Rolling out of Ellensburg this morning cyclists had an astonishing view of the Yakima-River canyon entrance as they exited the city limits. (Photos in the gallery for week one). The sun was rising (I think I’ve already mentioned that people like to get up early!) and cast beautiful shadows across the road and valley. The Yakima river winds south from Ellensburg towards… Yakima… and en-route cuts a deep valley through the basalt plains of central Washington (Student of geology in the riding group today). We took the pace rather easy today as the ride was short and generally downhill. Included were Hans (Alberta) Joel (British Columbia) Eritia (Ontario) who we’ve already determined is by far the fastest girl on the ride (sorry Sarah, second place is pretty far back so far as I can tell) and her brother Art (also Ontario) who is nursing a sprained ankle and has been hitching rides up some of the hills due to the injury and doing most of his riding with the left leg. I rode the whole day in the big chain ring enjoying the downhills, relatively good pavement and a hint of a tailwind. Upon entering Selah we were hoping to find a fruit stand (after passing orchards and vineyards en-route) but had to settle for a pretty little coffee shop when we realized we’re probably a couple weeks early for the cherries to ripen. Riding through Selah we were greeted with a few auto-shop signs welcoming cyclists and encouraging Gerry Loonstra (I have yet to figure out the connection). Upon arrival in Yakima the day’s average was 29.8 kph so we picked up the pace for the final 2 kilometers and flew down the road at ~47 kph, nudging the average to exactly 30.0 for the day which was a nice accomplishment!

After unloading the truck (I’ve been there for it’s arrival 3 days in a row now) and setting up camp all before noon we headed over to find somewhere to swim. The temperature on one of the gas-station signs was 96 ^oF and when we found a lake with a dock we just pretended that we couldn’t see all the goose poop surrounding the shores. I’ll be riding with the GPS tracking device on Friday July 4, if you’re by a computer tomorrow feel free to check out where I’m at. It should be updated every 15 minutes. Don’t expect a 30 kph average, we’re on sweep-duty and coffee stops are going to be high on the priority list. In fact, I don’t think there is such a thing as a bad cup of coffee in Washington state. They’ve got a bit of a reputation to uphold and they do a fine job of it.