Oooooh boy- August is right around the corner, and so is my two-wheeled trip up the Mt Washington Auto Road! If you're receiving this note, you've probably already given me some emotional or logistical support already on this journey. Part of my participation includes fundraising for the Tin Mountain Conservation Center, and so I'm asking for a *small* contribution to help meet my $350 goal. TMCC does a lot of great work to share educational, recreational and volunteer opportunities for mountain enthusiasts young and old, and it sounds like this bike ride covers a lot of their critical expenses year after year. Really, a $5 donation and a kind note would go a long way :)
Below a description of my practice ride, followed by the TMCC event description. If "the real ride" is even close to being as fun, rewarding, and painful as my practice trip, it's going to be one heck of a time!
Thank you, and stay tuned for some fun updates!
MPK
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Practice Ride, July 13 2025, 5:30am start
Base-to-summit time: 1:31.40
Elevation gained: 4,696'
Holy cow, where to begin? Probably at 3:30 AM when Amber and I were woken up by a very early alarm and hit the road for a very early start. Got a couple of English muffins and bananas in me on the way to the auto road, which was about an hour drive. plenty of time to check the forecast and go over our plans, one more time before putting them into action! It was about 60 degrees, foggy, still, and starting to get light at the base when I started.
This was a flex start between five and six AM, and I got rolling at 5:30 and spent the first few miles trying not to use my lowest gear and trying not to let my heart rate go crazy. Success! The first miles passed with suspicious ease…. And this ride was VERY spread out among the ~50 people doing it. There were some serious zoomers on serious bikes with designated film people, and some Regular Lookin' Bike Riders out there, which made for diverse and cheerful company.
Around halfway (a turnoff ~mile 3.5) I heard what sounded like a 300 pound dude stumbling around in the bushes in his biking shoes. Nope, that was a mother moose about 30 feet away from me. SO COOL! There was one other person around at the turnoff and she and I shared shocked glances. Thank you to that stranger for finding me at the summit and sharing a great photo!
Things got pretty tough for a while towards the alpine zone- I was out of gears and hitting the STEEP stuff, and once I got out of the trees, the wind was really hitting hard. For the first time I used the zig-zag approach, snaking across the road just to kind of mitigate the grade of the hill. It works for sure! But feels like a complicated approach when there’s wind involved, and felt like tacking in a sailboat at times.
I made it to mile 5.5 without unclipping from my pedals, but hit a really really hard headwind and stepped off the bike for what I thought might be a loooong 2 mile walk to the top. I kept my legs moving and hiked for about 20 mins or 3/4 mile, and now DEFINITELY owe dad a new pair of cleats for those shoes :). Clomp clomp clomp clomp.
BUT, the wind turned, the road leveled off a *little* bit, and I was able to clip back in for the last ~1.5mi to the top! Which is definitely the toughest stretch! I’m glad I took some time off the pedals, because i felt inexplicably strong and fresh for that brutal finish. I’m gonna chalk that up to a combination of alpine zone adrenaline, and feeling lots of loving support from a highly visible/ audible Amber on the toughest summit stretch!
So much more to share, and so much I’m sure I’m missing….
I brought tons of snacks but didn’t eat em
Tons of layers but didn’t put em on
A water bottle and some nuum’s were more than enough for the ride itself, especially with my teammate/support up top.
In case I haven’t mentioned it yet… AMBER SPRINKLE is a SUPERHERO and there is NO WAY I’d be doing this without her!
Song of the ride= Melancholy Hill by Gorillaz. Man I could hum that riff for HOURS.
Revisiting goals:
- “ride all the way without unclipping”… yeah I didnt do that. gonna blame the headwind, and I feel very good about deciding to get off the bike for that 3/4mi stretch. Doing so made the finish WAY more fun/ doable.
- Finish in ~2 hours? SMASHED it! It was nice of Past Me to set a good low bar for Current Me to obliterate. 90min might be a realistic goal for August… or it might stress me out, so I’ll revisit that later! Really, all I want to do is have this much fun again in a month with mom and dad here.
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From TMCC:
On August 16, I'll face one of cycling's ultimate challenges: the Mount Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb. This legendary 7.6-mile race climbs relentlessly to the summit of the Northeast's highest peak, earning its reputation as the world's steepest cycling competition and what VeloNews calls a "Ride of a Lifetime."
Mount Washington isn't just known for its brutal incline—it's home to the most extreme weather in North America. The summit has recorded the highest human-recorded wind speed on Earth at 231 mph, and experiences hurricane-force winds more than 100 days each year. These conditions, combined with the relentless climb, make this perhaps the most challenging bicycle ascent in the world.
My ride supports the vital work of Tin Mountain Conservation Center, which has spent over 34 years inspiring environmental stewardship in Northern New Hampshire and western Maine. Through their programs, more than 75,000 students, campers, and community members have discovered the wonders of our natural world and learned the importance of protecting it for future generations.
My goal is to raise $350 for this extraordinary challenge and help ensure Tin Mountain continues to offer year-round opportunities to experience nature as the ultimate classroom. Tin Mountain offers recreational trails, events, and programs that inspire outdoor enthusiasts and learners of all ages.