STP 2007 - Journey in Pictures

Three of us who started late, none of us had a camera! The first stop on the route was Kent REI - we stopped there for breakfast. Arvind thought it was no big deal

Why take a snap when I'm busy eating? Ravi concentrates on his banana ...

Group snap before we head out after breakfast. Sree needed some squatting - biking 204 miles was not enough exercise for his strong quads.

Mount Rainier was gorgeous as usual ... this view along the route was the highlight for me for the first day.

The Whole Foods lunch stop was very disappointing - very very disappointing.

We had to start anyway with an unsatisfied stomach ...

We took every opportunity to stop, cool-down and eat, while Ankur tried some meditation

Then we entered a nice shaded trail - first time out of road traffic.

The Lake on the side of the trail reminded us of our Burke-Gilman trail that we rode many times during our training rides.

Mount St. Helens was looking amazing in the afternoon sunshine ...

Little before we reached the 1/2 point - another mini-stop. Aparajita was embarrassed that we caught her eating!

Finally in Centralia - 100 mile point! 100 more to go ... Vineet gives two thumbs up to the ice-cream Sree and I are devouring

We felt cheated when we found out that Bethel church (our night stop) was about 5 more miles along the route than where we expected it to be! But we reached just in time for dinner!

It was time to put some ice packs on the sore knees before we head off to bed.

Fueling up for the 2nd day ... however, Aparajita is little suspicious of our plan.

The second day started with the Napavine hill - it was not that bad after all.

By the time we reached Lexington, we were hungry again and had to stand in a long line for food

The Foods was much better than previous day's lunch stop. Sangeetha was very angry that we took her picture, but Sudarshan smelt something fishy

Finally we crossed Washington border and entered Oregon - we conquered the bridge you can see behind us

Climbing up gradual but very long St. Helens hill was more painful - it didn't seem to have any end to it

As we kept going .... and going ...

And then we reached St. Helens School food stop

We started count down - 10 more miles to Portland ...

I finally made it to the finish line!

And didn't mind showing off my finisher badge ...!

It takes an effort to smile after biking 204 miles!

It was time for a shower

A warm shower after a long ride is very refreshing! Getting ready to head back to Seattle - this time not on bike though!