Day 4 | Staying Ahead Of the Rain

Ready for the rain

Distance

38.5 miles

Elevation Climbed

2,306 ft

Landscape

Populous roads with many commercial areas, military bases and occasional mountain views

Weather

Humid, overcast; 55 F

Kirsten’ Notes: 

Trying to avoid the discomfort of riding with what feels like a wet diaper for 50 miles, we donned our rain gear. The 60% likelihood of not raining was on our side and ironically my gear still got wet, just from the inside (from sweat if that isn’t clear…). We rode primarily on major roadways or the roads directly adjacent and snaked through commercial shopping areas and neighborhoods. A few of the climbs today were more difficult than yesterday but we both seem to be charging up them with more and more ease each day. Trucks zoomed by us at 5x our speed for our last stretch of miles bringing rushes of air that propels us forward and motivating us to have an intent focus on staying as close to the guardrail as possible while not hitting a road divot or piece of trash in the shoulder that could send us flying. Not the most relaxing but we had plenty of time for that in the afternoon since we started early and had a relatively short ride.

Olympic Mountain Range, Washington

Lars’ Notes: 

The weather looked a bit sketchy, 60% chance of rain at 9:00 or so. We packed our rain gear (including my waterproof jacket) and got an early start to hopefully stay ahead of the rain. Lise drove us back up to Port Gamble. We were on the road by 8:15 or so. This ride had a series of 6 climbs, the first two OK, but the 3rd and last were decent Butt Burners. We are definitely getting stronger though, especially Kirsten, who stays right on pace! Her speaker blaring out inspirational tunes to keep her pumped. I threw on some Marshall Tucker Band to get me up the toughest ones. We were able to stay off the main Rt. 3 for most of the ride, but the last 6 miles or so, we had no choice. There was a decent shoulder, but the wide, fast logging trucks made that leg a real white knuckle ride. We stayed ahead of the rain and completed this somewhat shorter ride before noon. A lunch of something other than PB and J was a welcome change. We were back for less than an hour and the rain started. We timed this one well!

Climbing...at home?
Day 4 Complete