Thanks to everyone who donated to my efforts at the first ever Camp Challenge charity bike ride to raise money and awareness for the Camp Korey in Carnation, WA.
Personally, I raised $385 in donations — $360 in online donations and $25 in cash. That exceeded my goal of $300. Overall, the event raised more than $90,000 in personal and corporate donations.
Summer camp
The free camp is located on property formerly owned by the Nestle company and serves children with life-altering medical conditions. I’m familiar with Camp Korey because my daughter has gone there for a week for each of the past four summers.
She gets to ride ponies, fish, dance, make arts and crafts, and socialize with the other girls over nail-painting and tea parties.
The camp was co-founded by the late actor Paul Newman as part of the Hole-in-the-Wall camp network “so kids can hike, fish and raise a little hell.”
The camps are now renamed the Serious Fun Children’s Network, but their purpose is still the same: give children with life-altering medical conditions a safe place to have fun and enjoy being kids. All programs are free to the children and their families.
Good timing
If you put any stock in weather forecasting, the bicycle ride might have celebrated the last “summer” day of the year in the Seattle area. Cool in the morning, temperatures rose to the 80s under sunny skies by noon. (The weather is supposed to turn cloudy and chilly soon.)
As it was the first ride, only about 45 cyclists participated. We met for a pancake breakfast under tents on the Camp Korey property, then left en masse over the winding country roads.
We passed cattle and horse pastures and the lovely gardens for cut flowers that are sold at Pike Place Market and elsewhere in the area. It was kind of like passing the tulip fields in Skagit County, but there’s far more variety here.
The cyclists on the shorter segment peeled off at 20 miles, and I found myself pretty much alone. At the rest stops I learned that I was marooned between two groups of 6 or 7 bicyclists each — one far up the road and one trailing by a half hour or so.
My route roughly went all the way to the old downtown of Snohomish, then returned via Monroe. I enjoyed amazing views of Mount Baker in the north and jagged Cascade peaks to the east.
My wife Becky and daughter Paige met me at the finish, where we were offered box lunches.
I’m already looking forward to next year’s ride, and plan to find someone who rides at my speed — not too fast, but not too slow.
Another view of the start line
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