As the start day approached, Mike S shared his routes with me. He always adds info about water. His were named Charmed Clover X where X = 1-4. Then N:x.y is miles to next food/water. Here we go at 5am! I tried to hang with Mike S as he rolled out with the fast guys but after about 3 miles I gave up. Then was on-off with a couple different groups. What a great part of the country. We had cool weather at the start. Nice. Headed to the out-n-back at Wynochee lake. Gorgeous out there were Rose Cox, the SIR RBA, and a couple volunteers had water and snacks. Then climbed the little hill out of Wynochee Lake area and turned onto 14 miles of gravel! UGH. It was thick gravel at first but turned out less later. I got passed by a number of cyclists on this section. I have not done much gravel riding. Then the turn N on the US 101 up to Lake Quinault. The shoulder was not very wide yet there were not too many cars. Rose had mentioned that this was a pretty section when got to lake. I agreed for the first 8 miles of the North Shore, before it turned into 2 miles of gravel to the turnaround. At the turnaround, I stopped and had my burrito rollup of turkey and string cheese, while standing on the bridge. Then for that return 2 miles of gravel and the push south on US 101. Finally at mile 155 we started going back inland more. It was a long day of cycling. Yet all of it was interesting, with the gravel being frustrating. I did well at not stopping at any place to get food! I was only stopped for 46 minutes! Nice arrival back at 9:30 pm, just as final light was fading. It stays light a long time up here! Rose and volunteers had a snack bag for us to take back to hotel at Best Western Tumwater.