Day 5
June 6th, 2007

AMAZING!!!
Today was one of the best days of my life. We woke up at 5:30 and headed down to Olympic Sculpture park on the water front in the downtown area of Seattle. At the park we had a really great hot breakfast provided for us by the parents of a previous Journey of Hope cyclist. King 5 news in Seattle was there to do 3 live feeds of us preping and departing for the trip. Amanda and Bill were able to make it out to see me off, it was great to have some friends there to support me. For the final live feed at just after 8 we lined up and rode off. We were lead out of town by a local Pi kappa Phi member who cycles in Seattle and know the area well enough to get us out of town safely. He rode with us to the Issaquah area were we met up with the East Side Fire and police for an escort to Interstate 90. Once on I-90 it was a fairly steady climb for many many miles. For the most part the incline was not bad at all. Once into North Bend Jake, Andrew, Chad Cockrill and I had to stay at a road side stop and call in to a live radio show. The show host was a man named Dennis Leach. He was a great interviewer, asking some really great questions and giving us a lot of opportunities to explain the true reason we are doing this trip. Unfortunately by the time we were done with the radio show an hour had passed and the last of the cyclist had passed us, so we were forced to rack our bikes and ride in the vans up to the the tail group. It turned out they were only about 4 miles up the road. After we got out of the vans and back on the road Jake got a flat right away and had to rack his bike for a little while. Andrew, Chad and I pushed on powering our way up the hill. All three of us are similar ability cyclists and were able to keep a tight pace line and quickly began to make our way back up toward the front of the groups. By lunch time we had made it all the way up to within a couple miles of the lead group. After lunch we left the highway and were able to take a Forest Service road that had no cars on it. From there it was a few steep switchbacks and we were at the summit. Once at the top of the mountain we were all able to breathe easy. After a quick photo op we were on our way down the other side. Riding on the interstate was difficult in a lot ways but the most dangerous part for me was not the constant cars passing us but the debris along the roadside. After the summit it was a quick 15 miles to our final destination for the day. Andrew, Chad and I were the first group to make it in. Because of our tight schedule only 3 groups were able to make it in before everyone had to be racked up and brought to lodging the the Double K Christian Retreat. For dinner we went down the interstate a little ways to Cle Elem's eagles club were we were treated to a great meal then off to bed.

KING 5 coverage