day 9: potlatch state park to twin harbors state park

ever have the experience of looking at yourself in the mirror and being frightened? 

it happens to me on the daily, several times a day. so i took a picture to show you what a gas station clerk sees everytime i ask them, "may i use your bathroom?" 

i'm getting dark. my hair up top usually looks a little wackadoodle, and i'm often shiny with the perfect combo of grease and sweat. 

anyway....here's a pretty picture to erase what you just saw. 

we finally left at a reasonable hour this morning: 9am. this allowed us 7 hours and 52 minutes of cycling today and 77.5 miles of distance. most of those miles were spent in headwind, on bumpy asphalt, uphill, on the highway with really fast cars, avoiding broken glass or some combination of some or all of those scenarios. no joke. it was THE hardest day we've had, and our book should not have called it a "M-Medium" difficulty day. it was hands down a "DD-Demandingly Difficult" day. ok, i exaggerate, but only by a little. 

i'm going to talk in extremes because it makes me feel better, so bare with me. 

today made me hate the state of washington. okay fine. maybe not the entire state, but certainly the section we painfully made our way through. the bumpy highway was tolerable at first. then coupled with an uphill and tight shoulder made it more challenging, but it was still early in the day and i was okay with it. (i wasn't singing hakuna matata yet.) 

(the left is the bumpy asphalt, the right side is awesome sauce.) 

then take away the bumpy asphalt, but throw us out into the highway with lots of glass with a ton of headwind ... and a bottom that was in PAIN, and i'm not sure how we finished 77.5 miles!! it probably had to do with nutrition. we ate pretty consistently every 1-1.5 hours. burrito, sandwich, banana smothered in pb and honey, wrapped in a tortilla, etc split between the two of us. so even though it was a very difficult day, it felt awesome to finish strong emotionally and mentally.

we made it to camp (after a stop at a sausage/cheese joint where we picked up too much food) and sighed in relief, meanwhile being instantly attacked by a thick layer of mosquitos. :-( let me say that we've got our little campsite rhythm down, but we are happy to let that one go for a warm shower and no mosquitos!

anyway, today, samuel told me we were at 394 miles total and that surprising news totally gave me a hit of energy. i rode that as far as i could.

tonight, i'm grateful for a place to sleep, food to eat, and a partner to adventure with. thank god!