Spirit Lake

On Sunday, September 12th I rode in my first Cascade High Pass Challenge. The day dawned bright and almost clear. The forecast all week had been for rain. I diligently loaded my panniers with rain gear and set out, knowing that before the day was over I would need the extra equipment.

The ride starts at 7AM and the finish line closes at 5PM. Ten hours to cover 110 miles and 7,500 feet of climbing. This is the most hills I have ever seen in a single ride by far.

I crossed the start line at 7:15AM. Not concerned at being one of the last ones out of the gate. It wasn’t until late in the day that I realized that was a bad idea. The up-side of that is that few people passed me, since most everyone was already on the course.

There is about 25 miles of flat before the first hill. That only serves to give you a false sense of confidence. Because when the climbing finally starts, it doesn’t stop until you get to the top. Once the climbing does begin, I start getting passed by a few late starters like myself. I feel like a semi-truck hauling Borax at this point, but I’m in it to finish, so I press on.

At about mile 16 from the top, the first returning rider came screaming down the hill past me, these guys were moving. I’m not sure what the time was, probably around 11AM. The first rider crossed the finish line at 1:45PM. I reached the top at 12:30PM. I figured that was great time for me, since the return was going to be down hill all the way. That was a slight miss-calculation. I hung out at the top for about 20 minutes. The picture above is what is left of Spirit Lake today.

Crater

It is amazing to me that 30 years after the disaster, the landscape is still almost barren in places. The lake is surprisingly blue. Right after the eruption it was completely covered in timber and mud. A fellow from Kentucky offerred me some cherries. We talked about the 1980 eruption. I described for him what it was like to watch it first hand. I was in Tacoma the morning of the  eruption and I remember vividly watching the plume heading east. He recalled for me that he was in Colorado where they actually got ash fallout a couple of days later.

The elevation here is 4,170 feet. It would be a mistake to think that the climbing had been completed at this point, nay nay I say. I start the return trip full of confidence. Naturally there are some significant descents on the way back. Since I got such a late start, I’m basically on the hill by myself. I’m having a really great time on the descent. I reach a top speed on one stretch of 49.5/mph. This ain’t no drag strip, this is a curvy road, making it all the more fun. I keep a sharp eye out for debris in the road. After a good bit of down-hill I come up behind another single. He knows I’m behind him but he won’t slow enough to let me pass. He is hugging the yellow and it’s too twisted for me to safely pull into the up-hill lane so I have to eat his wheel for a couple of miles before I can get around him. Frankly, this pisses me off. It’s pretty rude to ruin someone’s down-hill after they have worked that hard to get it.

About 2/3 of  the way back I reach the final water stop. From here the return takes a different route back than we too on the way out. I obediently follow the official return route. I’m struck by how bad the roads are on this route, and how many hills there are. I will learn after finishing that many (I don’t know how many, but I suspect the number is large) took out-route back, which is almost completely flat compared this route. I’m proud that I’m getting the full experience, but it is painful to think about how much easier it would have been to go back the same way that I had come out.

I cross the finish line at 5:15PM, 15 minutes after the finish line has officially closed. I’m overjoyed to be done, but disappointed that I won’t receive the finisher’s medal. Before I’m off the bike, a guy runs over and hands me a medal. I’m too tired to muster anything better than a simple “thank you”. I put the bike on its kick-stand and go looking for a beer. After the Mike Utley Century a year earlier, I dropped my bike at the finish line, so I must be getting stronger…

I look at my steel bike. I probably give up at least 13/lbs to most of the bikes I saw on the road today. Add to that the flex of steel, the racks, the fenders, the panniers, and the 10/lbs of gear I’m hauling, and I estimate that I’m probably giving most of the riders here a 40/lb advantage, with untold mechanical advantage thrown in. Makes me proud.

I sit down and enjoy the beer. The grill is all packed up, there’s no hot dogs or hamburgers left, but I’m so happy to be finished I don’t mind. I drink my beer. One hundred and ten miles, untold climbing, 9 hours and 10 minutes in the saddle. Exactly 10 hours from start to finish. I’d call that a pretty good day’s work.

Fog

This is another sign of autumn on the trail. This was about 9AM in the morning. So it’s full light, but not warm enough to burn off the morning mist. The trail follows the Cedar River to Renton. On either side of the trail are hills that trap moisture and create these conditions. This day the fog is actually quite light.

I’ve said this before here, but I don’t think I can say it often enough, I am so lucky to be able to use this trail on a daily basis.

This morning I had a rider pull up along side of me about half way to Renton. I’ve met him a couple of times before. We chatted for a few minutes before I gave him leave to go on ahead without me, I didn’t want to hold him up. It was really nice. When I drive to work, I’ve never pulled along-side of someone and had a conversation with them while we were driving along.

For the last few days they have been doing construction along lower Witte road. PSE has been installing new poles. I’ve been watching the progress almost daily. They have been using a flagger to control traffic around the big rigs doing  the installation work. It’s quite a bit of fun to pull up to the flagger and stop a foot or two away. They don’t see or hear you coming. All of a sudden you are stopped along-side of them and saying “Hello”. It usually startles them.

I missed a good picture yesterday. King County has a rig that blows leaves off the trail. If I see it again I’ll get a photo of it. In the city limits of Renton, they remove the leaves using a hand carried gas-powered leaf blower. Seems like it would be more efficient if King County used their rig to clean the whole trail, but I guess that’s not how it works. I have to admit the Renton Parks employees that do this have a pretty good job.

Autumn on the Trail

I was riding home and I saw a young couple walking on the trail, so I stopped and asked them to take a picture of me with my iPhone. This is what I got.

This really is a beautiful time of year. Every time I think about my commute, I think of how lucky I am to have this trail as my route to and from work. If I could get everyone on a bike I would. I gives me such a sense of freedom, and independence. I enjoy the fresh air. The time on the bike allows me to think about my day, or plan my evening. I truly get lots of good ideas while riding along this route. Some day Emma will no longer be in school and we might find ourselves talking about downsizing from our current home. It will be hard for me to move somewhere that doesn’t afford me access to this trial.

Today on the way home I saw an albino woolly-bear (caterpillar) crossing the trail. They usually are black with an orange strip around their belly, this one was completely white. I think this is the first time I have seen one.

Me and my shadow

I finally caught a nice day. It seems like September has been unusually dismal in terms of weather. Typically our Septembers are one of the most pleasant months of the year, not so this year. Hopefully October will make up for it.

I was riding home when I looked down and saw my shadow and thought what a great shot, so naturally I pulled the iPhone out of it’s holder on the top tube and started shooting. Probably not the smartest thing to do, but I did slow down quite a bit. I love that you can see the trail behind me in the mirror (not that you wouldn’t have noticed that, I just think it’s cool).

I had a guy ask me the other day while we were riding how I liked the mirror. I thought to myself, “are you kidding”? I told him they were “great”. The mirror is my second best piece of safety equipment, and a very close second at that, My best piece of safety equipment is my ears.

If you see a cyclist riding with ear phones or ear buds, you know they don’t get it. So why do joggers run with ear buds? I think it is  just as important that joggers know what is behind them. I can’t tell you the number of times I have come up behind a jogger, ringing my bell, and they are startled when I pass. I think that is a hazard almost as much as dogs that aren’t on a leash. But I digress.

I love the mirror, it gives me a great picture of what is coming up behind me, and allows me the luxury of preparing to be passed, so I can hold my line, but also plan my next move, or escape route, if necessary. I don’t think it guarantees that you would see all bad things coming at you, but I do think there is a least a good chance that you will.

Fall on the trail

Fall has come to the Cedar River Trail. There are two clear signs of fall, one is the leaves on the trail, the other is the appearance of large quantities of slugs, making there way across the trail. I don’t know where they are going, but the are in very large numbers. I like to play the “dodge the slug” game. It’s actually fun to try and miss them all, but there are so many, even if you are trying to miss them all, it’s nearly impossible. I had to stop once today on the way to work, and once again on the way home to remove one of the little beasts from my small chain ring.

This week was a little frustrating. The weather gave us one good riding day, that was Wednesday. Even though I had enough hours in the books to leave work a couple of hours early to go for a ride, I wasn’t able to because issues kept coming up. On Thursday, I caught a break at work and things began to quite down, but just as I started to gear-up, it started to rain. I just couldn’t bring myself to head out into the rain. Some days you just don’t feel like fighting the weather. So I only rode to work this week on Monday and Friday. I have decided that next week I will finish the month strong by riding every day.

On Friday I was able to leave work early enough to swing past the Borders at Southcenter. I got an email coupon for 50% off in-store on Steven Hawking’s new book “Grand Design”. I’m no physics major, but I do like reading about the subject.

When I ride, I don’t always take the main roads. I guess there is a part of me that simply likes to limit my exposure to traffic when it is feasible to do that. I have a few back roads in the Southcenter area, along the path of the Green River. My route today took me behind some warehouses and into a little parking lot right where the Green River goes under I-405. I had to stop and lift the bike up onto a sidewalk at this point. I came to a stop and about ten feet in front of me was a homeless person sitting on the curb. This is a very quite spot. Just a few cars parked here, mostly people that work in the nearby warehouse. There are no walkers or joggers within sight. The point I’m making here is that I startled the women, she didn’t see me coming because I had the Raleigh in stealth mode (I’d just oiled the chain that morning).

As I stopped and began to lift the front wheel up onto the curb, she looked up and saw me for the first time. She had a very startled look on her face, but it was more then startled, as I looked closer, I realized she had a child-like expression that was almost pleading. The look said “please leave me alone”. I glanced at her hands and noticed that she was holding a sandwich, she was also clutching the sandwich close to her chest. The gesture was obvious, as was the expression. I was a threat. She has probably had her sandwich taken away from her before. I seems I was invading her safe spot. I didn’t say anything, I moved around her as quickly and as non-threateningly as I could. As I went by her I noticed that she was still holding the sandwich as close to her as she could get it, her expression didn’t change, she was very concerned about what I might do.

As I was pedaling away, the thought occurred to me that I should have stopped and given her some money. I kept going. I think if I had turned around and headed back to her, she would have become frightened, but it still probably would have been a good thing to do. I don’t normally pay much attention to homeless, in this case, the woman left a definite impression on me, probably one that will make me look more closely at this situation the next time it occurs.

A really big deal in 1970

This ride is one that has been on my list, since well, I started riding. It was more of a trip down memory lane than a ride. First the facts. The ride covered 77.63 miles, it climbed 3,750 feet, at an average of 12.98 MPH. I was averaging 13.2 until the last 30 minutes, so I could tell I was tiring at the end.

So what made this ride special? It covered a lot of ground that I used to traverse as a kid growing up. The ride started at home and went into Renton. From there it headed North to Bellevue. Once I left Bellevue I began to cover old ground.

The ride out of Bellevue reminded me of my many trips into Bellevue after Friday night Football games. We used to go to Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlor and order the “Pig Trough”. It was an absurd amount of ice cream. If you ate it all you got a ribbon to document your accomplishment. I remember Bob used to carry all of his ribbons in his wallet. It was about 2″ thick. It looked like George Costanza’s wallet. To this day I don’t know how skinny Bob was able to pack away all that ice cream.

The ride then took me along the lake front in Houghton and into Kirkland. I recall a near miss accident in Houghton. A rainy slippery day, too much speed, not enough stopping distance, I skidded across 2 lanes and ended up facing the wrong direction. I’m sure Bob and Jeff will recall that one also. Heading out of Kirkland I rode past the sight of my Jr. High where I spent 7th grade, sadly it has been torn down, but as I recall, it was old when I was attending. The road goes up Market Street and into Juanita. When I reached Juanita I thought I’d take a detour and visit the house that I grew up in. It still looks pretty good, and the yard looks fantastic. The people who live there take very nice care of the place. Some of the improvements that my Dad made some 40 years ago can still be seen, and the house is still one that I would be proud to live in today, so it has stood the test of time very well. I should have knocked, I know Joe Kurmoskie would have knocked, but I don’t have his sense of daring I suppose.

The thing I remember most about the old neighborhood was the hill getting up to the house. I used to have a heck of a time making it up that hill. I would zig-zag across that hill a dozen or more times to get to the top without pushing my bike. Some days if I didn’t feel well, I was an asthmatic kid, I would just get off and walk. As I rounded the corner and turned to head up the hill, I was surprised to see that it was just as steep as I remembered! I shifted down and leaned over the bars and made the top in modest time. I did not zig-zag once, but it wasn’t easy either. I guess I wasn’t as big a wimp as a kid as I had feared. Or perhaps I’m still a wimp, just not as big of one.

I turned around and headed for the Junction and Juanita Beach Park. This is where I spent most of my summer days, but not at the beach like you might imagine, across the street at the ball field. We used to have pick-up games there, sometimes for days on end. We would start at 9 in the morning, and play into the afternoon. I enjoyed those days the most. That is probably why I now like the movie “The Sandlot” so much. My life back then paralleled many of the themes in that movie, but there was no Wendy Puffelcorn life guarding over at the beach across the street.

The ride then headed up Juanita Drive towards Kenmore and the north end of the Lake. This hill was actually not as bad as I remembered as a kid. It was a very pleasant climb really. I expected it to be much tougher than it was.

At Kenmore, I jumped on the Burke Gilman Trail for the leg into the University of Washington. This is a slower leg, I’m  probably making about 12 miles/h at this point. This is a busy trail, while there are cyclists making 16-17+ miles/h, I’m not crazy about that speed. The trail is pretty rough in places, the surface is in need of repaving for most of its course. I reach Lake Forest Park and find to my delight that there is a Farmer’s Market there today, so I swing in for some lunch. I buy a pint of fresh picked Blackberries to go along with my PB&J that I have packed. The stroll through the Farmer’s Market is refreshing.

I reach the University of Washington and then follow the route of the STP over the Montlake Bridge and through the Arboretum to Lake Washington Boulevard. This is Bicycle Sunday, so a portion of the boulevard is closed to all but bicycles and foot traffic. That was a pleasant surprise, I had forgotten all about Bicycle Sunday along the lake.

The remainder of the ride is a push so I can get home. I pull in the driveway and look back on the day’s events. I’m pleased that I finally took the time to make this trip, certain that I will do it again.

Cedar River Trail

Early this Spring I was coming home from work on the trail and I met a rider that was obviously an old hand at commuting. He was trucking along at 14 1/2 miles/h when I caught up to him. I pulled along side and said hello.

He wasn’t much interested in chatting, although I could tell it was not at all from being short of breath, he just didn’t have much to say to me. I laughed (to myself) as we approached a group of walkers, he rang his bell with what literally sounded like authority. It was as if to say, “Move, or run the risk of getting run over.” I was a bit startled by that, my views of trail etiquette are quite different, but there was no slowing this fellow down.

I continued my efforts to strike up a conversation. He warmed to me slightly, but by this time, several miles down the trail, he was more or less resigned to having me ride along side of him, so basically he was just making the best of it. I learned that he had been doing this 15 mile commute for the last 40 years. Now 40 years goes back to a day when this particular trail was a rail line, and not a trial. That means that for more than half of those years, he was making this commute on the State Highway next to the rail line, a busy road by anyone’s standards, even those operating motor vehicles. I was impressed.

I mentioned that I had been making this commute 3 times a week for about the last 8 months. He seemed incredulous. He asked my why he had never seen me before today. There was a definite air about him that said he owned the trail, and anyone on it needed his permission, or at least his acknowledgement, to use it with him. I explained that my work schedule was a flexible one, and that put me on the trail at odd times during the day. This was also explained by the fact that I rode to school almost every day with my daughter. Well, that changed things dramatically. After mentioning the I rode to school in the morning and afternoon with my daughter, he visibly warmed up to me. I suppose in his mind, that made me someone worthy of sharing his trail with him — at least that’s what I was imagining.

Now that we are on speaking terms, I asked him if he had ever rode in the STP, knowing full well just from looking at him that he probably had. His answer surprised me. He said that he had ridden in every one. That is 30 years worth of rides! I had just finished reading in article in the “Cascade Courier” about the fact that only two people to have ridden in every STP.  I was now meeting one of them, right here on my bicycle trail! He talked about his STP experiences, but was quick to point out that the other gentleman, whom he knew quite will I gathered, had only ridden in 29 STPs. Apparently about 6 years ago the other fellow had dropped out in Puyallup because it was “raining too hard”. I could tell the way the words were tossed that this was no small insult. He also shared the fact that this is not widely known, hence the mis-information in the article.

So there I was, riding home from work with Mr. STP. The only person to have conquered every STP, a 40 year commuter, and the owner of the Cedar River Trail!

Ready To Ride

I’m reminded of the old joke about the Hunchback that walked into the hardware store. I’ll leave the rest of this joke to your imagination. But that was the first thing that came to my mind when I put on my new prescription sunglasses for the first time while riding my bike. I felt like I was soaring above the road, a good foot taller than I was with them off.

It’s a pretty cool feeling actually, it also seems like I’m going faster than I really am. They are going to take some getting used to, that’s for sure. I suppose the curvature of the frames has something to do with this effect. For the most part, I’m finding the distraction to be rather enjoyable.

I used to only worry about objects in my mirror being closer than they appeared, now I have to also worry about my speed, if only the improvement in speed were real, and not perceived.

I’m told that Kyphosis, or curvature of the upper spine can be caused by too much time in the saddle. I’m sure you’ve heard of, and probably seen the photo aging applications, the ones that show you what you will look like in 20 years. I plugged a photo of myself into one of them recently and got out the depiction above. It is rather a nice rendering I think.

Flaming Geyser State Park

Last night I added a new route. This one is a 21 mile circuit out to Flaming Geyser State Park and back. This is a really great ride with some nice hill work. You drop down into the Green River valley off a 9% grade where the speed gets up to 40+. This hill is referred to as the North Sister. At the bottom you turn left and immediately head up the East Sister. The East Sister is a narrow winding 2 lane with stretches of 10% grade for the majority of the climb. The total climb is about 1,500 ft.

I was passed on the East Sister by two cyclists doing “intervals”. As one went by me he said “intervals sure are a bitch”, I was thinking the whole hill was a bitch. I made it up fine, and topped out only 50 yards behind them. They were obviously better climbers, on better equipment, so I was quite happy.

I need to find a good way to calculate grade, so I have a better idea of what it is I am tackling. I found this information, which is interesting.

A 0% grade is exactly flat (and a negative grade, less than zero, is downhill).

A 2% grade does not seem very steep, but it’s enough to substantially reduce forward speed, and for most riders it will absorb more than half their power output.

A 6% grade is enough to cut speed to well under half, and absorb more than 80% of a rider’s power output (leaving less than 20% to fight air resistance and rolling friction).

A 10% grade, and anyone who is not a fit and frequent rider is off their bike walking. Anyone who is not a racer is reaching for all the extra power they’ve got.

This is from the “Bike the Hudson Valley” web site. It has a very interesting information page on measuring the hillyness of routes. Basically, it gives a formula for calculating a “Hill Index” and some of the common pitfalls in measuring grade.

The thing I find frustrating about grade is that few hills have a constant slope, so that the grade measured on one portion of the hill might be different from another portion of the hill. This requires that a grade measurement really is some sort of average, rather than a fixed number, hence the Hill Index measurement.

This is a training ride for the “High Pass Challenge” on September 12. This is a Cascade Bicycle Club ride that entails 7,500 feet of climbing in 114 miles. There is a 10 hour time limit. This is going to be a tough ride for me. My goal is to simply finish in under 10 hours, I should be able to do that if I don’t burn out. If I’m to make it, I won’t be able to give up a lot of time to resting during this one.

I finished the 21 mile route in under 90 minutes. That I think is a pretty good time. Here are the stats for the route. If you multiply this by 5, you pretty much have the equivalent of the High Pass Challenge both in distance and elevation.

Anderson hand built custom road

Martin Luther King was a great man. Easily he qualifies as one of the greatest leaders of the 20th Century. His message and the changes that he inspired will forever leave our Country better off. So with no disrespect to Dr. King, I too have a dream.

I dream of some day owning a hand-made bicycle. Actually, make that two or three, but for starters I think an Anderson would be just the ticket.

This is an all-purpose road bike that will last a lifetime. Besides the obvious advantages of riding a custom built bike, doesn’t this just look sweet? These models are built from Reynolds 953 stainless steel (paint optional). Reynolds just started the 953 in 2006, it is ultra light weight, ultra strong, made from steel developed for armor plating.

Dave Anderson’s shop is in St. Paul Minnesota. I’ve always wanted to go to St. Paul. It would be a nice ride home from there after picking up a new bike, don’t you think? In addition to a nice all-purpose road bike like the Anderson, I definitely need to own a full-on touring bike. Just so that I can do my 40th anniversary ride of the Pacific Coast in proper livery.

Some of you may be thinking, “perhaps I should just scrape up the dough needed for one of these and buy it for Brad”. I couldn’t agree more, and I’d be pleased as punch if you did that, but before you go out and drop your hard-earned money on a bicycle for me, please take the Hand Made Pledge, just to show me your heart is in the right place.

But wait, don’t rush out just yet. I think I will attend the North American Handmade Bicycle Show in Austin Texas, February 25-27, 2011. That way I can examine first hand a wide selection of choices and pick the very best one for me. I will post the answer here in early March, so you have a few months to save up.