Lynden, WA

One more build day and one more ride day until Vancouver! Right now I am 5 and a half miles from the Canadian border.

Today's ride was quite easy; Ian, John P, Dae and I rode pretty quickly but not too hard into town and we had a great time, especially the mini-criterium that John, Dae and I had at the campground in the morning (it was a 15 foot diameter paved circle that we went around for a while). The ride into Rockport was a bit different however. We started the day in the Early Winters Campground near Mazama, WA where I woke up to rain pattering on my tent (which was one of the nice new ones thankfully). Right away it was cold and miserable, with a huge uphill pretty much right out of the start. We then went up Washington Pass (elevation 5477). I was riding with Ian and about halfway up we hear a huge hissing noise sounding similar to an espresso machine (can't you tell what we were thinking of at the moment). And with every wheel rotation I felt a gust of wind on my calf... oh great a sidewall blowout. So in the pouring rain I put in a new tube and just hoped for the best with the sidewall thing. We finally got to the top of the pass, cold, miserable and watching snow come down on the peak only a few hundred feet above us. I looked at my thermometer and it read a blistering 41 degrees, great and I was only wearing shorts. We descended several hundred feet and passed a parking lot with a bathroom and met up with Isaiah, Bobby, and Sean who had been getting warm in said bathroom (a theme on this trip for sure). And we all climbed up to the top of Rainy Pass (how fitting) in the pouring rain and wind. At the top we stopped to warm up and Isaiah looked a bit too cold to be descending the 10 miles into lunch, so we had to figure something else out.

We flagged down a pickup truck with a trailer attached and they were kind enough to put on their heater and heat us up, after a while Bobby and I descended the pass while Ian, Isaiah and Sean got a ride down and left their bikes. Bobby and I got to mile 35 and saw the van so we ditched our biked and rode to the top in the warm van. We reached the bathroom and this time a whole van load of people got out and jumped in the van. Since Bobby and I had thawed, we went out to the road to hitch a ride down and luckily a trailer pulling van with bikes on top pulled over and was kind enough to go out of his way and take us down to our bikes (providing us with mini clif bars on the way). We got to our bikes and rode the grand total of 2 miles to lunch. After that people started coming in - Chris and Pen got a ride down in an RV and Isaiah had met Bobby and I at mile 35 as we were leaving.

We all rode down the valley going by Diablo Lake, soon John P and Ian joined us after descending the pass and catching us as we took pictures. We rode the rest of the way together, taking the descents quickly and getting sweet video. However my rear wheel wasn't doing so hot... I had a slow leak that may or may not have been because of the blowout (it was a new tube). So instead of trying to find the hole and patching it, I just pumped it up. I was able to make it about 20 more miles into Marblemount when I had to pump it again. Apparently my dad and his climbing partner, Chris, had spent quite a while in Marblemount waiting for the weather to clear so they could climb in the North Cascades.

Anyway I was able to make it into Rockport with a half inflated tire. I rode into the campground to see my Grandma, Uncle Bill, Cousin Willie, and our family friend Susan waiting for us with a huge amount of food. Susan was taking a picture of me so I decided to do a skid stop, which on the wet grass turned into me going over my handlebars, but no harm no foul. By this time it was clearing up and we had so much food even 30 starving cyclists couldn't finish all of it. My Grandma also rented a lean-to thing which 5 of us decided to sleep in and it was one of the best nights sleep I've gotten in a while - the exact perfect temperature. I woke up late, but that was okay because everyone was being quite lazy since the next day was going to be easier (and it definately was). Now we are all looking forward to Canada and getting off our bike saddles!

Thank you so much Grandma, Uncle Bill, Willie and Susan for feeding 30 hungry cyclists who eat for 60, especially after that long day!

Mazama, WA

So I'm writing this from Lynden because I don't want my posts getting too long.

Our day out of Republic was great for the first half, we had a tiny pass and were flying, then we turned after lunch - into the wind. However the day was pretty uneventful until we got to Omak where we had a long lunch at Arbys (we being John P, Ian, Kevin, Dae, Isaiah, and I). Also the mother of one of my mom's friends brought us veggies which was great!

Out of Omak to Early Winters Campground in Mazama was a bit different. Ian, Bobby, and I rode together and at lunch since the clouds were looking menacing and we were going to be the first ones to the campsite we decided to take a tent with us on the road. So I grabbed one of the nice new tents (how convenient), and rode off from lunch. After we got around a turn we stopped and spread out the components so we all had some of the weight and we went off. Through the rain and sprinkles (welcome to the Pacific Northwest), we biked. We passed through the tourist trap of Winthrop, where apparently a Dartmouth Ski team and Cycling Team alum from '06 worked at a bike shop (I knew I should have stopped). We got to the campsite early and set up our tent, luckily it was sunny and nice out and it only started raining later in the day. But we got our nice tent and had a relaxing night.

That's all for now, and I'm out of time for this computer.

Republic, WA

Finally into Washington, which decided to give us an unpleasant surprise of hills and more hills. The trip is starting to wind down time wise but certainly not terrain wise. After coming into Sandpoint, Idaho for a build day (which is a fantastic town, and we had a great 1/2 day build putting up siding), Washington threw at us its best. On our first day into Chewelah we had a relatively flat day until the last 20 miles, 10 of which were a huge uphill on the Flowery Hill Road with a maximum grade of 11% (goes up 11 feet for every hundred). The resulting downhill was great though, it took us straight into town maxing out the speed at around 45 mph. When we got into Chewelah we jumped in the cold creek behind the church and then spent an hour playing volleyball, we actually started to get kinda good. Then we walked over to the public pool that was opened up only for us since it was closed on Sunday and we played around, basketball and other fun games, and then we went to the church for a wonderful dinner and presentation where Kevin and I debuted our first draft of a movie for us.

The next day (today) we came to Republic. The first 35 miles were relatively flat and we were able to cover ground very quickly (minus Christopher's 2 flats). After his second flat Ian and I went on ahead and came to lunch where we had the best peaches I've ever eaten. From about mile 35 (5 miles before lunch) until around mile 58 was all uphill over Sherman Pass, there were a few short downhills but there were a couple stretches of up to 10 miles of constant uphill with no breaks. It was probably, no definitely the longest uphill I've ever experienced. But now I'm here in the small metropolis of Republic, WA enjoying the refreshing air conditioning of the library. Oh did I mention it was in the 90s and up to about 105 the last few days... that put a damper on things for sure.

We've got more passes to look out for, but hopefully none as bad as Sherman Pass (a cool [or hot as the case may be] 5575 feet tall).

Whitefish, MT

Sorry about the few posts I've had. I haven't been actively seeking out internet that much so it makes it harder to get these blogs up.

We just biked through Glacier National Park, it was wonderful. A group of us got up at 5:15 so that we could be to mile 45 of the Going to the Sun Road by 10am because from Logan Pass (6646 ft, and high point of our trip, at mile 25) to McDonald Lake at mile 45 the road is closed to cyclists from 10 to 4 due to construction. So we got up and through the park with plenty of time to spare. The views were absolutely amazing, reminding me a lot of home. The descent from Logan Pass was very cold, I only had a long sleeve poly pro shirt underneath my normal jersey so it made for a chilly few miles until we were out of the wind and in tree cover. We got into town and immediately went for showers and then to get a huge cheeseburger at the Bulldog Saloon (a tip from a friend of mine who spends his Julys in Whitefish). Most of the group had to wait until 4pm to start descending to Whitefish, or take a shuttle down the hill.

Yesterday we came from Cut Bank to St. Mary (just outside the park boundary) and the last 8 miles of our trip was a long downhill where Christopher, Dae and I were cruising at about 40 mph for most of it. Not much else of interest on that ride except the horrendous headwind and the wonderful views of the Rockies. The day before was in Chester where the game of assassins reached it's conclusion. If you haven't read about this in other blogs we had a game of assassins going on for about 3 days. How assassins works is that we put everyone in random order in a big circle and you know the name of the person in front of you. That person is your target and to "kill" your target you have to hit them with a rolled up clean sock outside of specific safe zones (in the morning, on your bike, doing bike and build work, on the church grounds before dinner or only inside the church after dinner). When you kill your target that person tells you their target and you are supposed to kill them. As more and more people die the circle gets smaller and smaller until there are only a few left. I was able to strategically kill and avoid being killed until there were 4 people left - Me who had Jessie who had Kathy who had Bobby who in turn had to kill me. We had been forgoing lunch stops and only staying in safe places for the most part until we got to Chester. There we decided that we needed to end the game. So while Kathy was in the town and Bobby in the shower, Jessie drew me out of the church by running off. She went back to the church but I went into town and found Kathy she went to the library and I went back to the church. When I got back, it all started to go down.

Jessie went to the library to kill Kathy, taking Bobby with her to prevent me from just following her and killing her right away. As Jessie went into the library, Bobby ran halfway back. Meanwhile I knew there was a back entrance to the library and took a back way to get there so as Kathy (who had died) and Jessie were plotting a way back to avoid me I came through the library and killed Jessie, so now it was just Bobby and I. I ran back to the church and talked with Jessie and Kathy who had returned, but still no Bobby. I set out to find him and Jessie and Kathy were just walking around outside the church. Jessie spooked Bobby (thinking she was after him) and he ran back to the church, I saw him and hid behind the church's trash cans and killed him as he passed me at full trot. He was initially confused since he didn't know I had killed Jessie. So I was the master assassin.

That is about the only interesting things that have happened (or that I remember right now). So it's time to log off.

Good day from Whitefish.

Wolf Point, MT

Alrighty, if you read other blogs from NUS B&Bers than you probably have heard about this night, but I get to tell you the entire story of Theodore Roosevelt from beginning to end.

So for one, Teddy Roosevelt Park is wonderful, there are tons of bison, awesome rock formations and an awesome downhill where I hit 50.0 mph for the first time this trip (thank you tail wind and passing semi for the draft).

We put up our tents at the group tent site (our tents are pretty bad [cheap coleman tents], and they were missing a lot of poles and stakes), so they were pretty rickety. I slept in one of the larger tents with Lindsey, Michelle, John R, Arianna, and Katrina. We started going to bed around 11:30, but 12:30 I still wasn't asleep since it was about 900 F in our tent. Lindsey decided to move outside since the day was very nice before. After about 10 minutes I followed her outside and we all moved under the tarp we had set up earlier to make some shade. About 2am or so (maybe earlier) Lindsey wakes me up because there is lightning going off in the distance and we think it might rain. So Lindsey and I, then Sean move all of our bags into the trailer as we are surrounded by 360 degrees of storms. We then moved the bikes under the eve of the bathroom. The three of us and Sharon (who just woke up as we moved the bikes around) put the tarp in the womens bathroom, ready to go to sleep.

Then the rain came, people started strapping down their tents, so I ran out and helped, getting quite wet in the process. And then the wind came... a huge branch fell down right next to the door so I decided we needed to get everyone out of the mostly flattened tents. Everyon one got out and then we decided to spend the rest of the night in the warmth of the bathrooms. The next morning the only signs of the storm was the flattened tents and some fallen branches, beautiful day and a slight tail wind at some points.

Minot, ND

So over 2400 miles down, only 1600 left. We are taking a much needed day off. My butt can take a break and I can wonder around town without getting on a bike seat. The last week has been quite busy, a lot of riding. We had one of the worst days so far from Devil's Lake to Rugby, ND. 20 or 30 mile an hour winds made pacelining a must, but after Isaiah dropped off our group because he wasn't feeling well, only Ian and I pushed through the 58 miles to the school gym where we were staying. After that we had our "Bike and Build Prom", which Kathy has undoubtedly talked forever about so I can spare you the details, but I was dressed in a marching band tux we found.

The day before was also no cakewalk. 118 miles from Crookston, MN to Devil's Lake, ND. The first 100 miles went very fast, a group of us averaged just over 20 mph (compared to under 12 into Rugby). We got a picture of our odometers as we passed 100 miles in under 5 hours, then the rain came. It was first just a sprinkle but ominous clouds in the distance told another story. About 8 miles later we got hit with a true windy Great Plains storm. Thunder and lightning on both sides of the road, 20 mph cross winds with rain that felt like it was BBs hitting your arms and face. I was riding about 5 to 10 feet behind Bobby and we were both screaming at the top of our lungs and neither of us could hear each other. We stopped at a rest area a few miles out of town to catch our breath and have Ian and Isaiah catch up, eventually Jessie caught us too after our 3 minute rest break. We finally arrive in Devil's Lake to Isaiah's dad waiting with a warm pickup truck ready to take us to his farm. We had a great time at Isaiah's farm - tractor tours, horseback rides, a hot tub(!) and great food. A good time was had by all, and to cap it all off we saw a wonderful thunderstorm in the distance at night, very awesome!

That is about all for today, time to explore Minot.

An engineer designing from scratch could hardly concoct a better device to unclog modern roads - cheap, nonpolluting, small and silent...
-- Rick Smith, International Herald Tribune, May 2006

Duluth, MN

Things I am thankful for so far:

We are almost halfway (over 1900 miles).
I don't have to bike tomorrow.
I still like PB&J
My bike hasn't completely died yet
There won't be many more hills for a while
There is Wi-Fi in the Temple in Duluth
The 70 miles of bike path we biked on today
Double Pace Lines
Batman
Riding through a wildlife preserve three days ago
My wonderful fellow cyclists who will always offer help when I need it
Great cell coverages on our rides in the middle of farm country
Generic brand cereals taste almost like name brand
Host stays

Things that I'm not thankful for
Headwinds
Winds from the East when we are going North
Taking three wrong turns going to Gays Mills and going 130 miles
Being in the lead when the first 18 mile detour happened and feeling guilty about not catching the error in the cue sheet
Headwinds
Chaffing
Sore butts
Sore feet
Poor cell coverage at many of our stops

Madison, WI

We have our second day off in Madison, WI. It is a great town lots of bike shops, tons of bike lanes, a lot of little cool shops, so many cool things to see. It is very much centered around the University here. While we didn't do anything crazy like sky diving, but walking around town, having some of the best ice cream ever (Chocolate Raspberry Truffle) was quite enjoyable too.

We are preparing for another century ride into Gays Mils, WI and we'll be crossing over the Mississippi in a few days, tomorrow will also be one month into the trip. At the same times it seems like just yesterday we started but also we've been on the road for a long time.

On our way to Madison part of the road was flooded (about 50 feet) so cars couldn't get through, but many people took off their shoes and walked, but a select few (including me) decided to take off our shoes and bike through. It was very fun, warm water, and a nice break from pavement.

There's not much else to report from Madison. Before I go I'd like to thank my Grandma for my package, many people were enjoying the smoked salmon. And thank you to Bruce and Nancy Bell for their donation to Bike and Build.

Janesville, WI

So biking across the country is something crazy right? But I decided that, you know, pedal across a continent wasn't crazy enough for me. Yesterday at our day off in Chicago a group of 11 of us decided we wanted to go skydiving. Yes that's right. I jumped out of a plane at 13,000 feet, free fell for a minute until I reached 5500 feet and pulled a rip cord to save my life. Don't worry I was attached to an expert who made sure everything went right. It was an amazing experience definitely a highlight. Email me if you want to hear more about it.

The rest of the day was spent napping in the church and then Arianna and I went to downtown and walked around, had great (and cheap) Thai food at Star of Siam on E Illinois (for those interested in good Thai food in Chicago). We also looked at the Tribune building with a bunch of rocks from places around the world embedded in the side. I must say Chicago was a great place to have a day off, especially since we had a 115 mile day getting into town. For my first century (over 100 miles in one day) it wasn't that bad, I actually felt really good afterwards. The last 20 or so miles were on the Chicago lakefront bike path, which was what I would optimistically call a warzone. There were tons and tons of walkers, runners, scooterers, long boarders, and cyclists, tons of cyclists. There were even triathletes trying to train in their aerobars (recipe for disaster). The views of the Lake were amazing and the beaches looked awesome, we even saw an AVP beach volleyball tournament going on with huge stands and huger crowds. At some point on the path we met a cyclist from Williams, turns out he knew a few of the same Ephs from Anchorage that I did. He also was a racer so I was able to update him on the goings on of the ECCC (Easter Collegiate Cycling Conference) championships. We were going around 18-20 mph through the people traffic, side by side, without too many close calls (don't worry I dropped back if it was bad) - we are definitely racers, we didn't feel uncomfortable riding inches from each other and other people at high speeds.

So the next day into Grayslake, IL was really short (40ish miles) so we spent a lot of time playing basketball in their gym and hanging out. At our presentation I met a wonderful couple that had just gone on a smaller cruise to Alaska. I was able to reminisce about home and tell them all the good spots to see that they missed. I had a nice night on a couch to get ready for another relatively easy day (70 miles, except for the headwind...) into Janesville, crossing the state line into Wisconsin. Again we traveled on country roads across the state line so there wasn't a sign, just like into Indiana and I missed the sign into Illinois because it was painted on a wall, not an actual sign.

Overall it has been a wonderful trip, I am getting awesome tan lines, improving my bike mechanic skills, and meeting tons of people wondering why there are 30 people dressed the same riding their bikes around their small town.

that's all for today, I'll go back to the church and sleep some maybe...

It would not be at all strange if history came to the conclusion that the perfection of the bicycle was the greatest incident of the nineteenth century.
-- Author Unknown

Bowling Green, OH

So here I am in Bowling Green, OH. Since I was in charge of writing the journal today I'll just post the exact same thing that will be posted on the B&B site since I need to do some bike work tonight (spokes keep loosening on people's bikes and I don't know why, I think it's due to overall spoke tension, or lack thereof, but I'm going to try a few things)

Here we go:

So today was long. Our longest in fact. A grand total of 96 miles (and I didn't ride those extra 4 miles to get a century). At the ungodly hour of 6 am we met at the church in Avon Lake, left the warmth of our host families' beds, ate a huge breakfast and loaded up the trailer. The only problem here was that the folks at Avon Lake gave us so much food we weren't sure if it would all fit in the trailer. Normally we play bag tetris with our duffel bags and just shove the rest of the food into the empty spaces. This time was different though, we needed to not only play duffel bag tetris but also food tetris. Our trailer was packed completely full - an impressive feat.

We started the day approximately fifteen minutes after a large rain storm passed overhead so the only thing we had to deal with was wet roads - not too bad. After taking a group photo in front of the "Welcome Bike and Build" sign at the church, we took off. Our 95 mile day was to have two lunch stops! So I was looking forward to a well fed trip. The first 40 miles were not that eventful for me and my huge paceline of Pen, Chris, Isaiah, Kathy, and Ian, and a few others that came and went. We arrived at the lunch stop after passing by Cedar Point Coaster Point, looking longingly at the numerous roller coasters. I then took off early with Bobby to go the next 35 miles to our next lunch stop.

Bobby and I took turns leading each other in the horrendous headwind. As the first group of riders we had to chalk every corner, but since we were limited in our amount of chalk - our directions were probably lackluster at best. After a bit of confusion in the directions getting into Freemont (I think?), OH, and passing the mansion of President Rutherford B Hayes we started to get confused. Our cue sheet said go 2.2 miles on Route 6 and then turn right onto Country Home Road and go 20 some miles. However we never saw said road, but we did see signs on Route 6 for Bowling Green so we just went on Route 6. Let me tell you, Route 6 was one of the worst roads we've been on. There was a pothole, roadkill ridden shoulder, which was barely wide enough to keep us out of danger. Several times we were inches from passing semis speeding along with seemingly little concern for our well being - a scary thought indeed. We plodded our way to Helena, OH at 75 miles, still no sign of our van and second lunch stop. After calling the van several times I get a hold of Dan who sounds like he said "I got stopped and am at mile 62". So thinking the van got a ticket we continued on surviving on bananas, energy bars, and the thoughts of an air conditioned church. For the record it turns out the van got "stuck" not "stopped" in the muddy shoulder and had to get towed out.

As we approached Bowling Green, Bobby's tire was getting flatter. A hold over from a flat earlier in the day, I found a slash in his tire that I assumed caused a small puncture. We pumped up the tire in hopes it would hold for the next 15 miles to Bowling Green. We got about 6 more miles and it started deflating. So quickly (since we wanted to get to the church) we put a new tube in and put a dollar bill at the slash site to keep the tube from coming out of the tire and getting a puncture again. The dollar bill, unlike most paper, doesn't disintegrate when wet. We finally found the mysterious Country Home Road and then at 3:30 found the waiting cool church with iced drinks and snacks. After showers at Bowling Green State University, we had a wonderful pasta dinner and had a great presentation and chat with some congregation members.

While it was a long day, everyone but us had two lunches and arrived before 6 pm, a long day for all. All of us seem quite tired since it was our longest day and are looking for a good nights rest.

A bit about me now that I'm done blathering. I am Anson Moxness. I am originally from Anchorage, Alaska and just finished my freshmen year at Dartmouth College, where I plan to be an Engineering major.

As with my blog entries I'll end with a quote, undoubtedly about cycling:

It never gets easier, you just go faster
-- Greg LeMond

Avon Lake, OH

So my first time through Pennsylvania... We got into Avon Lake, a suburb of Cleveland, yesterday and we spent today a build site in East Cleveland. Yesterday was an interesting ride because we went through East Cleveland (not the best part of the city) and through downtown. I am pretty comfortable in traffic so the latter was nothing noteworthy, so my story of the day comes from East Cleveland. So this area of town is as I said before not the best, lots of boarded up houses and the like. A couple block in I decided that I really needed to find a toilet. So I was biking with Eric, Katrina, and Reed (a Dartmouth mob to say the least), and luckily I wasn't the only one feeling the need for a bathroom. So we first checked out a natural food store, definatly no bathroom. I then went into every gas station mini mart for about 2 miles with no luck. At each one the scene was always the same. Everyone in the store would stop what they were doing and look at the small scrawny white kid dressed in tight colorful spandex and a bike helmet with funny looking glasses. Needless to say, I didn't fit in, at all. So about 20 minutes into our search we find a Subway store and go in - I see the friendly bathroom sign and try to go in, it's locked, we wait around for a couple minutes only to find out, it was out of order, great. Then I tried a pizza place in the same mall, no luck. Our over half hour search finally came to an end with a McDonald's about 3 miles from where we first saw the natural food store.

After miles and miles of rough road, we got to Avon Lake (after a "flat tire" that ended in ice cream). The church was wonderful, what was even better was we got to stay in host homes. So for two nights (we had a build day) we got a warm bed, home cooked breakfast and did I mention a bed? or that bed I'm sleeping in? Thank you to all the host families especially the Fischers for bring us into your homes.

On our build day in East Cleveland (again) we were hauling dirt around all day (very glamorous) but the Habitat house next door was sponsored by the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball organization and a bunch of stadium and admin workers (I think) were there and I got to talking with one and he asked if we had gone to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I said no and he asked if we'd like to, and I answered "sure". So minutes later he had called up a friend of his at the Hall of Fame and had gotten all of us free tickets for after our work was done! So that was defintely the highlight of the day, seeing all sorts of music memorabilia (and Dad, I got a picture with some of Jerry Garcia's guitars).

If anyone reading is wondering what the heck a cyclist needs on a cross country trip, it is chamois cream, keeps the saddle sores away and makes the butt feel better at the end of the day. Especially Assos Chamois Cream, probably a rarity besides a some bike shops, but it is the gold standard!

It is time for me to go to bed to get ready for our first over 90 mile day, maybe our first century, depends how much we get lost :P.


There is something uncanny in the noiseless rush of the cyclist, as he comes into view, passes by, and disappears.
— Popular Science, 1891

Westfield, NY

We are over 700 miles now! We are now in a small town in Westfield, NY, a cool 85 mile trip from Niagara Falls. We were in Niagara for the 4th and I must say, their fireworks were lackluster at best. But we did have some great Chinese food and walk around the Canadian side covered in casinos and too many lights. We had so much time thanks to our short 18 mile day into Niagara, sadly it was made longer by the fact I got my first flat (a pinch flat) right off the bat. But that was fixed quickly, but my tube was defective so I had to borrow Isaiah's tube.

Our route today led us through Buffalo, NY. and I was reminded how much I like driving in the city. I had a lot of fun even though we stopped every 300 feet for a red light. John, John, Bobby and I stopped at a Frank Lloyd Wright estate along the Seaway Trail along Lake Erie. I guess I would call it "Great", it was pretty big, I'll give it that. So far on our trip we have had 4 total days with no rain, the last two days were fortunately included there, so our 4th was enjoyable and our trip around with the Canuks.

So I'd like to say thank you to my mom and my grandma for their packages at the past maildrops as well as Mary Lee Griswold for her donation and Linda and David Duff for their donation and visiting us in Indian Lake. They brought us all fruit, chocolate and other foodstuffs, it was AWESOME!!! It helped me get through my tough day.

Thank you again to all the people I've talked to and who have helped me, I am having a great summer!

When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair or the future of the human race.
-- H.G. Wells

Rochester, this time it's in New York

We had our third build site and fourth build day today. Like our Portsmouth build, we were doing a lot of lawn work. This time we cut down a ton of brush in the back yard getting ready for a new Habitat family to move in and for another house to get build on the property later.

The last few days have been few and far between for internet, mostly I can get on for only a few seconds, not enough to write a blog entry. From Rochester, VT we went to Silver Bay, NY, crossing Lake Champlain via a cable ferry and we stayed in probably the swankiest (is that spelled right, or even a word?) YMCA in the world. It wasn't just like a workout place with some beds - it was a full on resort, with full meals, swimming in Lake George, kayaking in said lake, sailing, archery, tennis, and my favorite - shuffleboard. A bunch of us decided that we should try our hand at shuffleboard, and even though it felt like I had aged 60 years and should be on a cruise boat, it was a lot of fun, and I was doing pretty well.

On the way to Sliver Bay we stopped at an ice cream shop and I got a large oreo milkshake (sooo good) and figured out that I could take the waterbottle out of my vertical bottle cage and put it in my jersey pockets and then put my milkshake in my water bottle cage, it was genius, pure genius. I could make everyone jealous as I biked by drinking my milkshake at the same time, especially when the thermometer on my bike computer showed 100 F. Later in the day it started raining somewhat hard and I came up on Quang who had stopped because he hadn't seen anyone in a while and wanted to make sure he wasn't lost. So I offered him part of my milkshake for some energy (even though it was raining) and his response was "No thanks" then he thought for a few seconds and then said: "who am I kidding I am dead tired and someone is offering me a milkshake, of course I want some".

We had several other interesting days, days of pouring rain, days of huge hills, days of both, but luckily it has started to flatten out so our newly acquired skill (for most people) of pacelining will come in handy. We are still working out the kinks of the paceline, like I went straight on into a rock because it wasn't pointed out. I was fine, my wheel is out of true a bit and I had to drop back from the paceline to put my waterbottle back in the cage and I got to spend the next 20 miles to lunch trying to catch the pace line by myself. I came within 30 seconds but never did... It was a long day.

Another day one rider, Zach Hill, replaced a total of 5 tubes in one day, yes five (he also got 2 flats the next day). On his first flat the van left the floor pump with him with the intent to pick it up again, but Chris forgot to, so I carried the floor pump (a large pump) the 32 miles to lunch... It was an interesting day for all.

So I have had requests for pictures, but since I am not taking a ton and may other people are taking good ones I'll just use other people's. Here is a photo of Pen and I putting up a rain diverter at the Portsmouth build. We pulled up the shingles and the put down the rain diverter underneath them, a long process.

At our next build site in Lebanon, I also did roof work, this time it was much higher up and on a much steeper roof. I don't have any pictures of me doing work just yet, but I'm sure there are cool ones.

Also from that build site I was quoted in the local newspaper, along with some cool photos. The article was in the Foster's Daily Democrat from Dover, NH.

Here is another photo of me from our first day, some of us took a minor detour to Maine to get this wonderful picture (and notch another state)

That is all, we are off to see a movie in Rochester since it's the first big town we've been in so we might as well take advantage of it.




Mankind has invested more than four million years of evolution in the attempt to avoid physical exertion. Now a group of backward-thinking atavists mounted on foot-powered pairs of Hula-Hoops would have us pumping our legs, gritting our teeth, and searing our lungs as though we were being chased across the Pleistocene savanna by saber-toothed tigers. Think of the hopes, the dreams, the effort, the brilliance, the pure force of will that, over the eons, has gone into the creation of the Cadillac Coupe de Ville. Bicycle riders would have us throw all this on the ash heap of history.
--P.J. O'Rourke

Rochester, VT

So we went up up up today, and then down down down. Rochester Gap was our route from Lebanon, NH to Rochester, VT with a large, steep uphill (apparently the most difficult day of the trip) followed by a long downhill. Since I am a climber (during cycling races) today was very fun for me. It was difficult, I'd estimate grades of about 15% maybe, I'm always bad a estimating gradations. In addition to that there was a bit of rain, and on the downhill there was a ton of rain. Not only did that mean I rolled into Rochester sopping wet and cold, but I wore down my break pads, luckily they are fairly easy to replace. In Rochester there is an awesome little bike shop, with some very knowledgeable and nice mechanics, they have all sorts of cool things including a drawbridge that you can pedal up and down, and some tall bikes too (two bikes welded on top of each other). It's called Green Mountain Bicycles, a definite must see if you're in Rochester. There are a ton of other cool shops, including the bakery with free wifi with some darn good chocolate cookies that go well with cool milk. It was a good day.

The last two days I have been working on the Upper Valley Habitat for Humanity build site in Norwich, VT. We put up a second layer of plywood on the roof with an air layer underneath to keep the shingles (which will go on next). That wouldn't be too bad except the roof was at like a 60 degree angle so we had to keep putting up supports for ourselves as we reached the top of the roof, which we finally did. Since I am a bit nervous about heights this was a good way for me to get over that, which I did since it would have been slow work otherwise. Unlike some Habitat sites where volunteers seem to just be doing menial tasks while other more experience carpenters do the actual work, I felt like I was an important part of the team, at the end of the day we actually made something more than just a clean floor or smoothed dirt, it was great. We got great support from the Lebanon community, showers at the local health club, wonderful meals every day from different churches and the Lebanon Rotary, and great hosts who were super enthusiastic about us being there.

That will probably be the only posting from Vermont since tomorrow we are heading into New York, where we get to go over the state line on a ferry.

This is not Disneyland, or Hollywood. I'll give you an example: I've read that I flew up the hills and mountains of France. But you don't fly up a hill. You struggle slowly and painfully up a hill, and maybe, if you work very hard, you get to the top ahead of everybody else.
-- Lance Armstrong

Dartmouth!

So we are now in Lebanon, NH - a short bicycle jaunt away from Dartmouth, which has internet and friends. The last few days have been quite the journey so I guess I'll start from now and work backwards...

Today we biked from New London to Lebanon. Isiah and I were sweeps, meaning we were the last ones out and last ones in. We started a good 20 minutes after everyone else so we could get a good workout in, which ended up being mostly downhill. We had a great time, until the rain came, but that was still fun. I got soaked, I had puddles in my shoes, but somehow I was having fun. It was great until the last few miles until the two riders in front of us, Arianna and Zach decided to take I-89 instead of Route 10. Small panic and heart attack then occurred, we called the van to pick them up on the side of the highway, but in the meantime they got off the highway and all was saved, crisis averted. We ended up in the sun and drying out and we all got back to the church in good time and we all had a great time. Dinner was wonderful, best dinner so far, absolutely wonderful. And now I'm at Dartmouth hanging out writing this blog.

The New London day was pretty uneventful, sorry about that. However our first biking day was different. Going into Concord was a very tough 65 mile, very hilly route. What makes it worse was there was a group of about 9 people who were in front and we saw the van going past us, with our lunches - not so bad yet, lunch is just ahead of us. But then we saw the van drive past us the other way with the guy saying "balkjafdweasdlf" or something like that. So we just pressed on and about 5/10 miles later we all pulled off and decided to call the van to see what was up, we thought lunch was supposed to be at mile 35, we were far past that at that time. Apparently what he yelled out was "turn around lunch is this way", but since we were only a cool 12 miles from Concord we pressed on, writing humerous complains about our lack of lunch. We eventually stopped at Arnies and got some homemade ice cream and other wonderful lunches. This was a tough ride, even for me, the racer, so I am very impressed with the people who had very little cycling experience, they did great, and fun was had by all, well maybe not, but everyone had high spirits and no one wanted to quit.

that is all
happy cycling!

Portsmouth

So Bike and Build has officially started. We have had three days in Portsmouth, our first orientation half-day, our second day of a short bike and some clinics, and we just finished our third day of orientation with our first build. We have a great group, everyone seems to be getting along and we are having a great time.

Our first day was just some basic introductions and rule along with some free play time. Then at night we went to the Chuckie Cheese's right next to the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church where we are staying.

The second day we woke up at the fresh hour of 7:30 (or something like that) it was very early nonetheless, but not as early as the rest of the summer. We all had a hearty breakfast of bagels and Cheerios and then it was off to learn about bikes. I actually ended up teaching the bike clinic since it seems that I'm one of the more experienced bike mechanics on the trip. I had a nice presentation on how to mount a tire and change a tube then we all got to practice that for a while, especially since many people had bought aftermarket tires for their bike. I then went over a basic clean/lube/inspection of the main parts of your bike so that every one can keep their bikes working well. After we all go that one figured out we got our bikes in working condition and a representative of the American League of Cyclists or something like that. We learned about hand signals, safety etc. And in the middle of the talk a UPS truck pulled up with Ian's bike so I did a quick bike build before our first ride (the shakedown ride). It was 10ish miles through Portsmouth. We kept it pretty slow and we all rode as a group. The route wasn't the best, at one point 30 cyclists had to cross four lanes of traffic to get to the left hand turn lane, along with going through several four way stops (that had traffic). We all arrived back at the church safe and sound. We then had a wonderful dinner at another church in Portsmouth. There was no Chuckie that night (much to our dismay) but we did build a fort out of sleeping bags and other random things and watched Akeelah and the Bee then went to bed.

Today was another early morning (6:30 I think). We drove out to Farmington, NH where we worked on a Habitat build site. It was pretty exciting, we got to meet the Director of the Department of Housing and Urban Development for New England (turns out he was a cat 3 racer in Washington DC, pretty cool). There was also a reporter and photographer for the daily newspaper in the Farmington area, so I very well could have my first quote and picture in the paper. Throughout the day I helped to: install a doorknob, put down some plastic (glamorous ain't it), the put a rain diverter on the roof of two houses so you can now walk out the door and not get water dripping down your shirt, spread some dirt... a lot of dirt..., and finally pounded some nails for a shed. Overall a good day. We then went to the local middle school took showers and came back to the church. I must get off the computer and help paint the BnB trailer.

It's going to be a great summer, I am so excited and we have great group of riders.

When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair or the future of the human race.
-- H.G. Wells

Packing List

So I thought that people must be wondering: what in the world is he taking? So here is a packing list. Just for reference we have a small trailer in which we can keep most of said things while we're biking. We will also be sleeping in schools and churches as well as in tents.
So here is the official BnB packing list (the comments are my own)

CLOTHING
4 pairs underwear
2 T-shirts (man those guys are going to get trashed by the end of the year)
B&B T-shirt (they give this to us)
3 pairs socks
2 pairs shorts
1 pair of pants
1 pair sneakers
Sandals / flip-flops
Bathing suit
1 set long underwear
Hat or cap
Sweater/Sweatshirt
Pajamas or sleepwear

CYCLING CLOTHING
3 pairs cycling shorts
1 B&B cycling jersey (one jersey all summer... don't worry I'll wash it everyday)�
3 pairs cycling socks
Cycling shoes
Cycling gloves
Rain jacket
Leg warmers or cycling tights
Arm warmers
Warm layer

PERSONAL ITEMS
Toiletries
Sunscreen
Quick-dry towel
Camera
MP3 player / iPod
Book or journal
Chamois cream
Cell phone

EQUIPMENT
Sleeping bag
Air mattress (we also get this free, awesome a thermarest!)
Sunglasses
Flashlight or headlamp
Compression sack
Mesh bag for laundry

CYCLING EQUIPMENT
Bicycle (well duh...)
Helmet
Air pump
2 or 3 water bottles and cages (I'll go with 2, there's no way to get 3 on our bicycles without welding)
Patch kit
Bike lock
Hydration pack (ie Camelbak)
Clipless pedals
Cycling computer
Seat bag
3 spare inner tubes (I have like 8 that I found lying around... I think I'm set)
Multi-use bike tool
2 extra spokes
3 tire levers (okay yeah, I am bringing two, one extra in case I loose the other, you don't need 3 tire levers to change a tube, only one, or in some cases none)
Chain lube

A couple things I added to the list
Bike Grease - no mention on any of the Bike and Build materials about bike maintenance about greasing threads, something you should ALWAYS do.
Locktite - so said bolts won't rattle out, per se on bottle cages or cleats, substitute for grease.
4/5/6 mm Y allen wrench - the most useful bike tool made, can loosen or tighten almost everything on a bike (well a newer bike).
Extra Tires - well stock tires, I bought new Continental GatorSkins so I have the two ones that came on the bike.
Dartmouth Jersey - another clean jersey is never a space waster.
Road Rash first aid kit with antibiotic ointment and pain relievers (the most important things) - you can never have too much safety.
Laptop - (even though BnB discourages it) so some of the other bloggers and I can write these lovely messages.
Some Food - it was left over at the end of the year, may as well use it now.
Frisbee - always a necessity.

That is all, I think.

Bicycling is a big part of the future. It has to be. There's something wrong with a society that drives a car to workout in a gym."
-- Bill Nye the Science Guy

Back Stateside

So four more days before the start of my great adventure! So in the time between Dartmouth spit me out of my first year (what a great year it was) and Bike and Build starts at 1 pm in Portsmouth, my mother and I took a short trip to Iceland. So I know what you're saying - what place can you go on vacation that has less people and worse weather than Alaska... Iceland. It was a great trip to a wonderful country. We spent eight days driving around the Ring Road (Hwy 1) seeing the sites. Anyway, all around great trip. After that we drove to New Paltz, NY where we are staying with some family friends for the time before the 18th. Today we went in to New York City, saw more sites, visited the city. It was the first time I had been there. I must say there were a lot of people (who would've thought?), and stores selling everything - I mean a whole store devoted to yogurt, come on... I heard some people talking it was very good actually.

Tomorrow we will be heading down to the city again to see a Yankees game, last season in Yankee Stadium, so no time like the present to see one. So that will be more driving (I seem to be doing a lot of it now, but hopefully won't do much more for 2 and a half months). Other than that, yesterday I was biking around New Paltz in my Dartmouth jersey seeing how the bike was working, only a few things to fix, but biking to the local pool an older guy rolled down his window and yelled "Go Dartmouth" - undoubtedly an alum. Dartmouth is a wonderful big community, if you see someone wearing Dartmouth clothing you can always go up and ask "What year are you?" and talk about Hanover (which in fact happened to me on the Boston subway with a lady who was a '98 I think).

So next report will probably be from Portsmouth at the start of Bike and Build. And I would like to thank some more donors Linda Campbell, Tom Beck, William Campbell, and the Filibertis (who I'd also like to thank for letting me store stuff and house me and my mom for a night on our way to New Paltz from Iceland).

Happy biking and a quote to end it all

Cycling, of course, is the eternal pursuit of pain and discomfort.
-- BikeSnobNYC.blogspot.com

Iceland

So just so anyone reading this knows, I will be in Iceland from the 4th through the 13th. I won't have internet access there - thus no way to update this blog. Don't worry eventually I'll have a post about my trip when I get back. Just don't expect any updates anytime soon.

If you brake you don't win
--Mario Cipollini

COVER story

So I am officially finished with classes this year! I still have finals, but classes are over. I turned in final projects, papers and problem sets, it's a great feeling. Last Saturday drove with four other Dartmouth Bike and Builders (Kate Davison '07, Pen Vineyard '11, Craig Lee '08, and Reed Stephens '11) to Randolph Center, VT to help with a COVER project. I can't remember if I have talked about COVER before but essentially COVER takes existing homes for those in need and makes necessary repairs. This time we were working on a trailer belonging to a lady living in rural Vermont. We were working on two major projects, the first was to waterproof the roof, which consisted of scraping off all the old stuff and then reapplying a coating. The second project was to build a porch so she can get in and out of her front door. I worked on the porch for the entire day so I'm not really sure what was going on ontop of the roof.

There was one post that was already there from either some other workers or the previous deck, but it was pretty solidly in there. We then dug down to put in another post but much to our despair there were two huge rocks that weren't going anywhere. Luckily we were able to slip the post between the two rocks and it was perfectly placed. While that was going on, Kate and I put some siding that was missing under the door. After that was all done with we put up the frame of the deck and I cut the horizontal braces with a chop saw and we put those into place. As people were finishing up the nail pounding (at the end of the day we found a nailgun and air compressor we could have used, but oh well), I cut a few of the floor boards for the top of the deck/porch. All that needs to be finished is a few more boards put up, the stairs, and a railing (okay that sounds kinda like a lot) but it was a great experience.

It is definitely something that is missing from a lot of affordable housing campaigns - a way to fix up places that don't need to be completely replace. Many groups such as Habitat for Humanity have a very define (and successful) model of building a new house with the new owners putting in a lot of time and effort and then in the end they sell the house at cost with a no interest mortgage. But how about people who already own their own house but have a leaky roof or rotting floors? That's where an organization like COVER will come in - they will find volunteers to help fix the problem at no cost to the owner. I just wish there were bigger organizations like that, but since they have no way of recouping the cost of construction I think it's hard to make larger organizations like that. We did what we could to reuse old wood that wasn't rotted and be as efficient with things like siding so we wouldn't waste anything, but I could see how getting all this wood would be difficult, relying mostly on donations.

In other news I picked out my classes for next fall - Engineering Sciences (ENGS) 21: Intro to Engineering (basically we get to make a big project), ENGS 33: Solid Mechanics , and I'm on the waitlist for Government 30: A seminar on American Elections and Voting Behavior. If I don't get into GOVT 30, I'm not quite sure what I want to do, I might take a French class, or an Anthropology class... I don't know, we shall see.

I've gone pro

well sort of. I won a dollar, a whole dollar, from a prime (pronounced preem for non-cyclists). Basically the Claremont Points Series Race is a "criterium" held on a quarter mile car racing track. Doing the A race, I made my way around the track approximately 60 times. The beauty of this race is, if you get dropped, you can just go to the top of the track and wait for the pack to come around again. Since I drove down and got an approximately 26.9 second warm up, I was not so prepared for the off-the-bat sprinting my wonderful Dartmouth teammates did (they had biked down and I drove their extra stuff down the 20 miles or so to Claremont). So about lap 5, I got dropped, and instead of stopping and getting lapped, I decided to keep going and catch up. Another guy who had gotten dropped and I had a good pace going, trading off every lap, and eventually Ben Jones from Dartmouth joined up after letting us lap him. Eventually the guy who gave out the primes yelled "Dollar for you three, and rang the bell" so the next lap we sprinted out for the dollar and I won, so I got a dollar prize money, ergo I received money for cycling, meaning I am a professional cyclist (yeah it's a stretch, but hey I'll take whatever I can get).

In the end, once I got warmed up it was really fun. I got comfortably into the pack, even took a turn at the front when the pace slowed up a bit. And hey I was drafting of a National Champion, Toby Marzot, not bad, considering how much better shape he is in than I am. So overall a good race, can't complain.

I'd like to thank the Bradley's for their donation to the cause!

EDIT: Don't worry mom I won't get kicked out of NCAA competition, you can accept prize money in one sport and still be an amateur in another and compete in NCAA

Ride Bikes! Ride Bikes!

So this last week or so has been quite busy and I haven't had the time to sit down and write something up so here goes. A week or so ago I ordered 250 business cards from VistaPrint.comThats the business card there. I plan on giving them out to people I meet on the road if they want to learn more about affordable housing and Bike and Build. So that is really cool.

Also this weekend I had my first USCF sanctioned race. Beforehand I got a full USCF license (instead of just a collegiate one), and using my 6 mass starts at collegiate races and half a dozen more at home in Alaska I was able to upgrade to Category 4. So then early Saturday morning I went down to Sunapee, NH and raced 46 miles twice around the lake. The race went very well, I narrowly avoided one crash on the first lap and settled into a place about 2/3rds the way back of the pack, far enough forward I wouldn't get dropped but far enough back that I wasn't breaking much wind. The one downside was I wasn't in a very good position to get on breaks or finish well, but since it was my first USCF race I wasn't all that worried. The finish was all uphill which allowed me to gain about a dozen or so places because I am a pretty good climber. I was still not in the right gear and wasn't able to move up more than I could have. But a 21st place finish in a field of 80 or so, not too bad for the first time.

Looking forward to tomorrow I'll be going down to Claremont, NH for a training criterium race. It should be fun, nothing too serious, but I'll be racing the A race (there's only A and B) so I get to race against the big dogs tomorrow! The race is around a quarter mile go-cart racing track, so that will also be fun, so if I get dropped I can just catch back on the next time around.

That is about all, oh and I finally built up a singlespeed campus bike for myself. And for a closing quote:

Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride.
-- John F. Kennedy

peace, love, and bikes

It's a long way to the top...

if you want to Rock and Roll...

Also it's a long way to the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge from Hanover. This weekend is DOC (Dartmouth Outing Club) Spring weekend so there were tons and tons of trips (none of which I went on for some reason), but Saturday night concluded with everyone meeting up at the Lodge and having hearty dinner, dancing to some bluegrass music and then either going home or staying overnight at the Lodge. In my desperate attempt to be social Saturday afternoon I biked up to the Lodge. Two other skiers and I made the three hour trek, which was all uphill, and we had a headwind. It was one of the harder rides I've done not racing because we pushed the entire time in an effort to get to the lodge for 6pm dinner (we got there at 6:15, coincidentally dinner was at 6:30, leaving me just enough time to soak my sore calves in the cold stream). A good time was had by all, great food, dancing to bluegrass music, and general revelry celebrating the start of spring/summer.

So in other news I just bought a full on USCF (United State Cycling Federation... I think) license, and then was able to upgrade to Cat 4 with my ECCC races and races back home in Alaska. So that means that I will be able to race this Saturday with people who have actually raced before, and possibly win some prize money if I do well!

Well there is lots going on in Hanover, mostly because it is sunny and I also have a lot of school work to do... I wish I could get out and ride everyday, but that just isn't feasible, so I'll have to settle for 3 or 4 longer rides a week. Oh well. Oh yeah I finally got my physical for BNB so that's one more thing crossed of the list. Now I just need to complete my sweat equity (8 hours of work with an affordable housing group before the trip) and I'll be all set. Hopefully I will be able to complete most of that with an organization in White River Junction called COVER, they fix up homes for those who can't afford to do it themselves. Information about them can be found here. I also might do some work with the Upper Valley Habitat for Humanity working on a project in Norwich.

In biking news, Jen Stebbins '09 from Dartmouth won the US Collegiate Nationals Division 2 Crit! Yay Jen way to kick butt.

Also thanks to Chris and Mimi Beck for their donation which pushed me over the $7000 mark!

Hey it's not normal mail it's Royal Mail!

So nothing that new and exciting in my life... But it is sunny out so I can enjoy the outdoors. I finished my physics mid-term last night and am just about done with my engineering computer science program that's due tomorrow. I can't remember whether or not I wrote this on here, but my Continental GatorSkins came in the mail all the way from across the pond. I was pleasantly surprised by the quick shipping from the UK (but then again, New Hampshire is pretty close to England... at least compared to Alaska). I am going to put in a plug for Probikekit.com, shameless I know, but I'm not getting any money out of the deal... I ordered two sets of the folding Gators from them for a very good price and they came very quickly in a nice little blue Royal Mail bag.

There are still quite a few things I need to get, like another pair of Dartmouth bib shorts, if there are any left, a good compressible pillow, and some other things that I can't remember right now... But wait there's more, in the past week I've got a couple more donations. So I'd like to thank Jeff Scott, Alice and Gunnar Knapp, and Meg Kremer and Mark Sterns for their support of myself, Bike and Build, and affordable housing causes across the country.

More Quotes

It stopped raining in Hanover and I want to ride my bike, but I have things to do. To remedy this problem, here are a few cycling quotes.

When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking.
-- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1896

It never gets easier, you just go faster.
-- Greg LeMond

l'Enfer Du Nord

Final collegiate bike races of the season... :( But it was awesome that the races were hosted at Dartmouth. The weekend started with a TTT (I wasn't going to do it, but I was needed to complete a team). It was hard, by far the most difficult TTT I had done (up the hills on Rt. 10 at River Road and Chieftain Hill for those from the Hanover area). So after that my legs were pretty shot. Later in the day we had a crit right on campus - we had frat brothers cheering for Dartmouth riders off their porches! For the weekend I moved up a category to race the harder road race course. So needless to say my mediocre crit abilities were even more mediocre in men's C. I did alright considering I was pretty tired already from the TTT and racing up a category.

Sunday was quite an epic road race. It was the longest circuit in ECCC history, going up two very formidable climbs, a total of 51 miles. I was feeling pretty good until the first hill came up, then I dropped like a rock to near the back of the pack... My legs were pretty dead from the last two races. But the following downhill was some of the most fun I had had on a bike to that point. I got in a paceline and we were able to make up a ton of time on the main pack, catching them by the bottom of the next climb. Since the receiver part of my computer broke off last weekend in my crash I didn't know how fast our paceline was going, but I heard someone say over 50 mph (sorry Mom if I'm scaring you, I wasn't in mortal danger). However, pushing hard in the downhill makes it difficult to keep with the pack in the next uphill... so I dropped off again. The great thing about bike races and my bad leg strength and good cardio strength is that I can be pushing as hard as my legs can go, but be able to hold a conversation with someone else. My trip up the final long, very long, hill was quite entertaining - I caught a few people, met some new people, had some chats, it was fun! Then the next downhill was even more fun than the first. I wasn't able to keep my place since I didn't push as hard as I should have over the top of the hill, but it was long and twisting and I was alone so I didn't feel bad using the whole road. It was sooooo much fun, it even made up for the horrible climb that preceded it. After the downhill I met up with a group of people and we pacelined really hard for the rest of the 15 or 20 miles left (again no bike computer). Sadly I saw the finish line ahead but didn't really comprehend it, so I finished last of my group... I finished exactly 8 minutes out of the lead, so pretty good, not great, but not a poor showing by any means.

After the weekend was over, with our great performances by Men's A riders, as well as everyone else, Dartmouth won the Eastern Championship!!! First time in a long time, that has happened apparently. If you'd like to look at results go to http://www.velocityresults.net/results/ and you can find finish line photos of the winners and results for all year.

And there's also Bike and Build stuff! I have fell far behind with all this racing recognizing people who have supported this wonderful cause. So here goes a long list! First there's my Mom, thanks Mom! Also a big thank you to my Uncle Bob and Aunt Karen for their generous donation. Thanks to the McMahons and the McCambridges as well as Petter and Janet Jahnsen. Jane Burri and Peter Sapin, and Gordon and Linda Wetzel also deserve thanks, and finally, last and certainly not least, Larry and Mary Lou Pratt!

phew lots of names! That means we can help more and more people! With everything that Bike and Build has received, everyone has donated $6542! That is AWESOME! So I guess I'll have to set a new goal... In the month and a half I'd like to try to get another $1000 to bring my total to $7500 before the start of the trip on June 18th! Only 50 more days!

Thanks everyone, and happy biking

Rubber side up

For the record, this is the second time I've typed this us. My computer crashed and lost the first version...

Last weekend was the UVM bike races, the last weekend before L'Enfer du Nord, the ECCC championships at Dartmouth. The first day was the TTT and road race, the second was the crit on the UVM campus. The TTT went fine, we didn't go all that hard, were very unorganized, and ended up halfway down the field. I was more excited for the road race though since it ended on a 20% climb up Mt. Philo outside of Burlington, VT. Being a smaller, 145 lbs biker with a semi-low gear, I like climbs. UVM has a bunch of wonderful race courses around Burlington, but instead of using the many scenic paved roads, they decided that it would be cool for a third of the race to be on a dusty, potholed, packed dirt road. Don't get me wrong, I like dirt roads, but not as much for long parts of races. This wasn't a short connector between two awesome pavement roads, this was a lot of dirt for no real reason...

I started the road race feeling GREAT. I could move up and down in the pack with little effort, I sat about 5 or 6 wheels back from the front of the pack (so somewhere around 15th). I probably should have been higher up in the pack, but I wanted to get some other Dartmouth riders together before moving up there. Around five and half miles into the race (on the dirt) there was a long somewhat winding downhill with more than it's fair share of potholes. Just my luck, the Harvard rider sitting two wheels up from me hit a pothole head on and started to crash. The guy slightly behind him and to the right (we were on the far left side of the pack) from Yale hit him, and then next came me. I had three choices, swerve right and take out most of the pack, go left and go head on into a tree, or just go straight through the two of them. As I really had no time to react (and my eyes were probably closed by then accepting my fate) I went head on, without really breaking, into the two riders and their bikes. After the impact I remembered a Yale rider going over me as I looked up at the sky, thinking "oh man that hurt a bit".

After that I got up and made sure everyone was fine (there were 4 crash victims), no big injuries to report, and after a minute or so, I checked out my bike, surprisingly it was ridable. After fixing the seat and picking up my water bottle I set off again, solo, with some road rash on my elbow, upper arm and knee. I was able to complete the race, but without the benefit of a pack, around 12 minutes out of the lead.

The next day my luck turned a bit, I was able to have the best Crit for me ever. I finished at the back of the lead pack, much better than last weekend's off the back, getting pulled from the race.

So for now I'm looking ahead to next weekend's races, while nursing my bruised and bloodied (well not too much blood) body.

Rubber side down

"Rubber side down", seems like one of the only things I did right this weekend at Boston Beanpot Classic races. I came into the weekend thinking I would do much better than I actually ended up, really no one to blame but myself here. Taking time consuming classes and only riding... three times before the TTT (team time trial for those not into racing) was probably not the best idea. My cardiovascular system seems fine, I can get plenty of oxygen and I'm not hyperventilating or anything, just my leg muscles don't seem to like going that fast... I would stand up to sprint and my legs would feel like dead weights. On the bright side, I had a blast - the cycling team is a lot of fun and the TTT did go well, my team got 5th. I will definitely be doing more riding before the UVM races. I did achieve one of my goals of not falling in corner #2 of the Beanpot Crit, it actually was surprisingly easy especially since my field was going to slow around the corners...

So yes, conclusion of my long rambling, nonsensical post is that I am slow and somewhat out of shape, but bike racing is fun and spending the entire weekend with new friends is equally awesome, so go ride bikes! It will make you feel great!

Also a few notes, I would like to thank my Aunt Mary Lee, Nan & Andy Satter, and Linda & David Duff for their generous donations in support of my ride. My goal by the beginning of the trip is to reach $5000, which is definitely possible. I think with these last donations I should be up around $4700 so far. Thanks to all my donors for their support!

So I guess I forgot to mention what bike I will be riding across the country on... whoops. It is a Specialized Allez Triple (yes I am not giving in to the racing part of my brain that said get a double). It will be outfitting (besides with stock componentry) with my racing pedals, Look Keo Carbons, and my saddle (of which I have two since I like it so much), a Selle Italia C2. Do I have a picture of it on my camera, yes - do I have a way to get said picture onto my computer, no, since I can't find the cable, it is lost somewhere in the depths of my room. So the picture from the website will have to suffice.
Of note, the Specialized website say it has a carbon seatpost, it looks awfully like an aluminum seatpost wrapped with carbon, but it all works for me, I don't really care that much...

Now go ride your bike!

$4000!!!

YES, so I forgot to look on the Bike and Build website before posting that last post and it looks like over the weekend I have reached by $4000 goal. A super thanks to Mary Jo and Bob Cadieux, the Klopfers, Tammy Clayton, and Tim and Anne Stone! Their help pushed me over the $4000 mark. If you haven't donated yet but were thinking about it, definitely do it! 100% of all your donation will be put to use to house families facing housing problems, no administrative costs or anything taken out.

So I looked back and it seems like I forgot to mention my Grandma Denman in my long lists of thank yous. So thank you very much Grandma for all your support, not just in the form of a check, but also backing me mentally as well. All your help is greatly appreciated, and I'm sorry I didn't put you in the first time.

Just a few stats, in 2001 98 million Americans (that's 41% of all Americans!!) are facing either cost burdens (paying more that 30% of their income on housing, the general line used by pretty much everyone in the government and NGOs), overcrowding, or a physical inadequacy of housing. 11 million of those are "worst-case needs". That means they recieve no government assistance, make less that 50% of the area medium income, pay more than 50% of their income on housing, and live in housing with severe physical inadequacies (no hot water, electricity, toilets, bathtubs or showers). Of those 11 million, 3.6 million are children, 1.4 million are elderly, and 1.3 million are disable adults. That is what your donation goes to. This are solutions to this, there is very little adequate affordable housing, and groups like Habitat for Humanity and Rebuilding Together allow some of those 98 million Americans the opportunity to help build their own house, and buy it using a no-interest mortgage on their terms, for a selling price that is exactly equal to the price it took the build it, no mark ups, no profit. This system works, we just need more help! You can help.

19%

In keeping with our number titles. That is the peak hill gradient I climbed on a group ride with 6 other Dartmouth Cycling team members. I decided that in order to do well in the Boston Beanpot races this weekend, I should probably do some riding. Maybe I should have started out a little easier... This ride is called the "28 Miles of Hell", for those of you familiar with the Dartmouth area a description from Cosmo Catalano '04 can be found here. This ride consists of 5 of the hardest climbs in the immediate vicinity. Hills are normally my specialty, but being out of bike shape, not eating lunch, and the shear number and size of these hills made this a VERY difficult ride. I could barely stand up to shower afterward. You know it is going to be a difficult climb when you see at the bottom a sign that says "Trucks use low gear: 19% grade". In addition to the steepness, some of the hills were still covered in sand so whenever your back tire would go over a sandy patch you would skid out, almost causing me to start rolling backwards...

In other news, I probably won't be able to walk tomorrow, I plan on using every available elevator.

Quotes of the day

It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.
--Ernest Hemingway

I thought of that while riding my bike.
-- Albert Einstein on his theory of relativity

That is all.

92.05%

No, not the percent I just got on my last physics test, the progress I have made raising $4000. That comes out to be $3682 to be exact. If I reach $4000 and you still would like to donate, don't worry, you still can. Of the first $4000, some of that goes to administrative costs (yeah I know, but there are always other costs), but after $4000 one hundred percent of the donation goes to the Upper Valley Habitat for Humanity or one of the many other programs that we give grants to along the route. Speaking of which, if you know of an affordable housing project that is run or executed mainly by college aged young adults (18-25 is the range Bike and Build gives), let them know about these grants that Bike and Build gives. More information can be found on the grant part of the Bike and Build website.

On another note, I haven't yet thanked my latest donors. So a huge thank you to the Gerleks, the Hignites, Anchorage's favorite Fireweed 400 family team, the Cravez's, sadly I will miss it, some friends of mine were going to go for the 4 person mixed 200 mile record... but back to the thanking! Finally I need to thank Cammy and Scott Taylor, and my Aunt Mary and Uncle Jim for their generous donations!

So with my bike arriving I decided to make a list of all the stuff I need to get a hold of before I start biking. I just got another pair of nice armwarmers (these ones are merino wool and have Dartmouth and the D logo on them :D). Besides that I need to find me: some Conti GatorSkin Tires (I don't want too many flats), a bunch of tubes, some dry chain lube (I'm assuming it'll be pretty dry this summer), I'll have to see if I have space for a full on pillow, but I might need to find a compressible travel pillow if I'm cramped for space. Oh and a sweet color to paint my bike!

That is all for today. My posts will probably be pretty random until I can get a schedule down (a.k.a on the road), but I'll just post anything worthwhile before then on here when it comes up.

BIKE!

After a Bike and Build participant raises $1000, if they choose, Bike and Build will provide them with a road bike that they can use for the summer, and then keep after its wheels are dipped in the Pacific Ocean. I decided that while it would be nice to ride my race bike across country, if I fall I want to be comfortable I'm not going to scratch the carbon fiber (meaning it could catastrophically break at any point, a la my ski pole over spring break). So the bike is built, stock seat and pedals are on, which I will be removing once I am done racing for the year and my bike seat (which I LOVE) and my pedals (which I love too, but not as much), can be moved from race bike to BNB bike.

My experience with Zane's Cycles (who BNB ordered bikes through) was fine. I just told them what size bike I would be (it was easy since the 54cm has very similar geometry to my race bike) and they shipped it. Once it was packed up it only took 18 hours to get from Connecticut to Hanover. They packaged it up very well, it took a long time to get all the padding off, but after building it up and adjusting the derailers, I did notice one thing. Their instructions said to just put the seat tube in and the pedals on. But they were bone dry, no grease whatsoever. Me being the bike geek that I am - this was not a problem, slap on some Phil Wood Waterproof Grease to the seat tube and pedal threads and off I go, but for someone not so bike-obsessed as myself, who doesn't keep 3 oz (TSA approved :P) of bike grease within easy access, this might be a problem. It might not but it will probably be quite hard for them to remove their seat tube or pedals later. Besides the fact it would have been nice for Zanes to put in a little ketchup packet of grease, all is well and good with the bike.

Now I just need a name for, him or her... Also I am thinking of painting it so I can be a little unique, so I'll need a color too. If you have any suggestions feel free to comment or write me an email! YAY biking!

A few random thoughts...

So I am mailing out some more letters to all my lucky family and friends who may or may not even know who I am :P but I guess that's the nature of fundraising... I got a couple envelops back sometime over break since I apparently can't seem to be able to copy addresses down properly... and plain forgot to include some people in my vast switching of lists around (I seriously have 3 or 4 lists of people on my computer). So if you were for some reason, attuned to this blog, but didn't get a letter from me and I know your address, don't despair, one is coming shortly.

I'd like to send some thanks to Tony and Susan Knowles, Charlie Sassara and Siri Moss, Martin and Deborah Hansen and Chris McGinnis and Jackie Loree for their donations! :D In total I'm a little over three quarters the way there! Seems like my bike will be coming the upcoming weeks too!

Last night I got my race bike out and made sure everything still works, and then overnight we got a nice snow storm in Hanover... well so much for bike season starting.

It looks like I'll be doing three race weekends this spring: The Boston Beanpot Classic in two weeks, the UVM races the next week and Eastern Championships in Hanover the week after. It will be fun and good preparation for biking across country.

Hey, I can smile now

Just an update on everything for all those who wondering what I'm doing. I have recovered well from my wisdom teeth removal. I can eat most foods and I just have a little pain at the suture spots. I also would like to thank the Radoniches, Grandpa and Grandma Moxness, and Marian Fenimore for their generous donations. Now I'm heading off back to Dartmouth for Spring Term and preparing for Bike and Build.

The donations are coming!

I'd like to thank some people who recently gave me donations: The Comptons, Siri Moss, my Aunt Elizabeth, my Aunt Donna, and anyone who recently gave a donation that hasn't popped in the Bike and Build servers yet. With their donations and my own money, I have reached a donation total of $1321, only $2679 left. Just an update on me. I got my wisdom teeth removed today so I won't be doing anything in the near future. It's soup and smoothies for me now.

Thanks to all who have donated, I am really excited for this trip and thanks for helping make it happen.

Thanks!!!

I just wanted to say thanks to all my friends on facebook who have, or will be donating through my little application on my profile. I would also like to thank Susan and David Anstine, my first mail in donation, as well as my adviser David Ehrlich, the second donation. :) This is really exciting now that donations are coming in. For all my friends in Alaska, I am coming home tomorrow night until Monday the 24th. So yeah, thanks to Elizabeth and Anne for donating, there are possibly more but they are the only ones who've told me.

Thanks again to everyone who is donating! And if you have any questions feel free to e-mail me at anson@dartmouth.edu.

Yay biking, and yay going home to Alaska!

You know you want to send me mail :)

I am about to start my official fundraising effort and hopefully this blog will get a little more traffic. So I figured I should briefly explain my route and other trip logistics stuff. First off I have a route map from the Bike and Build website:

I will be leaving on June 18th from Portsmouth, New Hampshire and finishing on August 25th in Vancouver, British Columbia. We have a pretty detailed trip itinerary, which we may or may not be following completely. Here is the link to it. On that page you can also see the above image, and an explanation where your donations will go.

There are also pre-arranged mail drops along the route, and from what I hear care packages are the next best thing to seeing your friends and family along the route. In order to get any physical packages to me address them to:

Bike and Build
Anson Moxness
General Delivery
City, State, Zip

and put "Please hold for pickup on: DATE"
The locations are (and are available on the Bike and Build website)
- June 21 - New London, NH 03257
- June 28 - Indian Lake, NY 12842
- July 5 - Westfield, NY 14787
- July 11 - Plymouth, IN 46563
- July 19 - Pepin, WI 54759
- July 26 - Crookston, MN 56716
- August 2 - Culbertson, MT 59218
- August 9 - Cut Bank, MT 59427
- August 17 - Republic, WA 99166

That is about all for now, more updates later, and hopefully I'll be able to cut down on the length of these things...

Here we go

So my first post. I really have nothing to report other than I now have a blog. And there are 4 and a half months until I take off across country. It will be a grand old time. The snow in Hanover has kept me very busy skiing. Thanks to the snow gods, we had Dartmouth Winter Carnival Nordic ski races in Hanover for the first time in 4 years! That was the most interesting thing that went on in the last few weeks.

I guess before I start rambling I should introduce myself. Hi, I'm Anson Moxness. I am 19 and a freshmen... oh excuse me, first-year (we have to politically correct in our gender stigmatized terms) student at Dartmouth College. I was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska. I probably would still be there if there was a college where I could get a vigorous education, but sadly there isn't, so I came to New Hampshire. Right now I will probably be an engineering major, I also might minor in Anthropology.

I am primarily a Nordic skier, that's what I like to do, but I also just enjoy the outdoors. I started bike racing two summers ago and last year got myself (thanks to my job at REI) a very nice carbon race bike (which I will NOT be taking on Bike and Build). There are many more things about me but that seems a bit much for now.

I am really excited about the whole Bike and Build experience. The one thing I find somewhat daunting is the $4000 in fundraising. I'm not really sure where to start. I guess if you are reading this and feel generous and would like to donate any amount of money to the affordable housing cause click here and then select my name from the long list of people. Two thirds of the proceeds from the Northern US route will go to Habitat for Humanity branch in White River Junction, VT, just down the road from Hanover and Dartmouth. The remaining amount will be split among affordable housing groups along our route that we as a group will decide. A great cause for sure!

That is all, now back to my homework.... oh the life of a college student...