Today was an adventure. I mapped a great ride for Tiffany and I, we were going to ride on back country roads with minimal traffic and see some pretty sights. The plan was to do 62 miles with only one big climb. My plan was with the climb at the end, luckily Tiffany opted to go backwards and have the climb at the beginning so we took off. Long story short, the climb ended up being a bit more heinous then we thought and it ended in a dirt road that was apparently private property. The map my ride maps don't tell you if the road is a really really small backwood road where people get mad at you because you just don't belong. I was glad Tiffany had a sense of humor or I would have been on her crap list.

After we figured out our original plan was not going to work we rerouted and back tracked to the main highway heading north. The cars travel fast, but the shoulder was okay. We made our way into Monroe where we stopped to fill up on water and use the beverage store restroom that had no toilet paper This was at about mile 33 and as we pulled away Tiffany got a front tire flat. Luckily, due to her quick learning and the two summers I spent working at a bike shop, we got that wheel fixed up in no time. Back on the road we heading west. We made one more stop about 10 miles later to pee once again. At least I knew I was drinking enough water, I was not going to dehydrate!

We continued west along the Snohomish River and back down the other side of the Snohomish River Valley, this was absolutely beautiful. We made our way from there down to Maltby then along Paradise Valley Road, this was all smooth sailing. We got all our issues out at the beginning and had a great mellow ride home. 68 miles and 6.5 hours later, we were home. Hopefully a ride will not have to take this long ever again. We decided we would only do exploratory rides every other week. :)