Cassandra: (Sat July 7) Today we decided to take it easy, per the STP training guidelines. Because of the beautiful weather, we headed to Lake Samish for a nice, short loop ride. We arrived at the parking lot of the county park at around 11:00 am, which was perfect timing because as soon as we parked everyone else showed up and there was a long line of cars looking for somewhere to park. I had never done the Samish loop before, so I was excited about that. I was also excited because Dennis was riding with me and mom. Before jumping on the loop around the lake, we biked over to Camp Lutherwood and looked around for a minute. I got to show Dennis where I went to camp as a kid, and where mom worked many years ago. It was funny to see it after many years. It looked much smaller than I remembered!

We got back on the road and settled into our 7.5 mile loop around Lake Samish, looking at the pretty houses as we biked. We weren’t concerned about speed but still kept a decent pace. It was fun to just look around. We had almost completed the loop once when I heard mom clear her throat; she was riding just ahead of me. All of a sudden I felt a mist of spit cover my face. It was so disgusting. I can’t believe mom actually spit in my face. When I shouted up at her she had a good laugh. A bug had flown into her mouth and she had been trying to get it out, not thinking at all about how I was behind her.

After circling around twice, we came to a stop back at the county park. We loaded up the bikes but relaxed for a few minutes in the grass near the lake. I put my feet in the water, which felt amazing. It was the perfect way to end our last ride before the STP!

Our ride in numbers:

Total miles: 15.05 miles
Average speed: 13.6 mph
Max speed: 23.4 mph
Total time: 1:06:18