Day 2

Day 2 - Tuesday, July 1

Sultan to Leavenworth —79 mi, 127 km

This was a challenging day. That is a nice word for a hard day. We biked through the beautiful Cascade mountains from Sultan where we camped last night to Leavenworth where we are camping now.

The first 30 miles we were biking was more or less flat. But then we climbed 4000 feet (about 1300 meters) in a distance of 20 kilometer. After that most of it was downhill. We left early (7 a.m.) and by noon we were on Steven’s pass, the top of the mountain. I was biking with two other men, and one of them got 2 flat tires. In the morning it was cloudy, but by the time we started climbing it was hot. The total distance today was 125 kilometer. By 4 p.m. we were in camp here.

We also have to help in the camp, and this afternoon our group had to help with dinner. There is a group of volunteers cooking, but we have to help with serving. Tomorrow morning our group has to be on duty for breakfast, and later we have to load all the camping gear in the trailer after everybody is gone, and then we leave last. So we serve then as the “sweep team”. We will stay with the “slow” bikers, and be sure that nobody is left behind. That means that we will arrive last at the next camp. There are 11 groups, so this work we only have to do once every 11 days.