Summertime in Seattle is a prolonged flash of bright, natural light. Like an old timey camera, where you position yourself, anticipate the high pitched whirl and wait for the blinding light to temporarily fill the room. This is how many Seattlites feel—this panicked need to fill a single moment with everything they spent dreaming about during the long months of darkness and dampness. When I signed up for Climate Ride, the Seattle summer was just on the horizon. I looked at my current bike, my lovable but not touring-practical single speed, and knew that it would be a challenge, but at least it would all be done in that flash of rare Seattle sun.

I opted in for Babeland's Climate Ride Team in mid-May, alongside my amazing co-worker, Megan. In the months since then, I took a trip home to the South, moved to a new house across town in Seattle and went on a serious bike purchasing expedition where I met my new Jamis Satellite. My training to cycle 300 miles over 5 days has been a myriad of activities, including weight training at the gym, running and of course, biking.

Highlights from my rides so far cover so many things, such as crossing Portland’s famous Broadway Bridge at sunset and stopping to see a mother duck and her ducklings cross the Willamette River. Another was just the other day, when a friend and I biked about twenty miles from Seattle to Woodinville; the heat index was above 90 degrees at one point as we sweated our way along the beautiful Burke Gilman Trail. On the way home at dusk, we stopped at Matthew's Beach Park to watch the sky have its final moments of light. Moments like these are one of the biggest reasons why I love biking and why I want to advocate for bicycles as sustainable modes of transportation for more people. Biking is a new way to see a city, to experience your neighborhood and interact with the world around you. I have seen, heard and had more moments biking in the past year than I remember experiencing in my first 7+ years of living in the Pacific Northwest and using my car as my main mode of transportation.

I still have some long rides to conquer before I head out in September for the big ride down the Northern California Coast. Many more moments, both of challenging training days and the wonderful feeling of well-earned soreness the next day-but it is the anticipation and collection of these moments that inspires me and pedals me forward.
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Two Babeland Sex Educators are riding 300 miles in September as part of Climate Ride. You can support Team Babeland by logging in directly to their fundraising pages, donating in a store in NYC or Seattle, or buying one of Babeland's eco-friendly toys that are in our Come for a Cause section.