Apple Capital (Half) Century Ride
Yesterday I left Seattle around 10:30 am and headed to Wenatchee where I was meeting up with my friend, Brett, to do some bike riding.
I got about an hour away in North Bend where I stopped for gas and lunch, then suddenly realized that I totally forgot to pack my bike shoes. Luckily, there was a Famous Footwear outlet store a block away. Not so lucky was that I couldn’t find anything suitable for bike riding for less than $55 (after tax). I ended up with a pair of Nike high-top slip-ons (I didn’t want anything with laces that could get caught in my chain).
I arrived in Wenatchee around the same time as Brett. We met up at the state park since we both had passes and could park for free. Plus, it was right next to the Apple Capital Loop trail, which we were going to ride (with the Lincoln Rock State Park extension).
It was in the 80s during our ride, but we had a bit of a breeze and it didn’t feel so bad. Since I had done the ride before, I didn’t stop to take photos. Total mileage was about 22 miles.
After loading up our bikes, we headed to the Pybus Market since my husband always raves about it. We didn’t see anything we wanted to purchase for dinner, so we ended up driving to Safeway where we picked up some things from the deli then headed to our hotel.
We lucked up with the hotel room. It had a patio door (and patio) with a gate that opened right in front of my parked car. This meant we could easily move our bikes and bags into the room without having to walk around and go through the lobby and hallway.
As we chilled in the room and looked out the open patio door, we saw a gorgeous sunset.
We turned out the lights around 9 pm after setting the alarm on my phone for 6:15 am.
I didn’t sleep very well, waking every other hour. I think it was because I was too hot. Brett said the same thing was true for her.
After eating a bit of breakfast (my go-to travel quickie of a ham & Swiss Lunchable) and drinking a slushie Starbucks Frappuccino (the fridge was set too cold), we loaded our cars and headed to the park for the Apple Capital Century Ride. We were only doing the half century of 50 miles.
It was chilly when we started and my legs were freezing in the shorts I was wearing. It didn’t warm up enough to remove my jacket until mile 26 where there was a food stop in Leavenworth.
We no sooner left the food stop when Brett hit a metal rod and punctured her tire. Between her mad skills at patching the tube and my air compressor pump, she had the wheel back up and ready to go in about 15 minutes. Something was rubbing, though, so she turned back to the pit stop to get some mechanical help. I rode on knowing she would catch up at some point. Lucky for her, the repair was minor – just a wire that needed bent to prevent rubbing. She caught up a few miles down the road.
I liked the return ride to Wenatchee better than the first 26 miles – it didn’t go on Hwy 2 as often and had nice, though hilly, farm roads. Pears and apples were being harvested and sent to markets all over the world.
The total mileage was 52, but that’s ok…just got me a wee bit closer to my goal of 2000 miles by the end of the year (I should hit it tomorrow, in fact).
