My first track day

For Christmas my parents gave Nick and me a motorcycle skills class at Pacific Raceways. It wasn’t a course on racing or race technique, rather it was a day to build road riding skills in a controlled, car-free environment.

We arrived at the track this morning at some gosh-awful early hour for check-in and bike inspection.

checking tire pressure

The day was divided into 20-minute segments - classroom, break, track time. Nick and I ended up in different sessions somehow, which we thought would be interesting, since they were teaching different skills in each one. My section focused on the S-M-A-R-T cornering technique (Scan, Mark, Adjust, Relax, Throttle). We learned how to read whether a corner was an increasing radius, constant or decreasing radius turn by looking at the vanishing point and other clues. We practiced picking lines and smooth throttle control. The best part of the day, though, came at the end when we started to shift body position on the bike in order to go faster and keep the rubber down.

Nick’s class focused on the A-R-T part of S-M-A-R-T. Unfortunately, someone’s bad judgment ended his day early and left the Superfriend in shambles. I still had riding lessons left, so I kissed him on the cheek and handed him the camera. (No worries! Nick is fine, and he’ll get to go back in September when his bike is fixed.)

I had so much fun that I’m now contemplating the choice between a new pair of shoes and another track day. Oh, the dilemma!

More Olympia weekend fun

Sunday brought more Olympia fun for the two of us. Nick went bike racing out near Boston Harbor, and I took advantage of the time to do a much needed load of laundry. Once he was back, it was off to play tourist again. We started with ice cream at the Farmer’s Market and a walk along the waterfront.

Our ultimate destination was the (almost) 100-year old tugboat - Sandman. In Olympia’s heyday, it hauled lumber, pulp, oil, and oysters. It also hauled much of the sand that filled in the area under downtown (hence the name). It was a working tug until about 35 years ago. Now the fully restored boat lives its life as a tourist attraction and exhibition boat.

It still wasn’t time for happy hour yet, so we headed up to Tumwater Falls Park, next to the old Olympia Brewery.

After the park we capped off the weekend with drinks and food at Waterstreet Cafe (Acqua Via’s sister restaurant). A four course “meal” consisting of all happy hour menu items and drinks set us back $25 each. Not a bad way to finish a wonderful weekend.

Sunset on the Capitol Building

After dinner at Acqua Via last night, Nick and I went for a stroll around Capitol Lake. We got back to the town side just as the setting sun cast a pink glow on the Capitol Building.

Mima Mounds

Standing on a mound, looking out at the mounds

We had our pick of events yesterday between Tour de Blast and the Capitol Criterium. Instead, we opted for a 55-mile country ride south and west of Olympia. The main attraction, besides solitude and beautiful roads, was the Mima Mounds.

We started from my rental house in Olympia and took the Chehalis Western Trail south. After 15 miles (and a few turns off the trail) we arrived at Millersylvania State Park - a great stopping point for a snack and water bottle refill.

Deep Lake at Millersylvania State Park

We criss-crossed local roads past people’s farms and homes until reaching the booming town of Rochester. Nick has raced here before and pointed out the way to Independence Valley. We turned the opposite direction, though, and soon battled fierce headwinds as we approached the hills. We were rewarded as we turned north by a tail wind and made good time up to the Mounds.

They’re admittedly a little hard to see in the picture, but they’re neat in a Roswell-alien-like way. There are thousands of these over-sized gopher hills (about six feet tall and 40 feet across) in the Mima Prairie. They are made of silt and sand (probably left behind 13,000 years ago when the Vashon glacier retreated) and sit on a bed of gravel. Each mound has a “root” of silt that extends into the gravel below the mound. No one knows for sure how they formed. Theories include formation of polygonal ice wedges in soil near the edge of the glacier, burrowing by colonies of pocket gophers, and erosion or deposition by glacial floods around regularly spaced trees or shrubs of a long-vanished ice age landscape. What do you think?

For a turn-by-turn route description of a 35-mile variation of our ride that starts and finishes at Millersylvania State Park, click the map below.

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Burfoot Park at sunset

Instead of going home this weekend, Nick is driving down here for a south Sound adventure. Since I didn’t have to drive anywhere tonight, I took the opportunity to check out Burfoot County Park. The sun was just going down as I got there. Next time I’ll remember to park outside the park, so can stay longer without being locked in at dusk.