The state I am in is a bit hard to describe. I am having the best time of my life and seeing sights I never thought I would get to see, but at the same time, my chains haven’t been lubricated in days. My tires get pumped sometimes, but not every day. My front and back wheel axles both keep coming loose randomly, my left brake is sticky, my gears don’t always shift, and the grips on my handlebars have seen better days. I know that Tatiana loves me, but boy is this trip rough on me and all the other bikes. The loss of Drewbike was especially tough on all of us, and I feel like it’s been an adjustment for Drewbike2 to fit in, considering his hydraulic brakes and bright pink color. I’m honestly just glad we don’t have to make it back the other way!
Regardless of how I am doing physically, my favorite part of the trip so far has been getting to see the Spokes members bond and have a magical time. Last night, I got to sleep another night in the library with the Spokes crew instead of in some shed, and I saw a few of them go crazy with laughter while working on a massive puzzle. Tatiana seemed to be going especially crazy, singing a song over and over again and even harmonizing with Drew? I’m not really sure what was going on, but maybe it isn’t meant for me to know. When the team said they were going to go watch a movie at 11 pm and still wake up at 6 am the next morning, I had a sneaking suspicion that they were being overly ambitious with their plan. Regardless, I turned in for the night, waking up only briefly when they snuck back into the library room at 1:30 am.
In the morning, it was evidently clear that no 6 am movement was occurring, and instead, I saw the first signs of life at 8 am from Nunu and Nate, who were sleeping in the library’s office. Today is a very special day, as it is Nate’s birthday!! I had previously overheard the team’s secret plan of waking up extra early and being completely silent in the morning to celebrate Nate. All summer, he kept asking for us to play the quiet game, so I thought it was a great idea and was ready to be silent myself (though I had no faith in Tatiana), but it seemed like the morning took a different turn. When Nunu started giggling in the library’s office, and Tatiana immediately said happy birthday to Nate, I knew that the quiet game was over.
Regardless, the team was in a great mood, largely added to by the fact that a kind woman from the White Pine County Library had brought a phenomenal tray of breakfast burritos and cinnamon rolls for the team to enjoy. While all of them were getting ready, I was still standing untouched in the corner. Instead of spending her time lubing my chains, Tatiana decided to have a gun show in the restroom. Of course, I wasn’t there, but she generously gave me this photo to include in my blog.
Finally, at 9:40, Tatiana came up to me for the first time to refill my water bottles. I can’t complain too much, because the new pink water bottle I get to carry around is SICCKKKK! As she walked away, I noticed that the rest of the team was suspiciously taking turns writing something at one of the library tables. Of course, Nate decided to walk towards them, inches away from spoiling his birthday surprise. Tatiana very unsubtly attempted to distract him, but I do think that Nate may have seen the card they were working on.
At 10:00, Tatiana brought me outside, and I got to enjoy the sunshine and fresh air with my bike friends. Tatiana finished packing things and putting on her sunblock, and at 10:15, we were off!
The first stretch was longer than the team had been doing the past few days, but I was so excited because all the bikes stayed together! Usually, Tatiana tends to bike a little… slow… so I don’t get to bike with my friends, but this stretch was different! The group discussed all the blogs they wanted to write (including this one) and the plan for the Spokes end-of-trip party. Tatiana also made some calls to finally schedule her long-awaited leg waxing appointment at Lake Tahoe and called her boyfriend Noah! I feel like I get to eavesdrop on so many of Tatiana’s conversations with the team and with her family, even though most of the time it sounds like Tatiana’s family either can’t hear anything because of the wind or there is no service in the first place.
At the first rest stop, it was time to unveil the big surprise! As I learned, the reason the first stretch was so long was to give Drew extra time to race to the grocery store and buy cake and a car full of Nate’s favorite snacks! There were Nilla Wafers, peach rings, Cheez-its, navel oranges… everything our birthday boy could dream of. The team had a hugely fun birthday celebration for Nate, consisting of an oversized party hat, a hand-decorated birthday cake courtesy of Drew which had Nate at the center of a Venn Diagram comparing cyclists and feminists, and a bunch of those birthday kazoo type things. The team also presented Nate with the birthday card and a silly magnet of a goofy woman on a bicycle. It made my bike-heart happy to see the team so joyously celebrating Nate!
Just before getting back to the road, I heard the team making a Spokes playlist, which Tatiana would end up listening to for the rest of the day. The goal of the playlist was to capture songs from the summer that would remind the team of Spokes, and it made me nostalgic to hear Tatiana humming songs from the past two months throughout the day’s bike ride. If you’re interested, you can listen to it too! https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7J8mwEkqZCYOeyR4odLpQZ?si=HXUjlnkzRkmT2k4UYcIHEw&utm_source=copy-link&pi=5KvOhV-_SFaP6
As we set off for the second stretch, I heard Natebike behind me make a weird sound, and then for some reason Natebike and Nunubike stayed behind. I kept thinking they would pass me like usual, but 5 miles in, they were nowhere to be found. At this point, Tatiana was worried, and after a few calls I understood that Natebike’s tire had popped and that Drew would drive back to Ely for a new tire.
At the next rest stop, we knew that Drew would not be able to make it back in time, so I lay on the ground next to Aarushibike, Carmenbike, and Carolinebike while the four girls found shade under some heavy machinery on the side of the road. I could tell that their energy was a little bit low in the heat, but they tried to be positive, and Tatiana suddenly remembered the Rice Krispie treat she had hidden in my saddle bag.
Eventually, the four of them decided to get back on the road again, and we finished our second big climb of the day under Nevada’s scorching sun. I could feel that Tatiana’s pedaling was starting to slow down and she seemed more exhausted than usual. When we came to the last rest stop of the day, it became evident why. Tatiana and Caroline were both feeling quite ill, possibly catching onto whatever Aarushi and Drew had been experiencing.
Beyond the brutal heat, I also saw the Spokes team assaulted by flies, with the pesky creatures attacking all of their food and everything in sight. Drew was going especially crazy from this, since he had to drive the minivan with all of the flies trapped inside! Luckily, Nunu happened to have bought a fly swatter earlier in the trip, and Nate decided that this was the opportunity for him to wage war on the flies. See the video below for a live-action of Nate’s fly assassination attempt.
After accepting their fate and the flies’ dominance, the team was ready for the final stretch, a 1,500 ft climb over 9 miles. I could feel Tatiana seriously struggling on this climb, forcing herself to pedal even though she felt extremely ill. At some point, Aarushi and Aarushibike noticed how tough it was going, and Aarushi started to retell another one of the Percy Jackson books to help distract Tatiana. I think it worked, because her pedaling did get faster and she started to take less frequent breaks!
Eventually, Tatiana, Aarushi, Aarushibike, and I finished the climb, and sped through the downhill to meet up with all of my other bike friends at a gas station in the town of Eureka. The church we would stay at was 18 miles north of our route, and Drew was already unpacking the car at the church so that we could shuttle. Tatiana was in a pretty rough state, so she quickly bought an Arizona iced tea from the gas station while we waited for Drew to come back. When he arrived, he told all the bikers that he had bought pizzas for them to eat and loaded me on the back of the van for my joyride.
As soon as we got to the church, Tatiana was ready to crash, and quickly showered, ate pizza, and hit the hay to try and recover from the illness.
As for me, I got to enjoy a night out under the stars, watching Carmen, Aarushi, and Nunu cowboy camp to enjoy the beautiful night sky.
Today was the day we would cross into our second to last state of the whole summer, Nevada! We were biking from Milford, Utah to Baker, Nevada over 84.9 miles and 4,539 ft of elevation. I was not particularly looking forward to today’s ride since it predicted a lot of climbing and possible strong headwinds but when was I ever? To be honest, this summer has given me a love-hate relationship with biking. Because when the alarm blares at 6am I seriously feel like I want to do anything other than get out of my cozy sleeping bag and bike all day in the hot sun for what feels like forever. Then again, I just know that when the summer ends I will seriously miss this crazy lifestyle we’re living.
With no choice but to bike, we all geared up, said our goodbye’s to our driver of the day, Bacon, and then were off. I like the feeling of the momentum from those first few pedal strokes of each day with my whole team around me—it’s like we are seriously seizing the day and it’s the start of a new adventure as we usually have no idea what the day ahead holds.
Unfortunately, the day ahead was holding a few big climbs and absolutely nothing to stimulate the mind as we biked in a straight line through this desert-like landscape. At the same time, it was kind of beautiful. I’ve never been on such an expansive road before that I could see literally multiple miles ahead and behind. Things that seemed close because I could see it in the distance, actually took much longer to pass by than I thought. This also included our support car, Mr. K, that is easy to spot from her bright orange camper top which always seemed so much closer than it felt to bike to.
As I approached the first rest stop behind Nate and Drew, I was confused because I only saw their bikes at first sitting on the side of the road. Eventually, I found them tucked away behind a bush taking shade from the sun. Nate complained that he was feeling an incoming bonk so I dug through my bike bag and pulled out a week old bag of gummy worms that had melted into a gummy worm chunk! It actually wasn’t good but sometimes you just gotta eat even if you don’t feel like it. I also forced myself to take some bites while we waited for Bacon to come from the grocery store. Eventually, Caroline found us sitting sadly under this bush and joined us. Suddenly, Mr. K sped by! Nate yelled after her, “nooo come back.” Caroline called Carmen to turn around and all was well. Plus, she brought a delicious snack haul with her complete with all our favorites: crunchy green grapes, cheez-itz, nilla wafers, wheat thins, nature valley bars, pop tarts, soda, and a new one… peach rings! Now these peach rings were a serious trend setter for the rest of the trip (and I know this because I am making this after the trip has ended) because, as Nate and Drew love to talk about, the macros were great. You just needed to eat 6 peach rings to have enough carbs in one rest stop. After we devoured two bags, they sent Carmen back to get more peach rings for the next rest stop.
Then there was more of the same biking, biking, biking. Now, here’s some clips of something interesting and novel, more biking! Okay now another rest stop… and now some more biking! To spice it up a little, we decided to pull out our tubs of macaroni salad and potato salad gifted to us by Nate’s family. Maybe not the wisest dairy heavy snack to have mid bike ride (especially as a lactose intolerant person) but they were yummy and we were bored and hungry.
After some more biking and rest stopping, we finally reached the Nevada sign! Since we needed to wait for the whole group to arrive so we could all take a picture together (which would take maybe half an hour), we decided to all squeeze into the car to take refuge in the AC. This meant two people in the driver’s seat, two in the passenger, and one squeezed in the second row next to all our snacks. And our awesome driver, Carmen, sacrificed herself and stood outside next to the car and under a blanket for some shade. We all doomscrolled for a bit on our phones which was an insane dopamine hit after rarely scrolling all summer and after an extremely understimulating day of biking. When the whole team was finally gathered, we did our usual circular debate about helmets or no helmets and how to pose and blah blah blah. Then we all watched Carmen struggle to figure out how to take a selfie. For some reason her instinct was to take it with her left hand while standing to the right of the group? It was very funny.
For the last 8ish mile stretch to our destination for the night, I drafted Drew who was drafting Nate in a sideways formation to try and minimize some insane crosswinds. When we pulled up to this adorable cafe-inn situation called Stargazer Inn & Bristlecone General Store, they had a sign outside welcoming us! We were so excited and were greeted by a very sweet cat and sweet staff who gave us a delicious dinner with yummy sandwiches, blueberries, chips, juice, and cookies. Looking around the store at all the brochures, I realized we were right next to Great Basin National Park! Caroline, who has of course been here before, told the group that she recommended we go take a look and it was only a ten ish minute drive. I was really really excited to hear this and one of the ladies at the cafe corroborated Caroline’s words and told us about this very short and beautiful hike we could do to a lake to go swimming. These are actually my buzz words and I was so determined to go. I tried to convince everyone else to join but this of course sparked another one of our favorite past times, discussing things in circles. Some people were very tired from the bike ride and wanted to rest while some people were interested in visiting the national park but only at night to go to a stargazing lecture and some people realllyyyyyyyy wanted to go swimming in a magical and secluded lake in the mountains like wow doesn’t that just sound awesome like who wouldn’t want to do that? Anyway, we decided to stop discussing and just take action since we were wasting precious time and so the plan was in motion. It was almost 5PM and we would go to the church to unpack everything, gather all our laundry, and then everyone would go to the local gas station to take showers and do the laundry. Then by 5:30PM the hiking and lake swimming people would leave, do the 30 minute drive to the trailhead, hike and swim for an hour, and head back to the church at 7PM to pick up the stargazing crew and drive back to the visitor center to join the stargazing lecture at 8PM. Haters will say that this was an extremely optimistic schedule but I will say that I was determined to make it work.
The hiking swimming group ended up being myself, Nate, and Tatiana. The drive up was so beautiful as we went up some steep switchbacks into and above the clouds before eventually reaching the peak and seeing some very grand cliffs. Then the hike itself was one of my favorite hikes of the whole summer. Not only were we basically the only ones there but it weaved through a beautiful forest of tall birch trees and in the clearings were picture perfect views of the cliffs that surrounded us. It was also late afternoon and the sun was shining through the trees at a magical angle and wow it seriously looked like a fairytale. The three of us might’ve however come slightly unprepared as it was quite a rocky and uneven hiking trail and we were all either wearing slides or flip flops so here’s a clip of Nate struggling to keep his flip flops on.
When we finally reached the lake, we saw some deer grazing and I just thought like wow, if I was a deer this would be my dream home. We did some lazing around on our picnic blanket we brought with us and then also did some swimming in this extremely cold lake. But this swimming was more like squatting in and violently shivering because it was very very cold. The bottom of the lake was also extremely muddy and rocky and there were thousands of tiny small bugs on the surface of the water? To be honest we’ve had much better swimming experiences this summer but at least we’ve done it all. Unfortunately, in the chaos of trying to quickly get out of the lake and wrap ourselves in our warm towels, Nate cut the bottom of his foot on a sharp rock. This was a little more dramatic than perhaps it needed to be because as the sun was setting and our friends were waiting for us to come pick them up, we were racing back down this trail as Nate hobbled and limped down using me as a crutch. When we eventually got to the car, I pulled out our handy dandy first aid kit and our gallon of sterile water. I told Nate to lie down horizontally and stick his foot upside down out of the car and proceeded to drench his foot in a waterfall of water in an attempt to rinse out all of the dirt. Tatiana has a big phobia of blood so she sat in the back of the car and cheered us on from afar. We then sanitized it with an alcohol pad and I did some makeshift bandage situation with some nonstick gauze and medical tape—call me surgeon Nunu.
We made it back to the church exactly on time, as I knew we would, and loaded everyone in along with some more mac and cheese salad and potato salad for the road. Drew decided to stay back since he wasn’t feeling well. During the drive back, we noticed that the sky was bright pink and very hazy which was some subtle foreshadowing into the kind of ride we were about to have tomorrow. Luckily or unluckily for me, tomorrow was my driver day. We then arrived back at the national park and walked the red lit path toward the stargazing lecture. I was initially worried because the haziness in the sky made it difficult to see very many stars but the smoke shifted just enough for us to peer through.
During the lecture we learned about the history and the technology behind the telescopes that have been able to let us see stars and then took turns looking through them at various stars in the sky. We started by looking at the middle of the handle of the big dipper which we learned was actually visually made up of two stars and supposedly only those with really really good vision could make out that there are actually two stars. Indeed, when I peered into the telescope I saw that there were not only two stars in that spot but many many many stars surrounding them. It just reminded me how vast the universe is and how small we truly are. Yet we are still able to have these insanely fulfilling experiences and days full of adventure and even despite everything else going on in the universe we are so lucky to have had the chance to be here together in this specific moment.
We decided to head home a bit early and when we got back Drew sounded very sick indeed so I gave him a Nyquil. He foreshadowed to us that he might be taking a rest day tomorrow and be my passenger princess. With that, we all got ready and went to bed among the pews of this small church in Baker, Nevada. Who knows what tomorrow has in store for us because every day I wake up and we end up doing something unexpected and it’s so so fun to look forward to and I just hope the summer never ends.
This morning was just like any other day, except there were two of me. My twin sister was going to bike with us! The plan was that she’d ride the 60 mile day with us, stay with us at the church for a little McCay^2 sleepover, and then she’d leave the next morning. Hopefully, she’d get a snapshot of the Spokes day to day experience.
McCay^2
We set out at 10 am, a little later than what was probably ideal with this insane heat. Within the first mile, we came across a farmer’s market that was directly along our route. It was a test of strength that absolutely no one stopped to buy anything. Probably a record.
I had Simon use my bike and I took Aarushi’s, the driver for today. We only ever had 6 garmins, so the driver usually hands theirs off to Nunu, who just switches between them. But since Drew’s garmin is stuck on the side of a cliff in Zion, we now only have 5. Anyway, there aren’t enough garmins to go around. So when we had to make a sudden and sharp right turn, we didn’t signal well enough and Simone didn’t have enough time to process it before she ran into Nate’s back wheel. It was crazy. She practically dove off of her bike, did a side roll on the ground, and immediately popped back up like nothing had happened. Everyone was seriously impressed. Ironically it looked like it had affected her the least.
We kept biking through the heat, had our buns rest stops on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, and went over a few mountain ranges.
I honestly felt kinda bad about all of this, since I had invited my sister to bike on this nasty hot day, and all she got to show for it was a scrape on her knee. Around mile 20 I got a call from Nunu asking about a package that was supposedly delivered to our airbnb in Cedar City. And so with my mom planning on driving back to check for it, I also asked my dearest sister how she was feeling. She was rightly feeling hot, tired, and no longer having fun. So at mile 22 she decided to get in the car with my mom and escape from this ride. I mean if I had the option, I would’ve taken it too.
We continued until our next rest stop at a gas station, where I said goodbye to my family for the next two weeks.
I took some delightfully boring pictures of the desert we biked through.
Whenever we passed a crop circle, it felt like the temperature lowered significantly. Now I just looked this up to check if I’m crazy, and apparently it’s a real thing. When plants absorb sunlight, they release water vapor through pores in their leaves in a process called transpiration. The liquid water in the plant has to absorb heat from the environment to turn into a vapor that’s released through the stomata, meaning the surrounding air is cooler by a few degrees. Fascinating.
As we entered Milford, Nunu, Caroline, and I saw this truck on the side of the road, which I feel needs an explanation. It’s a waste disposal company; “iGOTPOOP.com has been serving the people of Utah since 2003.”
We got to the church and saw this Bible Jeopardy on the wall. Caroline was the self appointed Jeopardy host. “What category would you like to pick?” I chose Jesus for 300. She said, “This is how many disciples Jesus had.” I guessed either 7 or 12. Well, there wasn’t an answer on the back of the card, and so we had to look it up. It was 12. 150 points for me. I’m not very good at Bible Jeopardy, in case you couldn’t tell. But whoever in this congregation made this game seems very lit.
We then began the search for the showers that were supposedly in the church. We had looked everywhere, in all the side rooms, closets, in the back of the kitchen. The only place we hadn’t looked was in the chapel. Behind the stage, on either side were two closet doors. There’s a reason this was the last place we checked. Why would they be there? There is no way that could be the case. But as I opened the door, there it was, a shower. Wow. There was even another on the other side of the stage. After our nasty ride, our tired brains thought this was the funniest thing ever. The thought of walking between the pews in our towels and behind the sanctuary just to shower. What are we even doing with our lives?
For dinner we got these delicious burgers and sandwiches at Scotty’s Diner.
We worked on our overdue blogs when we got back, until Aarushi had the genius idea of doing yoga outside. So Nunu, Caroline, and I followed Aarushi’s lead, which admittedly was a whole lot more stretching than actual yoga; no Adho Mukha Svanasana to Bhujangasana to Virabhadrasana I and Virabhadrasana II for us. Although we did do a little Savasana, or corpse pose, just for fun.
Then Tatiana, Aarushi, and I decided that tonight would be the perfect night to Cowboy camp (inspired by Stanford Spokes). With partial cloud cover and a baseball game that was still going on at 11:30 at night, perfect conditions for star gazing, we set up our sleeping pads. It was actually incredibly comfortable since the grass was like an extra cushion. At around 11:50 pm, I saw the sprinklers turn on in front half of the church’s lawn. But we were around the back. The sprinklers wouldn’t get us on this side. I was too tired to care, and just left it up to fate.
At 12:40 am I was woken up to screams and cold water being shot into my face. The sprinklers got us. We truly are geniuses. We picked all of our half soaked sleeping bags up and ran inside. I promptly fell asleep in the aisle between two tables of a kids room, underneath a slightly warm and slightly wet sleeping bag.
We’ll eventually get this Cowboy camping thing right.
Bryce Canyon National Park, UT to Zion National Park, UT — 100.3 mi, 4402 ft
Preface
Like many popular stories, the ending of this one, as evidenced by the title, is arguably the most interesting. I urge you, my dearest gentle readers, to avoid skipping to the end so as to experience a full and faithful retelling of the day and to be immersed in the bizarre events as sincerely as we were. Especially on days like this one and in its aftermath, I want to thank all of our supporters and the powers that be for keeping our team safe, happy, and on the road.
Chapter 1: Trouble is Brewing
Our team has quite the attachment to “Cars,” a genius franchise whose arid Arizona setting closely resembles the Utah scenes we rode by this week. So when Nate turned on Cars 2 the night before in his effort to spend some of his pre-driver day rest with his family, the event quickly turned into an “everyone except Drew watches Cars 2.” As Nate already mentioned, the later bedtime combined with some medical discussions in the group led to the team agreeing to move wakeup time to 7 am. Unfortunately, at this time, Drew was already asleep and missed the memo.
In the morning, I woke up at 7 am to a faint piano melody and a fully dressed and ready Drew. He was confused as to why he had not been told about the wakeup change, as well as the negative implications of the decision considering that a storm was supposed to cross the exact path we were riding on later in the day. Since he was already ready, he decided to do a quick breakfast (AKA shoveling half of the leftover birthday cake into his mouth) and get started on the ride. Apologies again, Drew, for the miscommunication.
Chapter 2: Gaining Momentum
For the rest of us, the morning continued like usual, albeit extra sad as we prepared to say our supposed goodbyes to the Mustafa family (hint: they showed up again at the first rest stop, so we didn’t have to miss them for too long!). We ate delicious bagels with cream cheese, finished up the cut watermelon, and packed our stuff in the car. Nunu decided that she would join Nate on his driver day due to continued medical issues from the night before, and the rest of us lamented about the century that was about to ensue.
The biggest change in the morning routine for me personally was the trauma that I carried from getting pepper spray in my mouth the night before. When I finished breakfast and checked on my pepper-sprayed bag in the washer after its SECOND wash cycle, I could still see pepper spray residue covering the inner lining, forcing me to handwash it for a second time. The taste of the pepper spray from the night before was so terrible and long lasting that I suddenly was painfully aware of everywhere I put my hands, and wanted to make sure I didn’t get it in my mouth again, or worse, in my eyes. In this vein, I asked Nunu to apply sunblock to my face, which ended up being an extremely cute and loving experience. My score: 1, life’s score: 0. With all of us ready, the four remaining bikers (Carmen, Aarushi, Caroline, and I) said our final goodbyes and set out on our adventure.
Only a few miles in, we were greeted by one of the most fantastic symbols known to biker-kind.
This segment quite literally flew by, feeling almost like a well-oiled roller coaster ride for bikes accompanied by gorgeous views. I felt like some elite biking squadron with the four of us racing through the downhill turns and biking through beautiful combinations of forests and canyons.
Chapter 3: Trinkets and Rocks and Storms
I have to say, this day’s rest stop line up may have been one of the best so far. Our first rest stop came at the end of our beautiful downhill, and it was a cute shop with FREE COFFEE (?!?!?!?!) and a bunch of awesome trinkets, as well as the MUSTAFA FAMILY AGAIN! Personally, I was far more excited to see the Mustafas again than to have the free coffee, considering it was plain and black, and I prefer my coffee as “lots of milk and sugar with a little bit of coffee.” To each their own!
Though I had been successful at avoiding my pepper-spray hands thus far, this rest stop tried to take me out through a new method. An unsuccessful water drinking and laughing combination led to a slightly comical scene of me choking on water. My score: 1, life’s score: 1.
After Nunu performed some amazing sunblock application to my face, our fantastic four squad said goodbye, rolled out, and headed to the next rest stop, which was a well-placed gas station. At this stop, our team began to uncover the concept of Caroline-speak. Caroline is one of the most loving and calm members of our team. She is impeccable with her words, and as such, we have developed a dictionary to translate some of her phrases.
Caroline says: “Guys, wait, let me have a sip of my matcha mango drink before I share it”
Translation: “SHUT THE FU** UP YOU GREEDY BIT**** AND LET ME HAVE A SIP FIRST”
Caroline says: “Guys, please, for real, start to get ready; we need to leave in 5 minutes”
Translation: “CAN YOU LOCK THE FU** IN AND GET READY YOU SLOW MOTHERFUC****”
It’s a very helpful and accurate dictionary, if I may say so myself!
We also quickly learned of the impending doom and danger of the storm that was supposed to roll through the area, as well as the next awesome rest stop of the ROCK STOP that we critically had to reach. I heard whispers that the Rock Stop was in fact shaped like a rock, and did in fact have “lots of milk and sugar with a little bit of coffee.” There was nothing that could stand in the way of me and this Rock Stop.
At least that’s what I thought… until moments after we began biking, we heard huge crashes of thunder and lightning strike in the sky around our route. The four of us were on a downhill from the gas station, with no foreseeable structures to shelter us from the storm. Instead, we decided that our best course of action was to ditch our bikes near the road and huddle under a bush nearby, listening to Aarushi’s retelling of one of the Heroes of Olympus books to calm our nerves.
In a few minutes, we noticed that most of the dark clouds had moved past our location and decided that the benefits of sitting at the Rock Stop rather than the side of the road heavily outweighed the minimal risks remaining of being hit by lightning.
When we arrived at the Rock Stop, it was everything I could have imagined and more! There were lots of rocks, trinkets, donuts, coffee, cats, goats, AND BIRRIA TACOS!! You heard me right. I was so excited to split my tacos with Carmen and to have my 15,348th “lots of milk and sugar with a little bit of coffee.” Caroline, Carmen, and I spent some time relaxing and eating random things to wait out the next wave of the incoming storm. Aarushi, Nunu, and Nate fell deep into their respective phone conversations. Drew, as we remember from earlier this morning, was already many miles ahead in the supposed “storm.”
Chapter 4: Yes Shirt, Yes Shoes, No Service
At some point, we realized that the storm was not really coming, and that our group should get moving, especially since Caroline’s family was going to be meeting us that evening and we still had 50 miles left in our day. A call and text from Drew that he had already passed the next rest stop and that there were some “lowkey tough trails” coming up reinforced a slight sense of urgency. We began the uphill towards the next rest stop, motivated only by the promise of a beautiful downhill for the last 20 miles and a yummy dinner of Chinese food cooked by Caroline’s grandfather!
With no great shock, at this point life tried to come for me again. As we made one of the big ascents, I felt my stomach begin to rumble, and a feeling of nausea overcame me. I called back to Aarushi and let her know that I needed a break and then proceeded to gag on the side of the road, unsure of what was going on with my body.
Throughout our entire trip, I have felt like there were days when I win, and days that life definitely wins. Days when I feel on top of the world, elated, and excited to bike. Days where I cry, struggle, feel exhausted, or simply don’t want to bike anymore. Honestly, it is very rare that I don’t experience both dichotomies in the same day. Bent over on the side of the road, with no service to call Nate and Nunu, I realized that the score had updated again. My score: 1, life’s score: 2.
Eventually, I decided that the only reasonable course of action was to get back on the bike, so Aarushi and I restarted our ascent. We passed by a field of bison and an American flag, which made me feel quite patriotic (I think Spokes has made me a minimum of 5x more patriotic lol).
As I was trying to take a photo of the bison, I also saw a bar of service finally appear on my phone, with an incoming WhatsApp call from Nunu. She informed us that they had left a package of supplies for Drew near the 83-mile mark at the end of the trail that he was currently on and were now returning to our upcoming rest stop pre-trail at mile 70.
At the rest stop, we made quick time, remarking that Nunu had officially overtaken Nate’s driver day, pumping my stomach with some Pepto-Bismol, and lamenting about our inefficient Annual National Park Pass. The pass requires the holder to be in the car upon entry, but considering that Nate and Nunu did not have Aarushi with them, they had to buy another $25 entry. RIP. At least we get to support the parks!
Chapter 5: Unbeaten Path vs Shuttling
When our squad of fantastic four reached the beginning of the trail that Drew was on, we miraculously regained service for a brief moment, just to see a text that read “I recommend rerouting” followed by “this sh** is taking forever.”
For those who know Drew, these words are seriously unheard of. He is both a skilled mountain biker (not as good as Carmen :P) and a generally adventure-seeking person, so when Drew said he recommended rerouting, red flags began to raise in my head.
The four of us tried to gain information on the situation, repeatedly calling and texting Nunu, Nate, and Drew on our single bar of service to understand what the best course of action was. Unfortunately, though we had one bar of service, they had none, so our questions remained unanswered.
Aarushi and Carmen also mentioned that the trail we were considering entering was not part of last year’s route. The 2025 team went on the main road through Zion instead and used the car to shuttle the team through a tunnel section that was closed off to bikes. Unfortunately, the 2025 blog from this same Bryce Canyon -> Zion day was missing, so Aarushi and Carmen didn’t have any further information on why last year’s team decided to shuttle. The two of them had made the decision to reroute us onto this trail so that we could avoid shuttling, but we hypothetically could backtrack and attempt to shuttle if we felt the trail option was not safe.
With slight desperation and fear beginning to trickle into our mindset, we decided to ask the nearby lodge for their opinion on this trail and hopefully connect to their Wi-Fi. As soon as we showed them the trail we were considering taking, the outdoor guides began to resoundingly tell us about how dangerous the trail was, how it turned into a hiking trail that was impossible for a bike to tackle, and how parts of it had recently been completely closed, as demarcated on the route itself. We knew that turning back was inevitable and began to worry about the fate of our teammate, Drew, who was now possibly stuck on this trail and had sent no new messages.
Though we now had service, Nate and Nunu still did not, so Caroline had the genius idea of calling her father, Forest, who was at the Airbnb. To our great luck, he had brought his bike rack on his minivan and had a great attitude about coming to rescue us and shuttling us across the tunnel.
Chapter 6: Ignorance Is… Bliss?
For the next half hour, the four of us got to experience a beautiful, majestic moment, zooming through the center of Zion on the way to the tunnel. The views were incredibly breathtaking, and we tried to convince ourselves that Nate and Nunu were already at the next rest stop or even all the way at the Airbnb with Drew, simply not able to communicate with us due to a lack of service.
We waited at the entrance of the tunnel for a bit until finally meeting up with Forest. He informed us that Caroline’s brother, Brady, had identified Nate and Nunu at a lookout on the other side of the tunnel “by their hair and hats,” but he had no idea what the status of Drew was.
After our efficient tunnel shuttle situation, Forest dropped the four of us off at the same lookout where they had previously spotted Nate and Nunu. Almost immediately, we received a call from Nunu that they somehow had picked up Drew? And they were on the way to the Airbnb? It was a relatively brief and ominous call, but we were relieved to hear that Drew had at least made it to the end of the trail safely. With peaceful minds, the four of us finished an incredibly speedy and gorgeous ride through the rest of Zion and the town nearby. For literally the first time in forever, I was at the front of the group, pushing the pace. I have to say, it was actually quite enjoyable, though I don’t foresee it happening again.
As we pulled up to the house, we were met in the doorway by a showered and relatively positive Drew, who exclaimed, “Guys! Have you seen my bike??” We looked around, expecting to see his bike either scraped up or covered in mud, when he deadpanned, “Yeah, you won’t find it; it’s at the bottom of a cliff.”
Chapter 7: Trail Closed, No Trespassing, $5000 Fine
While the four of us bikers had been enjoying Zion, Drew was on a completely different type of adventure. The trail he had begun to descend on first turned into a tough mountain biking trail, and then into a hiking trail that was impossible to descend using a bicycle.
After a few miles of walking his bike, the trail suddenly displayed a huge “Trail Closed, No Trespassing” sign. Having already spent 2 hours descending the trail, and with nightfall rapidly approaching, Drew was stuck between attempting to hike back uphill with his bicycle or completing the remaining mile of the downhill trail. He decided to press forward, moving with relative success until he came across a final set of switchbacks which were adorned with signs forbidding entry. The signs threatened a $5,000 fine and warned of recent trail collapses, but Drew saw no option other than pushing forward if he wanted to safely get off of the mountain.
Suddenly, with his bike on the outside of the damaged switchbacks, Drew felt the rocks below the bike give out, and a rockslide began under his feet. Escaping by a hair’s breadth, Drew was left at the edge of the cliff, watching his beloved bike tumble down out of reach with the rockslide.
For two hours after this, Drew precariously sat on the edge of the cliff, crying, praying, reflecting on his life, and seriously thinking about his own mortality. He knew that he had no option but to continue downwards, at risk of being stuck on the rock face in the dark. Eventually, Drew used the self-proclaimed “butt scootch” method to wiggle down the steep rock face, constantly fearing for his life and simply having faith that he would make it down.
When he got to the bottom, he realized that he was right next to one of the shuttle stops, and akin to a madman with twigs and mud caked across his hair and body, he desperately climbed on the next shuttle. He still had no contact with any of the team, so as any logical person recently faced with death, he jumped off of the shuttle when he heard that cheeseburgers were available at the lodge.
At this same time, Nunu and Nate were on the aforementioned lookout when they realized that over 4 hours had passed since they placed Drew’s supply drop at the end of the trail, and it was still untouched. They began to panic and tried to drive to where they thought he would be, until they were blocked by pesky “reservation and shuttle bus only” gates. This, however, did not deter the power of friendship, as they resolved the problem by explaining the situation and begging the security guard for the code.
By some miracle, Nate and Nunu pulled into the lodge just as Drew was finishing his cheeseburger, and he spotted the unmistakable orange camper top of our car. Drew ran to the car, extremely shaken up but beyond relieved to be reunited with Nate and Nunu.
Chapter 8: Safe and Reunited
After hearing Drew’s story and realizing how differently our day could have ended, our team was hit with a wave of emotion. Aarushi and Carmen expressed the responsibility they felt for making a route that put Drew in a dangerous situation, even though he did not blame them, and the team agreed that there were many factors that contributed to the day’s events. Some of our warmest hugs and silent tears were exchanged as our team experienced the gratitude of continuing as a team of 7, rather than a team of 6.
As it always does, dinner helped lift our team’s spirits, and Drew got to fill in some of the more intricate details of his adventure and emotions. Caroline’s grandfather made the traditional dishes of egg and tomato stir fry, hua juan (flower rolls with pepper corns), beef and potato stew, bone soup, cucumber salad, and string beans.
Our team discussed the plan for acquiring a new bicycle and gear, which involved some discussions of possible trips to Carson City, Salt Lake City, or even Las Vegas. We also began an operation to fundraise enough money to cover the unexpected costs. I guess you’ll have to read the next blog to find out what new city the team unlocked!
Eventually, overcome by mixed feelings of relief, consciousness of our mortality, and gratitude in our hearts, we all hit the hay, ready to keep on keeping on with the next day of Spokes.
With love and gratitude to the universe for keeping us safe,
Capitol Reef National Park, UT to Escalante, UT — 68 mi, 6031 ft
A common enough question I get asked by either Tatiana or Aarushi is: what do you think about on your rides? Half the time I don’t know what to say, I’m just dissociating up the climbs. Otherwise, I’m trying to lock in and listen to my audiobook. But mostly, I’m thinking about thinking. Thinking about what I have said, what I will say, what I have not said, and what I will not say. Why I feel a certain why, why I want something, or why I’m annoyed with something else. A lot of metacognitive thoughts that probably aren’t very interesting to anyone else but me. And so, given this opportunity to write about whatever I want and have my friends and family read it, I’ll share some of them.
As soon as my eyes opened, I was immediately reminded by Nunu that this was the last morning we’d ever wake up at a campsite. So I took a couple of seriously bad photos through the screen of my tent to commemorate the moment. How we ignore all our alarms and then get up in sequence some minutes after, with Nunu always first and Drew always managing to get an extra half hour of sleep. The last day of this routine, of those steps we decided at our first campsite, and others that naturally occur but nonetheless become ingrained in our group psyche. It’s like a living thing, each of our own seven habits contributed to it, creating patterns of interactions that only those who lived it can predict. And maybe part of it dies the moment we put the last suitcase in the car, but the rest has the chance to survive for the next 20 days.
With the tents packed away we scavenged for breakfast like foods of granola, dried mango, until Tatiana and Noah rescued us all and brought three breakfast burritos from their hotel. We shared them and our saliva as usual.
Tat eyeing Caroline’s burrito
Moments away from leaving, a British guy carrying a bike comes up to us and asks if we can help fix his deflated tire. This is now the third or fourth guy that has asked us for either bike help or for tools within the past 48 hours. It’s almost as if our seven matching bikes chained up to the park grill send out a bat signal to all the tool-less husbands at the Capitol Reef campsite. We tried to fix his bike, discovered the seller had folded up a leaky tube too large for the tire, and attempted to patch it, but in the end it still was flat. Even with all seven MIT brains put together, the poor guy ended up in the same position as he started.
I had been mentally preparing for this day: 6,000 feet of elevation, the highest I will have biked. I was honestly quite excited. The triumphant satisfaction of tackling each hill would in theory replace most of the dread I felt. It did at least for the first section.
We had driven up and down this highway leading out of Capitol Reef multiple times by now, and so I had a decent picture of what the climb would look like. It was like any other kinda uncomfortable climb, gradual uphill for a few miles, then some steeper sections and some fast downhills. The most notable part was the beautiful red rocks I got to bike by. My favorites are these vertical pillars and mounds at the base of this mountain that manage to look like rows of sphinxes.
I also got to see some cute deer in the fruit orchards on the road out from the campsite.
Earlier we had planned to stop 7 miles in at the national park sign to finally take some pictures for Olga with the NASA hats. Nunu staged us very artistically on the hill behind the sign and in a line to show off our side profiles.
Noah had been driving along for this first section, and would park up ahead every few miles to cheer us on during the climbs. What an amazing man. Tatiana really bagged a good one.
As I passed through half of Torrey, the small town I had spent the previous day exploring, it felt as if I was traveling through all of those memories which already felt so large. The Subway which we devoured after the hard century day into Capitol Reef, the mexican restaurant we ate at while jokingly discussing if we should dip and take a day trip to Salt Lake City, Tatiana’s hotel which we crashed at for hours, the random antique and grocery stores we roamed through, the bulletin board where we found the flyer for the BIFF film festival, the farmer’s market that gave us the people watching show of a lifetime; all trapped along this few mile stretch of highway 24.
When I look back, I’m always amazed at how I was able to have so many full experiences within such a short amount of time. How have I managed to instill each moment with meaning? That is precisely what I feared I wouldn’t be able to do. And so this, to me, is a huge relief, but still a high goal to continually reach day after day, this desire to avoid monotony. Despite this nagging reminder droning on in the back of my head, it has naturally become the norm.
Why is it natural? Our rest days are not structured like our biking days, and don’t provide us instructions on when and where to meet people, or how to peer into other’s communities.
I’m going to say that for most, it’s due to an intrinsic curiosity in people. For me at least, I think it’s from this same desire to avoid monotony by chasing a certain feeling of warmth, of affection. An affection I only find when I either see or get to play a meaningful moment in someone’s life.
So maybe each day is a new race to acquire these moments of affection. And the shops in Torrey are where all of those moments from the past 24 hours live.
I was met with four types of pie and two types of ice cream at the first rest stop. In my immense greed I still checked out the coffee selection and ordered an horchata latte. It was delicious, and so were the pies. Especially the strawberry rhubarb one recommended by all three workers at the farm store.
The next segment was relatively calm. We left the red rocks of the park behind in a very sharp transition that turned into flat grasslands. I was following Caroline for most of the ride until we started up a gravel climb, and were assaulted by 15 mph winds coming from the east. I tried to fight it as long as I could, but it was just too strong, and we both had to get off our bikes. We hadn’t had enough fun yet because then rain started pelting down at a steep angle in addition to the wind. As Caroline and I were hunched over on the side of the road, the rain started to sting our faces. It must have turned into hail as it felt like being pelted with tiny rocks everywhere it landed on my skin.
With nothing else to do I started to laugh. In times like these, in situations as ridiculous as this, where we couldn’t even stand up straight, couldn’t bike, couldn’t do anything but exist and wait out this uncomfortable weather, I just laugh at the absurdity of it all. I tend to do this, laugh during ridiculously hard and trying times, or at idiotic mistakes, anything that is inevitable and uncomfortable. Because what is the other option? To cry? Sometimes I fear this can be mistranslated as me laughing at someone, or at inappropriate times. Maybe that’s what it looks like, but it’s not where it comes from.
When it eventually died down enough to finish the climb, we continued on until the next rest stop. As Mr. K came into view, I saw what looked like a tent? Nunu’s genius had made itself known for a second time today. We found Nunu, Nate, and Drew already inside devouring the most amazing snack haul I had ever seen. Nunu got those pink and white circus animal crackers that are just so nostalgic in all the right ways. When we first saw them Drew, Caroline, and I gasped, yelled, and dove for them like the greedy pigs we are. Look how happy Drew was.
The wind wasn’t going away any time soon, and so we decided to wait it out for an hour inside the tent. An hour and a half later, we still hadn’t moved, and the wind was still slapping the rain cover on the outside of the tent. The largest climb of the day was also still ahead of us: 1,000 ft in 10 miles straight up gravel. So Drew and I chose to ignore the wind. It had died down some, even if it sounded like we’re being tumbled around in a washing machine.
What I’ve recently learned is that we’re all sheep. If one person starts moving, everyone else (usually) follows. It’s such a great hack; the few times I’ve used it I’ve felt so powerful. Like a shepherd leading their blind sheep off a cliff. So the rest of the team woke up and put on their helmets too.
Tent: 1, Nunu: 0
Tent: 1, Nunu: 0
Tent: 1, Nunu: 0
Tent: 1, Nunu: 0
Tent: 1, Nunu: 0
The next stretch was the most climbing we’d do all day. And I didn’t even mind, not one bit. The landscape was so incredibly beautiful that it apologized for all the uphill. It was out of some story book. As I biked up the road, there were sprawling green fields on either side, and multicolored mountains looming in the background. The road curved downward, and so from my view I was biking between a small gap in a fence and into the infinite blue sky.
Literally a microsoft screensaver
It was at this point I took out my headphones and just listened to the wind, the brush of the bushes, gravel crunching under my tires. It was so incredibly peaceful.
A half mile more and the climb for the next 5 miles came into view. The road curved up the mountains in front of me. It was vulnerable in a way. These hills were not obscuring anything, they were presenting the challenge for me to judge. And I couldn’t be mad at its honesty or its beauty. Mountains simply have climbs and descents, and we are the ones who choose to bike across them.
From the base of this climb, I could see about four trees, all standing alone, scattered throughout the hill side. My camera did not do them justice. They just stood there, in the wide expanse of flatlands, only a couple feet tall, but providing dots of shade.
What a stoic little tree
Along the drive from Phoenix to Prescott, there is a single tree a half a mile or so out from the road, surrounded by a similar landscape. I’ve always wanted to sit under that tree and look out at the quietness of the rolling hills.
On this ride, I should have done so when I had the chance. The chance was a small road that would probably have taken me to one of those trees, a mile or so off the main road. But I didn’t, and admittedly, kinda regret it. Next time?
For the last part of the climb, a cap of trees came into view. “The Dixie Forest”, the sign read. Within 20 miles, the land had changed so rapidly: red rocks, to flatlands, to forests.
We stopped just past the sign for lunch, and wrapped ourselves up in blankets to protect us from the cold that was at 9,500 ft of elevation. We ate our sandwiches huddled like penguins and some of us went swimming in the back of the car for rain jackets.
Aarushi isn’t afraid to dive headfirst into what she wants
All the way back in Blacksburg I remember hearing from our host the philosophy on wearing rain jackets while biking. You get wet both ways, either from the rain itself or from your trapped sweat. So like the absolute units Caroline and I are, we went without them and chose to be cold instead, at least until we warmed up from biking.
As we rode off to finish the last climb, we kept passing these tiny circles of trees that lined the trail. Eventually they grew into more of a cohesive forest, and we started talking about how we would love to go and explore. It’s ironic really, because 0.1 miles later, the route curved into the forest and our wish came true.
We crossed several “experimental farms”, and were confronted with cows on either side of the road. They are apparently as stupid as deer, since when they heard us coming, they got startled and ran across the road, almost trampling us.
majestic cow
We finished the climbs, reached the highest point of elevation in our ride (10,049 ft), and then started on the incredibly steep gravel downhills. I may not be the fastest on the way up, but I did manage to bomb past Caroline on the way down, not that it was a race or anything.
When I pulled into the last rest stop, I saw three people in kayaks on the lake in front of me. To my surprise, one of them began to wave. My eyes are so incredibly bad that even with my contacts I couldn’t make out who they were, until one of them started paddling towards me. It was Drew and he was pointing to a dock with two more kayaks and paddles.
As I was pouring water out of the single kayak, Caroline arrived, and her and Drew decided to squish into one of the larger kayaks. To make room for the last two bikers, Nate and Nunu also squished.
Look at how happy everyone is, awwEveryone taking pictures of the bald eagle
The kayak I rode was more of a paddleboard. It sat on top of the water, which meant it felt far more unstable than the others. Drew knew this too, and so he started barreling towards me, threatening to splash me and overturn my boat. I remembered from the rafting trip that he had already done so, it’s just that at the time I was on his side. Now though, I was at risk of being drowned. So I said something along the lines of, “this is a peaceful trip! No fighting, let’s be very zen right now. Truce?” Caroline, for her part, explicitly said she did not support any violence. He must have agreed since my butt and feet stayed dry.
Drew taking aim at me
The lake was stunning. We saw a bald eagle sitting on top of a pine tree. Nate and Nunu got the privilege of seeing it dive for fish. We also saw a family of ducks, one mom with seven or so ducklings trailing behind. Someone mentioned the ugly duckling, someone else mentioned the Aarushi gap, and then somehow they got combined into one? Aarushi is the ugly duckling? As the self proclaimed (and communally agreed upon) daughter of Aphrodite, she is arguably the least qualified to be likened to a scruffy wet bird. But she is definitely qualified to be leading that gap behind the third duck. So while everyone was shouting about ugly ducks and runts and slow swimmers, I chose the most confusing moment to add, “I found Aarushi!” Everyone then starts looking around for her and Tatiana as they remembered they haven’t yet arrived, saying “Where, where is she?” I only meant that out of the cute little ducks, I found the one lagging behind a little, and then paddling its little feet to go faster.
if you listen closely, you can hear the real time Aarushi gap discussion
Well at this point we all started to get worried, since it’s almost been an hour since we arrived, and we hadn’t yet seen Aarushi or Tatiana. Also it was about to get dark, and none of us wanted to finish these steep gravel descents with no light. Drew’s brakes had already stopped working from overuse on the first part of the downhill. None of us wanted to be in a position where we lost control at night. And so we sent Nunu out to go find the two missing ones of us, while Drew, Nate, Caroline, and I dragged the kayaks out of the mud and on top of the dock.
It’s a funny thing, repeatedly putting yourself in a situation where every few hours you get to worry for someone’s safety. It’s not a trivial worry either, what makes it even more stupid is that it’s completely valid. We have crashed into trees before on gravel descents, last year’s team slid out on gravel and seriously hurt themselves, some guy on the UT Austin team was blown off the side of a cliff and had to get airlifted out. All of these accidents have happened to people relatively close to us. So every time we wait for people to arrive in areas with no service, it’s always a guessing game of are they seriously injured, or just slow(er)?
While I get to ooh and awe at the beauty of the mountains and the pine trees and the algae running under the boat and the birds hunting for fish and the cicadas humming in the trees, I also get to hedge a ridiculous bet that my friends are still alive and not desperately trying to call for help with no service. What’s more is that we all get to do this multiple times a day, experience this dichotomy of feeling, these extreme highs and lows all at once. It keeps the trip interesting, that’s for sure.
Maybe I’m getting desensitized to these anxious thoughts. I did after all bet that they were just going slower. But what’s the other option, envisioning their death and destruction constantly?
As soon as Drew and Nate finished my emergency stash of Cheez-its and we were almost ready to finish the ride, Nunu pulled up with Tatiana and Aarushi in front. Alive. And each in one piece. Wonderful. They said it was just slow moving, all the climbs and the steep downhill had taken them forever. But they were also ready to just get the ride over with. So we all left together, me in front leading the way, the first and only time I got to do so.
We saw the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument on the way down.
At this point my chain has fallen off, but the staircase is beautiful
I was biking with Drew and Nate for a bit until my chain fell off and I had to stop on the side of the road to put it back on. As I continued down the hill, I watched this black pickup truck pull out of a parking space and slowly drive down the road. Either it was incredibly slow or I was going fast, but I had to pass it on the left. That’s never happened to me before. I don’t know why, but I had the irrational thought that maybe, just maybe it was planning on following me? It was going slow enough and started trailing behind, keeping a couple hundred feet of distance between us. The longer I biked for, the longer it followed, and the more I became convinced that something was going to happen. This went on for a couple miles or so, as I biked as fast as I could. I took a right turn, and then a left, and it still never left. Half the time my eyes were in front of me and the other half was spent looking behind. Eventually, it took a left as I went straight, and I realized how well I had gotten into my own mind. Everything was fine. I was being crazy, but to be fair, crazier things have happened on this trip. I guess I’m not desensitized after all. Just attempting to tone these thoughts down and occasionally succeeding.
We all finished the ride into Escalante, met up with our hosts, pet their two adorable dogs Rocky and Mocha, had dinner, and began the debate about our next day’s ride. Should we take the highway or gravel side roads?
At dinner, our host Pastor Richards suggested we take this alternate gravel route north of highway 12. So Aarushi and I did our duty, and looked into this road. We took input from the team: Drew was a strong advocate for the gravel, Tatiana was leaning towards the highway even though she knew the gravel was more responsible, Nate was more aligned with taking the gravel, and Nunu and Caroline were fine with either. The issue is that we don’t have street view for some of the parts of the gravel section, and the ride with gps elevation graph isn’t always accurate. If we took that path, we’d be going into the ride blind. But if we take the highway, the risk we assume is getting run over by a semi. The gravel might be more scenic since it’s in the mountains, but the ride involves one large climb. The road tracks over two climbs (splits up the climbs), but the total elevation gained between each path is the same. And even though the gravel is the same in elevation, it will likely take longer simply because the ground isn’t smooth or easy to ride on. The paved route would have better rest stops, while the gravel route would just have stops on the side of the road. All of these considerations we thought through, while taking the team’s input, going back and forth on gravel or paved, gravel or paved. This went on for about an hour until Nate finally mentioned that if we took the highway, his parents could meet us at the rest stops. And so the decision was finally made. We would use the exact same route as last year with the exact same rest stops. No extra work required. No new route, no new rest stops, no effort needed to be put forth to make any changes. We got an hour less of sleep for the sole purpose of yapping in circles, our favorite pastime.
Thank you for reading my self indulgent, metacognitive yap. Hope you enjoyed a day of Spokes through my little brain’s view of itself.
Grand Junction, CO to Moab, UT — 122.5 mi, 4092 ft (actually 87.9 mi, 2257 ft)
I try to imagine the sweat on my skin is the glaze of a Krispy Kreme donut. That’s the only way to get through times like these. Only the occasional gust of wind provides some unsatisfactory relief in this land of nothing taller than a toddler. The hair on my arms and legs, usually black, have been bleached blonde by the sun, offering an unfamiliar contrast exaggerated by my skin also being a shade darker than usual.
My water, as it dripped on my lips from my “insulated” squeeze bottle, was indistinguishable from the hot murky liquid you leave in the pot after boiling a hot dog.
Tatiana [today’s driver] calls.
I reach in my jersey’s back pocket and scramble for my phone to answer before the call goes to voicemail and the one bar of cell service God endowed me with inevitably fades away.
“Hey Drew, there’s no ice at all of the 5 gas stations within 30 miles, and I will have to go back to Grand Junction….
I can barely hear her over the sound of the wind in my face.
…I’ll meet you in…”
She cuts out.
I’m out of water. It’s over 100 degrees. The lightly colored packed dirt reflects the sun’s rays back up, cooking me from both sides.
Off in the distance, Nate and I see a bridge that gets closer and closer over a period of time that felt like an hour but was probably closer to 15 minutes. We pass by something that looks like a well. I get off my bike and turn the handle– nothing happens. I realize I probably shouldn’t be messing with random plumbing on the side of the road and decide to keep pedaling without the water. We get to the bridge– the first shade we’ve encountered today since the cliffs of the Colorado National Monument 60 miles ago… and we’re only halfway done?
How did we get here?
The rolling hills faded away over time revealing an expanse which felt like a static portrait. I pedaled, nothing got closer. Occasional cameos from different wildlife told me that I was getting further from the place where people should be. We saw a bald eagle and sang him his favorite song (The Star Spangled Banner).
I think he liked it.
Upon reaching the Utah sign, we found a gap in the barbed wire fence that separated our trail from the interstate to which the sign belonged. We all squeezed into through the gap to take a picture with the sign. Meanwhile, Tatiana called us in distress about the car potentially flipping over on the uneven bike trail leading up to the sign. I don’t think anyone on the team, including Tatiana, knows why she decided to use the uneven bike path instead of staying on the highway where the sign was. Perhaps she wanted to push the limits of our rental Toyota Sienna with 3 inches of ground clearance could do. That way, we could have a reference point of what we could do with it in the future, when duty calls. The rest of the team served as counsel over the phone as she went backwards up the path and found her way back to the interstate where she rendezvoused with us at the Utah sign.
We took the photo. In the background, the sign read “Welcome to Utah.” Everyone smiled, and more.
The flow of traffic on the interstate seemed to somewhat fade away as a family of three get out of a car to take the same picture as us. The family, composed of an infant, a middle aged woman, and an elderly woman are discussing a car accident that they witnessed prior to arriving at the sign. We took photos for them, then we squeezed back through the barbed wire fence to access the trail that we were on to avoid proximity to interstate traffic.
We resume the trail, which had a lot of up and downs across various terrain types, including sand. It intersected a gravel road which served the purpose of getting us in the general direction of Moab while avoiding interstate traffic. We look to the right and saw a cloud of dust approaching with some large vehicles visible in the foreground. The majority of the team preferred to wait out the passing vehicles and dust. However, I decided to turn anyways, and Nate followed shortly after upon realizing that there were hundreds of cars not passing anytime soon. At first, we had the hopes that we could bike faster than them, as they were going quite slow, however, we soon found ourselves engulfed in a cloud of dust birthed by the passing cars. We covered our mouths and noses with one hand and steered with the other as cars passed one-by-one for over half an hour. I assume this was a detour to avoid the car wreck which had been mentioned by the woman who asked us to take her picture. We came out here to avoid the interstate, but the interstate came to us.
I’m not aware of how the rest of the team decided to handle the traffic, however, after turning off of the gravel road, it was down to just Nate and I. We turned onto another detour which took off in a random direction into the desert. It added about 4 or 5 miles to the route, a tradeoff I feel is worth avoiding being near cars.
Statistically speaking, the most likely thing to kill us on this trip actually isn’t dogs or lightning. It’s drivers. Some drivers are bad intentionally. There have been several occasions of pickup truck drivers pulling up next to us, slowing down, and actively trying to run us off the road. I will never understand this behaviour. Like, I get that having to make the conscious decision to move left to pass a group of cyclists is a little annoying, and you feel the need to have some kind of revenge. But I promise you, Mr. Pickup Truck Driver, your life is not harder than mine. You are in an air-conditioned box pressing down a gas pedal; I am pedaling up this hill in 100 degree heat without the help of a V8 engine like a big boy.
But, even scarier than people who do see us and decide to be mean are the people that don’t see us at all– the unintentionally bad drivers. And that’s why I’ve found myself in the middle of this desert, with Nate.
After trudging through a miserable 28 mile stretch in 100 degree heat, we set up a rest stop under a bridge and waited for Tatiana to get there. She arrived after ~20 minutes around the same time as the rest of the group, who had routed themselves onto the interstate💀shoulder to avoid the extra mileage. We camped out there for almost 45 minutes enjoying the shade and recovering from mild heat exhaustion.
The next stretch was mostly downhill as we descended into the canyon through which the Colorado River flows. The downhill, commanding much less exertion than the previous leg, made the heat a little bit more manageable. At our second-to-last rest stop, we decided to swim in the river as we waited out the peak afternoon heat. This would require that we bike in the dark, however, the road was very low traffic, so we decided it was a worthy tradeoff.
Swimming in the Colorado river was kind of tricky. Sitting still was hard because the water has a pretty strong flow and the riverbed is mostly loose rocks. Some of us resorted to laying on our floaty tied to a boulder (that they made me move into the river).
Some of us decided to walk upstream and just float back down. Tatiana was doing her own thing where she grabbed onto a rock and just sat there floating on her belly; it looked really funny.
By the time the sun decided to obscure itself behind the canyon walls, we were ready to start rolling again, prompted partially by impending darkness, but more so by the suspicious clouds behind us. The next 4 miles where very out of the ordinary. Aarushi was setting a crazy 20 mph pace as we all ripped the next couple miles, biking in a beautiful formation that resembled a 6-count half carton of eggs.
But, as the dark clouds devoured the sky in front of us, and the winds decided that they did not want MIT Spokes on the road, we were forced to turn back to shelter in a chaotic frenzy intensified by the sudden-onset darkness.
Nunu handed out tasks as we repacked the van in a way to accommodate 7 passengers, sort of.
We decided we would lock up our bikes at this campground and finish our ride tomorrow, since it would be a rest day. After a quick food run at the Moab Wendy’s, we all went to sleep in anticipation of getting up extra early. This plan, of course, hinged on someone being willing to drive us back to the spot where we left our bikes. So we bribed Tatiana with by offering to do some of her chores, and she reluctantly agreed to sacrifice sleep on our behalf.
Parachute, CO to Grand Junction, CO — 53.5 mi, 1427 ft
Nothing will motivate our team more than… the World Cup final! Yes, you read that right. On any other morning we would snooze our 6am alarms and take a couple extra minutes sleepily packing up our things but this particular morning was the morning of the World Cup final. You would think we were a soccer team instead of a biking team with how locked in we were this morning as everyone sprung up from bed and got ready faster than I’d ever seen. We were staying at a hotel last night that was very kindly provided by Tatiana’s mom, auntie Olga. Soon enough all our belongings were piled high onto a luggage cart outside in the hallway of our two rooms and everyone was wheeling their bikes down the elevator. Nate and I began to push the luggage cart down the elevator too but it required such a huge effort since it was so heavy and hard to steer and everything was so delicately balanced. As we pushed it through the elevator doors our basket of miscellaneous toiletries and items fell and some mysterious items dropped down the elevator shaft, oops.
After we’d all scarfed down the hotel lobby breakfast which consisted of bagels, poptarts, and tangerines, we started our bike ride! The reason for our haste was that we wanted to make it to our end destination by 1PM Mountain Time for the World Cup Finale with Argentina vs Spain. Knowing our team, this was an unlikely feat but we were determined. Specifically, Caroline, Tatiana, Aarushi, and Carmen were the most determined and the rest of us just followed suit. Luckily, today’s ride was relatively short and mostly downhill. It was Me, Drew, Carmen, and Caroline leading the way.
Because the road is also basically free of cars, we take up the entire lane and Drew decides to play a trick on us and sneak up behind everyone to try and take their phones from their back pocket. Here’s a video of Drew chasing Caroline down.
At one point, we end up on highway 70 next to the Colorado River and it’s just beautiful.
At another point, our route tells us to get off the highway and onto a mysterious bike path that’s overgrown with trees and bushes to avoid the highway 70 tunnel that bikers aren’t allowed to go through. Getting through this overgrown path was quite an ordeal as we had to keep unclipping and clipping so we wouldn’t run into the trees completely.
We were so fast that we all beat Nate (our driver for the day) to the rest stop by about 10 minutes. Caroline set a 15 minute timer so we would make sure not to overrest and keep biking and we all quickly stuffed our faces with snacks and fuel. When the alarm went off, Nate jokingly complained that we only ever went fast when he is the driver (Nate loves going fast).
Close to the end of the ride, we stopped by a peach stand in the Palisades and ate the most delicious and juiciest peaches.
Not before long, we were at our final destination, a restaurant/bar in Grand Junction with a dedicated watch party room. We proceeded to stay here for the next three hours eating food and drinking our unlimited refill lemonades and iced teas.
To be honest, most of us were slightly rooting for Argentina to win because we felt like the Argentinian goalie deserved it as he was making save after save after save. This summer is also the first time I’ve ever properly watched soccer before and I’m just so impressed at how coordinated everyone on the field is despite how fast things move.
After the game ended, we finished the last three miles of the ride to our hosts house for the night, Greg and Stephie. Upon arrival we were greeted by a tub of watermelon and a very excited dog.
After a quick shower line and dinner, the team debated going to see the new movie, The Odyssey. I was initially very down along with Aarushi, Tatiana, Drew, and Carmen while Nate and Caroline were going to stay back. Unfortunately, I was incredibly behind on my blog writing and had “lapped” as today was my blog day while I still hadn’t finished my blog from last week. Consequently, I decided it was more responsible for me to stay back to finish my blog. Caroline was also convinced to go instead. Nate still stayed back so he could fix his bike that had a tire puncture.
As the only two people who stayed back, we also got put on laundry hanging duty.
With that, we ended the night until around 11PM or so. I woke up to the rest of the team stumbling in from their movie and quietly slipping into bed.
Glenwood Springs, CO to Parachute, CO — 47.6 mi, 1705 ft
This third stretch of the trip has become far more. The first was spent trudging up and down PUDS in the east and midwest, the second staring at endless planes of farmland biking on highways. In the third, we have seen shorter mileages and many more centuries, far less elevation and far more striking landscapes. Longer rest stops and fewer sidequests, more luxurious housing and more visits from family.
It seems we’re building up to something by approaching these extremes. In a good story, the ending is as great as the build up, satisfies the tension woven through the beginning and the middle, and gives purpose to what has been endured. I hope this will be a good story.
In keeping with this theme of extremes, we woke up at what might be our latest time ever: 10:20 am. But we were all okay with this, since today was also one of our shortest days ever, only 47 miles.
Since we got back to our host’s house at 1 am last night (this morning??), we did not have the chance to eat this wonderful key lime pie Greg made for us. So our breakfast consisted of fruit, key lime pie, and the most delicious buttery, flaky, perfectly sweet homemade pastries called Kougin-amann. We all ate two and the smartest of us packed some in the car for later.
Greg not only provided breakfast, but entertainment while we ate. He pulled out his numerous decks of playing cards and a blue mat, on which he was able to fan out cards in the same way a stereotypical magician might. We sat there watching him do card tricks for about an hour. We tried to reason through how he might make some cards reappear or how he knows to choose the exact same one we had, and normally we made it halfway, understood it was some slight of hand trick, but then got stuck on the rest, unable to figure out how he would signal for the correct one.
After the first six tricks or so, Nate and Nunu came inside to let us know they were about to leave and start the ride. We eventually followed suit, but not before my mind was sufficiently blown by this sorting card trick. Essentially, you get a deck of cards and are told to sort the black ones into a black pile and the red ones into a red pile without knowing the color, and then switch sides of the piles halfway through. The story is that Greg has “performed it for Obama” who of course got everything correct because he’s a smart man who was trusted with our national security. So should I be in charge of this country too? Apparently so, since I was able to sort them perfectly with no mistakes. All of us were incredibly confused, until Tatiana remembered that Greg flipped one pile around 180 after turning the cards face up, to give the appearance of the black and red checkerboard piles. But really, there must have been black and red stripes, so all I did was distribute the black cards evenly to each side, and then the red. Sorry for spoiling this one Greg. We were all so excited that we managed to figure out one of his tricks. The other 19 or so are still a mystery though.
Eventually we had to get going, but Greg gave Tatiana one last magic trick to go: a deck of cards that she’d open later on a call. She’d be doing the magic and surprising even herself.
Since Nate and Nunu left earlier, and Drew was driving, it was Caroline, Aarushi, Tatiana, and I who all rode together. The first leg was relatively uneventful, a lot of calling family and old friends. The first rest stop however, was absolutely amazing. I can say that because I was the one who chose it last night, as Aarushi and I put the route together in the dark the night before.
When we got to the rest stop though, Nate and Nunu hadn’t yet arrived. I had no idea how this was possible, since they left like an hour earlier. But apparently their desire for speed didn’t align with the universe’s, since Nunu had a nail go through the side wall of her tire, which caused it to start spraying bright blue sealant everywhere. After exchanging back tires with Drew, they were on their way, and only arrived a few minutes after us.
The carnage 😦
We stopped at an…alpaca farm! They were utterly adorable. All of them must have recently been shaved, since every alpaca looked like a poodle, with fluffy legs and a big floof of slightly matted hair on their head that remained. They also liked to spit at whatever they could target. So we became victim to a few of their attempts.
fatter, lazier poodlesNate was the first victim
Behind the alpacas was the enclosure for the highland cows. They were also perfect in every way. A little scary to pet though, since their horns could definitely take someone out.
Spot the difference
After spending enough time with animals, we decided to change it up and take the next rest stop with a different kind of animal: homo sapiens who yell at soccer games on their tv. We met up with Tatiana’s mom, Olga, and grandfather, Victor, at a Mexican restaurant with a sports bar in Rifle to watch the World Cup third-place playoff.
Soccer obsessed zombies
When we got there, the game had already been going on for half an hour or so, the score was 4-0, England to France. We didn’t expect much to change, but it turned out to be one of the most exciting games to watch. France locked in and scored three more goals, thanks to Mbappé which secured him the Golden Boot (meaning he’s now scored the most goals at this World Cup), almost tying England. But then England had to go score a penalty kick or, making it 5-3, then 5-4, and then England scored at the last second, making sure France never got a comeback at 6-4.
I’ve never been one to pay attention to sports of any kind, but because of this summer, and because of Caroline’s extensive knowledge of soccer lore, the team got me into watching the World Cup. Surprisingly, it’s more than just kicking a ball around on a field while the crowd looks on with crossed arms and concerned faces. Each player on each team has a back story, each team formed through a complicated series of negotiations, each country with a unique history.
According to Caroline, England’s fans are notoriously obnoxious, but that’s because their league is the most popular. Every player on their team is some famous superstar. France has several star players and apparently young ones with a lot of potential. Both teams lost in the previous round, and in this game were playing for third place, not with any serious hope of advancing rank. The typical way is to play defensively, by focusing most effort towards blocking the other team from scoring a goal. But in these conditions, where the pressure was halfway off, both teams played more offensively and focused on scoring as many goals as possible. Who knew there was an actually very interesting strategy behind each game? Those who avoid ignorance through their curiosity. I’m trying to become one of them.
From there, we continued biking along this relatively peaceful side road until we reached the hotel in Parachute, graciously provided by Olga.
My view during the last several miles
We unloaded as usual, and then split up according to who did and did not want to take a dip into the Colorado River behind the hotel. Caroline, Drew, and I were the first ones out, opting to stay back, shower, and work on our blogs instead.
the unpacking ordeal we have to go through every nightDrew becoming Mrs. K
Caroline and I then went to a nearby gas station to get some drinks for our evening work session, still in our bibs and shoes. We must’ve looked incredibly stylish because we were stopped by this one random lady outside the front entrance who was showing off her guard dog, this large stuffed St. Bernard, that she carted around with her. It was around this time Aarushi called me to say she made up her mind, wanted to stay back to work as well, and if it was possible to split the drinks. I of course said yes.
I realized we had no good way to carry the drinks back besides stuffing them in our jerseys, and so with each of us filling up our back pockets, we looked like ridiculous pack animals, maybe a couple of two-humped camels.
Showing off our haul
We got back and soon after learned that Tatiana, Nate, and Nunu did not get the chance to swim, since the river was moving too quickly.
An unimpressed Tat and Nate
So we further divided into groups of who wanted to go back to the hot springs we were at last night, and who wanted to stay.
In the middle of this discussion, we got a surprise delivery from Olga: Artemis hats! We all were incredibly excited to receive this awesome gift, we even heard our picture would be shared on internal NASA channels?? These engineers and astronauts must have had an appreciation for 7 MIT students biking across the country and teaching STEM along the way.
NASA hats!!
Continuing our discussion that tends in a circular direction, I saw our two options as such: 1.) Drive 50ish minutes each way to the hot springs, get back in the early morning and miss out on some good hotel sleep, be forced to wear my same unwashed sulfury rotten egg smelling swimsuit from yesterday, and potentially change the magical memories from last night, OR 2.) Go because there might not be another chance.
Apparently there wouldn’t be another chance to swim in the Colorado river or jump in a hot spring for the rest of the trip, fears which a quick google search was able to rectify. But sometimes fear of what might not be is greater than what could be.
Needless to say I stayed back, along with the same people previously hard at work, now plus Tatiana. I enjoyed my quiet night in trying to be productive, an opportunity I haven’t had in a while. Nate and Nunu enjoyed the hot springs and a midnight McDonalds run.
The McDonalds workers were as happy to see them pull up at 12:30 am as Nate looks here
Breckenridge, CO to Glenwood Springs, CO — 105.7 mi, 3537 ft
7:00 AM
8:00 AM
9:00 AM
10:00 AM
11:00 AM
12:00 PM
1:00 PM
2:00 PM (switch to drivers Nunu and Caroline POV halfway)
3:00 PM
4:00 PM
5:00 PM (back to Aarushi POV)
6:00 PM
7:00 PM
8:00 PM
9:00 PM
10:00 PM
11:00 PM
12:00 AM
In honor of (my) first century, I finally brought out the digicam to take 105 pics for 105 miles!! This meant snapping a pic every 10 minutes today, so I hope this is like a pictoral version of my last blog post (how many steps of the spokes routine can you spot?) that provides you with a better sense of the ratio of time we spend on biking and eating and blogging and magic card tricks etc., and how quickly scenery can change in one day, from mountains to canyon to desert!
Idaho Springs, CO to Breckenridge, CO — 56.0 mi, 5927 ft
Though I am not a native Coloradan and have never officially lived in the state, I would consider it one of my homes. Specifically, the ski slopes dotting its landscapes that have hosted my family and me year after year for our annual spring break trip.
Today was the first day that we would be officially passing through resorts that I had grown up visiting, specifically Keystone and Breckenridge, and understandably, I was extremely excited. Today was also the day that our team would be crossing the Continental Divide through Loveland Pass, a monumental bike ride marking our ascent to the tallest point of our ride as well as the geographic ridge that separates the Pacific and Atlantic watersheds. Additionally, today was also the day that I would get to see one of my best friends from home, Ashley Fisher and her family. They were visiting Ashley’s brother, Kenny, in Denver, who joined us for dinner on Day 42, so I had already been looking forward to their arrival for a few days. Momentous day in my book, and I am grateful to get to write about it.
When we woke up in the morning, I was confronted with my biggest daily dilemma: what do I eat for breakfast? Seeing as we were still staying in the extremely kindly donated Airbnb in Idaho Springs, breakfast thoughts converged on the snack box, and the seven of us descended like vultures on any food still available in the fridge and pantry. For me, this consisted of stuffing my face with the pasta and salad from two nights before, and consuming a random assortment of snacks.
This bizarre “breakfast” prompted me to think about what exact amount of random food and junk I consume in a day on this trip, which inspired my idea for a theme of this blog (on top of the amazing things that already happened during the day). Today I will record everything I consume in one day, along with a simultaneous recording of everything Drew eats for comparison. When we decided this and I informed Drew I would be monitoring him for the blog, I added a comment about his eating habits, to which he promptly responded, “I EAT A LOT SO I CAN HAUL THIS A** UP A MOUNTAIN.” Point taken, Drew. I have been told that we burn ~4,000 calories a day on these bike rides, so we will see how our calorie intake fares up to our a** hauling.
Tatiana’s Breakfast:
1/2 bowl of Nunu’s vodka pasta with chicken sausage
1 Gogo squeeze
1 brownie
5 bites of Aarushi’s garden salad
1 grapefruit piece
2 dried mangos
1 cup of water
Drew’s Breakfast:
2 donut sticks
10 donut holes
1 lemon lime Gatorade
2/5 of a sesame chicken Chinese takeout
1 fortune cookie
1 bottle of water
1 Advil (for pain from a previously tweaked neck muscle)
Nate looked especially stylish during breakfast, demonstrating a previously unheard-of leg-sleeve look at the table.
Once the face-stuffing had commenced, our team descended down the incredibly steep gravel driveway to the road, with Aarushi and I opting to treacherously walk our bikes down the path rather than risk road rash from falling down. Funnily enough, on this perilous walk down, Aarushi was also inspired by the same leg-sleeve look as Nate, suddenly looking extra stylish.
The first stretch of our ride was spent almost completely uphill, though at a moderate grade, cluing Aarushi and me into the ascent yet to come at Loveland Pass. Our ride was interrupted by our fearless driver, Carmen, letting us know the rest stop had moved CLOSER to us (always a win) and by a detour at the dam monitoring the lake’s water flow with gorgeous scenery.
Once we arrived at Carmen’s newly prescribed coffee shop rest stop, we were greeted by the wonders of a perfectly curated store with our favorite things: coffee, art gallery, book nook, and outdoor supplies. Could it get any better? The team spent some time loitering around, with Drew deep in thought, Aarushi, Caroline, Carmen, and I exploring the art gallery, and Nate and Nunu wandering off to explore the nearby lake.
Tatiana’s Coffee Shop:
1/2 Arnold Palmer
1/2 Beekeeper’s latte
1 bottle of water
1/2 fig bar
1/2 s’mores bar
Drew’s Coffee Shop:
1 Sprite
1 bottle of water
1 Nature Valley strawberry wafer bar
One thing this blog may clue you in on is exactly how much I enjoy sharing food with my friends. It is definitely one of life’s greatest pleasures to get to try two things and share both 🙂
After securing prints from the art gallery and chatting up the leader of a Federation of North American Explorers group who had brought his troupe to Colorado, Aarushi and I finally set off towards Loveland Pass!
At first, the two of us stayed together, with rest stops every five miles to split an energy bar, but as we hit the final 4 miles and 1,500-foot ascent to Loveland Pass, Aarushi went forward, and I took my time going up the trail. Simultaneously, seeing as crossing the Continental Divide is a momentous occasion for bikers, Carmen hatched a plan to leave the car at the top of Loveland Pass, bike down to the 4-mile mark, and then bike back up to meet us at the top.
Tatiana’s Mid-Ride Snack:
1 bottle of water
1/2 cookies and cream bar
1/2 strawberry bar
You can probably tell by the numbers themselves, but this ascent was steep and brutal. Especially combined with the high altitude, I could feel my body straining against the mountain, eager to ascend and complete the climb but exhausted from the required effort. My goal of stopping every mile transitioned into stopping every half mile, and then at the very end, every 100 ft of elevation as I felt my body hit my last energy stores. I played one of my favorite reflective songs, “Que Sera, Sera” by Doris Day, to gather my strength, and willed my body to keep pushing up the mountain. As I rounded the final corner, barely pedaling and 0.2 miles away from the end of the climb, I saw my team waiting for me at the top of Loveland Pass. I began to weep tears of pride, joy, and exhaustion, making the final ascent into our highest peak and seeing my team waving and cheering me on.
I am used to being the last one to rest stops, especially since my greatest enjoyment from biking comes from taking the rides slowly and enjoying the surroundings, but this time I felt especially grateful to be last and fall into the open arms of my teammates. Our team was truly ON TOP OF THE FREAKING WORLD!!!! Seriously, look at the photo evidence.
Though Loveland Pass is nothing close to the end of our journey, I felt such immense pride for the fact that our team has hauled a** on bicycles for all of the 11,990 ft of elevation needed to reach the summit. It truly is such an accomplishment, and one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. It reminded me of when Aarushi and I backpacked 23 miles to reach the destination of a beautiful secluded beach in Hawaii. The beach was beyond incredible and was cemented as one of our core memories. However, when we took a boat ride around the island a few days later and saw the same beach from an easily accessible boat, it lost some of its magic. I think the same is true with Loveland Pass, and with many of the other sights we see on this trip. They are all beautiful on their own, but their magic lies in the efforts we put in to reach them. To commemorate and remember the magic of the moment, Aarushi even made a playlist of the exact songs she was listening to as she made the ascent to Loveland Pass, which you can listen to as well!
After soaking up the views and taking countless photos, we took our lunch break at the top and huddled together with our blankets to stay warm against the wind. Inspired by Caroline’s past conservation efforts and a sign that said “NO LITTERING,” we even had our bravest soldier, Carmen, chase down a paper napkin that mischievously blew away in the brutal wind. To no one’s surprise, Carmen came out a hero.
During this lunch break, the team also informed me that they had met a group of three bikers called HDWND (Headwind) who were completely mogging us and attempting to bike across the country in 20 days rather than our 75, biking roughly 200 miles a day and, unlike us, taking extremely short rest stops. At the time this blog is being posted, they did, in fact, complete their journey in only 22 days!!
As you know, once you have reached the summit, it’s allllll downhill from there 😉
Lol, excuse my pun, but unfortunately Drew did start to feel some altitude sickness at the top, so he quickly shoved his sandwich in his face and started the next stretch to try and escape the worst of the elevation.
Tatiana’s Lunch:
1 bottle of water
1 gogo squeeze cinnamon
1 gogo squeeze
2 Advil
1 sandwich with 2 slices of turkey, 2 slices of cheese, mayonnaise, 6 slices of pepperoni, and half a pack of guacamole
6 pickle slices
1 glass of sweet tea
Drew’s Lunch:
3 bottles of water
1 bottle of Gatorade
5 gummy worms
1 sandwich with 4 slices of turkey, 6 slices of pepperoni, 4 pickles, mayonnaise, 2 slices of bread
On the way down, I blasted “I’m On Top of the World” by Imagine Dragons in my headphones, and enjoyed the most blissful 10-mile downhill of my life. Imagine speeding down a huge descent, never pedaling, and going 35 miles an hour from gravity alone, accompanied by insane mountain views. I think some may call this bliss, and I personally think this is the reward for all of the painful ascents our team has conquered on this journey.
To sweeten the pot even more, our next destination was Keystone, a ski village that is extra close to my heart, and the location where Ashley and her family would meet us! While we waited for them to arrive, Drew remained passed out on a chair to combat his elevation sickness, I took a lap on my bike around the village to reminisce about my childhood, and the girls on the team planned the ultimate crepe sharing rotation. We even met this extremely awesome biker who shared his own experiences with joyrides and “fast downhills,” teaching us some unorthodox fueling and biking strategies that I think our team may not be yet advanced enough to attempt.
Tatiana’s Keystone Snack:
1 Arizona sweet tea
1/5 coconut banana chocolate crepe
1/5 brown sugar Nutella blueberry crepe
3 bites of vanilla peak cookie
Few sips of Arnold Palmer iced tea
Drew’s Keystone Snack:
1 berry lemonade soda
When Ashley and her family arrived, I was filled with love and appreciation for their immense efforts to drive across the state just to see and support me for a few hours. There are so many people across the country cheering me on, and seeing one of my best friends on the journey was icing on the cake.
You may think that the day simply cannot get any better, but it in fact did! Ashley decided that she wanted to ride the last segment with us, so Carmen generously let Ashley borrow her bike, and after some quick trial and error on how to get on and off a taller bike, as well as how to change gears and feel comfortable, Ashley was ready to rock and roll with us! Thank you to Ashley’s parents, who also agreed to drive Carmen back to the top of Loveland Pass to retrieve the car we had left there so that Carmen could fully conquer both the ascent and the descent of the Continental Divide.
We got a grand total of 2 miles in (during which Ashley was killing it and the trail was, in fact, beautiful), when we began to see lightning and hear rounds of thunder cross the sky. We had to take shelter at a gas station, where our team fell right into our usual routine of loitering around and looking at things we clearly have no intention of buying. This, of course, did not include Drew, who is apparently an insulator and not fearful of lighting, leading to him biking onwards on his own all the way to Breckenridge.
After waiting it out for a bit, the rest of the team followed in Drew’s suit and made it another few miles before we realized that the storm was not leaving any time soon. We pulled over at a shopping center and began discussing the best course of action to end the night, considering that at this point, it was already 8 pm. Drew was at the end, and it looked like the storm would not be passing for a few more hours. We decided that we would SAG Aarushi and me so that I could have dinner with Ashley’s family and so that Aarushi could blog and avoid biking in the dark, while Caroline, Nunu, and Nate wanted to finish the ride and would bike regardless of what time of night it cleared up.
With this, the Fishers and I began the process of attempting to fit the three of them, my bike, a huge package for their son, Kenny, and me into their small SUV. This required a bit of maneuvering, taking off my front wheel, some humor, and even some strength as we settled on a method that required me to hold up the bike for the 25 minute car ride. Finally, I got to experience an arm workout this summer 🙂
Once we arrived at our wonderful host, Alison greeted us warmly with a prepared dinner. We decided to eat in two shifts because Ashley’s family still had to drive back to Denver that night to see Kenny. Alison’s husband, Phil, is currently on a bike tour, so we had a wonderful time eating the delicious taco and burrito bar while discussing his journey and learning about his potential tattoo of bike grease on his calf. All of us were slightly bemused and inspired looking at the grease on our own legs and remembering that we share the same experience with bikers across the country!
2 tortilla burritos with rice, chicken, cilantro, lime, tomatoes, onions, green salsa
1 grapefruit sparkling water
With the day coming to a close, and my tracking being extremely diligent throughout the day, I decided it was time to run our food consumption lists through an AI agent at the dinner table to have a fun conversation topic of how many calories Drew and I had consumed that day. What began as a harmless question to Claude instead led to the AI agent expressing its concern for us and our eating habits, and not answering the question I had asked it.
For any curious readers, ChatGPT shared no similar qualms and spit out the exact answer I was looking for with zero hesitation.
The overall results were that Drew probably consumed roughly 4,300 calories, and I consumed roughly 3,400. Considering that my Garmin says I burned 4,600 calories that day, we may in fact still be undereating, but what are numbers and tracking anyway?
With a humorous discussion on AI agents coming to a close, I finally said goodbye to Ashley’s family, hopped in the shower, greeted the second wave of bikers who arrived in the night, and then turned in on Alison’s wonderfully comfortable bed. Goodnight, and sweet dreams!
MIT Spokes 2026 