S ~ T ~ P _ 1 ~ 9 ~ 9 ~ 6
STP is a 200 mile, one or two day bike ride from Seattle WA to Portland OR sponsored by the Cascade Bicycle club. 1996 marked the 17th anniversary of the event. For Mitch and me it was our first. The first day we rode from Seattle to Castlerock WA, a distance of 130 miles which took us 13 hours including some lengthy rest stops. We stayed at the Castlerock high school gym. The second day we rode through torrential downpours, sometimes approaching hail. The most notable stop was in Goble OR where we all huddled under a large canvas tarp and sat on hay bales; with a sea of mud surrounding us. The 70 miles to Portland took about 5 hours and we arrived shortly before one o'clock. Amazingly the rain stopped and we had dry pavement almost exactly at the Portland City limits.
