It was a solemn occasion for them. But they wanted to honor the 43 people who lost their lives. As part of this year’s McClinchy Mile bike ride, they planned to travel from Arlington to Darrington, riding past the destruction at Oso.

Tonya Christoffersen of Marysville was one of the riders who gathered at the starting point at Haller Middle School.

“I was struck by the overwhelming need and sheer devastation,” Christoffersen said, remembering her involvement last year. “As a hiker, I somewhat understood the damage, but the loss of life was almost surreal in its scope.”

Christoffersen, who has a reputation for taking part in volunteer activities, found herself coordinating the distribution of meals and supplies to responders to the March 22 slide last year, through the National Guard, the American Legion and Helping Hands.

While she hadn’t been able to venture out to the site of the slide in its immediate aftermath, she found time to visit a couple of weeks ago.

“It’s overwhelming, but I’m thrilled that people haven’t forgotten,” Christoffersen said.

Nathan Snyder braved the pouring down rain March 14 to come out from Federal Way for the bike ride.

As a National Guardsman, his unit was one of the first to be sent east of the slide, while it was still blocking Highway 530, which added hours to their travels in both directions.

Snyder has grim memories of the last time he was there.

“We were still pulling bodies out,” he said.

Snyder said he was hoping for a much more positive experience this time.

“I’m really excited to see the difference,” he said.

Paige Beck and Arel Solie both hail from Olympia, and while they work for different state agencies, they were both tapped to respond to the slide and operated out of Arlington.

As they prepped their bikes in the muddy school parking lot, Beck recalled how she’d helped provide veterinary care for the search and rescue dogs through the Department of Agriculture, while Solie had assisted in coordinating law enforcement efforts.

Beck said it was tough being back.

“After the first twenty-four hours, we’d found remains, so we had a silent memorial,” Beck recalled.

She said she wasn’t looking forward to riding past the slide area.

“It’s going to be hard to go back there,” Beck said.

Solie said they wanted to do something positive, hoping for some healing.

“We chose this ride because it will help the community rebuild,” she said. “By taking our bikes through the scene of this tragedy, we hope to make something good out of it.”

Seattle’s Natasha Lozano was one of the last crew deployed to the scene by AmeriCorps, but her two weeks still managed to run her ragged. She worked 16-hour days distributing walkie-talkies and sleeping bags, as well as coordinating laundry services.

“I treasured the camaraderie,” Lozano said, as she donned her bike helmet. “We all had dinner in the same tent.”

Lozano echoed her fellow responders’ comments about how emotionally moving it was to see the slide zone, with random objects such as a child’s swing set appearing in the middle of terrain where all development was otherwise wiped out.

She recalled the positive things people did to help.

“School kids wrote us letters, so I put those in people’s lunches,” Lozano said. “They helped cheer us up, when we were standing in five feet of mud.”