Bike riding

I had a three day conference to attend in Seattle so I took my bike and rode up on the Amtrak. I really liked bike commuting in Seattle.

It's mid-winter and my thoughts are on the season to come and long rides in warm weather. I thought I'd write down some audacious goals for this year. Why not?

Yesterday's ride put me at exactly a thousand miles on my Soma Grand Randonneur. I've had the bike a little over four months now and have had some great rides over varied terrain and conditions. I certainly went out on a limb with the decision to get this bike, as I had no experience riding one like it. I was basically buying in to Jan Heine's kool aid about low trail, 650b, wide tire bikes.

Green Peter Reservoir - January 19

The valley had been fogged in for weeks. I knew the sun had to be out if I was willing to drive into the mountains. Turned out to be well worth it. A beautiful day on a quiet scenic road.

Summit - March 1

Exploring, and discovering, new roads in the Coast Range. I was scouting a route to the coast, but ended up finding a great gravel road back to Kings Valley.

Its not every tire change that I get this excited about new tires. The first thing to get excited about was how well my old tires held up. I got 6,548 miles on a set of Schwalbe Marathon Plus 700x35 touring tires. I did all kinds of riding from touring to commuting to club rides to just riding around town, in all kinds of weather on all kinds of roads. I had exactly zero flats. I had a slow leak once that required me to pump up the tire once a week until I got around to changing the tube, but I never got a flat.

I put on a lot of miles this year. Here are some of the highlights.

The climb starts immediately when leaving the Ferry County fairground and stays at a very steady 6% for the 15 miles to Sherman Pass. It was nicely wooded the whole way until I got to the area burned in the White Mountain forest fire of 1988. Still lots of dead trees standing but much of the area had very healthy looking re-growth.
 

Got on the road by 5:00, a new record for me. The road started climbing right away. It follows Bonaparte Creek up a steep canyon. Pretty soon it was quite green. The couple I talked to in Tonasket said the road to Wauconda had no trees, so I was glad to see more and more pines the higher I got. Indeed soon I was in a mixed forest of pine, for, and tamarack. My spirits were greatly improved. I'm just not a fan of barren landscapes. I got to Wauconda before the store opened at 9 so I kept going. It was only a couple more miles to the pass. I ran into a group of cycle tourists heading west.

It was too far, and too hot, to consider pushing on to Wauconda pass today so I took a short day and spent it in Tonasket. Met Wes and Shawn from Detroit who are doing Portland to Portland. Wes just retired and didn't waste any time getting out on tour.