I want to do this one again. The best way for a group to join in is to volunteer for next year's ride. You are then guaranteed a spot for the following year and that way a whole group can ride together without being filtered out in the lottery. It looked like the volunteers had fun too and it's a beautiful area to visit!

I was glad Clare was able to come with me on this trip since I didn't have any riding partners for this ride. We stayed at the Lodge at Crystal Mountain which was also the 80 mile food station for the course. Nice accomodations with restaurant and pub, deer and elk. The couse this year was altered due to severe flood damage to Mt. Rainier National Park. Consequently we didn't actually ride around the mountain. Instead the course when from Enumclaw up to Sunrise Visitor Center and then made two out-and-back spurs on the decent, the first one a twelve mile round trip to Crystal Mountain, the second one a twenty mile round trip to the infamous "Forest Road 70" which began at the 100 mile mark and contained multiple 12% grades... not rollers, that offered as much hill climbing as anyone wanted. The reward at the food station at the end of this spur was chocolate filled croissants. I didn't pass it up when the volunteer there said "Go ahead and take two!" While STP attracted all types of riders on every imaginable wheeled craft, RamRod catered to the svelt and the sveltier. At one point I was passed by what must have been a bunch of Italian guys because their bikes were Pinarello, Colnago, Peggoretti, De Rosa, and Cervelo. I'm not kidding, one right after the other...I'm pretty sure these guys were supposed to be in the Pyrenees that day. But there were plenty of babyboomers, male and female, and I'm guessing that was the most numerous group represented. I started at 5:10am and finished at 5:10pm minus a four mile detour some of us took after missing a turn near the end. With that bonus mileage I totaled 148 for the day but felt good crossing the line. I did my share of suffering at certain points of the day though, but they seemed to pass and I avoided the post-ride misadventures of the STP. Look at the photos and tell me you don't want to do this next year! Jim