Originally Posted by
vwchad
Great ride as long as you pay attention to your surroundings and accept the fact that you are riding with 10,000 of your closest friends....
Aside from the rest stops closing before I got to them and missing the baggage truck, there was actually something to be said for starting extremely late. I got to spend a lot more time gawking at Mt. Rainier and Lake Washington than would have been safe earlier in the day.
On the other hand, the atmosphere of a large ride is always fun. The second day crowd heading out of Chehalis at 6 AM was about the right size. I wouldn't be surprised if that was 1/3 of the volume near the start on day 1.
I didn't mention before that I got a flat in Puyallup from a thumb tack in the tire. I didn't think much of it at the time, but I read on the Cascade site that a lot of people got flats there. It made for a nice break before "The Hill".
