This is Jess here. My first blog post- I'm not too sure of the timing of the ride but we are flying thru our ride. We have spent this week in Nevada and will soon be in Utah tomorrow. We have had an amazing ride so far. I can't believe the generosity of the people we have met along the way- the Rotary club at Laguna Beach, the Jewish Community Center, the Pasadena neighborhood, Mimi, Barstow Community college. Even though it is still in the early stages of the ride, we have had a couple adventures already. My personal favorite was the Tecopa sandstorm- the 20-30 mph windstorms that rattled and battered our tents. We had tacos for dinner that night but it tasted a lot like sand.

I uploaded some pics of our Jimenez adventure- it was this Mexican restaurant @ Barstow. We walked in famished and tired into a restaurant filled with stuffed animals. Every hunted animal I could think of- deer, boar, bear, coyote. The food was slathered with grease and salad dressing but it was delicious/memorable.

This whole ride, I haven't been able to think of a better way to take in the beauty of this country than on a bicycle. My college graduation, my friend gave a talk to the senior class about his four years. About how much he had learned, how much fun he had. His biggest regret was not cherishing and enjoying the journey. I started the ride with the idea that I would not try racing ahead each day on my rides but taking a comfortable pace to talk with other riders and see the scenery. I've been able to have been able to tag along with some great riders. 

Edit: We had a slight hiccup today on the ride. Weather.com showed a balmy 50's in Alamo NV but failed to mention that it would be a steady downstream of rain + snow in the mountains. After conferring with everyone, Team C had to sweep up riders and scoop them up into vans to bus them to Panaca. The snow and sleet on the road made conditions dangerous for the climb and descent on the mountain. Currently staying @ the Volunteer Fire Department. Shout out to Ken- the nicest, most friendly man I've ever met, for cooking us a feast tonight and letting us stay at the firehouse. 

Sunny Las Vegas

Well. Where to begin? It has been a week, and I am not sure that I have all the dates correct (the days have already started to blur together), but here is a summary of the past week as best I can recall.

We left San Diego last Thursday (I can’t believe we have already been on the road for one week)! The ride up the California coast was beautiful. Within one mile of starting my chain broke and I deftly steered my ailing bike out of traffic and harm’s way. Brandon (on support) and Sebastian (always on the ball) were skilled enough to get my chain fixed, and after about 10 minutes we were off again.

Since the ride to the beach was five or six miles away, Sebastian and I were really cooking ( a la Tour de France speeds) and made it up in pretty good time to meet up with the rest of the team. We dipped our tires into the Pacific Ocean, took lots of pictures, saw some dolphins or sharks past the breakers (I don’t know they had fins), and headed up north along the coast.

It was a beautiful ride, and we pretty much hugged the coastline for the majority of the ride to Laguna Beach. Awaiting us were some wonderful sandwiches and friendly folks from the local Rotary Club. We ate and mingled, and loaded up our bikes for the drive into Pasadena.

Awaiting us in Pasadena was a wonderful dinner, and all 26 of us spent the night with host families. I stayed with Bill and Cindy and their dog, a 15 year-old golden retriever. Everyone was so hospitable and friendly. We spent two nights in Pasadena because we had a talk at the USC medical school on Friday (no riding that day).

Saturday morning we shoved off from Pasadena to Hesperia. It was a chilly morning, and as I clipped in and rode down the street to get ready to leave Pasadena, my trusty chain broke again. With the help of Sebastian and a couple other bike maintenance experts, we quickly replace the chain and rode to catch up with the rest of the crowd.

The ride out of Pasadena was beautiful but very hilly. We rode very quickly to the first rest stop up some beautiful switchbacks. The majority of the ride was very hilly – we would climb up and descend down some very beautiful but fast roads. The day culminated in a significant climb that brought us up to the “Mile High Café”. I was very tired and couldn’t have done it without the help of the other hard-core riders I was with. We drove the rest of the way in and stayed at a church in Hesperia.

The next morning, Sunday, I was on support, but the other riders rode from Hesperia to Barstow. It was a relatively short ride down the old historic Route 66, but the riders had to deal with a pretty strong headwind. Since I was on support, I got to enjoy the ride along the Route 66, with all its history and charm. At times it seemed like much hasn’t changed since the 1940s and 1950s along that road, and I imagined the fictional Joad family (from “Grapes of Wrath” riding down that same road.

Sunday night we stayed at the Barstow Community College, and had dinner at one of the oddest Mexican restaurants I had ever been to. Evidently the owners were friends with an avid taxidermist, because they had animal heads on the walls all over the restaurant. They even had the head of a zebra, which I didn’t know was native to Mexico. Anyways, they had an all-you-can-eat option for like $8.95, so we were all happy.

The mystique and charm of Route 66 faded a little bit Monday morning when we set off on a 100 mile ride, most of which was on Route 66. It was extremely bumpy, especially at the beginning, and I was just waiting for something to happen to my bike. Within the first two miles, by front brake loosened and literally flew up off the bike right in front of my face. I couldn’t figure out what had just happened, so I stopped my bike (evidently with my rear brakes) and noticed that my front brake was hanging beside my wheel.

I thought that my day was finished, but Dan was astute enough to notice that the screw was still in and all I had to do was screw it back into the frame of the bike. Evidently the lack of a paved road had loosened the brake enough to dislodge it. I was off again, and the majority of the day was spent on Route 66 traversing the Mojove Desert.

It was hot but very beautiful with some of the most amazing vistas. The support team did a magnificent job keeping us hydrated and well covered with sun block. At times I felt like a race car driver - at the rest stops, they would fill our bottles with water, spray us down with sunblock, and get us on our way again. We stayed at a campsite that evening, and enjoyed a dinner of burgers, beans, and salad, with a dessert of s’mores to top it all off .

Tuesday morning we shoved off from Kelso to Tekopa and rode about 80 miles, through what I think was a part of Death Valley. As you can imagine, it was hot, but the vistas were again amazing. We spent the night at a campsite near the California salt flats. They had hot springs that some took advantage of. We set up camp in the middle of a sandstorm.

The owner of the campsite predicted that the winds would die down at about 8 o’clock, and he was pretty spot on, aside from the fact that they didn’t cease until 8 a.m (he had predicted 8 p.m).

That evening, there were a few contentious games of Connect Four played on a travel set, with the excitement peaking in a no-holds-bar match between Team Canada (Renee) and Team USA (Ben). Although Renee claims that she was previously undefeated, Ben deftly defeated her twice, leaving no doubt who is the best Connect Four player on the trip. The only thing louder than the howling winds were the “USA, USA” chants (not really, I just added this for effect).

The whole night the tents blew around - the ground was too rocky to stake them in, so the only reason they didn’t blow away was that there were bodies and bags holding them down. Luckily, we were all pretty tired, and I slept pretty soundly, despite the fact that the side of the tent kept caving in on me all night.
Wednesday morning when we shoved off for Las Vegas, the winds had died down and we were in store for another beautiful ride, culminating in a 10 mile climb into the mountains. The descent was breathtaking, with a beautiful view of Las Vegas and the Red Rock mountains. The last 15 miles or so were tough because we were biking into a headwind, but the vans awaited us at the end and we all drove into Las Vegas together.
Last night, the majority of us saw the Cirque du Soleil show “Mystique”, which was pretty enjoyable. The evening culminated with a after-show dinner at “Denny’s”, in which I almost finished off a whole Grand Slam breakfast (after eating a whole Chipotle Burrito before the show). There was a little Karaoke late night, and most of us went to bed.

Today there was no riding. We had a talk at the UNLV medical school and a grade school, both which went well. Tomorrow we shove off for Alamo, Nevada. I hope everyone is doing well.

Peace,
Jeff

Our hot springs adventure

Tuesday, April 7^th 2009

Leah here! Us riders have started to get tanned and toned, and we’ve started to face our share of challenges as well. This ride challenges us on so many levels, the physical challenge of cycling across the country of course is very apparent, and I think this has proved to be greater than even the most experienced of us could anticipate. I think many of us have been impressed by our hidden powers of sheer will and mental preparation in overcoming the physical challenge! Emotional challenges arise, as we adjust to living day to day with new friends, and as old conflicts with ourselves bubble to the surface in the calmness of our endless pedal strokes. There is also a nearly continuous flow of logistical and environmental challenges that we face. And we surely had a taste of them today!

The riders rode through Death Valley today, and it was pretty much what you’d expect; a desolate landscape with intense sun and heat. The 75 mile ride seemed to go well for everyone, (we stayed well hydrated!) but when we arrived at the Tecopa Hot Springs Campground things got a little more complicated. Steve and I were the first to arrive in Tecopa, a town that seemed to be defined only by the presence of natural mineral hot springs (which apparently is the 2^nd purest in the nation!) After seeing no sign of human life for about 50 miles, we turned into the hot spring and campground that appeared at the proper mileage, assuming it was the place. An eccentric man showed us where to set up camp, and seemed as though he was expecting us. After the rest of the group arrived, Christian, who had ridden with last year’s group for this stretch of the route, pointed out that we had set up camp at the wrong place! It turned out that there was another campground another couple hundred yards down the road that held our reservation, and had an almost identical name! So we packed it all up again and moved, and Steve and I felt more than a tad bit guilty, arghh….

As this whole debacle was unfolding, the wind started picking up. By the time we arrived at the new campground, we were fighting off corneal abrasions from blowing dust, and even struggling to keep our balance at times when the gusts came through! It became apparent that pitching tents and cooking outside would be quite a challenge. We approached the campground manager to see if we could use their inside facility for cooking, and he replied, “No. This is what you do when you camp, you suffer.” I was so impressed with how high our morale remained as we created a wind blockade with our vans, ate a sand coated meal and struggled through an hour long session of tent-wrestling. I really think this speaks to our resilience as a team!

The silver lining to this situation was that all of this happened at a hot spring. After packing our gear away, the most of us headed into the gender separated hot pools (no bathing suits allowed!) for a much-needed, relaxing soak.

Snoring stopped at SIX AM

Snoring stopped at SIX A.M. this morning zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz went to geeeezzzzzzz…… because today was a century ride, 100 miles through death valley – Barstow to Kelso. The first challenge was getting the riders ready and on the road by nine a.m., and I would like to brag a little and say R4WH hit historic route 66 at 8:45, way to go TEAM! By now, you may be wondering what historic route 66 really entails…has it been repaved? Does it have a nice shoulder with a clear line marked for bikers? Nope, but as a driver of the lead van, I have to say there were lots of smiling faces under a death valley sun for the first down ward sloping thirty miles. We also had some great scenery – lots of long trains winding through the vast array of dirt and shrubs with various mountain tops as a backdrop. Although we were warned that today would be remote, at the first rest stop, we were still able to count the number of cars that passed on one hand. Before lunch, Leah and Kristen, were busy with the cargo van doing a health fair at Barstow community college. They had a great time with fun facts and also had some donations! At about 12 p.m., riders made it up a gigantic climb – one of those I can see it all the way to the top and why am I not there….ughhhhhhhhhhhhh…. sort of painful ascents - and ate some lunch. We made TUNA – the right way with relish, mayo, and wheat bread. I am pretty certain the tuna fueled a new sort of cadence as riders pulled out around 1:30 p.m for the last 55 miles. But the sun hit hard, faces started getting a bit to fire-truck red and we had another pit stop 15 miles later. A pit stop really means power bars pulled, water-bottles filled, and sunscreens lathered. We are starting to learn the routine and riders are really getting stronger (seriously). At the end, we had long stretches through the desert with a gradual incline. We managed to do a moving water bottle fill next to Ryan Walsh – a bit advanced for our taste, but we decided we are getting that good J Tonight, we are staying at a place called Hole in the Wall campground. The desert air is brisk, but our stomachs have been fed again, with some grilled burgers and boiled beans. We might just sleep like rocks tonight. The tents have been set up and the manly men built a fire roaring fire which will soon produce some SMORES ! I am so impressed with the dedication and commitment riders took today to finish the ride. We are all VERY proud of each other. Thank you for reading. We really love your support and prayers. So far, soooooooooooooo good!

Day Highlights:

1) Ryan Walsh rode with a butterfly for part of the ride.

2) The support crew also made a quick stop at a historic dairy queen on the route….yummy.

3) We passed a tree littered with shoes…near Joshua Tree National Park.

4) High Temperatures caused a water shortage at the end – thanks to the vans and a spicket at the campground, riders finished relatively hydrated.

5) Riders avoided wandering Bulls upon our entrance into Hole in the Wall campground.

-Rachael

Pasadena to Hesperia, the “Star of the West”

Today was our second day of riding and it was a big day in the mountains!  I drove the sag wagon, but I will try to be as empathetic as possible in this blog entry because I saw the expressions on everyone’s faces as they were climbing.  We woke up bright and early this morning to meet our tire to pavement goal of 8am.  At this stage in our journey, it takes us an hour and a half to load the vans.  Poor Jeff had two more flat tires and chain break before even leaving the neighborhood.  I gave him a lucky tube so that he wouldn’t have any more mechanical problems.  Our host families joined us in the street for a nice farewell, but one of our vans soon returned to pick up someone’s forgotten shampoo and Proactive face solution.

The route scheduled was 95 miles from Pasadena to Hesperia.  The first big climb of the day was 9 miles with a steady 7% grade up Angeles Crest Highway.  Four riders missed the turnoff for this climb and ended up doing an extra 8 miles.  We all concluded that the day wouldn’t be complete without someone hitting the century club!  At our first rest stop of the day, I watched as the Sheriff Search and Rescue van pull over next to our R4WH van.  I immediately began counting heads to make sure that we weren’t missing someone over a cliff.  It turned out to be Dr. Rodarte from our Healing Hearts Across Borders lecture yesterday.  What an inspirational man.  I learned that he is a physician, sheriff, leader of Healing Hearts, and one can only imagine what else.

After the rest stop, the climbing continued on Angeles Forest Highway for another 15 miles.  Riders only got about 5 miles of downhill before the lunch stop.  I picked up Farhaad due to some issues with his saddle and asked him how he felt about the climb today.  He said it was long and steady, but not as bad as he worried about.  We both agreed that it was inspirational to watch our team members complete the ride to lunch.  Driving the sag wagon today was a somewhat painful experience for me because I am an avid cyclist, and I dream about doing rides like the one everyone did today.  However, I have climbed many mountains during my 6 years of cycling, and it was a treat to watch people climb their first mountain and push themselves beyond limits that they have never reached before.  Go Ride for World Health!  If everyone could watch a video of what you did today we would save the world for sure!

After lunch, I drove the pavement marking van with Ellen, and our job was to drive ahead of the cyclists and mark the turns with chalk.  Our final stop of the day was at a seasonal side of the road restaurant called Mile High Café.  The terrain we covered was breathtaking, with snowcapped mountains in the distance.  My knowledge of local flora is embarrassingly bad and Ellen described the plants that we were seeing as some sort of succulent in a tree form.  We’ll have to use Wikipedia.  We made a decision to cut the ride short because we had a 7pm event planned in Hesperia.  In total, people rode approximately 60 miles today with 7,000ft of climbing.  Tomorrow we’re going to have some tired legs, but thankfully the route is short and mostly downhill.  Burgers are calling!  Thanks for following our journey.  -Hadley

Pasadena

Greetings! This is Brad posting! We had an excellent ride yesterday from San Diego to Pasadena. When we arrived there was a beautiful barbeque waiting for us. The local community of "bungalow heaven" was so extremely generous to us. They catered to our every needs. They made sure that several of the dishes were vegetarian as well. We met lots of wonderful people from the neighborhood who had a very strong interest in our ride.

We barbequed until the sun went down and then the local residents each went around and offered their homes to us. Such generosity! I am staying with Christian for the next two nights at the house of a very nice high school teacher named Nicole. She has gone above and beyond to make sure that we had plenty of food, clean sheets, towels, access to showers and laundry. I hope the other riders were as lucky.

Today we head to USC and tonight we return to Pasadena.

Brad

First Day Finished!

The first day of the 2009 ride for world health has come and gone. This is Christian Walker-Richards, one of the national riders. As some readers may already know, I rode the first week of the 2008 ride for world health. Today I was on the support team, so I got the chance to see the day from a different perspective than when I rode it last year. I’d like to tell a little about how the day went for us.

As a support rider, I was up 45 minutes before the rest of the team, packing my own gear and getting team equipment ready for packing into the vans. As the riders woke up, we required them to have all their gear completely packed before they could eat breakfast. As the gear was taken down to the vans we started loading in on top of all the gear we put in there the night before. I can’t claim much credit for the amazing packing job the support team did this morning, they managed to fill every nook and cranny in the back of our cargo van and keep it balanced and stable. After making sure all the riders were properly equipped with water and bars and their bikes were safe for the roads, we rolled out of the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center, our home for the last three days. After a short stop at Torrey Pines Park for a ceremonial tire dip, we were on our way north towards Los Angeles. I felt very excited to dip this year, as last year I was there to dip my rear tire in the Pacific Ocean to start the journey, but I wasn’t able to be there to dip my front wheel in the Atlantic at the end. I plan to remedy that shortcoming this year.

Dipping our tires into the Pacific Ocean at Torrey Pines beach

Acting goofy...

Driving the support vans is a more complicated task than it seems. We have to be responsible for the other 20 riders on the road. We make sure they get the calories and water they need to safely and healthily complete the ride that day. We work hard to keep them all on the correct route by marking all the turns and tricky parts of the course that day. On some days, that won’t require a lot of marking, but today had a few sections of multiple closely spaced turns that required Clare to jump out of the car almost every thirty seconds and mark the concrete with our flashy orange chalk. Today was especially tricky because the route went through the Camp Pendleton Marine base, where the riders are welcome, but the vans can’t enter to mark the way. Fortunately, everyone made it through safely. After that they had a stretch on a bike route that we again couldn’t mark much of, but Brandon and Stephen found the places that needed it and guided everyone through.

At this point Clare, Farhaad and I drove ahead to Laguna Beach where the town rotary club was very generously providing us lunch. We arrived a little late due to the traffic and were greeted by some of the rotary members and the local chapter president, Tory Thomas. We set up a few of our educational posters and R4WH banner near the beautiful Laguna Beach boardwalk and main beach for anyone who wanted to stop and learn about global health. The rotary club provided a delicious and much appreciated lunch for our riders, who had covered more than 60 miles over rolling hills by the time they arrived. This was one of just many visits to Laguna Beach for me. My fiancée Angie grew up here and her parents still live in town. Her mother Elaine has helped the ride the last two years in helping to set up events in town and this year also provided some great cookies and candy for the lunch. It was very exciting for me to be in Laguna Beach, because in just a little over a month I’ve be taking a short leave from the ride to fly back here and get married. It’s a day I’ve been looking forward to with greater and greater anticipation as the date gets nearer, and it can’t come soon enough.

As we ended the day, we loaded everyone and everything into the vans and took a short drive through the LA traffic to Pasadena where we’ll stay the next two nights. We’ll be doing an event day at the USC medical campus tomorrow then riding on Saturday through the mountains towards Hesperia for one of the most physically demanding days I remember from last year. I felt utterly defeated by the mountain last year, and I look forward to the challenge this year. Thanks for reading and we hope to see you at USC tomorrow!

Christian

Spring Newsletter Now Available

The 2009 Ride for World Health team departs tomorrow from San Diego, CA on its 4th annual cross-country tour! After a lot of hard work finalizing routes, setting up events, and polishing the educational lecture series, the team is excited and ready to embark towards the challenge of traversing the Rocky Mountains! This newsletter includes updates on the following:

• Notes from the Field
• Updates from Our Beneficiaries
• The 2009 Route
• and more...

To read the spring newsletter visit http://www.rideforworldhealth.org/news/archives.html