First real road ride for the year. LB, Annajo, and Pat J. (Joe’s Dad) was along for the ride. Got off to a bit longer start than anticipated. Pat had just bought a new bike and we had some tinkering to do there. We had to outfit the rest of the bikes with lights as well. So, we headed out from our pad in Lynnhood around 15 to 8pm.

The idea behind this ride was to define the path that we will be returning from after we take the Mulkiteo Ferry from our ride back from Port Townsend. Figuring that after riding for 2 days, making a wrong turn near the end of the stretch wouldn’t blow over so easy for some )

We sorta did the plan, but opted not to go over the hill and down to the docks. This is the path we actually ended up riding. It was a pretty good loop ride, with about half of it being on the road and the other on the Interurban Trail.

Now the funny moments. On the way back, we… hum… lost Joe’s Dad! Picking up the trail head for the Interurban was a bit sudden, the new construction at the Mall changed the way a bit. But we thought Pat heard us to turn, it looked like he was turning around. But we realized that he was really just turning the corner in the road. So we went back to the trail head and waited. And waited. No Pat. Figured he would notice that he was by himself and return back to the last point he saw someone… he’s a hiker, isn’t that the rule? Well, we decided that he was either taken by ‘the others’ or that he just decided to continue on – so we continued on as well.

The trail was pretty dark from this point on. Our lights work well to be seen by traffic but don’t have enough candles to light up the trail. Upon coming to 112th street overpass, there used to be two options – to go up and over or down and under. We could see that the construction might have created a conflict with one of these options, but couldn’t quite see far enough. LB was leading the charge, he was veering left to go under, then… FENCE. He locked up his wheels and went from about 20 mph to 0 real quick. Would have smashed right into it on the Schwinn. Laughed about that for awhile, we all almost followed him right into it! I mean, he was about an inch away when he stopped. Funny stuff.

Total trip – 18.4 miles. Good evening ride.

Evening ride after work. Me and Annajo. Hopped on an unknown trail at the bottom of 180th in Renton. Turned out it is the Green River Trail. It was a little on the narrow side, but not crowded at all. It followed the rivers edge with many curves, dips, bridges, and under-passes. I really liked it. I tend to like the routes with more than just straight long shots.

The weather was nice too. Finally a real spring evening!

Came across a few trail intersections, included the Interurban Trail. There were kiosks with map information signs, but no maps yet. This scene is familiar throughout the area. Good sign of trail improvements to come, just not fully installed yet. No complaints, the http://www.metrokc.gov/parks/trails/ is progressing much faster. Also, with GPS on my bars, it helped clarify which turn to take on the way back. Fun toy.

So, rode about 8 miles in, came back the same way. Total trip was 15.6 miles. With more pre-ride planning, this could easily be a loop ride, which I prefer over the ‘there and back’ concept. Average leisurely speed was 11.4 mph. That’s what the computer said, but that included some put’n around looking. We maintained a rolling speed of around 14 most of the time.

Again, the weather looked more than sketchy. Heavy showers all morning. Then it just stopped, and the sun came out. Perfect. Started at the same place as the last ride. Me, Joe, and LB. The girls had shopping to do… um, yeah. A few miles in, basically the first long gradual climb, I thought maybe I should have went to bed early the night before. Ah, but the BBQ at the Jangards was fun. But I couldn’t keep, I was dragg’n. We took a 5 minute breather. Then I was pretty much good to go after that. Overall average speed for the day registered 16.5 on my computer.

We passed the Wall of Death and hit downtown Fremont. Walked through the Sunday Market. Then continued to the Hales Brewery. I re-energized with their homebrew rootbeer, salmon chowder, and their chicken appetizer. Sit’n on the comfy leather couches was a extra bonus as well.

14 miles in, 14 back, 28 total. Slept very well last night.

GPS now joins the ride.

Fellow Roadies

The Wall of Death

The weather was bleak – but we were determined. Just needed the rain to let up a bit. So we dragged our feet getting ready for the ride. LBZA dropped some bucks with a new shoe and clipless pedal setup. Very nice. Annajo got in on the shopping action with new pants for the wet ride. I adjusted my seat and mounted my GPS unit to my handle bars. Why? Wrong question. I say ‘why not?’ Anyways, just for fun mostly but now that Google has some slick (and free) map and GPS software out there – I’m going to put together a collection of trails around Lynnhood here, or wherever I ride.

The rain stopped and didn’t come back. It was a nice ride. We started out from Lake Forest Park in Kenmore and rode to The Wall of Death that holds up the Mont Lake Bridge in Seattle, just past UW. The Wall of Death is what caused me to pause and ask “what’s that” which led to the collision with LB the first time we rode this trail. It was 11 miles in and 11 miles back, 22 total. There was a strong head wind the whole first half, and oddly it seemed to haunt us for most the trip back.

It turned out to be a half ways decent day. Twas a good ride for sure. My seat adjustment paid off – no sore butt here. I saved the GPS route, but gotta get the cables to download still.

Lindsay had joined the road bike gang with her purchase of a Kona Jake. Itching to ride, her and Joe came up to hit the Burke Gilman trail. Annajo joined the bike club that morning with a purchase of a Trek Bike. So we were set to ride.

We rode the Burke Gilman trail starting out at the Bothel Landing and headed west. The original plan was to eat lunch at Redhook and keep riding, but we got there relatively quickly – just stopped for a pint instead and kept riding. Made reservations for lunch before we left. So on we went, another 15 miles before getting to… hum… some park. Big park, concerts happen there, many ball fields… AND they had one of those high banked tracks you see Olympic riders race on.

So me and Joe gave it a go. It was a slick day by the way. We were advised to start low and gain speed before moving up the wall where it was steaper. On our first corner, we couldn’t stay on the wall – we didn’t trust our traction and I know I was slipping. On the straight away – I looked at my speed and was at 24 mph… I can’t go too much faster, at least not keep a faster pace. But I tried. I held the second corner. Then I kinda pooped out and cruised one more lap. Mad props to the Olympic Athletes.

That was our turning around point. We headed back. Upon reaching Redhook, we stopped for lunch and yes – more pints. All our butts were sore from the first ride. 25 miles trip total. Annajo and Lindsay did awesome for their first rides in… well… long time. That was the first time I hit that portion of the trail. Gonna hit up the part I’ve done before next Sunday.