la lanterne rouge

La lanterne rouge is French for "the red lantern" and refers to the red lantern hanging from the caboose of a train. It is also the term used to refer to the rider who finishes last. This is the role I played on day 1 of the bicycle trip. I'm OK with it, because it sounds a lot better than caboose. It's French. It's cool. Don't argue with it. As promised, I was a great leader at going slowly! The problem, it seems, is that no one has followed! :o/

I woke up at 5 am and packed my duffle bags. They were so full that zipping them required Herculean strength, and may in fact have been the most difficult part of myday. We had a nice breakfast of eggs, hash browns, muffins and coffee, followed by a send-off ceremony which involved some staff members from the American Lung Association and the mayor of Seattle. Everyone else seemed excited. I was panicked.

Several Big Ride alumni rode along with us on the first day to guide us, which was really great. They seemed to be positive about the whole thing... and they'd survived. Most of the first day was along bicycle paths by the river and was very nice.



Fifty or so miles in, we had a great boxed lunch that was donated by a deli. After lunch, we began a 13 mile, 4,000 foot climb over the Cascade Mountains to the east of Seattle via the Snoqualmie Pass. Part of this was on Interstate 90, which was a little unsettling at first, but a really wide shoulder allowed you to keep plenty of room between yourself and the speeding traffic. The remainder of the climb was through a gorgeous national forest, but was windy, steep, and seemingly neverending.

Part of the interstate was closed to bicycles due to construction so we got shuttled around this part in a van, which was a welcome break. After a nice descent on the other side of the mountain, I at last rolled in to the Easton State Park Campground. The ride totalled 94 miles. Our instruction sheet is below.



Now I'd done a test run of putting my tent together so that I didn't look like a great fool putting it together in front of everyone for the first time. It went just fine in my dorm room. I got the thing together, and I got the hang of it. However, everything went pear-shaped when I tried to put it together in the campground. Perhaps it was because I was so tired. Or perhaps something had gotten into the tent. Either way, the thing was running away from me. I'd get one of the poles in place and go to put the other one in place, and the first one would just take off running across the ground. Thankfully, I'd arrived so late that the only spot left was slightly removed from the others, so the spectacle of me assembling my tent was not readily visible to all. At last I got the blooming thing put together, and headed to the shower.

I arrived to find that the women's shower only had cold water, so everyone was using the men's showers, and there was a line. I was so eager to shower that I decided I'd rather go for the cold shower than wait. We had two tokens for showering, each of which gave us 3 minutes of water. I used one token in the cold, women's shower, but 30 seconds was all it took for me to realize my mistake. So with conditioner in hair, I wrapped back up, grabbed my towel, and went to wait in line for the warm shower in the men's bathroom.

Several Big Ride alumni had come up the campgrounds and made an amazing feast for dinner. It was all kinds of mexican food, and was all home made and absolutely divine. I slept like a rock that night.