Today started off a little shaky after not sleeping much last night and waking up to an overcast and drizzly day. Things continued to not go my way when I could not get my bike computer with my maps in route finding to turn on. Then I proceeded to let all the air out of one of my tubeless tires trying to top it off. I realized that the nut that holds the stem on was missing and I just pushed it through.

But, redemption was coming. I showed up for the start of my ride and we had mentioned it online and to a few people. Just as 9 AM rolled around, about a dozen folks came to see me off. People had driven this for a an hour just to see me start the ride! So cool to have them there and share this moment. Thank you to those wonderful folks that showed up!

I got to ride with Caroline for the first 15 miles or so and that was great. Disaster struck again when I got a nail right through the tubeless tire. I literally thought I might make it across the whole country without a flat and here I was 30 miles in with my first big flat. I’ve never fixed a tubeless tire, but I had watched some videos. I was able to fix the tire and continue on. Once I started getting into the mountains I really felt like I started getting into my groove. I was able to ride 75 miles today which is not a ton, but I wanted to ease into the ride and allow for some time to work out the kinks. Glad I allowed for that. I was able to finish the day off by jumping into the Skagit River. To bed early this evening and up early tomorrow. I’ve got a massive amount of climbing tomorrow… Something like 11,000 feet 😬