After saying good bye to the cuz and Carrie, I checked my Google Maps route on my phone once more and set off south from their house. I snaked through another park and passed no less than 5 different bike lane designs within the first few miles. Before long, the city gave way to residential neighborhoods, suburbs and really nice mountain views...

As I stated in the last post, I got up around 6 I think to pack up everything and get it all down stairs to the van. Ned and Jason were there already loading up and Corey showed up to say goodbye. After getting everything in van with mild difficulty, we shipped out to find the best possible vantage point for TV coverage as well as a good place to see the end of the race...

Don't ever visit Steamboat Springs. You'll hate it. I promise. It's only one of the best places in United States in my opinion. But that's just my opinion...

A long, sagebrush-filled ride bookended by two of the highest climbs I'll cross on this trip (on my bike). 

Pictures certainly describe this segment of the voyage better than words, so I won't delay...

Seriously, what an amazing place. I don't know how I'd never been there before. It's a must-see for everyone I think. My only suggestion, don't go in the middle of the summer when everyone and their grandmother is also there…

Another grand week of riding!… actually it was really only five days. My stops along this stretch were Darby, Wisdom, Dillon, Ennis, and finally West Yellowstone. So many cool and interesting things happened this round, including meeting a group of really fun people from all over the world!

After I feasted on homemade pizza, salad, and local beer the night of my arrival, I slept. Hard. Marcia and Jerome usually go on a bike ride in the morning and the next day was no different. When I woke up, they were out and I made breakfast and had a pleasant morning waking up to scenes of the mountains from the balcony. Marcia had left a note detailing a whole bunch of things, including lunch plans...

Lots happened over this week but due to lack of internet (and cell service for that matter)  in the great expanses of North-West America, there has been little opportunity to write about it. I should have made this trip a campaign to bring the Internet to the wilderness, but I suppose no one would use it... it's a wilderness after all.

Austin and his fam are awesome people. We all slept in till 10-11a and his mom had breakfast ready the three mornings I was there. Oatmeal and toast the first day, fried potatoes, sausage, and Froot Loops the second day, and hard-boiled eggs, bacon, and more toast the third day.

Austin and I finally got organized on the first morning and headed out to see some of the local sights. We cruised around in town a bit, checking out the newly renovated Old Mill district, which used to be a saw mill I think. Next up was a drive roughly 20mins out of town to Mount Bachelor. We tried to finagle a free ride up the lift for a better view but no luck. We were both too cheap to pay the $16 fare. There are several excellent skiing mountains within 30 mins or so of Bend. We made our way back to the house to change and collect more people so we could all head north to Steel Head Falls. What an awesome place! It's a state park I believe that doesn't require you to park and you're free to what you want (except build fires.) A short hike is all it took to get to the falls. We spent about three hours there jumping into the cold mountain water that felt oh-so-good after baking in the summer sun. We lunched there too and had an all-around great time. I was sad to leave =(

The biggest day so far for sure. Also the most challenging. Also also the first time I've set an alarm to get up on this trip since day 1! What? Yes, I set an alarm for around 5:15am because I wanted to leave the Huts House around 6am to give myself plenty of time to make it to Bend and to have some time to take breaks, eat, etc.

True to form, I stayed up too late the night before (I was blogging... you're welcome) so when the alarm sounded, I hit snooze and rolled over for an extra hour. I hadn't packed my bike at all either so by the time I got organized and ate breakfast, I didn't get out of there until around 7:45. It was a really cold morning, like all the other Portland mornings had been and I had to wear pants and my rain jacket as a wind-breaker. I rode about an hour before I started sweating too much in my garb and shed my extra layers...