The Perfect Weekend
Sometimes you have weekends that are so perfect they border on sublime. This last one was one of those for me. I can’t think of a single way to improve on it.
Friday night I joined a gaggle of people (family, friends and family friends) at the Marymoor Velodrome to watch Friday night racing. Nick was entered in the category 3 races, which included a really exciting series of Kirin races (see picture below). There was a beer garden on site, and the category 1/2s were scheduled to race a Madison at the end of the night.
The racing was tight, and - thanks to four terrible crashes - it was more action packed than usual. My father, who was delighted by his “all access pass” to the Velodrome, took lots of pictures and narrowly missed being injured in the third crash of the night.
Copyright 2004 - Charles H. Porter - All rights reserved
The story in my dad’s words:
“It was twilight at the Redmond Washington Velodrome. My son-in-law was racing this evening and invited us to come and watch. I had free access to all areas of the track and the infield. It was twilight and the track was lighted but it was still pretty dark. I didn?t want to use a flash because I didn?t want to distract the racers. So I set ISO on my D70 to 1600 and hoped for the best.
“I had shot about 70 pictures from various places and decided to move to a point between the last curve and the finish line. Set. Focus. Here come the racers. And right in front of me a rider goes down. I?m shooting as fast as I can! Two more riders go down.
“And BAM! I?m hit by a flying bike. (I think it was the one at the right-most edge of the picture going mach 6.) As I get up. I see the front half of my lens rolling away from me in the grass. The bike also hit the front of my D70 and tore the kit lens in half. So this photo is the last of the evening for me. I spent the rest of the evening nursing my injuries and mourning the lens, in that order. The jury is still out on the camera until I can get to camera repair.”
After getting home late, I feverishly packed for my climb of North Twin Sister the next day. This climb involves a mountain bike approach, and Nick generously finished prepping my bike for the trip that night, while I gathered all of my climbing gear together.
A 5 a.m. wake up call got me going the next day. I grabbed some cinnamon sugar coated donut holes at Safeway (mmm...) and sprinted off to meet 12 other climbing friends at the park & ride. Normally 13 people is an excessivly large group for a climb, but today “the more the merrier” attitude prevailed.
We arrived at the trailhead at about 8 a.m. and after changing a flat tire on my bike (Nick’s bike prep was almost perfect), we were off at 8:30.
The approach roads had been improved since I did this climb about three years ago - much smoother! They were just as steep, though, so we ended up walking our bikes up a good portion of the approach. We ditched the bikes at about 11 a.m. just below the ridge, had a brief snack, and headed up arguably the most beautiful third class climbing in the state - 1500 feet of pure sticky rock fun!
We topped out at around 2 p.m. and enjoyed a rest. The views were nil thanks to heavy cloud cover, but heck what else did you expect this year?!
We started down at about 2:30 and, following a short down climb, enjoyed the classic N. Twin glissade - a thousand feet of pure butt-sliding fun! About 2 1/2 hours and a rip-roaring mountain bike descent later we were at the car, heading for drinks and dinner at the Skagit River Brewery.
I got home and enjoyed a pleasant evening with my husband, who mentioned we were set to go ride bikes the next day with his Ti Cycles friends. I was a little stiff from the day, so I committed to nothing, thinking I’d see how I felt in the morning.
At 7 a.m., freshly brewed tea and a road bike were beckoning me out of bed. (Don’t I have one of the best husbands?) Despite a few creaks, I felt pretty good, so Nick and I took off to meet the team at Logboom Park in Kenmore.
We started at an easy 13 mph and sped up to about 16-17 mph in short order. It wasn’t until someone lit the afterburners to cruise at 25 mph that I worried this wasn’t going to be my day. I ultimately realized their idea of a “mellow ride” wasn’t anywhere near mine, so Nick and I dropped off and headed for Mercer Island before coming home.
We completed 45 miles in about 3 1/2 hours. Nothing to write home about, but it was a great way to spend a morning.
We stopped by Acapulco Fresh for fish burritos and took them over to my parents place on Lake Washington. They weren’t home, but it didn’t matter, since our main goal was to sit on the dock with our feet in the water savoring our lunch. Ahhh…
Giving in to the post-lunch coma was inevitable, and we settled in for an afternoon nap. Two hours of afternoon bliss!
Now, in case you were thinking this is already the most perfect weekend, just wait...it gets better!
After getting up from our nap, we made some potato salad and headed over to our friends’ place for a Sunday barbecue. Scott & Nina grilled up some amazing sausages and even let us play XBox! (We’d never done that before, if you can believe it.)
It was the perfect way to end a perfect weekend!
Comments:
I am living the life of my youth vicariously through your adventures. Looking forward to your chronicles from The BIG Ride.
Stay safe.
I was just in front of that track wreck sprinting for the line. I wouldn’t mind seeing other pictures you had from that night.
Greg
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