MCC Bike Ride - Day 2 (Spokane River Centennial Trail, from Post Falls to Spokane downtown Riverfront Park and back)

Ride Out


Ride Back

Today was a beautiful day riding along the Spokane River. As shown above on my strava data, It's the first time I've ever ridden across a state line and it was also the first time I've ever been stung by a bee. My buddy Jeremy also got stung a minute prior. We had a great tailwind on the way to Spokane and it really didn't get that hot till we were on our way back. Unfortunately we did not stop to swim in the river. The drive from Kellogg to Post Falls was also filled with beautiful scenery as drove past Lake Coeur d'Alene.

Heather and the kids have been amazing on this trip. Heather's help as support for the lunch services has been amazing. Today all three kids helped with making ice cream for our dessert tonight.

Tomorrow is our big day of riding and we'll be attempting to ride 100 miles. Most of the ride will be on the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes bot instead of goind East like Monday, we'll be riding West toward Lake Coeur d’Alenes. We may even get to see Moose.

If you'd like to still donate you can visit my fundraising page. : https://donate.mcc.org/registry/carlos-cardenas-family-india-irrigation-crops

MCC Bike Ride - Day 1 (Kellogg, ID to Shoshone Park, Mullan, ID and back via Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes)

Day 1 of riding is complete and the trail we were on was already one of the nicest trails I have ever been one. The scenery was amazing. My buddy and I took a little detour up Nine Mile Creek Road to get some extra miles and to do some extra climbing. On the way up we got chase by a big dog, so I guess that's one way to ride faster of a hill. The ride up to Shoshone Park was a slight climb but we were able to move pretty quick. Coming back we had a nice tail wind and with the slight downhill, we were able to get some good speed. Fortunately we were starting to ride back as it was getting really hot.

Note: We were informed to not go off the trail because this area had been mined quite a bit in the past and there could be a potential for lead poisoning if we tried to get off the beaten path.

Tomorrow we will be riding Spokane River Centennial Trail, from Post Falls to Spokane downtown
Riverfront Park. It should be another 48 mile ride in the heat.

If you'd like to still donate you can visit my fundraising page. : https://donate.mcc.org/registry/carlos-cardenas-family-india-irrigation-crops

This is how we made room for 6 people, 5 bikes, 1 bike trailer and camping stuff :)

Not sure why these chairs are in the rest stop bathrooms, but we decided to give it a try.

First Meeting

Wooden Bridge on the Santa Ana River Trail and a recent close call going through Carbon Canyon

Training

Our first day of riding in Kellogg, ID will be on Monday, 7/30/2018. Training this year has gone well. My endurance on the bike is getting better and so far this year I've logged 3,369 miles and since June I've averaged 183 miles/week. Most of those miles have been commuting to and from work. This last Saturday I rode 75 miles with just water and 1 banana. I planned on being better prepared, but I slept in and didn't have time to have breakfast and coffee in the morning. Fortunately I felt great and I'm feeling really good for next weeks challenge. When it comes to endurance my main goal is to be comfortable sitting on the bike for a long period of time and I think I've accomplished that. The West Coast MCC Bike Ride 2018 will be approximately 261 miles over the 5 days. Here is the schedule for each day:

Day 1 - Monday, Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes east from Kellogg to Mullen. 46 miles total

Day 2 - Tuesday, Spokane River Centennial Trail, from Post Falls to Spokane downtown Riverfront Park. 50 miles total   

Day 3 - Wednesday, Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes west from Kellogg to Harrison. 72 miles total with optional century day, 100 miles.

Day 4 - Thursday, Route of the Hiawatha.  Crown Jewel of all Rails to Trail in the US with gorgeous scenery. 9 tunnels, Packed gravel road surface. 30 miles total

Day 5 - Friday, Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes from Harrison to Plummer. 35 miles total

I'm planning to post some photos for each day. I've been told that it's really nice up there.

If you'd like to still donate, you can visit my donation page at https://donate.mcc.org/registry/carlos-cardenas-family-india-irrigation-crops

Thank you for your support!

Vintage Ride

This is my first road bike. It is a 1985 Trek 560 Series. My Uncle, Gilbert Gomez, was the original owner of this bike and he had purchased this bike new from Don's Bike Shop in Rialto, CA. I grew up calling my uncle Nino Gilbert, since he was also my godfather. My Nino Gilbert passed away in 1997, when I was a freshman in High School. I owe most of my interests in sports to my Nino. Growing up, he would take me to sporting events to watch Angels Baseball, USC Football and the LA Rams (When they played in Anaheim).

When I first started commuting on a bike to work I started on my dad's old 1988 Schwinn High Sierra Mountain Bike that was purchased from Bumstead's Bicycles in Ontario, CA (Picture Seen Below) My commute would be from Anaheim to Ontario. Shortly after I started commuting, and my bike obsession became more apparent, my aunt gave me the Trek road bike and it's been mostly road biking from then on.

I currently have a more modern bike for riding, but my favorite bike will always be my 85' Trek.

1985 Trek 560 Series

1988 Schwinn High Sierra Mountain Bike

MCC Bike Ride 2018 Announced

The Cardenas Family is going on another adventure to raise money for the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC)!!

This year I'll be joining the West Coast MCC Bike Ride 2018 in Kellogg, ID from July 30th to August 3rd. I'll be riding my bike and my family will be volunteers for the 5 day event.

I'm riding this year to support an MCC project in India to help farmers create irrigation systems for their crops. To donate you can visit my donation page at https://donate.mcc.org/registry/carlos-cardenas-family-india-irrigation-crops.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions and/or comments.

Final Day 5 - MCCBikeRide (Palmdale to Upland PCC)

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What an adventure this has been. It's been hard work and I couldn't have done it without the support of my family and friends and all the prayers and well wishes. There have been so many kind gestures from so many people along the way. I am surrounded by some amazing people and I am grateful for your willingness to support an organization that I believe is working hard to bring love, hope, peace and a future into this world. This week had it's struggles, and I went through a roller-coaster of emotions from stress and nerves. There were many answered prayers along the way. Thank you!

Before all of this I could barely ride my bike 60 miles without cramping and wanting to die. I could never have imagined doing a ride like this and feeling as good as I do right now. The first picture below was my reminder from above to stay slow and steady. The day was warm and I seemed to have a strong headwind for most of the day. Late last night, after watching Captain Underpants with the family, we drove down 138 to see what construction was like and we determined that it was just too dangerous to ride on. The next option was to ride on Big Pine Road through Wrightwood and then ride down on Lone Pine Canyon Road. This added significantly more climbing to an already long day. The pine tree below was the first tree I saw off the road for shade. The lake in the picture is Jackson Lake and apparently they stock it with trout, so there were a few people fishing as I rode by. My team car (AKA "family") met up with me twice at very critical moments of the day. The first was as I ran out of water at the top of the climb to Wrightwood and the second was right before I got back on the 138 right before the bridge over the train tracks.  The bridge was very narrow, but fortunately, my wife was driving behind me to hold off a couple of cars. From there I rode on the 15 freeway to Cleghorn and then traveled on Old Route 66. At the end of my ride there were about 25 people waiting at PCC for my arrival and they were all cheering and the little ones had signs that they had made for me. What a way to finish this journey. In total I road 353 miles in 5 days and 12,906 feet of climbing. I'm not sure what the future holds in regards to organizing rides in the years to come, but I do look forward to hearing about how the Guatemala Livelihood project progresses.

Thank you for reading and if you'd like to donate to the cause that I rode for, you can visit the link below:

https://mcc.org/stories/acp/winter-2017?_ga=2.233315294.1390861525.1496541283-1672273008.1487577537

Matthew 10:39