Day 1 Marysville, W to Skykomish,W

Flight from Reno to Seattle went smoothly. Met by Cycle America staff (Ryan and Dan) and driven to Marysville about 1/1/2 hours north of Seattle. Got there around 5PM and set up my tent and assembled my bicycle. Time I finished it was too late to go to dinner with the rest of the folks. The lunch person took pity on me and I had dinner consisting of 2 yogurts and 2 granola bars. Went to the evening meeting to get the intro and learn about the next days ride.

It turns out that there a 26 coast to coast riders and a half dozen others that are riding from 1 to 7 stages of the trip. It looks like a rather elderly group. All but a few came to ride by themselves.

Well it started to rain about the time I went to bed, roughly 10PM and it rained all night. Me and my two over sized duffel bags all fit in nicely in my new MSR Mothahubba 3 person tent that was super easy to set up.

It rained all day today as well making a rather easy 71 mile trip rather uncomfortable. I was cold and wet by the time I got to Skykomish High School. I got in rather early 1PM as I blew by both water stops and the lunch stop.

When I got in I took a nice long hot shower (I was later informed that they ran out of hot water), bummed another yogurt and two energy bars from the lunch ladies, set up my tent and all my wet clothes to dry out inside the school, and had the mechanic adjust my bicycle shifting.

Had dinner at 5:30PM consisting of lasagna, salad, garlic bread with butterscotch pudding and cookies for desert.

Statistics for the ride excluding the 9 mile ride down to the waterfront to do the ceremonial tire dip. 62.23 miles miles, ride time 4h 48m, 2237 feet climbed, ave clim 2%, max 13%.

I sitting outside the Skykomish Public Library in the cold writing this as I was not able to connect to the schools DSL.

Tomorrow we climb Stevens Pass. Should be about a 3000 foot climb, and hopefully it will be sunny on the other side.

No pictures today as camera ran out of battery at the dip in place.