Sunday, October 26, 2014

Rain, wind, sun and 200k to Orting Fall 2014

What with schedule conflicts, work, and a quick trip to Oklahoma city to help my daughter move to her new job, Saturday Oct 25 was a "do or die" day to keep my R-12 (one 200k ride each consecutive month for 12 months) alive.

The weather forecast wasn't wonderful:  Rain and showers, 10-40%, depending on the time of day and which forecast you listened to.

I was fortunate to have some co-riders Jason and Keith, experienced Randonneur riders who would serve to cut the wind, and provide companionship and encouragement for the ride.

We met up at the Mercer Island Starbucks before the 7 AM start time, downed a low-fat bacon egg sandwich, and we were on the road by a bit after 7:15.

We headed east on the I-90 bike lane, and after 45 minutes were at our first control at the Issaquah McDonalds on East Lake Sammamish Parkway.  Here's me and Keith waiting at the light:

We also took the chance to take a picture of it NOT raining on day that had rain forecasted:

However, the dry was not to last, and it started raining shortly after this picture was taken.  We got up to the Redmond Shell, 2nd control, and I deployed the RainLegs that Jason had loaned me.  That proved to keep the rain away for quite some time.

After the loop around Lake Sammamish, we navigated over to the Lake Washington Loop trail, headed down to Renton, and then southward to Orting.  There were not a few just "grind it out" miles along some of the heavily travelled roads but also occasionally something fun to see, like this house that went all-out for Halloween: (it's worth clicking on it to see it full-size, there's a LOT going on:


Our stop in Orting included some yummy spicy soup with sourdough bread at the Safeway (Thanks for the bread, Jason!) and then we are off again.

The route heads east before it goes north, and there was one hill that was testing my resolve.  I am slower than both other riders on the up-hills but they were patient and waited for me at the top.  However, once we headed down, I started feeling better and felt quite good for the rest of the ride.

With a zippy tail wind of 18 or so MPH, we made good time heading north on the Interurban trail, a quite-flat trail under some power-lines through the Kent valley.  Swing around the FunCenter in Renton, wind through South Park, over the West Seattle bridge,  

Jason led us through the wilds of SODO (he works down there), over the new Royal Brougham overpass [another hill - ugh] and then up Dearborn to the I-90 trail again.

By this time the rain had returned, as had the wind.  We dropped down onto the floating bridge and the wind was screaming across it, pelting us with the rain.  It was so strong and constant that there wasn't much worry about getting blown off course, but this was the beginning of a wind storm that would, later that evening, leave 70,000 people in the Seattle area (including your author) without power.

Once across the bridge, we were in the shelter of the tall trees as we did a counter-clockwise loop of Mercer Island to finish off the ride.  We got into the Starbucks about 12 hours after we had left, but now tired, chilled, and really really wet.   A quick bite to eat, a bit to drink, and we were all headed home to warm showers and dry clothes.

All in all a good ride, even with the wind and rain.

Saturday, October 18, 2014

October Colorado Populaire 100k

I was in Boulder this weekend and had some time so I figured I'd try to squeeze in my P-3 100k Populaire ride. This would be the third consecutive month of riding 100k,

I rented a bike from University Bicycles in Boulder, a Specialized Allez.  Aluminum frame, compact (?) double, 10 speed.  Pretty basic  bike but so much lighter than my steel Fuji Touring (which, to be fair, is loaded with a rack, trunk bag, and fenders).  I brought my seat and pedals, which they installed, along with front and rear lights because I figured it might get dark as, due to other events, I had to start at 1:00 PM and sunset is right around 6:00 PM these days.
Here's the bike all put together:

I was going to ride the Cherryvale Populaire:

Starts in Boulder, heads south, east, north, west, and then south.  There are some hills, in fact most of it is sloping one way or the other, but they aren't long or steep.  And there are some flats.

The middle part has just some long roads that don't vary much:
so it's often a matter of just pedaling and pedaling without too much new stuff to see.  But there ARE things to see if you keep your eyes open.

Like an old schoolhouse from 1911:

Cattle (there were patches of cattle all throughout the ride):

Pumpkin patches complete with bouncy houses, rides, and mazes:



And best of all, a  collection of prairie dogs.  When I came upon these guys, there were about 6 above ground, but they saw me and dove into their holes.  There were two who were the designated bouncers.  Here's a video of one of them, and you can hear the other one in the background;




I managed to finish the ride at 6:30 PM MT, 5 1/2 hrs after starting.  Of course that includes time taking pictures, eating, comfort stops, and the like.  I liked the bike OK, it got the job done, but I'm not ready to rush out and replace the Fuji yet.