I finished the ride. But at this point Drew and Carmen were ~5 miles ahead and I needed to complete the last 20 miles in the next hour to avoid getting actually SAG’d out. It’s worth noting that one of the reasons Jen and Jim offered to help SAG us was because they didn’t want us going up and down the exact mountain I did :/ 

    Anyways, as soon as I got dropped off the route and my bike was off the car bike rack I booked it along the route (making sure I was headed the right direction this time) at ~170-180 bpm, huffing and puffing with my legs burning the whole way. 

    After 11 miles I passed Carmen and, shortly after, I passed Drew (😜). 

    Around this time, Aarushi, Nunu, and Caroline had all been SAG’d out at 76 miles, by Jen’s husband Jim since they were too far behind to make it to the house in time. Side tangent but to be SAG’d out they were told to look for Jim’s red pickup truck. At some point they saw one parked near the meetup point and approached it, only to see a sign reading “No trespassers. Violators will be shot. Survivors will be shot again.” They quickly left the area and were safely picked up by Jim later. 

    After passing Carmen and Drew, I pushed the last 9 miles with my legs burning, painfully climbed the gravel mountain to Jen & Jim’s house, and rolled up to the house as a champion. 

    But did we really win? In the end Carmen and Drew also made it without being SAG’d out since the time it would take to SAG them out would’ve been longer than just letting them finish the ride. Additionally, the route for the next day was a 60 mile 8000 ft elevation ride notorious among the Spokes teams every year. Finally, because we arrived so late Jen and Jim ended up putting their baby down to bed an hour late. 

    After arriving, we quickly ran a shower line, ate the ground beef tacos Jen had kindly cooked for us, unpacked, ran laundry, had a team meeting to plan the next morning, and did some blog writing. It was over dinner that Jen warned us about our ride the next day being a dangerous route due to its sharp, low visibility turns. After this rough day 1 ride no one was eager to do the dangerous + painfully steep ride, so in the end we swapped our route to a 30 mile 2000 ft elevation ride that got us to a different camp ground and got the job done. Jen also told us we had done the longest day 1 Spokes ride she had ever seen 😁.

    I guess I won after all?

    – Nate

    1 Warmshowers is a platform where touring bicyclists can open up their homes to other touring bicyclists to stay with them while out on multi-day bike rides. MIT Spokes has utilized Warmshowers heavily throughout the past 12 years to get housing across the US. Many hosts have hosted multiple generations of Spokes teams – for example, Jen has hosted the MIT Spokes teams four times (and the team is very grateful!). 

  • day 74: choose your own adventure 🗺️

    day 74: choose your own adventure 🗺️

    Sacramento, CA to Benicia, CA — 74.9 mi, 1764 ft

    well, this one is LONGGG overdue…whoops 😀 (please forgive me, mom, grandma, etc.) anyways, without any further delay, i will recount our 2nd to last biking day before reaching our long-anticipated destination of san francisco. buckle up, because while i ALWAYS say this is going to be a long one, this statement could never be more true than right now…(2662 words, to be exact, and for JDs stats on the spokes 2025 bloggers total word counts) (if you’re wondering, yes, i had the most)

    …which, in true spokes fashion, started the night before, past midnight and the previous day. ramona (the previous day’s blogger) was fast asleep during these festivities, so i will give the much needed context instead. it all started when joseph, while making the day’s route, pointed out that there was a six flags amusement park within 10 miles of our destination in benicia. 

    this small comment will drastically alter the course of the following day.

    ishaq, the next day’s planned driver, is now DEAD-SET on going to six flags, even willing to wake up at an ungodly hour and bike instead. ruth decides she will follow whatever the group does, but goes to bed right then and there on the couch in case we decide to wake up early. tian wants to go, and is scheming to switch driving days with ishaq and take the van straight there. joseph, charles, greta and i are all indecisive for the next 2-3 hours, while ramona is in the blissful ignorance of slumber. eventually, we come up with the PERFECT plan so that everyone gets what they want:

    • because we are, for once, in proximity of civilization™, this is one of the most perfect days to do a self-supported ride (or, a ride without the van)
    • ishaq and tian will switch driving days, and tian + the van will head straight for six flags around 10am to get there by opening for the six flags group, but leave late enough for the late-risers group
    • all riders are free to leave and go where they please: we end up splitting up into “six flags” (ishaq and ruth), and “regular” (joseph, charles, ramona, greta, and i)
    • six flags group leaves around 5-6am to get there around opening
    • regular group sleeps in and takes a chill day exploring the various stops through california leaving the capital on the way to the bay!
    • everyone does what they want!!!
    • obligatory “six flags” crew pics from their day
    • strong tian
    • snoozing after we showed up…at 10:30pm…

    this leaves me waking up around 9am. joseph also gets up around this time, ramona is already awake (and is debriefed on last night’s plan), while charles and greta have to be woken up (by me) so they don’t sleep in TOO late and miss dropping off their stuff in the van (you’re welcome). most people have some of the oatmeal made by our lovely hosts, while i start scheming for a early ride cafe stop (because what else can you expect from me if not a cafe stop?) i end up finding a spot in downtown sacramento, so after leaving our stuff in the van joseph, ramona and i set out around 10am, with charles and greta behind us. while they originally intended to join us at our cafe, they ended up just heading straight for the one at our first rest stop. this was probably a wise decision, as with the morning rush, it took around a combined 30-45 minutes for joseph and i to get through the line to order (thanks ramona for guarding our stuff!), and all our food to come out. social media was RAVING about their egg sandwiches, so of course i had to get one. my bacon, egg and cheese ended up being pretty worth the hype (maybe not the wait, though…) after finishing up our food, chai lattes, and tea, we set out for davis.

    • heading to breakfast 2!
    • food!
    • food except zoomed out for everybody
    • a golden bridge…but not THE golden (gate) bridge

    while the first leg would have actually been around 17.5 miles, it was a little shorter than that since we were heading out of downtown. we went on a bike path headed right along the highway, sometimes moving even faster than morning commuter traffic, which i thought was pretty funny. the closer and closer we got to davis, the more i realized it was not nearly as rural as i thought—after all, it was only an hour out of sacramento by bike. we passed by some fruit stands, got accidentally drafted by another random biker, and made our way into the college town of davis! after checking on the status of charles and greta via life360, we realized they we’re actually still in town, so we met up to officially form the full non-six flags group.

    with the amount of activities and procrastination that went on in davis, this rest stop deserves its own paragraph. the original rest stop was another cafe, which we all ultimately skipped for other places. after the freshies group helped some locals repair their bikes, we all met up at a newspaper shop around the corner. we learned that davis had the first bike lanes in AMERICA, met the shop owner’s absolutely MASSIVE great dane in the back, and joseph and i got popsicles before heading out. we made our way over to a korean dessert shop, and ended up splitting some bingsu—a popular dessert made from shaved ice, milk, and various toppings. ours was topped with strawberries, mango, circus animal cookies, and what i believe was a chocolate covered oreo. while we munched, charles and co. worked on the crossword inside the copy of the new york times he got at the newspaper shop. eventually, we spread out: charles and greta napped outside on a table, ramona and i looked at books together, and i honestly don’t know what joseph was doing. at some point i split off to call my sister, and before we knew it it was almost 3pm and we were about 60 miles from where we needed to be before dark. spoiler alert: we did NOT make it before dark…

    • hello davis!
    • DAWG.
    • first bike lanes in america were in davis!
    • popsicle
    • bingsu purchasing
    • bingsu eating
    • yummy
    • nap time…

    alas, we FINALLY start heading out of davis. our next stop was only 12.5 miles away, and after we all accidentally split up in 3 different directions trying to make our way out of town, we met up again and biked as a pack on the mostly empty farm roads. a few stopped to eat almonds off the trees on the side of the road (myself NOT included), the turns we hit every 1.5-2 miles as we zig-zagged along the main highway kept me entertained, while the wind slightly annoyed me. soon enough, we hit the dixon fruit market! i got a watermelon juice for myself, as well as a loaf of bread and block of cheese to split with the rest of the group. while i was unsure if we would finish the whole thing (as the van was not there to carry the leftovers), i left with only a small cube of cheese in my bike bag. in hindsight, i think not having to worry about the driver being stuck in one place for too long is what caused our future problems. anyways, we made a slight detour to a gas station for restrooms, ice, and scratchers, and hit the road after another decently lengthy stop.

    • the “regular” crew
    • mandatory pole vault pit pic
    • almonds…yum…
    • fruit stand!
    • roadside charcuterie
    • yum yum yum

    leg 3 was about another 15 miles, and while the rest stop was supposed to be at a park, we once again decided to get creative and instead make it at the great west coast fast food chain known as in and out. i honestly don’t remember much from this leg, but at in and out i got animal style fries for the first time (truly life-changing), while this was quite a few others first time at in and out at all. it’s not the best food ever, but it is pretty good, and in this economy, where else are you getting a burger, fries and drink for less than $10? as we sit outside enjoying our meals with the sun just dipping below the horizon, this was the first time it settled in that we were kinda cooked (aka biking in the dark). after calling the six flags crew, to keep an already incredibly long blog a little shorter, we realized the van simply was not going to be able to come shuttle people if needed (which we really only do in dangerous conditions physically or environmentally), so we had no choice but to finish the ride. i dump the rest of my lemonade in my water bottle (a huge hydration strat i discovered at the end of spokes), and the crew locks in for our last 35 miles.

    • IN AND OUTTT
    • good lawd

    our 2nd to last leg wound up probably being 15-20 miles, but no matter the case, we locked in and got PEDALING out of vacaville. we were slowly losing more light, but the grind doesn’t stop. we passed by the original rest stop 3, and after some time we made it to our new rest stop—a tj maxx. as we had never biked in complete darkness before, we didn’t realize how cold it got with both the wind and the absence of sunlight. greta got a long-sleeve cotton button-up that she planned to reuse for normal day wear, joseph got a pair of pajama pants with garfield-shaped pumpkins on them, while the rest of us took the opportunity to rest a little. otherwise, we kept the stop pretty short, and soon headed out to get to FINALLY our place for the night.

    • fitted up
    • resting up
    • what’s to come…
    • oh boy.

    stepping out of the warmth of that building made me question if i should have actually purchased additional layers or not, but i reassured myself that once we got pedalling i would warm up again. and boy, did we have to PEDAL, because (of course) all the climbs—albeit pretty short—we’re saved for the very end. just my luck. however, there was just around 15 miles to go, so there was no choice but to lock in (count how many times i’ve said that in this blog), and FINISH. we got in the most maximally lit and visible formation, and hit the hills heading into benicia. the first portion was probably the scariest and most painful—-basically pitch black except for our lights and the interstate running adjacent to us on the service road (with the cars BLINDING me instead of helping me see), headwinds CENTRAL, and some route confusion that almost led us down a steep hill to nowhere. but after conquering this most mentally challenging section with the power of the kpop demon hunters soundtrack, we hit benicia and civilization…meaning flat, lit, and car-free BIKE TRAILS!!! we finished the last of our climbs, zoomed down into town, and finally made it to our place at the lovely hour of 10:30pm. we all sigh in relief, saying that would NEVER happen again (of course, with spokes ending the next day, it most definitely wouldn’t, but the sentiment remained). we take quick showers and meals, apologize to our hosts for our ungodly hour of arrival, set out our sleeping bags, and pass out along with the six flags group (who had gone to bed at a much more ideal time). 

    the next day, we would bike across the golden gate bridge into san francisco, officially completing our over 4,000 mile across the united states. yet, at the time, it didn’t feel like we were actually, finally done. after being in a constant, structured regimen of biking, learning festival, and rest days for almost 3 months, it was hard—no, impossible—to process that in a few days, i would be going home, and then back to school in boston—back to normal life.

    fast forward a few weeks later: it’s a sunny sunday afternoon in cambridge, i’m sitting in flour on mass ave, iced chai latte just about finished, about to start working on my 8.02 learning sequences. my bike—covered in stickers i collected over the summer—sits chained up outside. i feel like i’ve adjusted comfortably back to the school routine, the busyness and chaos—between 4 classes, my UROP, pole vault, my new sorority (pi phi, wings up!), my job at the list arts center, and preparations to recruit spokes 2026 (keep your eyes open!)—keeping my mind occupied (which i like, actually). 

    however, every so often, i am reminded of my life-changing journey (it’s something i will never forget, but sadly, life goes on). chrysler pacificas driving down the street. the cyclists outside trader joe’s last weekend, eating pickles straight out of the jar. certain songs that come up on shuffle on spotify. the hundreds of thousands of pictures in my photo album when i happen to scroll back too far on accident, or when i am reminiscing on purpose. the seemingly simple question from peers of “what did you do this summer?” 

    i cherish these memories, and remember them fondly, but it breaks my heart to come to terms with the fact that i can’t ever truly go back to and relive those 3 months of my life. i could sit with that pain forever…or i could choose to look forward to what’s next. there are interesting classes and projects to be done, exciting track meets to train for, and so many new friends to be made, and fresh adventures to go on in the meantime (bike touring is certainly in my future—pacific crest summer 2026?) i am forever grateful for the many people i met along the way: from ever generous and wise hosts and grateful, hard-working learning festival partners and their bright students, to kind strangers at rest stops and on the road, and of COURSE my fellow spokies, i truly believe i saw the best of humanity this summer. the chaos and mayhem in the world right now sometimes made the future seem pretty dim, but in every small interaction—from child to senior, townsperson to city dweller, farmer to entrepreneur, stranger to friend—i gained just a little more hope. i saw the grand sights and views, as well as the charming, unique corners, nooks and crannies of this diverse country that make me proud to call it home—both in place and people. 

    i am also very thankful for the many people who got me to this point in my life journey, to be able to go on the journey of spokes. to my family, teachers, mentors, coaches, and friends—who never doubted my ability to go far and do hard things (like get into MIT…which is still so crazy to me)—i thank you from the bottom of my heart. some days, i still can’t believe the life i get to live, and it was all thanks to you and your hard work and support.

    finally, i would like to thank my fellow spokies—my new best friends. tian, ishaq, ruth, charles, greta, joseph, and ramona, thank you for being such a big part in a summer i will never forget. thank you for getting me through the longest days, the toughest climbs, and the most exhausting learning festivals. for the yaps on the bike about anything and everything, serious or not, for the great meals and the time we spent making (or just enjoying) them, and ALL the laughs in between. for the rest stop shenanigans, rest day adventures, and MANY cafe runs that i dragged you all on because i insisted on having as many on each day’s route as possible. for your endless encouragement, thoughtful advice, and sincere love. i can’t wait to keep being friends with all of you—even if we are no longer all together physically, the thousands of miles that brought us together will never, truly, tear us apart.

    with my final philosophical spiel, i will end my final spokes blog. it was the ride of a lifetime (haha, get it?), and i am SO excited to pass the baton to spokes 2026, so that 8 more can take part in this special journey. 

    a lovely rest of your day and one final thank you to YOU, my lovely readers!

    signing off,

    schmitty 💗

  • Day 73: Side Questing to the Extreme

    Day 73: Side Questing to the Extreme

    Placerville, CA to Sacramento, CA

    54.2mi, 1508 ft

    The Spokies awoke one by one in what started off as a slow, bum morning in a church in Placerville, unaware of what the day ahead had in store. Previously someone had made plans to do a scavanger hunt one of these days and Ruth had now convinced Greta that today was the day. So, after calls home, breakfast and packing, we lingered a bit longer in the lot by the church, while Greta flushed out the hunt. Once Greta was done with her scoreboard, we split off in teams for the competitive spirit and after some brief scheming set off. 54.2 miles with very little climbing created the perfect atmosphere for a unserious day full of side quests.

    where we stayed
    lot by the church
    Placerville

    I was teamed up with Ruth and Joseph. Our plan was to hit a CVS in Skinners to get hair dye and enact a break-up, then go to rest stop 1 to jump in a lake, maybe find a secluded area for skinny dipping and choreograph a dance. Then find a car wash, hopefully neighbouring a gas station to wash our bikes and get that winning scratch-off. Finally, get some ice cream with sun glasses upside down, introducing yourself as Latvian and grabbing the ice cream by the scoop. For on the way tasks we could do the secret handshake, stranger selfies and other bits. At the end of the day we would run the last 0.5 miles. Writing this all down, it sounds like way too much, but at the time it seemed completely doable. Our cycling days were always long, so what’s a little side quest here and there?

    Well, we ended up arriving to our first rest stop 19.4 miles out a whooping 5 hours later. But, Ruth and Ishaq met a bunch of strangers and took selfies with them. My team (the best team) staged a couple’s fight in a CVS, got some merch from a dollar store and acquired an additional team member – Tian. The other team (the second best team) had gotten some ice cream and probably went on some other side quests I have not been briefed about. Anyway, at the first rest stop – a cafe, where the lovely barista filled all of our bottles with ice water – Greta instated a time limit for the next stretch. That’s really when the day picked up pace. It was time to pedal and be efficient about completing our tasks. 

    We schemed some more, performed a choerographed dance, Joseph chugged half a gallon of oat milk, Charles downed three cans of Sprite and we struggled to land a bottle flip while cycling. Then we set off to find a place to swim. But on our way we first ran into a car wash and a gas station, so that was nice. Eventually we made it to a park, where we found a nice swimming spot, jumped in the lake and went skinning dipping. Then we pedaled off in a hurry to make it to our second (and final) rest stop in time.

    Ruth got her bike signed
    Joseph and oatmilk
    the winning ticket!
    trying to dry off
    Ruth pedalling away
    Tian attempting a bottle flip
    part of the handshake
    me jumping in water
    Ruth jumping in water
    Tian getting her bike powerwashed

    Despite the high pedalling output to keep on schedule, the ride was very enjoyable. The warm weather had stopped bothering me after the swim and snacks from the car kept me fueled. I honestly am not quite sure anymore what tasks we tried to do afterwards, or what the other team was up to. It was a day overflowing with events, a whirlwind that made us forget time, blew us up in the air to land someplace else with a different agenda. Everyone was in high spirits when we finally arrived in Sacramento to our hosts Ray and Judy.

    Ruth trying to eat a smushed ice cream
    cont.
    in the evening sun
    found the place just in time
    our hosts’ beautiful home
    Ruth and Charles enjoying the garden
    teapots!

    After showers we rewinded with pasta dinner, completed with tomato sauce and vegetables grown in the yard. The hunt dominated the dinner table discussion, everyone was excited to share their adventures. Judy and Ray’s home was stunning, which I will be able to confirm the next morning, when it was light outside again. An absolutely soul-filling experience – a day to fly through and an evening to feel grounded again.

    Afterwards, I basically crashed into the bed, but some Spokies stayed up and discussed next day’s plan’s. But more about that in the next blog which Charles will be writing up soon!

  • Day 72: The Dilly Dally Club Strikes Again

    Day 72: The Dilly Dally Club Strikes Again

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Signing off,

    Charles

  • day 66: home means the hills ⛰️

    day 66: home means the hills ⛰️

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

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

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

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

    hey girlies!!!
    ruth 👀

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Day 64: The One Where We Almost Lose Sarah

    Day 64: The One Where We Almost Lose Sarah

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

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

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

    Yay… the loneliest road in America yay…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    • Joseph’s genius solution

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

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

    Innovation that excites

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Day 63: Personal Reckoning

    Day 63: Personal Reckoning

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

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

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

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

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

    Some fresh meat
    Jamming to musicals

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Day 62: Elapsed Time Warriors

    Day 62: Elapsed Time Warriors

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Day 61: The Legendary Metal Dorito

    Day 61: The Legendary Metal Dorito

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

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

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

    The climb
    The views

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

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

    The Metal Dorito

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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