BATUS 2011

Now that we are done with the trip, here’s a few fun facts for everyone about what it took to get us here.  Since we’re newly minted MBA’s, of course we sliced and diced the data in a lot of different ways.

36 - The total days of biking to get across the country

3,446 - the number of miles we rode according to Hooper’s GPS (a few miles were missed here and there due to operator errors, but it’s close)

95.72 - The average number of miles ridden per day

16.26 - the average miles per hour that we traveled across the country

212.71 - the number of hours we spent in the saddle, peddling our butts off

192,535 - the estimated number of calories burned by Hooper over and above his normal daily burn.  That equates to 55 lbs of fat.

0, 2, 4 - the number of pounds gained by John, Jessi and Hooper, respectively, from the beginning to the end of the trip - guess we were eating exactly what we needed to each day!

8, 6, 3 - the number of flat tires Hooper, Jessi and John had during the trip, respectively.

128 - Hooper’s average heart rate while peddling across the country. That equates to 1,638,952 heart beats to get across the country.

101,862 - Aggregate feet of climbing done throughout the trip (according to Hooper’s GPS, which was known to overestimate a little bit).

7h42m - Our longest day in the saddle, which came on day 2 climbing through the Adirondack mountains.  It was a 109 mile day.

3h45m - Our shortest day in the saddle, which came on day 33, when we climbed to our highest point of the trip, Sherman Pass.  It was a 56 mile day.

5h21m - Our fastest century, done with a nice little tailwind in North Dakota at an average speed of 18.7 mph.

Our Daily Mileage Chart (Editor’s Note: not Mary Munter approved):

We’re done!

The first rest stop of the final day. (and finally back in cell coverage). Cathy Beth doing work while we eat. Just another day in the office.

Beer #38: Closing in on Seattle so we got a close to Seattle beer: Scuttlebutt Blonde. One day to go!

Well, we have officially determined that there are two things we hate doing both uphill and into the wind: cycling and peeing.

Today was monstrously epic. And we thought yesterday was tough, hah! We climbed 6000 feet, 5000 of which came in the first 45 miles of a 99 mile day. Our tanks were feeling empty after yesterday’s adventure, and today’s climbs were slower and more painful. Another Cat 1 we had forgotten about (1800 feet in 6.4 miles - ouch).

Youre thinking “shut up jessi, you’re use to this by now.” true story. What I’m not use to is 6000 feet of climbing into a 10-20mph headwind. Pain and suffering were my friends today. The three boys absolutly rocked it, singing songs up the hill as the redhead let out more curse words than she has in the past year. Perhaps the most mentally challenging part of the day was the awesome 40 miles of straight downhill we had that was interrupted by 25mph headwinds the whole way, making us have to work hard to go 25mph into an 8% grade downhill. More curse words followed.

Ultimately, it was a real test. We survived, and some of us thrived (not the writer). We completed our second to last day of the ride. We’re already feeling nostalgic and the ride isn’t over. We’re already making plans for Steve to pull a mattress into John and jessi’s room tomorrow night so we all don’t feel separation anxiety too soon.

Only 110 miles left of this journey, and we will cherish every mile of it. This was an outstandingly beautiful day regardless of the weather conditions, and we all feel blessed to have seen some of the most beautiful parts of this country so near the end of our trip. The beauty will continue tomorrow.

Hopefully we will get pictures up. There is no wifi in this town so the boys are driving 15 miles to try and find it to get pics up of yesterday and today ASAP. (Pic uploads not possible via IPad blog sadly). If not tonight, we will load a plethora of pictures tomorrow of all 3 days.

Bring on Day 39!

Two things are certain at this point: 1) we are getting much stronger and 2) headwinds still suck, even for short periods of time. While we had a lot of climbing today, we spent some time in some of the strongest headwinds we’ve had to date. Sandwiching the headwind between the climbs was unfortunate, but proved that we’re much better bike riders than we were 5 weeks ago. If we had today’s ride 5 weeks ago it might have crushed our souls.

Today brought two more mountain passes - Wauconda Pass at 4,310 feet and Loup Loup Pass at 4,020 feet. We started the day on an uphill, ended the day on a downhill, and had a long flat section following a river in between. In all, we covered 102 miles and did 5,741 feet of climbing. Not bad in a days work.

We were also excited to see our new friend Tor again this morning at the Prospector Inn in Republic, WA. He set off before us (We decided to watch the entire Tour de France stage this morning, since we had Versus on TV to get psyched up for our big climbs. What a finish!) and when we caught up with him later in the day and he got to experience the joys of pace lines in a headwinds.

And now, some of the great pictures from today.

We popped up to the top of Wauconda Pass in the first 13 miles of the day. It turns out 2,500 feet of climbing is just as effective as a cup of coffee for getting the heart going in the morning.

The beautiful scenery in the hills of Eastern Washington.

Catching up to Tor before lunch.

Tor learning the joys of pace lines in a headwind.  Unfortunately, this picture also makes it look like we’re all a bunch of wussies and Tor is carrying all of our gear.  Oh well.

The riders enjoying a little lunch before the last climb of the day.

The top of our 2nd mountain pass of the day.

Descending into Twisp, WA under beautiful skies and with a great little headwind.

Beer #37: Twisp River Pub Oatmeal Stout. Lots of smoky coffee flavor. Loving the small local breweries in WA.

Today was a wonderfully short day, with the big feature of the day being our only Category 1 climb of the entire trip.  A perfect 17 mile, 4000 foot climb and associated descent that took up a total of 36 miles out of our 56 mile day.  Even growing up out here, Hooper had no idea that Eastern Washington had this many mountains.  Overall, we are climbing 5 mountain passes in a 4 day period.  Whooh!

With such a short day, we were able to set out a little later and eat a nice breakfast in Colville.  We took our time and were under gorgeous skies the entire way, with a nice tailwind for a good chunk of the flat portion of the day heading towards the Columbia River and Lake Roosevelt.

The climb was largely without event and all the riders, while a little exhausted from climbing, found their way to the summit of the highest climb of our trip - Sherman Pass at 5,575 feet of elevation.

Now, a few shots from the day…

Another beautiful day for a bike ride

We made our way across some sweet bridges to cross over the Columbia River and Lake Roosevelt

At the top of a small climb, we all stopped for a moment to take in the views and snap a few photos.

The Hoopers even wore matching Livestrong uniforms for the occasion.

Finally!!!

And, of course, the wonderful descent

Cumulative: 3,127 miles

Beer #36: Republic Brewing Company Brush Fit Brown. A growler from just down the street. One of Johns favorites of the trip (and an awesome brewery in general).

Prepping to climb our only category 1 climb of the trip. 17 miles of fun.

Beer #35: Mac & Jacks African Amber. One of Steve’s favorites for our first night in WA!

Today was a microcosm of our trip thus far. We had headwinds, tailwinds, flats, climbs, busy roads and empty ones, Indian reservations, heat, cold, and rain. The day started out quickly, with a quick cut West to enter Washington state and then north into the Kalispel Indian Nation and our 3,000 mile milestone. We crossed the Pend Oreille River and dropped into a strong headwind toward the first major climb in WA: 4.5 miles with 1,000 ft+ of elevation gain. The road had deliciously fresh blacktop and was smooth as could be, spurring us all to ascend much quicker than expected, hooray!

After the climb we had a lunch comprised of ducking in and out of cover from passing rain storms. We all donned warmer gear in anticipation of the descent down the mountian we had just climbed. None of us, however, were adequately prepared. The next 35 miles were jaw clenchingly cold. I haven’t been so cold since I biked from Canada back to Hanover in April in 40MPH headwinds in slashing snow and 20 degree ambient temperatures. Even then I could steer straight despite the cold. Today I was shivering too much to even ride my bike in a straightline. It was brutally cold as the rain poured down and we descended.

We eventually made it to our rest for the night in Colville WA (after fixing Jessi’s 6th puncture) and had a great dinner in town. All warmed up, finally, and ready for a 17 mile, 4,000 ft climb tomorrow!

Now, my favorite part- photo time! 

A crazy bridge we crossed over the Pend Oreille River (pronounced Pond O Ray). That’s about 80ft down to the water, and the whole bridge was open grating like this. 

One of my snacks at the first rest stop. The rest of my snacks were: pizza, potato chips, chewy bar and a chocolate chip cookie. Gotta love ride food!

3,000 miles at a rainy pond!

Jessi popped her 6th tube- and of course it had to be in the freezing rain. PS- look who got to change her tube! :)

We welcomed back one of our teammates- Steven’s father!

Cumulative mileage: 3,071

It’s the end of day 34, and we have officially left Montana!  Wahoo!  Mid-morning, we crossed the state line into the lovely Potato state aka Idaho, and entered our final time zone aka Pacific Time.  Crazy that this bike ride truly is coming to its end.  We are happy to report that our SAGers made it in tonight!  Cathy Beth Hooper and Steve Sr have arrived and are ready for action! 

Today’s route took us through another gorgeous section of National Forests and pristine lakes.  Jagged rocks cut through the forests to create incredibly wind barriers as we rode around the edges of rivers and lakes, causing many “ooohs” and “ahhhs” from Geology nerds Jessi and Hooper. 

Highlights from today all centered around our lunch stop - the town of Sandpoint.

• 3 miles outside of the town, John decides it’ll be a great idea to skewer his tire with a Staple “on steroids” - 4 inches long, 2 millimeters in diameter.  It was positioned just right in the road such that the entirety of one end went through the top of John’s tire and out the side down by the rim, ripping the tube inside to shreds, and causing the loudest “thwacking” noise we had ever heard from a tire.  Thankfully, the wheel ended up just fine, and a quick change of a tube (THIRD flat for John!) and tire solved the problem.  Jessi saved the staple just for fun.
• We had an outstanding authentic (and cheap!) Mexican lunch at Joel’s, topped off with some delicious ice cream, and then a solid 30 minute rest to digest as much as possible.  (That iron stomach thing still hasn’t fully developed for all of us riders…).   
• John’s bike is making ridiculously loud noises.  It is creaking with every pedal stroke he makes, getting worse by the day.  A bike shop checked it out for over an hour in Sandpoint, changing rusted parts that were thought to be at least 50% of the cause of the racket.  WRONG.  Within 5 miles of being back on the road, the bike was as loud as ever, and Jessi and Steve are contemplating using ear plugs going forward.  A VERY thorough clean of the chain this evening will hopefully solve some of the issues - we’ll report back tomorrow.

We’re now safely in Priest River, ready for bed like nobody’s business. 

And now, to the pictures…

Early in the morning, we rode by an absolutely gorgeous lake reflecting the hills.

We crossed into Idaho… Finally!

And also left the Mountain Time Zone, and are now resting peacefully in the Pacific Time Zone.

John got his 3rd flat of the trip.  It was one of the most impressive any of us has seen to date.

Cumulative mileage: 2972.  Look out for the 3000 mile picture tomorrow!

Beer #34: Fish Tale Winter Fish from the cask. Served a bit too warm but a delicious beer nevertheless.

Hello there folks!  Today is day #8 in Montana.  Yep, 8 our of our 39 days have been within the massive state of Montana.  Tomorrow we leave this beautiful area and hit the tiny northern sliver of Idaho, just one step closer to our final state of Washington.

Today was an absolutely beautiful day for riding.  We began by riding through a thick fog as we descended down rolling hills to the gorgeous Lake Koocanusa.  The following 55 miles reminded us all of riding back at Tuck - all rolling hills throughout beautiful terrain, virtually no cars on the road which was much appreciated.  Jessi had a close encounter with a deer while riding near the lake, when one jumped over the guardrail and across the road just 15 feet in front of her.  Glad it didn’t jump 2 seconds later!

Unfortunately, our emergency SAGers weren’t able to make it in tonight for tomorrow, so one last day for the cyclists to SAG themselves.  We’re splitting it up evenly between the three of us, and immensely excited for our next (and final) SAGers to arrive tomorrow evening.  Hooper’s Mom, Cathy Beth, will be taking a turn as the fabulous driver, while Steve Sr rejoins us to ride for the final 5 days.  Steve, John, and Jessi are EXTREMELY excited to have Steve back with us to finish out this incredible adventure across the country.

Oh, and sadly, Steve popped an EIGHTH tube.  We think we’ve figured out that he has a slight issue with his wheel’s rim tape, popping his front tube in the same place.  Steve Sr is bringing him the fixin’s to take care of that issue tomorrow, so hopefully Steve will see no more popped tubes the remainder of the ride!

Some fun pictures to round out the day!

Fog rolling down the lake:

John rockin’ his Bowdoin jersey with pride:

Quick picture near the lake for J & J:

View from Libby Dam:

This is what happens when we cook for ourselves in a cabin (Steve where are you?!?):