Dharmawheels - Buddhist Bicycle Pilgrimage

Hey All-

I hope everyone got home ok! Four of us rode our bikes back on Monday, and we all made it back (well I assume Max got back ok, probably many hours ahead of us ;-) ).

First off, I'll have to say that this year's pilgrimage was a great one! This was the first time that I didn't freeze on Sunday morning. The heat was a bit challenging at times during the day, but the warm night was most welcome.

For the first time this year, I volunteered at the last minute on Friday to help some of the food preparation, so I felt more in touch with the volunteers than I had in previous years. I know I'm not the only rider that helped out in the kitchen or in some other way, but for those of you that haven't in the past, I highly encourage it. Thanks much to Eileen and Laura for finding me stuff to do to help out on Friday and again late Saturday and early Sunday.

Left photo - ride back to Spirit Rock.

Middle photo - Dave Adair and Judi Garland.

Right photo - (left-right) Paul, Lauren, Martin. photos by Dave Adair.

Once again, we had a contingent of riders riding our bikes back on Monday. This year there were four riders and one SAG driver. We all rode back to a motel in Ukiah from Abayagiri after the closing ceremony. This was certainly an easy ride as it was mostly downhill, and the heat of the afternoon had faded. I rode with Martin and Lauren. Max had left ahead of us and was also a much faster rider. Dave left in his car awhile after us, but passed us on the way. After cleaning up, we all went out to a Thai restaurant in Ukiah that was recommended by Dennis. The food was excellent.

We had our continental breakfasts at the motel at 6:30 with the goal to be on the road by 7, though I suspect we were a bit late. Martin, Lauren and I tried mostly to stay together and even when we didn't, we regrouped with Dave a bunch of times out on the road. Max took off ahead of us and was never seen again (we weren't expecting to see him as he is a Cat 2 Masters racer and consequently much faster than us).

The ride back, this year, was a bit slower as we had a bit of a headwind through Sonoma (Bridget and I had a tailwind last year). Otherwise, the weather was cooler so we didn't complain much. Martin usually rode ahead of us, except for getting lost before the second stretch of trail, whereas Lauren and I tended to leapfrog one another.

We stopped at several convenience stores along the way, and also stopped with Dave to refill our water or put away items of clothing as the day warmed up. In Forestville, we stopped for Mexican food, which was quite good. After Forestville, we only stopped when we encountered Dave on the road.

Lauren and I arrived at Spirit Rock at about 6:40 pm, so we had a few minutes of daylight left, I suspect Martin got there 10 or 15 minutes ahead of us. The later start, the more frequent stops and the headwind all combined so that we got to the end about 1.5 hours later than I did last year, but we were all quite pleased to be done and were not too worried about our average speed over 116 miles. Lauren had never ridden that far before, and so she was probably the happiest of us. Hopefully this will just be a stepping stone for her to future enjoyment of longer rides. Martin will hopefully ride stronger in his Death Valley tour coming up, and I'm hoping this will improve my speed and comfort on my last double century of the year in two weeks.

Once again, I feel the pilgrimage was a great success. I got to meet wonderful new people, hear inspiring teachings, eat great vegetarian food, see beautiful monasteries and retreat centers and enjoy one of the prettiest rides in Northern California. What could be a better combination?

I was also inspired this year to sign up for the Abayagiri Thanksgiving retreat. I've been building up to doing a 10-day retreat and having discussed it with fellow pilgrims, I just sent in my application today.

I hope you all had as good a time as I, and will carry to energy from the pilgrimage on to your practice. I hope to see you all next year!

-Paul