The first less-than-stellar-ride

Charlie and I met for our regular weekly ride last night. (This is actually our last ride for a while since my internship with the Attorney General’s Office ends tomorrow.) We decided to head to Yelm this week for a little variety. The loop promised lush forest and preserved prairie (courtesy of the Fort Lewis military reservation), views of Mt. Rainier, and most importantly a glimpse of the complex belonging to JZ Knight, channeler of the Ramptha warrior spirit.

Sections of the ride were definitely nice. Cruising along on the Chehalis-Western Trail and the Yelm-Tenino Trail was wonderful and the views of Mt. Rainier were lovely. Unfortunately, the trails were interspersed with heavily trafficked roads with narrow shoulders. The one redeeming quality of the ride was its overwhelming flatness. Maximum elevation gain over the entire 30 miles was 250 feet. By the end, we cruised comfortably along above 20 mph, joking that there’s nothing like rednecks in big trucks to make you light the afterburners.

If you’re really bored with your regular ride and want to give this one a try for variety’s sake, here are the turn-by-turn directions.

With Mary out of town, we capped the day with dinner at the Fishbowl. Both of us indulged in our favorite post-ride meal (fish & chips for Charlie and a turkey reuben for me) and a mug each of Mudshark Porter. Yum!

Our first tandem race

It was only a matter of time before Nick wore me down and convinced me to give bike racing a try. (Actually it was a condition he imposed when we bought the tandem.) I’d been battling a throat infection all week. We’d paid our registration fee, though, for the Co-Motion Classic Tandem Stage Race, so when Friday rolled around I plopped myself in the car for the ride south to Eugene.

reflection in a semi hubcap

We arrived at the factory just in time to sign in and catch the end of the factory tour.

Then it was off to dinner at an old college haunt - The Glenwood. My throat was so raw that I had to pass off my strawberry lemonade to Nick. I could only eat half my tomato cheese soup. We went to bed early, hoping to be well rested for the next day’s time trial and criterium.

catching a bit of shut-eye between races

The a-field criterium

The next day’s stage race was blazing fast (44 miles in 1 hour 20 min.). We stayed together until the final mile when the stronger riders blew the field apart. Nick and I managed to hold our own and pass three teams on the way up the final 1k hill climb. Overall place was mediocre thanks to our TT effort. We learned a lot though and anticipate a much better effort next year when I’m not sick.

How many rednecks does it take to cut down a tree?

Quite a few apparently. Look closely at the above picture (snapped from my Olympia front yard this morning). There is one guy up in the tree with a chainsaw. In the mean time, there are four people pulling the tree down on top of them with a rope as it is cut.

If the tree top crushes the people on the ground, the guy in the tree will need to recruit another group of rednecks to pull the rest of the tree down. 

Another great after-work ride

Charlie took the reigns handlebars this week and planned our after work ride. I almost canceled this afternoon thanks to a horrible throat infection, but I decided to try it anyway. (As Craig says: if your cold is from the neck up, it’s probably okay to ride.)

We met at Charlie’s office just off Black Lake Blvd and headed south into the farmland. (Yes, there really is farmland a mile outside of Olympia in every direction.) He was breaking his rule of going on a group ride on roads he’d never driven before. This was especially troubling for Charlie because he decided to take a shortcut off the route that had been recommended to him by his co-worker.

In the end, the ride was a flawless loop. Slightly rolling with a nice big descent about half-way through. We got to ride through both farmland and state forest. By the time we got back to the starting point, my head felt ready to explode and I was feeling a bit feverish. It was all worth it though for the great company and the adventure of riding the unknown.

Click here for the turn-by-turn playbook if you’re interested in riding the loop yourself.

Three peaks in two weekends

My brother Brian was in town two weeks ago. Being the adventurous soul he is, he let me and Nick drag him up not one but two mountains in a day. Despite the fact that he’s been living in the flatlands of Williamsburg, VA for the last two years, he did great. We started with Guye Peak, which required a little four wheelin’ (hands and feet) to get up some of the snow slopes. Nothin’ stopped him; he even did a little glissading on the way down.

Snoqualmie Mountain proved to be the boys’ nemesis. Both of them stopped 500’ short of the summit and wouldn’t budge, even after I sprinted to the top in 15 minutes. Nick and Brian claim credit for climbing 1.8 peaks - not bad considering he racked up 4500 feet of elevation gain doing it.

On the way down, we stopped for a shower and water break - much needed on the hot day.

Guye Peak

Yes, snow in July. We’re not in Virginia anymore Toto.

Proud smiles on summit #1

This peak’s easy to identify!

Taking in the view of Source Lake basin on the way down

ahhhhh....

The next weekend (i.e. last Saturday), I led a rock climbing trip up Lundin, Snoqualmie’s sister peak a little further east. There were five of us due to some last-minute cancellations. We hiked back up Snoqualmie Mountain and over Cave Ridge to the blocky ridge that separates the two mountains. I was on the fence at the base of the climb about whether I had enough energy to continue. The odd number of climbers would have made the climbing really slow and awkward, so I sacrificed my summit for the boys. A good thing too since it took them considerably longer to make the summit than I expected. As a fifth wheel I would have added at least another hour to that portion of the trip.

Instead, I napped in the sun and listened to the clink-clink of gear as they made their way up. Here’s a few pictures of them on the ridge.

Do you see the climbers?