Day 2: Skykomish to Wanatchee

Over the Cascades and into apple country.

Today we woke up to a cold gym and Jay’s voice. The stereo fell through so instead of a Push America tradition of waking up to music we woke up to Jay Holley yelling at us about how great of a day it was going to be. I wasn’t too ready to get up, but he was right about it being a great day. The group was a little slow getting out of lodging, but we were able to get out and have breakfast in the cold and cloudy weather. Shortly after breakfast we were on the road ready to climb the cascades.

The guy at the local deli and liquor store told us the night before that we had a large climb ahead of us, and I was a little worried some people might psych themselves out. Stephen, from the University of Kansas, and I were sweeping today, which meant we were always the last two men on the route. We were responsible for making sure everyone made it to the top, and although there were some slower guys, with a bit of encouragement we made it to the top of the thirteen mile climb and took pictures at Steven’s pass ski resort. It was amazing to be done with our first real climb of the trip. We didn’t see anything like this in Florida!

As we began our descent of the Cascade Mountains we started to see blue sky, and it got a lot warmer. Taking off all of our cold cycling gear was refreshing. The rest of the day was rather simple. Everyone made it to Wanatchee. We stayed at the local community center.

Tonight we had a friendship visit and dinner with Special Olympics athletes. It was a lot of fun talking to them about the sports they played, and they had a chance to show off their medals. I may be good on the bike, but I bet they would really give me a competition in basketball or track. It was a good friendship visit, and I was happy to be able to give them a chance to get out of their homes and have some social time.

Tomorrow’s climb shouldn’t be like today’s, but it’s not going to be an exceptionally easy ride. No friendship visits tomorrow though, so we should have all day to make it to Colee City.