If you can see Mt. Baker, you are part of The Experience
As I write, thousands of road bikers are cycling from Vancouver to Seattle in the Ride to Conquer Cancer. A steady stream of riders has been passing by outside my window all morning. According to the website, 2,104 riders are participating this year.
Riders eat lunch in Bellingham and camp overnight at Skagit Valley Fairgrounds just south of Mount Vernon before carrying on to Seattle tomorrow.
The annual ride has sister versions across Canada, and has raised tens of millions of dollars for cancer research. The B.C. ride supports the B.C. Cancer Foundation.
Enbridge Inc., the company hoping to build the Northern Gateway oil pipeline through Kitimat, B.C. and the Great Bear Rainforest, was until recently the title sponsor of the B.C. ride. Due in part to waning public opinion over the pipeline, however, race organizers in B.C. decided to drop Enbridge. This year's ride is sponsored by Silver Wheaton. The decision was made fairly recently; looks like they forgot to update the race signage.
A federal ruling that will decide the fate of the pipeline is expected in the coming days, at about the same time as the hamstrings of the intrepid bikers recover from the 300-mile ride.
