For the next week, I'll be cycling around the perimeter of the Olympic Peninsula to help raise funds and awareness for multiple sclerosis on another bicycling ride with Bike the US for MS. This trip is only 1 week long in total, so this is the first trip where I'll actually complete the full trip with the group!
I arrived in Seattle a few days early to get settled in and to see some friends, in between working hours. Yesterday, I dropped my overstuffed bag and deconstructed bike in my hard-sided box at the meeting place in the Magnolia neighborhood of Seattle. I partially built my bike before having to rush back to the airport to return my bicycle. A good friend gave me a ride back and we went to lunch. Much to my surprise when I had returned to the church, the trip mechanic Butch had very kindly built my bike the rest of the way!! What a blessing and relief!
After a successful trip orientation at the Magnolia Lutheran Church and a fundraiser at the Flying Bike Cooperative Brewery with fellow alumni (and my local friends came out to support us!), we went to sleep with excited energy for the day ahead. I don't feel like I slept very much, but I didn't wake up too tired either. Everyone seemed to wake early and was ready long before the departure time. I was ready exactly on time, haha. The church's pastor wished us well with kind words.
We left at 8am to ride 5 miles to catch a 10am ferry in downtown Seattle. It was mostly downhill, so it was a hurry up and wait situation to ensure we didn't miss the ferry to Bremerton. It was a beautiful one-hour ride across Puget Sound to the Olympic Peninsula, which gave us a chance to get to know each other a bit. It seems we all have a mutual connection, thanks to Bike the US for MS.
The first half of the ride was quite busy and not super scenic on high traffic roads, but we eventually entered the lush, green rainforest with lots of ferns and firs all around. We climbed over 3,400 ft! The hills were mostly rolling with a flew longer climbs. We got rained on briefly at a few spots, but it was mostly just overcast all day.
We had 2 rest stops about 20 miles apart before arriving to camp at Fort Townsend State Park, which is absolutely beautiful. At one of thr rest stops, local woman gave us a donation because she, herself, has MS and thanked us for raising awareness. We are camping by an abandoned torpedo decommissioning tower. It feels haunted, of course.
Thankfully, the park has hot showers and we all cooked camp dinners while we visited with a lovely local Port Townsend MS Self Help Group representative named Stacie. She even brought stamped post cards of Port Townsend for us to send to our loved ones! So thoughtful!
There are 16 hours of daylight, so at 830pm everyone is still lively as I write this. I feel very tired. My breathing was very labored today, thanks to still having long covid. However, I still completed all 54 miles. I might have been last to camp with the sweepers, but that's okay. No one was complaining.
Thanks for following along and for your support!❤️🚲
If you'd like to donate to the cause, here's my page:
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