Twilight Zone: Steens Mountain ride

August 2017: The big cross-country solar eclipse is scheduled for Aug. 21, 2017.  My friend and I have been planning "doing the eclipse" for at least 13 years, and now it's almost here.  Because he needs assistance getting around, he decided to drive over 2 days from Eugene to Baker City, and arrive on Friday, Aug 18. I would meet him there, driving from Seattle and we'd have some time to hang out before the big event.

I had read an article about "Steens Mountain" - a nearly 10000 foot "peak" in southeast Oregon, with a road you can ride on a bicycle, and all I knew was "it was a great ride".   Although Baker City is still 200 miles from the start of the ride, it's 371 miles closer than Seattle.  I asked my friend if it'd be OK to do the ride on Saturday, and he said sure.

I had the alarm set for 4am, got up at 3:45, got ready, and rolled out of Baker City in the dark at 4:30 am.  As I drove south, the sky lightened, and I got a spectacular view of the setting waning crescent moon hanging above the eastern horizon with bright Venus just above it.

The road alterately went over ridges, twisting and turning in 40 mph curves, and flat straight stretches where could open it up and fly.

As I descended one of these ridge roads just south of John Day, I spotted a man shuffling along the side of the road, the same direction as I was going.  He had long hair, sweatpants, and bare feet. We were miles from any town, store, or house.  I passed him, and then thought, "What's wrong with this picture? What's he doing out here miles from anywhere, with bare feet no less?"  I turned around, and pulled up next to him "Hey, you need a lift?" "Oh that'd be great". I turned around again, and he got in.  "I'm heading to Burns, if that's OK with you", I said.  "Sure, I guess."  

He told me that he had come up from Santa Barbara, where he lived, with two friends, to see the eclipse.  They were going to photograph it and had found a great site, and left him there to save it.  "Where are they now?" "I don't know..."   He continued: "I was walking down a path, and there were teenagers on bikes with guns, although they didn't shoot them.  And I saw a momma bear feeding her cubs, and a mother moose feeding her babies. "

"I'm Geoff, what's your name?"  "I'm actually Transgender - I didn't even know that word until recently. I go by Birdie - like 'tweet tweet'.  And I'm trying to make some other changes in my life, too. I've always been left handed, but I've decided to be right handed from now on.  Hey, do you have a tissue for my nose?" "Here are some napkins."  I noticed later as he needed to put them in the trash, they had blood on them, and his face was scratched up.  "How'd your face get scratched?  Did you fall out of a car?" "Yes, that's what happened."   (I regretted giving him the suggestion , he seemed to sieze on it as reality).

"So where are your friends? Can we give them a call?"  "I don't have a phone." "I do, do you know their number?"  He didn't know.  He continued "Last night I was cleaning out my furnace, and dealing with a pile of bricks in the basement - there's a lot of work to do at my house."

We neared Burns, and after driving through the deserted town, I said "Hey, we're in Burns, how about I let you out here?" "Sure, OK..."  He was an easy to get along with guy.

As he got out and stepped on the gravel shoulder, he remarked "I have bare feet. I used to have flip flops."  "Well, perhaps but you were bare feet when I picked you up."

He shut the door and started shuffling off.  I watched him for 30 seconds as I drove away, then turned around, and parked right by the Senior Center. "Hey hang on a sec.  Lemme make a call."  911.  "911 what is your emergency?"  "I am in Burns right by the Senior Center.  I picked up a guy back on 395 coming from John Day, who is bare footed, scratched up, and lost." "OK we'll send an officer."

5 minutes later, the officer arrives, and talks with Birdie.   He gets the same story I got.  "Are you on any drugs? Marijuana? "No." "Take any medications? "  "Niacin."  "What day is it?"  "Thursday?  (it was Saturday)  Took us 3 days to drive up... Friday?"  "What year is it?"  "2017" "Who is the President?" " Donald Trump".  But he also told the officer about the furnace.  "Where IS your house?" "oh..  that's a good question!" 

The officer called for another officer to confirm all details and then said "We think that since you're scratched up, and you've been out all night, you should get checked out at the hospital.  We can commit you, or you can sign yourself in." "What's cheaper?" "Neither, but if you're indigent, they will treat you."

At this point I asked the officers if it was OK if I took off, and they were "Yeah sure, you're good. We got this."  So I shook his hand, said goodbye, and said "These fellows will take care of you."  And I drove the rest of the way to the bike ride.

What an interesting delay!  I hope his friends will look for him, and eventually make it to town!

8:30 I start up Steens Mountain - a gravel road, 30 miles long to the summit , going up almost all the time at various pitches.  There is a lot of washboarding that is hard to ride on going uphill and impossible to ride on going downhill.  There is an occasional path of flat road, and also windrows of loose gravel that are dangerous to ride in.  The ride is slow going and I'm tempted to quit or get a ride to the top many times, but eventually I get there, hours later than I had planned.  I did NOT want to ride down - difficult riding, very slow and brakes all the way, and it'd be dark before I got to the bottom - so I decided to try to hitch a ride to the bottom.  There were a few cars in the summit parking lot, and eventually a group of hikers came back to one. "Can I hitch a ride down?" "Sure."  4 people, mid 30's, 3 guys, one girl,  plus a medium dog with short salt and pepper color coat.  We pulled the wheels off the bike and fit it in the back, then 2 up front, 3 in the back, with the girl in the middle with the dog on her lap.  The dog's head was right where she could rest it on my knee, which was just fine with me.  I told them this whole story as we drove down the 30 miles of washboard gravel road.

As we neared Frenchglen where I was going to get off, I went to pet the dog and noticed her nametag for the first time.  BIRDIE.

The 300k that wasn't

In the sport of Randonneuring, cyclists ride pre-determined routes of varying length from 100k to 1200k (and even beyond) and document their ride with a Brevet Card at checkpoints, making sure to arrive at each checkpoint within the allotted time.  Documentation is usually by way of a stamp, for an organized ride, or by obtaining a store receipt for a self-ridden permanent ride.

Warning: this story contains a number of incidents of rule bending and possibly rule breaking.  The author is prepared to defend every incident, but realizes others may not agree with his reasoning.


The backstory:

In Seattle, there is an organized ride "The Chilly Hilly" that happens in January on hilly Bainbridge Island.   On this 33 mile ride there is one big hill "Baker Hill" and it's practically a loop on its own - where you start the ascent is a block away from where you end it.    A couple years ago, I decided to ride two loops of the route.  On the second loop, I thought "I've ridden Baker Hill up one way, what would it be like to ride it backwards?" and that's what I did.   I expected to have a few people holler at me "Wrong way" but what actually happened was I was seeing people I knew going the other way, and was happily hollering "Hey Leo!" or "Hi Claire".

This happy event got stuck in the back of my mind, and I subsequently wondered about riding the Northwest Classic "STP" - Seatte to Portland - backwards.  I even tried to figure out how I would do it - ride the train to Portland, stay overnight at my brother's house 20 miles away, have him drive me to the start at 5:00 AM -- it all seemed rather implausible.

Then I started randonneuring.  The STP route is one of our 300k permanent rides, and it's documented in either direction.  I could ride the route backwards and get RUSA credit for it. A plus, but  it wasn't going to happen until a friend posted a request on Facebook "Would someone be willing to drive my car to Portland and leave it there for me to return to Seattle after I finish my STP ride?"  Suddenly the plan just put itself together.  Drive down Friday, ride back on Saturday - a one day PTS ride for me!

And so it happened.  I left my van in Seattle, near Sarah's house - a couple miles from the official finish of the route.   I drove down on Friday, stayed at a motel my friend paid for, parked her car in a lot, packed all my street clothes in a pre-addressed If-it-fits-it-ships box, and got myself over to the start location, the Safeway on Lovejoy street, at 5:10 AM, just 5 minutes before the scheduled start.

I bought a sandwich and Frappucino, got my first receipt, and headed out a few minutes late at 5:25 am.  The sky in the east was getting light and the sun would be up soon.

The ride proceeded well enough, and when I got to Longview, I was looking for a Wendy's, the "official" control.  Block after block, no Wendys.  Finally I saw a Jack in the Box and had a great breakfast platter.  After all, the card said "Wendys or open" which meant some flexibility was allowed.

The second control was to be in Chehailis and as I rode the twisting and turning route, I kept an eye out for the Main street food market, but apparently rode past it.  I kept looking for a place to stop, and finally my Garmin said "next route turn 8 miles" I knew I had left Chehailis behind.   Fortunately at that moment, a man and woman sitting on the side of the road offering free water appeared.  I got some water and also asked him to put the time and initial my card.  I figured something was better than nothing.

Now, the next stop is supposed to be in Sumner, which according to the card is "34 mi / 56 Km from Seattle   or 143 mi / 230 Km "    from Portland.   I could see it being 56 miles from Seattle, but not 56 km.  Someone got their math bollixed up here.  But even more important, when I got to mile 143 on my ride, I wasn't in Sumner - I was up on the Puyallup plateau.  And I was getting really hungry.  I finally pulled into a Burger King for some real food and got a receipt.  And as I followed the route down the Puyallup hill, I realized I was never going to get to downtown Sumner.  Well, I had a receipt from somewhere "nearby" anyway.

So now I get to the rather sketchy part.  It was getting later and later, and I had work the next day, so getting to bed was becoming a real thing for me.  I estimated my arrival time at the finish to be 12:30 plus or minus a half hour.  I started to think "what if I rode to the car and then drove to QFC?" or "what if I drove to the car and just went home?".  Thing is, if I rode to the QFC, I would still have a few miles to get to the car after, vs. just riding to the car. And at the rate I was moving, a few miles seemed daunting.  When I got to the start of the Interurban trail, I did a quick check on distance to the car vs. distance to the QFC, and the car was just 3 miles closer.  I had talked with another randonneur just last week about route changes and he said with full conviction "oh it doesn't matter if you deviate from the route as long as you do the distance".  I am willing to bet others feel differently about this -- but since I was riding "STP backwards" and I didn't start from the STP start point (or end point) I was a bit less concerned about riding to the car - as long as I did the miles.  So, my odometer said 166.  I will ride up and down the trail and the road until it says 169 and then press on to the car.   You know, riding 3 miles for just distance on the same road takes way longer than you'd imagine.

I headed up the Interurban and then rather thar go up the west side of Lake Washington, I kept going on the Green River trail, heading for Ellis above Boeing field, to connect with 15th heading north (lots of UP on that road) and after more pedalling, I arrived at my car.  Now, how to document the arrival? (I had already given up going to QFC).  I took a photo of my Garmin along with part of the Seattle skyline, showing I was IN Seattle at 12:48 AM, 18:33 after my offical start time (21 hours being the final cutoff).  I found it impossible to get the light towers on Queen Anne Hill and the garmin in focus at the same time:

I figured I had pushed beyond the limits of "the rules" as far as riding perms go.  I had started within one hour of my stated start time, gotten receipts where I could along the way, but I had unilaterally modified the end point (keeping to the total distance ridden) and the only proof I had was a photo -- and my Inreach tracking:

My original goal had simply been to ride the STP backwards.  Getting RUSA credit for it was a "nice to have" but not the main point of the ride.  And the next day, I realized I had run my brevet card through the wash!  I wasn't going to go any further with it, but another rider who is very familiar with randonneuring, urged me to submit it anyway.

I figured the card and all its "discrepances" deserved a full explanation.  Whether or not to grant credit is the decision of our "permanents" people.  I gladly accept their decision.

Cool damp 100k "Uncommonly Testy" (Factoria start)

Still riding my bike, still engaged in the cycling sport of "Randonneuring" and I'm on a quest for my second P-12 award -- gained by riding a 100 kilometer (62 mile) ride each month for 12 consecutive months.  This is my second P-12 series, and today was ride number 11.  I was cutting it close to the end of the month because I don't have a lot of free time on weekends, but my wife was having a baby shower at the house this afternoon, so that left me with some valuable daylight weekend hours.
And because of the event, the ride was scheduled to go "rain or shine".    I got at least one of those.

I almost wore my summer jersey but with the cooler weather and rain in the forecast, I switched to my full sleeve wool jersey, worn under my rain jacket.  Lightweight tights, and carried fuzzy full finger gloves and windproof headband in case it got cool and / or wet or both.

The start is close to my house.  I rolled out a few minutes late for my 1:30 PM start time, and arrived at the Factoria 7-11 just after 1:35.  I wanted a two pack of Reeses Peanut Butter cups, but they were not to be found, so I got a large Payday bar.  The clerk looked outside and said "Here comes the rain.  And more behind that, and more behind that."  He was right.

Bike trail to Lake Washington boulevard, and the well travelled route to Renton along the lake.  First control is an info control at the Renton airport.  There's a great statue there of an aviator, standing next to a sign post with directional signs all the way down a pole with air distances to cities all over the world.  The question to answer was "who is this a statue of?".

Then we ride through downtown Renton, which looks like it is caught between mostly abandoned small town downtown and gentrification attempts that haven't found their new tenants yet.   Renton is doing much better over at 'The Landing' which is all new suburbia generica retail.

We pop out of downtown and hit the Cedar River trail.  It's starting to rain now, but not heavy rain, more like spritzing rain.  You could go out to the mailbox and hardly get damp in this rain.   The trail has a few people walking dogs here and there but they're all either hearing me coming or were intending to get off the trail anyway, many move to the grass on either side as I approach.  The trail is a 'rails to trails' trail that has a slight overall uphill grade in this southeast direction as it runs parallel to highway 169 toward Maple Valley.  It doesn't turn much, sightlines are good.  In a couple places where it encounters heavy cross traffic, it has underpass tunnels.  Otherwise there are occasional road crossings that must be dealt with carefully.

I pass a few other brave souls out on their bikes today, but by and large the trail is empty.  Nine miles later, I cross under Highway 18 and am nearly at the Testy Chef Cafe.  Now, the Testy Chef shows up frequently in photo postings by various members of the Seattle International Randonneurs (My local group) but I have never been there, so I was anticipating a garlic burger which I had heard was very good.  To get there from the trail, just after you cross under Hwy 18 there is a little dirt path to the right that leads up to the back of the restaurant.  I wheeled my bike up the path, came around the front, and started to take of my gloves when a person inside said "We're closed! -- we close at 1:30 on Sunday".  To which a second person said "We're closed."   OK, fine.  No burger for me.  As I turned to put my gloves back on, a third person appeared and said... wait for it... "We're closed."

Off I go, heading north now toward Issaquah.  There are a few hills along this part of the route, but they're not steep and they're not long.  It's rather rural, with a number of manufactured homes on lots I pass by one house that looks like they have their compost bin in the front yard, and observe a lone flower holding onto summer in the face of fall:

Riding on past the Cedar Grove landfill and climbing a couple more hills, I note my altimeter at 477 feet above sea level, the high point on the route.

Finally we get to turn onto Issaquah Hobart road and get some well deserved downhill to Issaquah.  I just get going when I note my rear tire seems to have an unusual amount of "bounce" to it.  I pull over and give it a squeeze, and it IS soft.  I look closer and see bubbles coming out of the sidewall.  I for sure have a flat going and now is a good time to change it.  I pull into a gravel lot in front of a power substation and flip the bike upside down, with the handlebar in a low bush to keep it from getting scratched.  Pull the wheel, take the tire off, and there is a little tiny sharp wire that's gotten in at an angle through the tread.  There's barely 1/32nd of an inch showing, and I can't grab it.  I take the knife of my multi-tool and manage to break it level with the tire but it's not coming out.  I put a tire patch over the spot where the wire was, stick in a new tube, and hope for the best.   I'm set back about 15-20 minutes, but so far I'm doing well and it's not endangering the ride.

The ride to Issaquah is downhill and as my speed picks up to 20 mph, I start to feel the cold.  It's time to pull over and put my headband over my ears and swap my summer  bike gloves for my fleece full finger gloves.  These are good to 35 degrees, and with the wind chill, we might be hitting that.
I make it to Issaquah, and as I get on the East Lake Sammamish bike trail, my stomach starts to  rumble. Recall I had been counting on food at the Testy Chef ("We're closed!"). I know that there's a McDonalds just ahead, and if I can catch the light just right, it'll be super easy to get through the intersection.  As luck would have it, as I arrive at the light, the cars are all turning left, so I merge in, make the left, and I'm at the door in 5 more pedal strokes.

I order a Fish Sandwich and a cup of water, sit down and enjoy the warm steamed bun with tasty fish, cheese and tartar sauce.  It's a  nice respite from the cool damp outside.  A small girl from the table next to me stands nearby and stares at me and my bike shoes with a slightly disapproving expression but doesn't say anything.  They leave before I do, and I watch through the window as her father lets her navigate across the parking lot alone (!!!). He manages to collect her before an entering car can run her down.  

The drama over, so is my fish sandwich.  I finish off the water,  and put my gloves, headband, helmet and glasses on, and head out north on East Lake Sammamish boulevard.  It's about 7 miles up the road to the next turn, and a couple of short hills.  The rain is still spitting down ,not hard, but you'd be using your wipers, perhaps on intermittent wipe,  if you were driving in it.

Cut through Marymoor park, noting people who are watching soccer games in progress all have their umbrellas out.  Turn right, north, on the Sammamish River Trail.  In five miles of easy riding, I'll have my third control.  It's just past the underpass under 145th, the road that goes to the Redhook brewery, site of the start and end of the Stinky Spoke Poker Ride every January.  I will say no more about that here, but if you have an off-road capable bike, you gotta do this ride at least once.  If you get lucky it might even SNOW.

OK, enough about the Stinky.  I'm at the control, and the question is "How many picnic tables are there here?".  I wonder if the number ever changes?  I make a note of it and make the u-turn to head south.  We're on a little out-and-back section of the route, 5 miles to the turn onto new road.

At Marymoor park, we keep going straight south on West Lake Sammamish road.  After less than a mile I have to merge over to the left lane to make a left to KEEP on West Lake Sam road, otherwise I'll be heading up Bel-Red road.  I have to wait for traffic to clear to merge left but no worries, they're all stacking up in the left turn lane, and I catch them just as the light turns green, and follow the train through the light.

West Lake Sammamish is hillier than East Lake Sammamish but it's not horrible.  A few 4%-5% grades but they're all short. about an eighth to a quarter mile.  It's starting to get dark now and my headlight is doing its best but the batteries are low and it has to run on low power mode which isn't quite as bright as I would like on this wet road.  Nevertheless, it's getting me closer to the end, less than 10 miles to go now.

One of the longer hills is just ahead, and it's steep enough that although I really don't need to, I decide to unmount and walk it so I can eat my Payday bar (I have half left, the other half went down for dessert at the McDonalds) and quiet my rumbling stomach again.  It's not a long hill but long enough to get the rest of the bar eaten just as I near the top.  I'm glad I walked because the shoulder is full of wet leaves and fir cones, not good cycling surface for sure.

Once up the hill I remount and head down the short straight section to the last info control at 34th.  "On the sign facing the lake it says watch for "_____"?   This road has beaten me before. It's less than a mile long but starts at 4% and then after about a half mile kicks up to 15% grade.  I have already decided to walk this section.  I'm nearly home and well ahead of schedule.  As it turns out, it takes me just 5 minutes to walk the steep part,  I wouldn't have done much better trying to grind it out on my bike.

We now go through what one of my friends calls "the scary tunnel" under I-90.  It's about 75 yards long and curves, two lanes, no shoulder.  If you take the lane, cars SHOULD just wait for you but two decide to cross the double yellow centerline and pass me anyway.    Sigh.  I'd say something to them if I had a chance, but I'm not going to get a chance today.

Exiting the tunnel, we navigate through a shopping center parking lot to avoid a busy intersection, and we're nearly done.  Behind the shopping center is the road that is our last road, just keep on straight ahead and after just a mite of a climb you're at the high spot and can coast (or speed) down to the plaza where the QFC grocery store is your final control.

I buy a small Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream and note my finishing time at 7:50, 6 hrs and 20 minutes after my registered start time, and with 25 minutes to spare.   10 minutes later I'm home.

I'd ride this route again. It's very similar to another one, the Factoria - Maple Valley - Redmond route,but with some changes.  And I have to get to the Testy Chef one of these days when it's actually OPEN.

Japan 2015: The last onsen

Onsen in Japan is a hot spring and/or public bath.  I had an onsen experience earlier in my Japan trip, and was looking forward to repeating it.

My son Tim and I had been riding our bikes for about 60 miles this day, our last travel day, and I was hot and sweaty.  We arrived in the town Tomakotomai around 3:00 PM, and our ferry wasn't scheduled to leave until 10:00PM, so we had some time to kill, and I was really in the mood for a bath.  But where could we go?

Tim searched his phone, but came up empty.  As we rode into town on the bike path/sidewalk, we rode up on two Americans in black pants, white short sleeve shirts, on mountain bikes.  I guessed they were missionaries from the LDS church -- correctly.  "How's it going?" one asked me.  "Oh, we're doing OK.  Say, do you know of any onsen around here where we could get cleaned up?"  "Uh, no, I don't."   "Well, thanks anyway."  And off we rode.

However, because of traffic lights, they caught up to us, and he proposed "How about if I ask a local person in Japanese if they know where one is?"  "Nah, no, you don't need to do that."

But by the next light, he had engaged a local fellow and was deep in conversation with him.   We stopped and hung out with his partner, making small talk.  Tim was impatient, but I held out hope this could actually get us somewhere.  As minutes ticked by, it got harder and harder to wait and keep up the small talk.  Finally he came back with a small scrap of paper, on which were written 6 Japanese characters.

"This is where you want to go.  Head down this road, and when it turns left, go straight.  Keep an eye out for these three characters; when you see them, you're there.  And if you get lost, show this to anyone at a convenience store and they'll point you in the right direction."

So, clutching that little scrap, we headed out.  The road did bend left, and we did go straight.  Block after block, I'm scanning every sign, but no match.  The road turns into an industrial part of town, and it's hard to imagine an onsen anywhere near here.  There is a bike path, but the road is 6 lanes wide at this point and all I'm seeing is warehouses.

Finally, I give up and stop at a gas station where there are two fellows painting the metal gutter around the perimeter of the station parking lot - every gas station has these.  I show one the scrap, and he recognizes it, but has no way to tell me where it is.  He speaks no English, I speak no Japanese.  His coworker, however, does have a small smattering of English, and he tells me to go down to the bridge, turn left, then left, then left again.  Progress!

We go down a few long blocks and eventually there IS a bridge to the left!  Over we go, and then left at the next street.  But then what?  Left immediately?  Don't know. Keep going!   So we go , and go , and go, and nothing.  Time to ask directions again, this time at a tire shop.  The guy helping me recognizes it and implies it's three roads down.  But what's a road?  We go three roads, turn left, and wind up at the back of a driving range.  No onsen in sight.

I'm beginning to lose hope, but I really want a shower and I think I'm close.  Tim is just hanging on, following me where ever I go, U turns and all.  We've gone at least two or three miles from where we started.

I see a drug store in a strip mall, and pop in. I show the slip to the cashier, who recognizes it but can't figure out how to tell me.  She gets someone else, who gets someone else, and he draws a map. We are nearly there! It's right around the corner, according to the map.

And when I turn the corner, there is a huge building.  I see people coming in and out with small bundles, likely clothing, and I guess we are there.  I show the paper to some guys who just showed up and then confirm:  We are here!

The onsen experience

Enter the onsen, take off your shoes.  Put shoes in a locker, along with a 100 yen coin as security for the key.  Then head over to the machine to buy a ticket (800 yen).  Now take that ticket and key to the front desk, where they trade you that key for another key, which goes to a larger locker, and a towel and washcloth. Now you can enter the locker room, disrobe, put all your stuff in the locker, and attach the key with a plastic spring loop to your wrist.

Head over to the shower room, sit on a stool, and get clean.  Pump bottles of shampoo, body soap, and conditioner are available.  Handheld shower, with a lever to give you 10-15 seconds of water, and soon you are clean.

Now feel free to partake of the hot springs, pools, tubs, jetted tubs, outside pool, as you wish.  Getting too hot? Sit outside or dip into the 60 degree tub.   This onsen's outside pool was covered with little rubber duckies. I thought it was charming.

When you've soaked enough, head back to the shower stool to rinse off, then get dressed, dry your hair, and you feel like a million bucks!    Take the locker key back to the front desk, trade for your shoe key, unlock your shoes, get your 100 yen coin back.

Best 800 yen I ever spent!

I wish they had onsen in Seattle.

Dead Baby Bike 2015

The Dead Baby Bike ride/race/party is a counter-culture favorite for people who like ink on their skin and riding bikes.  It starts at various places around Seattle and people race/ride to the finish in Georgetown, where there is beer, music, food, and various activities.  It has to be seen/participated in to fully appreciate it. I've been coming/participating off/on for 8 years.

Tonight we started at the Elysian Brewery on Capitol Hill in Seattle.  People gathered and waited for the 7:00 start time.

Once 7:00 hit people funneled out onto the street.  As we left the staging site, we were prompted "Don't stop - roll through lights and stop signs" - and we did.  I don't know how long the whole group of bikes was, but we did what we were told - ride together, and keep moving, rolling through stop signs and lights (green or red).  It was a blast, and mostly downhill. When we finally got onto Airport way, we had a tailwind, so it was easy pedalling to Georgetown.  The whole ride was about 5 miles.

Mass ride to the party
Bike parking at the site is at a premium:

Once we got to the party site I found the main area quite empty:

It was a short line to get a "water bottle" for $15.00 -

 good for unlimited refills of beer at one of the two mobile keg tap sites, being operated by the Rat City Roller girls.

There is a stage with rotating bands for the evening.  They start out kind of mellow and ramp up as the night wears on.  Video of Band number one

As it got later, people who had come for the party and not just the ride filled up the main area, and spilled out to secondary sites.  Some bikers started using the nearby ramps to do some trick riding.

There were food trucks, and I had a roast beef and swiss sandwich.  This was in the window of the food truck:

There are all kinds of bikes here, lots of custom jobs including this side-by-side tandem that was fitted with a flaming ball on top:

Flaming tandem bike video

The party backs up to some railroad tracks, and a few urban artists were painting on the warehouse wall in real time. I've never seen taggers at work before:

You never know what you're going to see at DBB party -- including a fellow with his pet Monitor:

Further down the street at the secondary area, they had some bike races going on with little kids bikes.

Kids bike races video

After that was over they used the kid bikes for the 'bike toss' - how far can you throw a bike? on the same course.

By this time, the main area had filled up:

The second band took the stage. I told you they get less mellow as the night wears on!

Second DBB 2015 band

By 9:00 I had seen what I had come to see, had enough beer, and was ready to head home.  Got my bike, rode up Airport way, and then over the I-90 bridge.  Saw a nice evening sky over Seattle:

RAMROD 2015 ride report

RAMROD is an annual event in the Seattle area. It's a 150 mile bike ride going into the Mt Rainier National part, with 10,000 feet of elevation.  The name stands for Ride Around Mount Rainier in One Day.

Mount Rainier:

It starts in Enumclaw, WA, heads to the south Park Entrance near Ashford, climbs almost all the  way to Paradise but detours to Inspiration Point to so as not to interfere with park operations.  It's still 4800 feet up.  A descent, then a shorter climb up Backbone ridge, a descent, and then you're at 100 miles with one climb left: Cayuse Pass, 9 miles of 6% grade, much in direct sun. It's  grueling climb for the strongest riders.

Once you get to the summit of Cayuse, there's about 37 miles left to Enumclaw that is about half downhill and half flat, or a little hilly, with some long flat straight stretches right into the sun.

I've ridden this ride 3 times:

In 2012, I did it self-supported twice.  Once I needed a  lift up Cayuse, the other time I made it on my own power.
On Thursday, July 30, 2015 I did the "official" supported ride.

This is my ride report:

My RAMROD: Had breakfast at the Enumclaw High School, rolled out at 5:30. Felt really good for the first 2 hrs, I swear we had a tailwind. Plus the route is downhill for a spell. Did OK getting to Eatonville, being passed by one paceline after another (pretty well behaved pacelines). Stopped before Ashford at the gas station C store for a corn dog - I find I do better with savory food on these rides, and it's pretty hard to find, they tend to emphasize simple carbs, peanut butter and jam, and fruit.
Made it to the Park entrance OK, and then slogged up the long hill to Inspiration point water stop. Not feeling too frisky on the hill which varies from 2% to 6% here and there. Somehow my odometer was a mile off so the water stop/summit was further than I expected - a mile up a 5% hill further! Did great on the descent and then Backbone ridge attacked me. It was longer than I remembered. Stopped a few times in wider shady areas to catch my breath for a couple of minutes.

At the bottom of the road where the park entrance is, a number of people were DNF'ing due to the heat. I thought I'd give Cayuse a try. It was flat-ish for two miles and when it tilted up I knew right off I wasn't going to make it. They say "If you're gonna DNF, do it early" - so I put my bike next to a tree and stood next to it at a wide spot. Less than a minute later, a sag car stopped to check on me, and I said "not doing great" -- "Do you want a ride to the top?" - Yes! He had two other riders on board, so we crammed into the back seat, put the bike on the rack, and up we went. This was about 3:15 PM. I was listening to the radio comms and I guess people were DNFing all over, the SAG cars were very busy. I told him if he needed space, I could hop out at the summit of cayuse and ride to Enumclaw, freeing a seat for someone who needed one, and that's what we did.

The ride to Enumclaw was uneventful - just 37 miles, with about half being downhill grades of various pitches, and the rest flat or light hills, with some long stretches of flat straight road heading right into the sun. It wasn't horrible.

I made it into Enumclaw around 7:00 PM, got my ice cream and headed home.

I'm probably in the 5% "slowest riders" group, I was getting passed right and left all day. When I got to Enumclaw there were 600 riders already finished.

Takeaway: If I want to do these long rides (and that includes SIR brevets over 100k) I'm going to have to bite the bullet and do some real training as in intervals training. Not sure I have the time or desire for that at this time, so my riding for a while will be an occasional commute to Bothell or a periodic 100k to get another RUSA P-12 award.

It was a good day - except for the heat!

I'm going to start a new ride: RAMOD-WCP (without Cayuse pass). I've done that one twice now and the full RAMROD self supported once. I think I've checked RAMROD off my bucket list.

Thanks to Myung Hong for the bypass - I did my best not to waste it.

I saw Ross Carey at the Park Entrance and Lynn Kuhlman pulled my "start tag" off my bib. Also ran into someone from SIR and another bike friend I know from church - and him three times - Backbone food stop, deli stop and the finish line.

Ride Calendar 2013

Here's my projected bike ride schedule for 2013.  So far only registered for MTB class and Chelan.  


April 20: Evergreen Basic Mountain Bike Skills Part I .  I need to learn how to manage this great Full Suspension Trek 26 that I acquired this year, and get out on some our great trails.

May 5: Phil's May Day Classic -- either 72 or 100 depending on how I feel when I get to Wilkeson. 

May 25-ish: 7 Hills of Kirkland  The traditional 7 hills route or 100 miles.  Possibly some other day of the weekend, depending on weather.  Last year it rained on the official ride and I rode it alone in the dry on Saturday. 

June 8: Flying Wheels Century  100 miles or else! 

June 22: Chelan Century This time, all three loops.  2012, just did 2.  Beautiful scenery, nice to ride where it's all OPEN and dry (although last year was only partly sunny, lots of clouds and threat of thunderstorms.)

July 13: PTS.  Riding one day STP route backwards, self supported.   If I get into RAMROD, this will happen as a training ride. 

July 25: .RAMROD  Don't know if I'm in the official ride yet.  If not, perhaps I'll ride it backwards too, so as not to be competing or poaching their ride.

July 28:  Tour de Kitsap Might or might not depending on how July 25 works out.  Last year was a fun time, good support and root beer in milk jugs at the end of the ride.

Aug 24-25 . RAPSODY Ride around Puget Sound.  My first time on this one, promises to be a fun time.  

Sept 21: . Tour de Blast First time ride also.  I want to do this some time, I have never seen Mt. St. Helens up close all these years.