HawgFuel

Cispus Basin, Goat Rocks Wilderness. Washington, September 2011

2012-02-20T19:26:00.002-08:00

We really love the Goat Rocks Wilderness area in the Gifford Pinchot forest. Can't say we know much about the area but we have been to Goat Rocks for the past 3 years. This year we hiked and camped near the Goat Rocks loop we did last year. We started at Snowgrass Flats trail but when we approached the camp sites at Snowgrass Flats we turned off Snowgrass Flats #96 onto Bypass trail #97. This took us north east towards Cispus Basin where we would camp with the spectacular view of Gilbert Peak and the Goat Rocks Massif just feet from the trail.

The weather was perfect high 60's in clear sunny skies. There was a surprising amount of lupine in the meadows, or at least bigger meadows of lupine than I can recall. Our campsite was just a quarter mile or so from the falls in Cispus basin which made for a good source of fresh water and a very brief chilly shower as we could basically see the glaciers and snow fields hundreds of feet above. The first day we hiked from the Snowgrass Flats trailhead to the campsite by the falls in Cispus Basin. The following day we hiked southeast to Nanny Peak which provided a spectacular view of Mount Adams.

Cispus Basin was one of the best places I awoke to in a tent. We received compliments for our campsite location by everyone who passed our campsite just 6 feet from the trail. I at first took this as sarcasm, but quickly realized giving up a secluded campsite for one with this beauty whose only caveat was that we said hello to eight backpackers before we started our day was a small price if nothing at all. In fact four of the backpackers were hiking the Pacific Northwest trail for multiple weeks and one who had been on the trail for three months and finishing in British Columbia where we were weeks earlier and our conversations with the passing backpackers was quite enjoyable as well as informative. The trail horse shoes past the falls nearly mid way and climbs up to Cispus Pass on the other side. The view of the peaks and ridges above are competing in their awesomeness with the view on the horizon and the extensive valley below.

The hike to Nanny Peak the second day of our trip started with a hike up to Cispus Pass. The hike to the pass was fairly easy and exceptionally scenic as we got to view the water traveling from it's mountain ridge home above into the basin below. Once atop Cispus Pass the trail travels away from Cispus Basin and opens up to a new and beautiful scene of mountains and valleys below. There were still snow fields for the next half mile as we hiked along the ridge. We counted roughly 30 mountain goats grazing on the hill sides below on our return.

We climbed down the snow field from the Pass as the trail began to descend we left the snow behind. We dropped down further into a wooded part of the trail and nearly walked into two dear grazing on either side of the trail One young buck and I assumed the other was his mother, but I'm no dear expert. We started each other and Ellie and I stood still trying to capture the moment with our cameras. It looked like the doe might just keep grazing as we walked past but the buck got spooked and ran away with the doe chasing him. We continued on the trail snapping photos and looking at the flowers. It was a perfect sunny day in the low 70's. Perfect Northwest summer hiking weather. We reached Sheep Lake and filtered some water. The campsites looked full and and the sound of the people was carried across the little lake making for a small commotion. Considering how much time it takes to get out there, it didn't seem like a very appealing locale to camp. We left Sheep Lake and on to Nanny Peak.

We might have missed the spur trail that went up to the lookout on Nanny Peak if it weren't for a brief conversation with some other hikers who told us there were some small logs laid across the trail before it ascended to the peak. The look out on Nanny Peak was well worth the hike. There were no other hikers or campers and we sat and ate with a awesome view of Mt. Adams.

We took our time getting to Nanny Peak. We took photos of the landscape and the meadow flowers and looked for critter sightings. We had limited time for our return to our weekend home in Cispus Basin and without a whole lot of sight seeing and stops on the way back our return trip took nearly half the time it took us to get to Nanny Peak.

It was great timing as we reached Cispus Pass in time to slow down our descent to our basin campsite as the sun began to set which may have been one of the best part of the day. The light in the basin, along the ridges and in the meadows was fantastic. We returned to camp another night in Cispus Basin before returning to our car via Snowgrass Flats the following day.

For more photos of Cispus Basin visit HawgFuel on flickr

MFG Raceway XC - race report

2011-10-26T15:47:00.000-07:00

And now for what everyone awaits with great anticipation, a Cat 4 Masters race report. You know the race that you wait to end before you spin out a practice lap and preview the course. You may even wonder why those old guys are called masters when half of them race like noobs. Well thankfully some people still respect their elders with such noble titles. And there are plenty of sandbaggers to make the field fast. One of the drawbacks of racing the first race of the day is waking up on the weekend early enough to pack up the bike gear and be ready to race on a fairground or park an hour away from home at 9:30am. This is also a bonus. I can get a race in and get home and on to other nonsense by early afternoon if I don't have time to heckle and drink beer the rest of the afternoon. Being able to get a few warm up laps for my old legs immediately before for the start and before the course has been totally torn up by hours of hundreds of riders is a good thing too.

Single Speeders Start

Sunday's MFG Cyclocross Raceway XC at Marymoor was a typical race for me. I usually get to the race in time for a few warm up laps with a banana in my oatmeal and a few cups of coffee in my belly. The entire morning I get excited to race. I remind myself to ride hard, have fun and memorize the course so I can anticipate areas where I hope to attack and pass. Another typical aspect of my race is my crappy start. Sunday I had an average mid pack random call up. No point call ups for this Cat 4 desperado. Sittng between two racers in front of me I think I can split them or go around one of them on the left or the right. We finally start and I'm hold pace with the two racers ahead of me except other racers are flowing around these two guys. These two had beneficial random call ups and couldn't stay with the group and made for a good two man wall that kept me from passing until we hit the first turn.

Cat 3 Men's Start

I was able to pass a few riders on the straight away before the hair pin turn around the tree and passed a couple more on the flat heading towards the run up. The racers slowed down and bunched up at the turn before the wooden stair run up. Just as I'm thinking about my dismount a racer to my left tries to make a move and pass. He gives me the shoulder bump but fails to realize I'm no skinny racers and bounces back and falls into the tape and onto the ground, I dismount and run up the stairs fighting to get to the top of the off camber hill to remount and down towards to infield of the velodrome. I don't appreciate my American football skills until after the race but instead try and survive the flurry of spastic bunched up racers on the first lap. Coming down the flat along the velodrome track I pass a few more racers and slow for the corner when I see a rider go down transitioning from the pavement to the grass. This scene repeats itself each time I approach that corner. After carnage corner we raced up to the barriers and just feet before my dismount another racer thinks of passing me at an inopportune time. He bumps my side and slows, I recover but still a bit off and run through the barriers holding my bike by the hoods of the bars. We round a right corner and I move past a few more riders. After the first corner I only had a dozen or so riders behind me and now I was playing catch up to the 50% where I often finish.

I found I'm faster on the flats this year than last and I pass some more riders as we weave through the velodrome in field and surrounding landscape. I look for a couple corners to pass. One corner has us race up a small hill and immediately turn back down again. I don't hesitate at the top nor break and come down fluid on the bike and past a few racers. I continue to race towards mid pack and on the last half of the last lap I fall in the mud around a hair pin corner slowing to avoid hitting the racer ahead of me who I think is being overly cautious. I recover quickly and pass a few riders in the process. On the second last flat before the finish I pass a rider who is toast, done, bonked, hosed and I realize despite a limited number of sprints in my legs during a race I feel like I can ride hard for a long time. The idea of racing in the Cat 4 men's category would give me at least 10 more minutes to work my way into the 20 something finish but ultimately I need to be aggressive in my starts.

Cascade Pass - North Cascades, Washington August 2011

2011-09-28T20:33:00.000-07:00

Just a week after our trip to B.C. we headed up to North Cascade Highway for a day hike at Cascade Pass and a bit of the Sahale Arm. The day started out cool and cloudy but I was optimistic the clouds would burn off. The parking lot was nearly full when we arrived. The trail was in pretty good condition and made for easy hiking through the old growth forested area. There was an odd sound of running water whose source I could not find until I noticed little streams just below the ground surface and could see peek-a-boo views of the water trickling below the ground as if gofers revealed the water source for us with their digging.

Up a number of switch backs and on to a rockier exposed trail (where did I experience this before?) on our way up to the pass. It was a fairly easy hike up to Cascade Pass which would make a 7 mile hike there and back. From Cascade Pass you can see the valley and ridges that lead to Stehekin the tiny town on the north end of Lake Chelan and looking back we saw the tremendous ridges and valley below from where we hiked. The clouds began clearing and we were treated to an excellent view, but we weren't ready to turn around just yet.

At the pass is a privy and some of the people taking in the view said they saw a mountain goat lingering around the privy. Seems these goats can't get enough salt and are attracted to the salt of our pee. I've even read of instances where mountain goats were reported to chew on hikers sweaty shirts or backpacks. There were quite a few people taking in the view at the pass, we had seen many goats the week before and we continued up towards the Sahale arm as we passed the trail the lead to Stehekin. This part of the trail ascended quickly up rocky switchbacks. The skies continued to clear and the sun was bright just in time to make it even warm up the steep climb. Once we passed the switch backs we crossed a couple mountain meadows and stopped for lunch at a flat area overlooking both valleys under the Sahale glacier.

It was a pretty awesome location to eat a PBJ and take a hundred or so photographs. The peaks surrounding that area were snow covered and spiky North Cascade classics. We didn't see any goats but another hiker told us one was up by the climbers' camp up by the glacier. We stayed at that area for about as long as we were comfortable doing so with the amount of day light remaining and then headed down. On our way down it seemed like the streams carried more water down the mountain sides. The sight and sound of so much water coming down the mountain just feet from the source is always amazing and it surely was that day. We encountered a few more backpackers heading up to the Sahale glacier for the night. I wasn't sure if they were all climbers or were heading up to stay the night so that they could experience an incredible sunset amongst the peaks which is exactly what I was thinking could make a fantastic evening as long as one could stay warm after dark. We managed to get back to the car and drive down the dirt road with the remaining daylight and back to Seattle for another great one in the North Cascades.

View the gallery of images from Cascade Pass at HawgFuel's flickr gallery.

The Cyclocross sickness continues

2011-09-28T20:11:00.000-07:00

This year I've been riding with a bunch of the guys from Soft Like Kitten an amateur Cyclocross race team. A number of the folks I met last season and with joining the group I immediately inherited a bunch of partners in crime to ride bike with. So while I feel stronger this year with a earlier start on training and a season of experience under my belt for this cyclocross season it seems most of the other dudes I've been riding with have got the cyclocross sickness and are showing some solid fitness and form.

I had nearly all my long distance riding done with by the end of June with the Flying Wheels Century and the Chelan Century. My longest training ride in July was a 38 miler in preparation for the Seattle Century. Much of the summer included trail riding, Cross Club racing/riding in July and August, a couple MFG preseason races, and a trip back to Palisades in August to find the sweet single track without the snow we found in July.

In addition to getting a sharp new pink and black team kit, I picked up a 2012 Jake the Snake. One size smaller than my Jake, and an exceptionally lighter and more agile 10 speed. A grown man wearing pink spandex and riding a bike worth more than his aging 22 year old Honda can only mean he has something wrong in the head and the cyclocross sickness has set in. If you're reading this there is a good chance you have the cyclocross sickness too. You're still high Monday morning from a Sunday's Cat 4 or 3 race regardless of place as long as you finished and if you didn't that also motivates you and you're already looking forward to the next race. It is simultaneously one of the most ridiculous and fun elements of cycling I've participated in.

Manning Provincial Park B.C. - Canada 2011

2011-09-09T16:17:00.000-07:00

We lost one day of hiking at Cathedral Park due to the rain but by staying at the lodge we were fresh and ready to drive to Manning Park after the bumpy drive down the mountain. We made a quick pit stop in Keremeos for lunch and then back on the highway to Manning Provincial Park. We stopped at the ranger station by the park, paid for camping and got the scoop on the trails. I use the term ranger station generously as we only spoke with a young park attendant as was the case in Cathedral Park. Tired of folding sweaters at the GAP? Become a Provincial park attendant and collect camping and parking fees.

I picked up a brochure that showed photos and listed the many wild animals living in Manning park. Bobcat, Cougar and Lynx made the list but we would see none of these wild cats or the bears who were left out of the brochure, but we were to assume they were in the park as the attendant informed us.

We drove up the mountain to the Heather Trail trail head which lead to the Buckhorn campsite. The North Cascades WOW Guide recommended against staying at this campsite as it is right on the trail and near the trail head of a very popular trail. With this spectacular trail just 3 hours from Vancouver the trails receive quite a few visitors. We got there on a Thursday and hoped to beat the weekend rush. Turned out we did beat the weekend rush. We camped at Buckhorn and shared the 10 site camp area with just 1 other couple the first night and probably 3 other sites filled up Friday night before we saw the many day hikers Saturday morning on our way out.

The elusive Elephant Flower. Found near streams in the North Cascades.

We backpacked in 3 miles to Buckhorn and stay the night. Friday we hiked up to First Brother, hiked back to camp for another trail side dinner and another night in the tent at Buckhorn and packed out the next day and drove back to Seattle.

The hike to First Brother took us through old growth forest, brilliant flower meadows and then up to a ridge with fantastic views of the North Cascades. The trail was in very good shape. Once we were on the ridge approaching First Brother we walked over a couple small snow fields. The last mile or so approaching First Brother became a lot steeper and a little rocky but not too challenging. Yep we got some kick ass mountains in Washington and we had an awesome 360 degree view of many of those peaks from First Brother once we got to the top.

Saturday morning we ate breakfast and said goodbye to our trail side home and packed out. There was a steady stream of hikers coming up the Heather trail and we were glad we hit it before the weekend.

Flickr gallery of Manning Park

Cathedral Provincial Park, British Columbia Canada - August 2011

2011-08-29T17:29:00.000-07:00

There are a few locations I've visited in the past that transcend the every day and provide an almost other worldly experience. Perhaps the experience at these locals benefit from the perfect alignment of stars and planets and good weather but a few of these places will offer this special experience with so much regularity that you find yourself making an annual pilgrimage to that location. Cathedral Provincial Park in British Columbia is one of these locations. Everyone we met at Cathedral Park were return visitors. As few as 3 times and as many as 13 times is what we were told in conversation with some of the nicest fellow hikers we've met. And it didn't take long to figure out why one would desire to return to such magnificent landscapes.

It was just a little over six hours to Keremeos Canada from Seattle where we spent the night. The next day we made the short drive to Cathedral lakes parking for the shuttle up the road to the Cathedral Provincial Park Core area. Cathedral Park is a national park as we would say in the states but there is a private lodge 3000' up by Quinsecoe lake in Cathedral Park. The Cathedral Lakes Lodge maintains the road up to Quinsecoe Lake and they also provide a round trip shuttle up the road for $100/person. So we did as the North Cascades WOW guide recommended and skipped the 2 day long slog up the mountain and shelled out the dough for a rather bumpy hour long ride up to Quinsecoe Lake where we set up camp for $10/day/person.

There are three shuttles/day if they are all in demand. The 10am up the mountain will provide the opportunity to choose from the best selections of campsites and we got one right on the lake and near the spring. There was even a little patch of snow to keep my small collection of beverages from Oscar Blues Brewing.

We set up camp and had time to go on a hike the same day. We chose to hike on the Diamond Trail around Scout mountain and then up to Red Mountain on part of the rim trail. I led us off course by 45 minutes when I chose the right on the Centennial trail towards Manning Park when we should have taken a left. The trail turned into a route and we followed a number of tairns. We saw a gorgeous 9 point buck up on one of the mountain side meadows and continued until I realized we should not be descending. A quick view of the trail description in the book and we corrected our course back towards Red Mountain.

It was 6pm by the time we got to Red mountain and the trail turned into a route guided by tairns and due to the time and the rock scramble ahead of us we went down to Quinsecoe and back to our camp but not until we got some great photos. With the kind of landscapes and skies we were seeing it seemed like every button click captured a moment of wonder.

We returned to camp with a great hike on our first day. The next day we would set out to hike on the Rim trail. We fired up the MSR stove and boiled some water for one of our backpacking meals. We really didn't take advantage of the fact that we could bring 2 large bags on the shuttle up the mountain and kept our bags light. Some of the other campers had greater amenities and food that one would normally have on a car camping trip but because we haven't been on a car camping trip in some time it was easier to do what we usually do.

We set out for the Rim trail. We had planned to go up glacier trail towards Glacier Lake but our friendly and knowledgeable camping neighbor suggested a parallel trail that provided better views and only a little extra distance so we took his advice and headed out for the day. A couple we spoke to on the shuttle up the mountain said this was their 13th visit to Cathedral Park and they had their adult children with them who also visited the park many times. Our camping neighbors told us they have visited the park numerous times and in fact John told us the story of how he met his wife of 10 years while camping at the park. So why would it be a surprise to see a bride in her white gown with a small wedding party on the hill near Glacier Lake? We later found out they hiked up with the gown securely stowed and then changed for the photos, and what a backdrop the Devil's Woodpile and Quiniscoe Mountain must have made.

Shortly after Glacier Lake the trial began climbing quickly. The trail turned from a dirt path to rock pile and snow field before reaching trail that connected to the Rim trail that ran along the rim of the ridge surrounding the core area.

Once we were atop the ridge on the Rim trail we had an immediate "WOW" moment. Simply meaning as soon as I could see the many peaks and ridges of the North Cascades from the Rim trail the first thing to leave my mouth was WOW! and a then Ellie reach the trail and she had the same response. It was really an amazing view. We had perfect weather just wearing short sleeve shirts and shorts and the skies were perfect too. Not crystal clear no that isn't good for photos. I want little puffy clouds like in the Simpson cartoons and I want them to move and cast shadows on the peaks and ridges and that is exactly what the sky provided did for some fantastic photos. The view we saw when getting atop the Rim trail would have made for a magnificent view for a spectacular hike in itself. Had this been a day hike in western Washington we would have been thoroughly satisfied and filled with amazement, but that wasn't even half of the day we would experience. Maybe it was half it or just the beginning. How does one quantify the experience of the wonder?

Now on the Rim trail we made our approach to Stone City. Before we reached Stone City we also saw Devil's Woodpile, but we never recognized it as Devil's Woodpile and I still think that part of the ridge was poorly named. It had no wood, trees or anything that resembled a wood pile to me. Passed the poorly named part of the ridge towards Stone City we viewed a large mountain goat dozing on a western facing rock overlooking the vast ridges of the Northern Cascades and feet from a sheer drop off. On to Stone City where we saw a few more mountain goats and some happy hikers having lunch on top of the world we made our way to Smokey the Bear and Giant Cleft. The land marks were a little lacking in their naming but not in their views. Eating peanut butter sandwiches for lunch by the Giant Cleft trumped any restaurant experience I've ever had.

After lunch we headed back to Stone City where we descended to Lady Slipper Lake. Again the trail approaching the ridge was rocky but this section of trail was steeper and erosion made it a little difficult to find the route. Once we stepped off that bug infested eroded baby head rock trail we were somehow transported to a flat rock high desert like landscape. We descended into an area with a ridge on our left and intermittent trees, rocks and a few streams and then the trail turned a corner and showed us Lady Slipper Lake.

We could see many trout in the clear lake water. There were threatening clouds moving in over the ridges surrounding the far end of the lake. We followed the trail along the lake heading towards Quinsecoe Lake and we stopped to get some shelter from a hail storm that began. The hail storm lasted about twenty minues and then turned to rain. Once the rain started we felt like the precipitation wasn't going to stop very soon so we zipped up our rain jackets and continued down the trail.

We hiked up and away from Lady Slipper and into more forested area before descending again towards Pyramid Lake. The descent to Pyramid Lake had me somewhat amazed at how high an elevation Lady Slipper lake really was. We experienced some rolling thunder on the descent to Pyramid Lake but didn't see any lightening despite any internal worries of being high up on a ridge during a storm. Once we passed Pyramid Lake it was pretty easy going to the Lake of the Woods and back to our camp ground. The dehydrated backpacker food tasted exceptionally good that night and we both turned in and slept like a couple rocks on the wooden platform that our tent was sitting on.

The next morning we did not wake to mountain goats walking through our camp site like the previous morning. We did wake up to some pretty thick fog. I made some coffee and walked down to the lake to sit on a rock just off the shore and stared out into the grey/white wall of the fog. It felt like I was looking at the edge of the universe. I could not see more than a few feet of the lake in front of me and could not make out anything on the other side of the lake. Shortly after the fog cleared the rain clouds came into view and a steady rain followed. A couple hours after the rain began we decided to stay the night in the lodge. We had decided to stay in a hotel the next day but because we missed the a day of hiking due to rainy weather we thought we would have that hotel night at the lodge where we could get a shower, a cooked meal and sleep in a bed. This ultimately meant we would have time to camp in Manning Park an additional night.

The stay at the lodge was a guilty comfort we enjoyed. We were a bit wet and cold and took the opportunity to dry our packs by the fire place and drink some coffee after a hot shower and a change into clean clothing. The cost of a simple room at the lodge is a bit more than we would have spent on a roadside hotel on our way to Manning so we were secretly glad to see the rain continue all day as it ensured we made a good decision. The dinner at the lodge turned out to be one of our favorite experiences at the park as well. The food was simple yet very good. We ate at a table with a mother and daughter who were fellow campers. We had spoken to them near Stone City about the goats we had seen. The other two guests at our table were a retired couple and the husband was a retired Canadian Forester. The four were from Canada (we didn't meet a single american while visiting the park)and we exchanged stories of hiking and camping. After dinner we found a comfy spot by the fireplace to finish out the evening with a game of Scrabble. Tired, inspired by our time on the local trails and our conversations with our fellow hikers we hoped it would not come to an end the next day. But the next day began our next adventure at Manning Provincial Park.

See the full set of photos from Cathedral Provincial Park B.C..

Marmot Pass - Quilcene, Washington 2011

2011-08-14T12:55:00.000-07:00

The Spring of 2011 had been rather cool and wet and made for a late thaw of the trails above 5000'. We had gone to Horseshoe Basin (photos) the 4th of July weekend and found lots of snow in the higher meadows so we hiked up and away without walking through some great meadows we experienced last year. Coupled with a rather snowy mountain biking trip Knoble Nob a few weeks later I was looking for a much less snowy trail experience. The search lead to Marmot Pass.

We left Seattle late in the morning as we usually do. We missed the ferry we had hoped to catch and were delayed even longer. It was late afternoon by the time we got to Quilcine so we decided to get place to stay for the evening, get some dinner and hit the trail in the morning. We found a nice little Bed and Breakfast in Brinnon and ate at the Geoduck Tavern which offered some pretty good pub grub and a couple yummy micro brews. They also boasted a rave review in Esquire magazine, but I failed to catch that issue and I think one would be hard pressed to find a resident of Brinnon outside the employees of the restaurant who did read the review.

The climb to Marmot Pass includes 3500' of elevation gain but on trails that were in pretty good condition. The beginning of the trail climbs along a stream through old growth forest and then opens up on rockier gravel like trail to reveal some gorgeous snowy ridges and colorful meadows.

The scenery was reminiscent of the North Cascades but not quite as imposing and jagged. On the approach to the summit of the pass we hiked over a couple snow fields that did not pose much more of a challenge than the trail and we were greatly rewarded with fantastic views as we ate our lunch atop Marmot Pass. The weather stayed warm and the skies remained sunny and clear. No fast moving weather changes for us on the ridge that day. It remained perfect the entire time. 3500' in 5.3 miles is nothing to laugh at and my knees felt it on the decent.

Marmot Pass turned out to be a great choice for a day hike but could definitely offer more and be a great over nighter. It may be challenging to get to the trail head, enjoy the hike and be back in Seattle in one day but not outside the realm of possibilities if you can get your butt out of bed earlier than I on the weekends.

See the full set of photos from Marmot Pass.

Chelan Century Challenge - Washington 2011

2011-08-04T19:43:00.000-07:00

This past June we headed out to Chelan once again but this time so that I could ride in the Chelan Century Challenge. The Chelan Century Challenge takes place of course in Chelan Washington well known for it's lake Chelan, which is surrounded by some great mountains. The lake, mountains and high desert of the east side of the Cascades make this area a beautiful and unique place to visit. Mike and Thomas joined me for this cycling adventure. We all were late to register for the STP this year as it sold out much earlier than previous years and so we wanted to find another big ride. The Chelan Century Challenge fit the bill and we headed east with our Cutters jerseys.

We stayed in Chelan the Friday night before the ride. I was only 3 miles from the start and rode my bike to the start. I caught up with Thomas and Mike and a few of their friends making us a group eight. The start and finish was at Don Morse Park just a few blocks north of Cambell's and the little downtown area. From the start were 3 loops that made the course resemble a 3 petaled flower. The first loop went on the east side of Lake Chelan and ran north. At the beginning of Loop 1 maybe a half mile up the road and we started accumulating the 8600' of elevation gain we would have climbed by the end of the day. The only moment there is, is now so we climbed. The roads were in good shape with little car traffic. The sky was clear and sunny and warm enough to start the ride with arm warmers. After climbing a few miles we were treated to a long descent with swooping curves and switch backs as we approached the lake and then headed back to the start to regroup and begin loop 2.

Loop 2 included a 7 mile 3000' climb up McNeil Hill starting around mile 53. Our group spit up into smaller groups by this time with Thomas, Mike and I riding together. McNeil hill was the toughest hill climb I've experienced. Riders descending the hill had huge smiles on their faces and looked to be doing 40 something and some even 50 some mph down. The pavement was in great shape it was warmer but not too hot so the conditions were good for such a climb. I really wanted to complete the climb without stopping but I was ahead of the group and at just 7 tenths of a mile from the top I decided to end the suffering for a moment and stop. I stopped and stood up as a wave of nausea washed over me and then was gone with a breeze, but I was glad I did stop as I thought I probably would have puked at the top had I not. Bragging writes vs. puking in a non competitive bike event seem to balance in the non puking direction much of the time for myself. We fueled up, regrouped and sped down the mountain in just a few minutes back towards Chelan and the ride's start.

This was definitely the most challenging ride I have been on as well as the most beautiful. The weather was sunny clear and in the low 70's and the roads were smooth and wide with little car traffic. One thing that did impressed me was the riders. The group of riders on the 100 mile course were pretty strong riders. I guess it is to be expected when the ride is billed to be 8600 feet of elevation gain but the participants really did seem like a stronger group of riders than the typical Cascade club rides in Seattle. Mike and I got back to the start and waited for the rest of our group. We were getting tired and needed to boogie or risk not finishing so we started Loop 3 together. We met Thomas at the park entrance who was planned to wait for his friends. My legs were getting tired from climbing and the hills really started to hurt, but it was such a perfect day the pain quickly subsided. The third loop took us out of town through the tunnel towards 97 and then north into the mountains and back down to the west side of the lake where we finished the last few miles down hill or on a flat along the lake. Brilliant finish for the third loop. Back at the finish I got a hot dog and cooled my feet in some ice that was thrown on the park lawn by one of the food vendors. A couple beverages in the beer garden and some talk of our glorious day with some of the riders we ran into during the ride wrapped up a perfect century on the east side of the Cascades. I really hope to do this ride again next year and I highly recommend the Chelan Century Challenge to any avid cyclist.

Lake shore trail - Chelan Washington - 2011

2011-06-18T11:38:00.000-07:00

For the second Memorial Day weekend in a row we decided to drive over the pass to Chelan, ride aboard the Lady of the Lake, and hike the 17 miles on the Lake shore trail. from Prince creek to the tiny town of Stehekin. We stayed at Mom's Montlake Motel Friday night so we could get on the Lady of the Lake at 8:30. This isn't the weekend to go if you want solitude on the trail. The boat was filled to capacity as it was last year. Getting on in Chelan provided us a good choice of seating but when the large group boarded at 25 mile state park, the Lady of the Lake was bulging at the seams. The views one can take in on the upper deck of the boat are incredible. The weather changes on the lake as frequently as it does in the Cascades too, so part of our boat ride was outside in the sun and down below as it rained. Mountain ridges surrounding the lake contain an awe inspiring beauty including water falls and mountain goats. The mountain peaks appeared to have a little more snow this year, and we later found out they actually drained the lake to allow for the greater amount of water coming down the mountains.

The Lady of the Lake schedule showed us arriving at Prince Creek at 11:30 but with the loading of all the people to the boats capacity we didn't arrive until shortly after 12pm. As we exited everyone grabbed a pack and walkde a shore. Then everyone searched for their pack on the beach or found someone carrying it off the boat. We found our packs quickly and with ease and set out on our 2 day 17 mile trek. The year before we had seen a black bear below the trail in a ravine a couple hours after beginning our hike just before Meadow Creek. As clear as that memory was both Ellie and I didn't recognize the corner of the trail we spotted it. There were three signs of bear skat directly on the trail as if a message directed at us by the local bears. What might that message be?

That part of the trail wasn't the only part of the trail we didn't recognize this year. When we arrived at Meadow Creek we were shocked at how much had changed. At the crossing of Meadow Creek which last year was just a stepping stone crossing, the trail was entirely blown out and what we saw was what looked like a ravine created by a very large mud slide. A new trail or a path everyone chose descended the trail towards the washed out stream. We then walked across dirt that field that had been carried down the mountain and found a place to cross the stream and hike up to the camping area of Meadow creek. Meadow creek is of course close to a stream that is a good source of fresh water and there is a simple privy and a wooden shelter. The majority of the campsites are on a slope. In fact it is quite difficult to find a level campsite and you will share a smaller area with other campers. We saw what appeared to be very nice campsites less than a mile past Meadow creek that looked to be flat, private and with great views from one's tent.

We camped at Meadow Creek and hiked 11 miles the second day to Stehehin where we stayed the night at the lodge and ate dinner at the restaurant. After last year's trip I bought a Gregory Baltoro to replace the REI bag that killed my back, shoulders and desire to backpack again after wearing it for last years Lake shore trail hike. And the investment has been worth every penny. The new pack has made backpacking so much more enjoyable for me.

We got to Stehekin a little before 6pm, had a beer on the patio by the restaurant, picked up our day packs we left on the Lady of the lake so we could have clean clothing at the end of our hike. Diner at the restaurant was very good once again. I don't recall exactly what we ate but I'll blame that more on being spaced out from hiking all day.

The next day we rented bikes and rode up the road to the bakery for a giant sticky bun. We continued up the road towards Rainbow falls and saw a momma bear with 3 cubs walking parallel to the road about 30 yards away. We followed them along the road as they continued looking in the brush and under things periodically seeking a bear snack. Another couple on bikes and couple in a truck stopped to watch. It was shortly after this small crowd developed that the bears began to walk deeper into a wooded area behind them. What a site. This was as close as I've been to a bear outside of a zoo and it was quite an experience. On our return to town we described the bears to a few women working at the bakery and they said they knew of that momma bear as well as another one that has cubs living in the area.

The day is surreal in it's simplicity. It is almost like we're in the afterlife. There are very few people in this very small town with only 2 roads. Everyone is laid back and friendly and has a smile on their face, and this sensibility becomes exponentially contagious. It's as if the journey to this point transcended the earthly realm into a brief moment of enlightenment where we are completely carefree. Maybe this is the feeling after the perfect lobotomy. It only lasts a few hours as we return the bikes and board the boat back to Chelan and back to the routine of life feeling the glow of being on an adventure.

Ozette Triangle, Olympic National Park

2011-06-03T22:11:00.002-07:00

This past spring, and I say past because I am living in the moment and at the moment it is quickly approaching summer. It is the Friday evening before what looks to be a weekend in Seattle in which the day time temperatures are predicted to surpass 75 degrees, and I have to say it is a long time commin. This past spring was fairly cool and wet in the Pacific Northwest. Finding good hikes in the shoulder season can be challenging. We got out to Lake 22 for a hike where the second half of the trail was covered in snow at the end of April.

We visited weather.com daily for weeks trying to find a good weekend to overnight at Ozette on the Olympic Peninsula. We did an overnight backpack trip to Shi Shi in April in 2010 and had hoped we could visit the area around the same time of year once again. The weather forecast was too wet for weeks until the third weekend of May and so we set out to the Olympic Penninsula to backpack out to Cape Alava, camp there the night and backkpack back to the trail head via the Ozette Triangle.

We drive out to Port Angeles Olympic park visitor center and get our camping passes some bits of wisdom from the ranger, and a bear cannister (likely better named raccoon cannister on the coast). We had good intentions of starting this trip earlier, but we did get to the trail head to hike out to Cape Alava in time to find a campsite, set up our tent, cook dinner and walk around the beach and watch the sunset.

Previous visits to Cape Alava I hiked north to the mouth of the Ozette river and camped just off the beach in the tree line there and then backpacked the way we came in. If we had time we day hiked up to Point of Arches. Last year we came in and camped near the Point of Arches backpacking into Shi Shi. On this trip we decided to backpack via the Ozette triangle, hiking south to Sand Point and back to the trail head.

We set up camp north of the reservation and ranger building just as the shoreline rounded a corner. We weren't positive these were official campsites in that area based on our conversation with the ranger in Port Angeles. It is always pretty awesome to wake up to the sound of waves coming into the shore line as our tent is just inside the tree line just a couple feet higher than the beach.

The beach south of Cape Alava turned out to be more gravel like which required more of the ankles, twisting as we stepped. The trail by Cape Alava that ran parallel to the beach through campsites isn't available to traveling south and hiking on the beach is the only option. The scenery is fantastic of course. Many sea stacks, critters and amazing sky to look at. There were more trees washed onto shore and more that were perpendicular to our path which required us to limbo under, climb over or walk around with our backpacks which made the 3 mile hike to Sand Point a little bit more challenging than expected. We didn't see any trail in inside the tree line and didn't see any campsites until we got to the trail head leading us back to the ranger station and parking lot.

The beach to the north of Cape Alava is the way to go. I won't bother with this part of the beach in the future. The hike back from the beach provided much more wooden board walk than the hike to the Cape Alava. Much of the boardwalk appeared older and more weathered and there wasn't evidence of trail maintenance the we experienced on the northern part of the triangle. Fantastic time on the coast once again. Perfect place to decompress and take in the wonder of the northwest coast. A great shoulder season hike and a pretty easy first backpacking trip for the season.

See gallery of trip photos to Ozette Triangle.

Fruita Co. Fat Tire Festival

2011-05-15T16:03:00.000-07:00

The last weekend of April I flew down to Colorado to meet my old friend Art. He invited me to join him and a group of friends for a weekend of camping and mountain biking in the high desert outside of Fruita Colorado just east of Utah. I had never gone mountain biking in that part of the country but always wanted to when seeing photos of Moab and the like. So add to the fact that New Belgium Brewing co. was holding their Fat Tire Festival that same weekend I saw a winning combo. Bikes, Beer and a fun group of folks getting having fun in the desert.

The Fat Tire Festival attracted all kinds of mountain bike vendors with demo bikes, but I wasn't sure how long I could ride one of the demo bikes or what would be available so I secured a rental before making the trip. I ride a Gary Fisher Tessajara with a Marzocchi Bomber with a manual lockout when I'm home. Fun bike but surely not anything to brag about. So when I called Over the Edge Sports I decided to get a bike that could handle the bigger drops I expected on the trails around Fruita. So in a moment of weekness and the desire to spoil myself a little bit I elected to rent the Ibis Mojo HD, a beautifully sculpted carbon fiber full suspension bike with 6 inches of travel up front and in da rear.

The Ibis was an exceptional bike and it was the envy of our 13 member group. The only problem was I really didn't need that much bike. I didn't use the bike to the extent that it could be used as I only had a weekend to get used to the different style of bike and different style of trails and because we were riding over hard rock or a few feet from the edge of a canyon I really wasn't pushing the envelope, but it was still a hell of a lot of fun! We hit part of the Kokopelli trail system, one named Zippty doo dah, and Kessel run were the few trail names I can recall.

Friday we got to Fruita late in the afternoon and the weather was getting colder and windy. We did the Kessel run and packed the bikes up to set up camp in the Colorado National Monument. Expensive first day of mountain biking renting the Ibis and only getting 30 minutes of biking in. The next day we'll make up for it.

Saturday to begin the Kokopelli trail we descended a boulder stair case. For the human mountain biker or the ones that weren't mentally challenged this was a hike a bike section. One rider in our party did decide to ride this descent and then quickly tested the integrity of his neck and helmet as endoed and landed head first. This was basically 20 minutes into our ride and could have been a real downer early in our ride, but his neck was spring loaded and his helmet was strong and he suffered only a sore neck before descending the staircase like the rest of us. Throughout the rest of the day it seemed like each of us would take turns crashing and surviving to tell about it. After coming around a corner to our group stopped, eye balling a rock step around a switchback at the bottom of a short descent. The first few guys rode down and up on the rock step that was a foot and a half or so high but with the switch back there was little space to generate momentum. I went and didn't have enough of the momentum I told myself I needed to manual over the rock and shift my weight and get the rest of the bike over. The front wheel went over, the bash guard bashed into the rock and I slowly fell on my side and taking home a souvenir sore elbow and wrist for the next week. It was on one of the trails where we rode along the edge of a canyon overlooking a river and I was only a couple feet from the edge where I fell. The blinders I had been wearing up to that point fell away and I was a bit more timid on obstacles near cliff edges which certainly must be instinctual self preservation but takes some of the riders edge off when mountain biking.

The landscape and the trails were fantastic. We rode all afternoon. I would have taken more photos but I didn't want to hold up our group. We started with 13 and towards the end of the day parts of our group headed back to the cars. It was sunny and in the high 50's. When we got back to the cars we cracked open some great Colorado beers and the wind kicked up and it began to snow. Yes the weather changed quickly out there. We returned to our campsite after dropping off my wicked awesome mt. bike of which I used about 10% of it's potential. At the bike shop they were playing video of people mountain biking the Kokopelli trail much more successfully than us and it was a kick to see how these riders effortlessly flew over the rocky obstacles. Back to the campsite for a big shin dig of great food and yummy brews hanging out around the charcoals of one of the larger stoves trying to keep warm in the 30 degree lows.

A few of our group headed back home the next morning but a few of us decided to get a a couple more hours of mountain biking in on Sunday. I only reserved the Ibis for 2 days and thought I would try and get a demo bike for a couple hours. Two guys riding with us had $3000 demo bikes until 4pm Saturday and when we were in town we saw many vendors and trailers full of bikes one could borrow for the afternoon in exchange for some key credit card digits in case one didn't return with the bike. We got into Fruita and the 2 block area of downtown that was jumping with the Fat Tire festival Friday and Saturday seemed like a ghost town with just memories of the bustling mountain bike community before. All but one vendor was gone and he was packing up his trailer. The carnival had left town but I wanted to see more of the wonder. I stopped at the bike shop where I rented my Mojo and couldn't get a half day rental so I went around the corner to Single Tracks to see what they had to offer as I wasn't interested in spending $60 for a couple hours of biking if I could help but I couldn't leave town without another visit to some of the sweet trails the area had to offer.

As luck would have it the Jamis vendor had a few bikes at Single Tracks and I was able to ride and demo a Jamis Dakar XCT 2 for the afternoon.. We set out and finished Sunday riding Zippity doo dah. I really liked the Jamis more. I think the geometry was a little more fitting for me and I was able to move the front of the bike around on this aluminum frame better than I was able to do with the Ibis, which made for a more fun day on the trails as I could go over obstacles more like I was accustomed to, or perhaps the third day I was just starting to get used to riding a full suspension bike.

Zippity doo dah was not next to a high canyon cliff but was made up of gravel like ridges in a desert area. The tops of the ridges were narrow but were not nearly as high as the canyon trails the day before. This trail had a definite roller coaster quality to it and was a lot of fun. There was a section with a series of 8 foot steep downhills that ascended as fast as we descended shooting you and the bike up to the top effortlessly with glee. There was a blind hair pin turn on a corner along one ridge on the narrow single track that everyone navigated but I couldn't help but feel my heart race as I saw how I could have ridden of the ridge. Then the roller coaster began with steep climbs and screaming descents we raced back to the cars, packed it all up, said good byes and headed back to Boulder and back to Seattle the next day. It was a great weekend of mountain biking with a great group of folks. Hope to come back again soon. It was only my third time but boy I love biking in Colorado.

Tambopata River, Peru Amazon

2011-05-01T20:42:00.000-07:00

We flew into Puerto Maldonado and felt the temperature change and humidity immediately. We were now at a much lower elevation and a much warmer climate than Cusco. Our guides from the Posado Lodge greeted us at the airport and our group of new arrivals traveled by bus to the lodge office where we paired down our baggage for the boat ride and met some of the other tourists we traveled with during our stay in the jungle. Once everyone arrived from the airport we got back on the buses and made the trek to the Tambopata river along a rather muddy road. After the 45 minute bus ride we had another two hours on the boat to our lodge. After receiving an introduction to the facilities and finding boots we would wear on all our future hikes during our stay we began our first trek into the jungle to a canopy tower where we looked over the tree tops watched macaws, parrots and parakeets.

The next day we awoke early for one of the great breakfasts we would have each day, put on our rubber boots, back on the boat and out to Oxbow Lake. It is at Oxbow lake where we would see our first caman, river otters and a number of birds whose names escape me.

The visit to the lake included a stop where we would fish for piranhas that we would catch and release. This made for quite an ice breaker for everyone on the boat and made for some good laughs.

Much of the activities during our stay at Posada Amazonas included hiking through the jungle with the goal of seeing some critters. One such visit was to the clay lick where birds like macaws, parrots and parakeets would go to eat the clay to aid the digestion of the toxic leaves they would eat on a daily basis. This clay lick was a small cliff of exposed clay along the river. The clay lick also makes for a social destination for the birds and many would find their life long mate here.

When we arrived at the clay lick we sat behind the blind that the lodge had built so we could watch the birds without scaring them off. We didn't see any birds the first day but our disappointment quickly disappeared on our hike back to the lodge when we watched a troupe of nearly 60 spider monkeys travel along the tree tops across our path. I truly had no idea how many monkeys there were, but our guide who worked in the amazon as a guide for the past 4 years was trained in observing the critters in the jungle in many ways and provided that number 60 to the group. After taking many photos and the monkeys troupe continuing to move like a passing parade, one of the spider monkeys fell from the treetops just 6 feet from us. He shook it off and ran up a nearby tree to join in the the group in seconds.

During our 3 night 4 day stay in the Amazon we saw all 5 of the species monkeys we could possibly see. No jaguar sitings but those siting we were told are more likely in the summer when the river level is down and the jaguars are digging up turtle eggs along the river side. One morning we did see an armadillo from the wooden walk way as we went to breakfast. All the rooms had 3 walls with the fourth wall facing the jungle. While we didn't have a good view of any critters from our room, we did hear many and occasionally got a glimpse of a monkey or saw the rustling branches and leaves as they traveled through the trees. There was the bat who lived in the rafters that we could hear at times at night, and there was terrantilla that lived in the rafters of one of the common rooms.

We never did see any birds at the two clay licks we visited. But the one occasion we heard a dozen or more in the tree tops before being spooked by something instead of coming down for to the clay lick. After another failed opportunity to see the clay lick in action we did see a family of howler monkeys eating leaves in the tree tops on our return the lodge. I never did witness the spooky howl of the howler monkeys, but was told the wooshing sound of a high flying jet was really a group of howler monkeys.

Despite our rooms being open to the jungle the bugs were few. There were more mosquitos in the dinning area but there was more light and more fresh blood to attract them. Our guide had told us that incidences of yellow fever and malaria had not been reported in the jungle for a couple years but that there had been reports in the jungle to the north near Iquitos. We did get nearly eaten alive by mosquitos when we visited the local shaman where we were shown many of the plants the shaman used to create medicine. Completely hosed down with bug repellent and wearing our rain
jackets completely zipped up the mosquitos still came for blood. Meanwhile the shaman wearing a t-shirt and shorts occasionally shooed away an one of these little predators. At the end of the garden tour of medicinal plants we were offered some of this medicine in the form of an alcoholic shot. MMM home made hooch. Not bad stuff but for the record nothing to send us on a vision quest.

We had a lot of fun in the Amazon. Before we even got on the boat for our departure on the fourth day, we thought we would recommend going as deep into the jungle and stay as long as you can because it is really a great experience.

Ollantaytambo

2011-04-24T20:59:00.001-07:00

Ollantaytambo turned out to be somewhat of a surprise in that we originally thought of it as a brief stop over between Cusco and Aguas Calientes. We found it to be much more interesting than just a stop over and possibly in part because of our stay at El Albergue although I'm sure there are other incredibly wonderful places to spend the night and eat in town.

Our first encounter with Ollantaytambo provided a perspective that it was an exceptionally small town with limited amenities but we scratched the surface of what looked to be many more options. We enjoyed our stay at El Albergue the first night so much we stayed a second night. And why not as we were planning on returning to Cusco before flying to Puerto Maldonado for 4 days in the Amazon.

In addition to El Albergue possessing a beautiful white plaster walls and black doors and shutters providing an old world charm, it was incredibly peaceful despite being at the train station. But the greatest part was the restaurant in the hotel. One of our favorite dinners during our time in Peru was at this restaurant. And of course their daily breakfast of eggs, toast, fresh fruit and freshly squeezed juice was somehow better than that same breakfast we had nearly every day during our visit.

The next day we hiked up the trail that to see the graineries we viewed during our previous visit but from across the valley at the Inca archeology site. This time we got an up close view of the grainery walls and this time without the fee or crowds. The hike provided more great views of the valley and the surrounding ridges. The graineries were built with adobe and stone walls and we saw tools used to maintain these graineries.

We ate lunch in town. I had alpaca quesadillas as I was really enjoying this local meat. While were leaving we struck up a conversation with a young guy with a Boston Red Sox hat. Turned out he was an American working in Ollyantaytambo as a mountain biking guide. Wow. Very Cool. Living the dream. We went to the hostel where his outdoor adventure tourism company worked through and spoke with three American women who were leaving town after a three day mountain biking trip to Matchu Picchu guided buy the Red Sox fan we just met. He gave me his card as the company also ran biking tours out of Cusco and I was excited at the prospect of doing some mountain biking in the Cusco area when we returned from the Amazon.

We returned to Cusco via cab. We found a cab driver in the town square and drove through an incredibly beautiful country side of farmlands surrounded by large mountain ridges. I had my camera pointed out the window much of the ride and we stopped a couple times for photos. Back in Cusco we shopped for a few items we thought we would need in the Amazon and stayed at the very charming Andenes al Cielo in San Blas. Next adventure, the Amazon.

See the rest of the photos I took of Ollantaytambo in my flickr gallery.

Matchu Picchu, Peru

2011-03-23T11:22:00.000-07:00

We stayed in room with a private bath in a hostel near the train station in Aguascalientes. It was nice and clean but pretty small for $70, but we are now walking distance from the early morning bus and our choices are few. We cleaned up and got ready for the next day and were happy to see Padre de Familia in English (otherwise known as the Family Guy) before getting a few hours of sleep. One of the great things about all the hotels we stayed at was the front door was always locked and there was always someone at the front desk, as well as someone to make coffee, scrambled eggs and set out some bread, jam and freshly squeezed juice. And at 4:45 the morning we set out for Matchu Picchu was no exception. No one else was up but Ellie and I and the guy at the front desk.

Being the rainy season and with the recent mud slides we may have been the ones in the place. We had a quick breakfast and the guy at the desk was generous enough to guide us past the train station and market across the river to the bus station. We had talked about getting a guide for Matchu Picchu but had not secured one before arriving. As luck would have it we got in line to board the bus and began talking with a gentleman in front of us named Alain, (which is the French version of my first name) who turned out to be a guide looking for tourists to show Matchu Picchu. Standing in the rain we negotiated a price which would require at least another couple to make it worth Alain's time. As we talked to our guide someone from the first bus waved us forward and the three of us boarded and took the last three seats.

The drive up the muddy switchbacks to Matchu Picchu takes about 30 minutes. The road is wide enough for two buses side by side but as we drive up the switchbacks the driver takes the center of the road and only moves aside when another bus approaches from the other direction. We encounter another bus more than once and I'm glad I didn't have a window seat to see the drop off or the short distance of the bus tires from the edge of the road. We arrive at the top at the entrance to the park. This is one of the very few places where there is no one trying to sell you something. No little girls in traditional garb holding baby lamas asking if you would like to take their photo for a few soles. No young artists with a portfolio of water colors showing cliche subject matter of the tourist sites we all were there to see, and no one to sell cheap rain ponchos which would have sold pretty well as there were still many people unprepaired for the constant rain we would experience for the next 2 hours. But when you're 23, living in dorm like hostels for a month you gotta save your beer money.

^ Looking up at the Temple of the Sun

Our guide finds another couple to join our little tour and we enter the park. Not long after Alain begins telling us about the tour another couple joins our group saving everyone a couple more bucks. The rain doesn't let up and our guide takes us to one of the few buildings with a refurbished roof and we stay dry as Alain explains how Matchu Picchu was discovered, cleared of the over grown vegetation and turned into a tourist destination. The rain began to let up a little and our group ventured out to the different buildings and Alain told us more of the history of the Incas and what they did once upon a time in this city that was never discovered by the Spanish. Our guide speaks English pretty well and appears very proud of the Inca history. At one point when he is describing theories of how the stones were brought up the mountain I asked if the Incas used slave labor as I knew this was something many other empires did in their history. I wasn't sure if he was uncomfortable with that subject or if it was because he had to respond off script in English. Apparently the Incas absorbed many tribes in South America back in their day and that is how they grew. Conquer and absorb. According to Alain there was one tribe that would not become Inca, and continued to fight and fight. It was this tribe the Incas made slaves of and sent tens of thousands to mine Inca gold, but no slaves were used to build their cities.

Alain ended our tour at a building with a roof by the entrance to Huayna Picchu. This is the mountain seen in the background of many photos of Matchu Picchu. Likely the photo was taken high above the city at the guard tower. Huayna Picchu is 1,180 foot hike up Inca rock stairs. Alain recommended going at 10am in order to get the best view of Matchu Picchu. The other 4 in our group chose to go up earlier and Ellie and I ventured around some of the buildings we did not view in our tour. When 10 am approached we got in line, signed our names and made the climb up Huayna Picchu. The rain had stopped, the clouds kept rising and disappearing and the sun was beginning to shine. Alain had encouraged everyone that the hike up the mountain was just some rolling path that was fairly easy. Maybe if you hike around these mountains every day like the Inca. The beginning of the path was pretty easy but once we crossed the saddle to begin hiking up the stone stairs the hike became pretty steep and the drop off the side of the trail was pretty steep as well. When we got to the top there was another archeological site including some terraced farming plots a few buildings and a great lookout overlooking Matchu Picchu the Temple of the Moon, the road to the top and the river below. It had been raining the first couple hours of the morning. But the rain had since stopped and for about 40 minutes while we were at Huayna Picchu the clouds broke the sun came out and the entirety of Matchu Picchu was revealed! This was definitely one of those kick ass moments.

We hiked back down to Matchu Picchu and were really feeling the hike in our legs. Just before reaching the park we caught up with our Canadian friends Ryan and Jordan and were glad to know that we weren't the only ones finding the hike to be challenging. By the time we returned to Matchu Picchu it was early afternoon. It was much dryer but cloudy compared to when we looked down from Huayna Picchu and it appeared to be many more tourists in the park. Many larger groups being guided through the park and many more tourists photographing one another at notable points of interest as if they were Hiram Bingham himself discovering it for the first time. We still had more to see and so we hiked up to the guard tower and looked into the Temple of the Sun from above as it was roped off from anyone entering. Having our fill of hiking and bumping elbows with other tourist we returned to the entrance to take a bus back down the mountain. We couldn't imagine how many tourists would be crawling over these old stones during the high season and were glad we made it despite mud slides during the rainy season despite another twisty bus ride down the muddy road. I would definitely recommend going to Matchu Picchu early in the morning as the (older and slower) day trekers filled the park in the afternoon. One such older Dutch gentleman shooed me away in spanish as I was taking a photo at the guard tower. He was in his Hiram Bingham pose as he just discovered the lost Inca city.

Back in Aguascaliente we had quite an appetite. Young men in the main square gave us the hard sell on their restaurants and some of them had very few patrons. We walked a couple blocks off the main square and found cheaper food, with local patrons and now hard sell. Here we had more aquinas soup and the best chicken enchiladas on our trip and spoke with a couple from Finland. We returned to the train station. Sat on the floor and waited for our train. The English announcements in thick Spanish accents were not much easier to interpret than the Spanish announcements over the p.a. The time for us to board our train came and went and there was no announcement regarding it's departure. We asked a couple station workers and they had no information whether it had arrived yet. We spoke with a tourist who was wishing he had spent more time at Matchu Picchu but instead had been drinking beer waiting for his train for 3 hours. It seemed that our train may be delayed or cancelled and we weren't real keen on staying another night. Then we asked a third station employee and the rushed us outside, around to the far tracks where a train sat with only a couple passenger cars. We got on the train, secured our backpacks and the train began moving minutes after we took our seats. Quite a day for good timing. We watched the raging Urubamba river just a few meters from the tracks as we returned to Ollyantaytambo for the night.

Sacred Valley Tour. The trek to Matchu Picchu

2011-03-17T21:09:00.000-07:00

The train from Cusco to Ollantaytambo was not running in February (as part of the rain and mud slides) so one had to take a bus to Ollantaytambo in order to catch the train to Agua Caliente the final destination town before busing up to Matchu Picchu. We had scheduled our trip on the first day that the train would be open again after it was closed due to mud slides. We decided to travel to Ollantaytambo on a Sacred Valley bus tour. It was a scenic ride along the country side that focused on market stops in a few little towns along the way. The items for sale at the markets were much like many if not all the items for sale that we saw in Cusco and the surrounding area. As soon as I saw the bulls on the rooftops from our apartment in Cusco I wanted to have one and subsequently was searching for one that was somewhat unique from the many we saw. As we walked through the markets along the way I searched for that unique ceramic el torro, but was tentative to buy one so early in our trip as I didn't want to travel with such a brittle souvenir.

The country side was beautiful. Many of the adobe homes and buildings along the way had hand painted signs advertising presidential candidates for the upcoming election and I wondered if the people were inspired to paint their exterior adobe walls with these signs or were happy to preserve their them with the paint provided by one of the presidential candidates.

I found Pisac to be one of the highlights along the way. We drove into Pisac's narrow streets that surely promised our bus damaging something or someone along the narrow streets and tight corners but fortunately my fears were not realized. I found the local pedestrians in Peru to be much more confident than I that vehicles would not graze them or smash them to bits as they passed within inches.

As we exited the bus in Pisac the group went to a local restaurant to taste the divine 2 sole empenadas and receive some local knowledge. I became distracted by one of the many young artist on the streets that spoke exceptionally good English and who also showed artwork I also found surprisingly good. Many of the young street artists I encountered had very nice water color paintings, but so many of them resembled copies of each others. I briefly spoke with the young artist. He told me he studied at the school of art in Cusco, where I found that local Peruvians study for free. During my very brief time in that area I saw an abundance of good artists and craftsmen. Some could easily be described as exceptional. Even myself who studied art in a Bachelor's degree program in the U.S. I find it hard not to think that with 35% of the people living below the poverty level, the young people in Peru would benefit more from a free education in science, math or computer software than in art, and at the same time I hate this thought.

I catch up to the group in the restaurant and buy a delicious cheese empanada. The restaurant has a brick oven and a coral of guinea pigs just feet away from their future demise. The group disperses and after walking a couple blocks Ellie and I return for a another doughy delight which turned out to be the best empanadas we ate
during our entire time in Peru. We walk around the town with adobe walled buildings taking photos and looking in shops before returning to the bus for our next stop. After seeing a couple markets you've seen them all. After two weeks of stopping in shops and markets we find they all sell the same things. Not only are they selling the same type of things but many of these items were the same massed produced goods. Not all the items were mass produced. In fact many items were hand made by local craftsmen and craftswomen and this made the hunt for such items all the more interesting. The tour continues on it's way to Ollantaytambo and the group separates for lunch at different restaurants.

After lunch our bus arrives in Ollantaytambo where we get to tour some Inca ruins. And if you haven't picked up an alpaca stripped hat with hanging alpaca whoolly balls yet, here is yet another chance for you to do so. You can also get a latte at ~~Starbucks~~ I mean Incabucks. One of many trademark infringements we saw in Peru, but the world has been stealing from this poor country since forever, and this won't even make a dent in evening such scales of justice.

On to the Inca archaeological site. And up we hike the stairs. We're at 9,160 feet in this former Inca city and many become winded as we hike past terraced areas formerly used for agriculture until we arrive at what was once a ceremonial area. The guide tells us they know it is a special area as it has the 12 sided Inca stones unlike the houses and graineries that used normal stones and mud. What they did at this particular site is somewhat mythology and conjecture. Likely a place for observation of the skies for farming and religious ceremonies. By the way not all the Inca stones are 12 sided. This is more like marketing as they can have as many as 12 sides, but they are still pretty cool. The Inca stones are big and heavy. The guide offers some theories of how these stones were moved up the side of this mountain from a quarry 2 miles away by rolling them over wooden poles. A process similar to what I've seen when watching documentaries about the Egyptians and how they may have moved their stones they built the pyramids with.

We continue to a site where the guide shows us a carved stone that may have been used for operations. One type of operation the Incas were known to practice was some kind of brain surgery. Feeling a little pressure in your melon? Lets remove a small piece of your skull and replace it with some gold. Apparently there is evidence that people not only survived this operation but lived for many years afterwards.

The bus tour returns to Cusco, but Ellie and I get our packs and walk to the train station as we are heading to Aguascaliente for the night and visiting Matchu Picchu the next day. We have a couple hours to burn before our train arrives and as we sit at the gate we meet two young Canadian fellows who are on a two and a half month trek around South America. We enjoy exchanging stories with Jordan and Ryan and we go to the little cafe across the street for some pizza and more stories before boarding the train in the evening.

Every seat on the train was full. It was formerly the Backpacker train, so it offered fairly modest accomodations and most of the passengers appeared to be a twenty something crowd traveling economically. Due to our last minute reservations Ellie and I were actually seated in separate cars for the bumpy 2 hour train ride. At one point I got up to use the facilities and felt I had been on more stable canoes than the train car I was in. The three New Zealanders I was sitting with napped while listening to i-pods or played video games on their phones to pass the time as did I. We arrived in Aguascaliente around eleven at night and were met by a couple people from the hostel we were staying at. Just a few more hours before we had to get up as we were determined to get to Matchu Picchu on the 5:30 bus the next day.

View the complete gallery of the Sacred Valley Tour at flickr

Cusco, Peru

2011-03-13T14:39:00.001-07:00

Our two week trip in Peru was quite an awesome adventure. We survived mud slides, Peruvian cab drivers, Peruvian bus drivers, Amazon mosquitoes, protesting Gold miners, and altitude sickness. All of which is just a day in the life of the very kind, generous bright people who live there. Getting to Cusco involved 3 cab rides and 4 airplanes. The travel there could offer numerous anecdotes regarding travel and the people one meets along the way, but Cusco makes a much better story.

The first two nights in Cusco we stayed in an apartment up on the hill in the San Blas neighborhood overlooking the city. The bedroom, bath and balcony overlooking the courtyard were in the open loft of the apartment. The main floor had a small living room, dining area, kitchen and small balcony overlooking the city. It was incredibly charming and comfortable. It was an oasis from the long trip from Seattle and a good place to adjust to Cusco’s 11000’of elevation. Less than two hours earlier we were at sea level in Lima and the 12 step climb up the stairs to the apartment caused both of us to become winded.

During the next two days we explored Cusco’s streets for taking photographs, visiting shops and restaurants, and planned more of our stay in Peru with Chaska tours, as we had not secured anything past the first 3 days of our trip. Before going on our trip Ellie and I did a fair amount of research on the areas of interest so once we sat down with the nice folks at Chaska tours we had a good idea what we wanted to do and already were aware of some of the options available for creating our custom adventure.

We found our cuy (guinea pig) dinner on the square. We had read about this traditional Peruvian dish and watched Anthony Bourdain eat this little critter in the episode where he visited Peru. So of course we had to have it. We had a recommendation for a restaurant on the Plaza de Armes from our tour guide at the cathedral earlier in the day. It was the last time we ate on the square. As soon as we entered the square we were constantly approached by young men trying to convince us to go into the bar or restaurant they worked for. Live music, first drink is free, best place on the square. It would not have been so annoying except some of the guys actually walked in front of us to give their sales pitch and none of them took no for an answer. We’d walk around them and would be followed for another block before new sales pitches would be offered by even more restaurant representatives. Don’t even think about stopping to talk to one of these guys as more swarm in and now we were trying to navigate through 3 and 4 menus using our Spanish vocabulary of a two year old or trying to decipher their English near the equivalent of a toddler as well. The cuy dish was served nearly everywhere that served Peruvian food, or as many menus read “typical food”. We came to the square to eat cuy and cuy is what we ate. We followed one of the restaurant salesmen to the restaurant he worked for overlooking the square.

The guinea pig arrived to paparazzi like photos. Ellie and I took photos, and the german tourist at the next table took photos and then our server was so kind as to take the dish back to the kitchen, cut the cuy into much more manageable pieces and removed the head and feet. The Incas supposedly sacrificed thousands of these little critters to their gods at a time. With such little meat on the animal someone with the appetite of a deity might need to eat 1000 cuy. It was a slightly greasy white meat with a bunch of yummy herbs. It was a tastey rodent. The most challenging thing was getting the little bit of meat off the bones and we resorted to eating it with our hands and chewing what little tasty morsels there were. The food was good but the prices were higher because we were on the square. Our waiter made sure to tell us that service was not included in our check and the traditional Peruvian folk band came around asking for tips more than once. These certainly weren’t bad things, or unheard of service, but when we ate at restaurants just a few blocks off the square we got better food for cheaper prices, better atmosphere, and no heavy handed street side sales pitches or requests for tips from servers or restaurant musicians which made for a much better dining experience. And while in Cusco and everywhere we ate in Peru were fantastic eating experiences.

One such dining experience was at a tiny little eatery we found by following our nose. After getting some money at a bank we walked down a street we hadn’t been on before and thought we’d work our way back to secure reservations we planned with Chaska tours. There were only five tables, the owners young boy was sitting at one watching cartoons, and only one of the tables were taken customers but the nose knows. We sat down and ordered food. The lunch special we chose was only 5 soles. Lunch included the best aquina soup. We tried finding equally tasty aquina soup for the rest of our stay in Peru but without success. I got a cusquena and Ellie got a fruit smoothy. By the time our seco arrived the little eatery was full of locals. It was one of the best meals we had and it only cost 18 soles, which is roughly 6 U.S. dollars. By comparison the cuy on the square cost 60 soles alone.

Cusco was the capital of the Inca Empire and conquered by the Spanish. It is the launching point for getting to Machu Picchu the Inca city that was deserted by the Incas so that the Spanish would not find it and they never did. Cusco is the closest city with an airport you can fly into before taking the bus and train into Aguascalientes where we began the bus ride up the mountain to view the Machu Picchu at day break.

After two days in Cusco we began our trek to Aguascalientes via the Sacred Valley market tour that takes us to Olantaytambo where we depart the tour to take the train to Aguascalientes for the night. The next day we take the 5:30 bus to Machu Picchu and hike up Wayna Picchu overlooking the Inca city. We are traveling at the end of February, the rainiest month in the Peruvian Andes. The Inca trail that one might hike up to Machu Picchu is closed this month for trail preservation and maintenance. The closure may have also been motivated by a tourist and guide being killed in a mud slide January 26th of 2010. Because we did not have our itinerary planned out from start to finish we had the flexibility to make plans as circumstances required. We found the train from Olantatambo to Aguascalientes was cancelled two days earlier and one day later due to mud slides. We went to Aguascalientes in the one day window to see Machu Picchu in a 4 day span.

Because it was the rainiest month it was also was the low of the low season. There were fewer tourists, hotel rates were lower, we could be flexible with booking but our rain jackets were necessary for a little bit most days. We’re from Seattle so the rain didn’t faze us. It was actually about 12 degrees warmer than Seattle which made it pretty easy.

Bike Clubs need to work for club members not politicians

2011-01-10T15:36:00.000-08:00

In the Puget Sound we have this very large bicycle club called the Cascade Bicycle Club. On the internet is a thing called Cloud Computing and the paths of these two have not yet crossed. Cascade bicycle club has an annual ride, the RSVP. It is a brilliant 188 mile 2 day supported ride from Seattle to Vancouver. A really nice course from what I can tell by reading the cue sheet. The past two years I've tried to register have provided an online registration nightmare. The ride is only open to approximately 1300 participants. Many more attempt to register, but there seems to be a bottle neck at the registration part of the website. Today I've wasted hours of my time sitting on the registration page with all my information filled out. I click review order only because there isn't a freaking submit order button. I wait. The page finally has a website cannot be found error and then I reload multiple times until I receive the registration page again, enter my credit card number and try again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again.

I renewed my membership today explicitly so I could register for this event. This registration fiasco has prompted me to sign Membership Petition to Recall Cascade Bicycle Club Board of Directors. If you've been reading about the club and their inner political upheaval you may know this petition was initiated by other circumstances altogether which I don't care to reiterate, but this petition is exhibiting value for this club member today. Cascade bicycle club has more than 13,000 members, mostly from the Puget Sound area. Cascade has annual revenues of almost $3 million and employs 24 full-time staff. The basic concept of a bike club is simple. It creates a venue for people who like to ride bikes find other people who like to ride bikes and then when they find each other they ride FUCKING bikes! Dear Cascade club, as a bike club please try and serve your members and worry less about your political futures. Get some cyclist on the board. Tell the politicians to go home. And read up on Cloud Computing. The cool thing about Cloud Computing is that a service like Amazon's does all the work for you. You just pay a little more when you have traffic spikes. And the cool thing is. Your customers never know the site is being hit by 5 or 5000 people at the same time. The last part is a good thing.

End of a season.The beginning of another

2010-11-23T17:08:00.000-08:00

Oh it is cold, icy and snowy outside, but I'm warm and cozy and getting fat inside. It is this time of year I feel a little blue that I ride less due to lack of light and colder wetter winter weather but I'm already looking forward to the season ahead. This is the time I talk to friends about biking adventures to come as well as the ones we've had. I had a ton of fun riding this year and made a bunch of new friends in the process. One of the highlights still fresh in my mind was cyclocross season with the MFG Cyclocross series. I had a few friends who raced in the series the year before and convinced me to try it out. Bikes, mud and beer hanging out with the dudes. Good combination. I had no idea how much I would like it as I never raced before. I had no idea I wouldn't totally suck at it and I had no idea I would be thinking of how I might have a stronger season next year. I pretty much finished in the middle of the pack each race. Ellie and I were joking that I'd have to enter a race of 20 or less the make it in the top 10. The Cat 4 35+ fielded 60 to 70 guys most of the races and 104 the final race at Woodland Park.

^The Black Jake on top of the car after the Raceway CX in Kent

What seemed to keep me in the races as much as I was, was my experience mountain biking. I really didn't have the sprinting speed or endurance to go full throttle the entire race. I would ride as hard as I could until the needle slowly fell out of the red zone and then I'd be forced to look for tiny spots in the course to rest, and pass in the squirrely muddy twisty sections where many riders were less aggressive. I also found I wasn't half bad climbing, but I already knew how I love the descents. I learned to appreciate the metaphor of burning matches and somehow as the cross season progressed I managed to find a couple extra matches for each day. Bike Hugger had a photo of what racing with blinders may look in a photo and I appreciated that after the King County Cross race when I never saw the big rock at the bottom of the decent after the muddy carnage corner until I watched the cat 4's in the race that followed.

It was probably the fourth race in Kent when something clicked for me. I got a generous random call up for the start to the second row. I joked that this was the closest I would get to the front the rest of the day. It wasn't quite 50 degrees, it had rained all week and the course was 98% mud. The remaining 2% was either pavement or small areas of grass that quickly became mud surfaces. It rained during my warm up which included the race volunteers marking half the course. I brought a second pair of gloves and socks and wore them to start the race but they were dry until the first turn.

^King County CX layers of switchbacks

The course was in and around a mini race car race track. The start was on pavement. We sprinted 80 yards down the pavement to the first hairpin turn into the mud, and then under the man made flyover which we would ride over on the second half of the course. The field sprinted to that corner because that first corner would get clogged with riders taking it too slow for riders behind them as the good sprinters don't always have the best trail handling skills. So guys ran off the course, some fell, others ran up their backs and a bunch just stopped. Then 30 yards the field turned under the fly over where only 2 or three could squeeze through at a time. But an interesting thing happened on the pavement sprint. I was in the second row, not a good sprinter and I get a heavy shoulder bump that I've seen others receive before. For some dumb reason I looked over my shoulder at the riders behind me either expecting more of the same or maybe to say 'hey did you see that?'. This provided an adrenaline surge and by the time I was standing waiting to get under the flyover I was fairly pumped about the shoulder bump causing my bike to get pretty wobbly and the fact that all these faster sprinters didn't know how to take a muddy turn and get through the narrow flyover without stopping.

This wasn't the peanut butter mud. This was the soupy inches of wet slop your tires sank into before finding more solid mud. I had just put on my Michelin Mud 2's and I felt like I was riding a paddle boat. I think the slower cadence through the slop helped my style of riding and I was able to pass. Not only was I continueing to pass, but I was having a heck of a lot of fun. I wasn't worrying about the slippery corners. I wasn't slipping. I wasn't worried about the muddy climb before turning down into the bmx woopdie doo pump track stuff. I was digging it despite being completed soaked and muddy. And after the first lap I wasn't the least bit cold. It was a supper fun course, and the first course I raced on where I wanted to do another lap when I finished. Not that I had much left in the tank, but because it was so freakin fun. That day I finished 28 only to be downgraded to 32 days later after review. I don't think 32 was accurate as I was on the wheel of the guy in front of me and the times showed I was over 20 seconds behind the guy who finished in front of me. Placement accuracy was not perfect for much of the series but who really cares for the Cat 4 old dudes races anyway. This did however encourage me to get my number on correctly.

^The soup before riding under the Flyover at Raceway CX

King County CX was the second closest race to Seattle. It offered a really nice park that provided some rolling hills and a steep hill providing switchbacks and runups. I felt I had a better race in Kent due to a good start, so I was quick to get to the line when they called my number and redlined to the climb just before the first runup to barriers. There was a lot more climbing in this race than the previous races. It had a little of everything making for a really flowing challenging diverse course. I really come to the opinion at this point that the more diverse the course the more of an even field it is for all the participants that come from different cycling backgrounds or specialties. The race was at the end of October so it inspired a few Halloween costumes. I was more inspired by my free six pack of Deschutes I won in a weekly random drawing of preregistered participants. I did however restrain from sampling the bottled yummy goodness until after the race. Fun course. Challenging course. I was very winded at the end of the race due to the climbing. I fell on the off camber muddy turn in what seemed like a turn where I took a good line and didn't make a mistake. The good thing is I fell on my ass and slid in the mud. Not even a bruise. The 5th race of the series and I saw some familiar riders who I'd pass, they'd pass me again and we'd continue this for much of the race. There was the guy from the Cat 4 45+ group who actually start a couple minutes behind the Cat 4 35+ group and whenever he passes he just says, "45" and pedals off into the distance.

Me coming down to the woopdie doo pump track stuff. FUN. I do plan on buying a print from Denis Crane Photography at some point.

The final race of the MFG Cyclocross series was at Woodland Park in Seattle. The day was cool and a bit misty with fog but it didn't rain. The ground was wet enough and the course turned into the fun peanut buttery mud soon enough. Woodland park is a fairly large inner city park with a lot of different terrain to use in a cyclocross course. The organizers did not disappoint. One did not have to travel far for this race and many made the trip. The Cat 4 35+ race alone had roughly 117 riders. More than any of the previous MFG races this season.

I was probably in the back 50% for the line up at the start. It is always chaos at the starts but somehow during the short climb on the straight away a rider to my left lost control and stopped perpendicular to me with his front wheel by the tape bordering the path. I had no other option but to come to a complete stop and slowly make my way around him and avoid the onslought of the remaining riders coming from behind. So by the time I got to the first hairpin turn I was pretty much with the last 20 riders. I passed a few riders having trouble negotiating the muddy rooty turn and started to get some momentum when I heard the sound of crashing bike frames and saw a handful of riders go down in my periphery. At this point I know I probably won't even be able to compete against my previous best finishes. I'm so far behind I could possibly have my worst placement. With less than a quarter mile of the start I'm guessing I'm 80 something. I shrug it off.

^ The big rock I never saw due to my lack of periphery vision descending after the muddy carnage corner. They rerouted the slippery off camber muddy corner and this descent before the Cat 3 race for the rest of the day.

I never was in contention for the top 20. I'm here for the fun of competing and not the likelihood of winning. So I start hauling ass best as I could. I think it was the second lap I finally caught up to Chris. We had lined up pretty close to one another at the start. It took a lot of energy for me to get up that far and we take turns passing one another for the rest of the race. There was an off camber turn into the peanut butter just before the one set of barriers. I managed to stay on my bike through this turn but watched many riders slide on to their sides on this turn through out the day. On the last lap I had passed Chris. I kept looking for him as we would pass one another frequently as each recovered from burning their match when the other was sucking wind looking for that next match. I didn't see him until the finish. He had crashed on the last lap where the trail crossed some pavement. The mud had been carried onto the paved areas and made for some really slick stuff. I had constantly hit some squirrely mud right before the one paved area and would coast to regain control as I went over that paved area. Oddly enough it was this straight away that gave me the most trouble and where I witnessed a few riders falling througout the day. I finished the race as I often do not totally confident it is my last lap. Wondering if I don't have one more to go and feeling a little spaced out. Ellie came to watch the race. It was the first race she came to. We found each other in the crowd. Fun race. Great turnout of racers and spectators. 54 of 117. Now I'm really looking forward to next season of long distance biking, mt. biking and cyclocross.

Spider Meadow - Larch Knob

2010-10-07T19:17:00.001-07:00

This is a bit of a delayed description of Spider Meadow, but it may have been my favorite overnight backpacking trip this year. Labor day weekend Ellie and I headed out north of Lake Wenatchee to Spider Meadow. We started the weekend early and headed to the trail Friday morning. Before we got to the trail head we stopped at a nearby ranger station for last minute updates on the area and get any questions we might have answered. One question we always have is, "do we need a bear cannister on this trail?". Our answer was no, the trails in this area in particular are so well used that there is no problem with bear entering the campsites and we would be fine to tie our food up in a tree. When we did arrive at the trail head and saw roughly 40 or so vehicles we understood just how popular this trail was.

The weather was nice, in the high 60's and sunny. Of course Ellie and I didn't start on the trail until 3pm so we didn't see many people on the trail as they had started before us. This is a running joke of ours that we start our hikes just so we have the trail to ourselves. As we began hiking we said hello to a backpacker carrying a hunting bow. He had been in the area before and thought a third of the people probably went up the Carne Mountain Trail that forks off the trail to Spider Meadow a quarter of a mile from the trail head. He also said that there were bear in the area and that he saw some in the past while he was out hunting deer. Hopefully the bear in the area didn't get a taste for backpacking food. We continued on what was a fairly easy trail that gradually ascended to Spider Meadow. There were a few stream crossings which were easy as the water was low by the first weekend of September. The five miles up to the meadow was through forested area with glimpses of a stream to the left, and many bugs when we stopped for water or a look around.

It was very obvious when we got to Spider Meadow. The tree line pretty much stopped and opened up to a gorgeous meadow surrounded by mountain ridges in what looked like a U shape. There were roughly 10 camp sites in the trees to the right. Campsites across the stream to our left named Horse camp. We hiked through the meadow looking for a campsite, found that the couple campsites further into the meadow were taken and we backtracked to cross Phelps creek into Horse camp at the beginning of the meadow. I suspect it was named Horse camp for of course people with horses. There was no bridge for the stream and while we walked over a natural occurring bridge of fallen trees I suspect the stream could be tougher to cross by foot earlier in the year.

We found good camp site. There was a large boulder with trees and vegetation seperating the next campsite where we saw 3 people but none of the other 4 sites in the vicinity of the outdoor latrine were occupied. We set up camp and cooked Indian food and rice packets in boiling water. For the record my backpacking beer of choice was a couple delicious canned Oscar Blues Gubna Imperial IPA's. We strung up our food and went to bed. There weren't any sounds of critters during the night, and when we woke up there were no signs of critters the next morning.

I got up. Pulled down our food, made some strong coffee and read a few chapters of Bike Snob before Ellie got up. We ate, filtered some water from the stream and set out for a day hike to climb Larch Knob. It was approximately a 2.5 mile hike up to Larch Knob from our campsite and once we got through the meadow the climb up to the knob was approximately a 1700' climb, which by my standards seemed fairly steep. The rocky trail had a number of switchbacks to the top and just when I thought I was seeing the top more of the top came into view and more climbing ensued. The skies had just enough clouds to be scenic in what was an otherwise very sunny day in the high 60's. So while I was working up a sweat hiking up the trail I didn't mind stopping in the cool air to take in the view. We got to the top and had what seemed a very close view of Red Mountain. There were some folks camping at Larch Knob but not on the point over looking the meadow so that is where we stopped for lunch. Further along the trail took us to a stream flowing from a glacier. We weren't prepared for the glacier and Spider Gap beyond so we took in more of the view and headed back down.

^ Trecking poles were a must on the rocky trail to Larch Knob

On the way down from Larch Know we began to see more and more hikers. It was Saturday on Labor day weekend and this easily accessable and gorgeous meadow was not going to be shared by few for much longer. The night before I counted maybe 5 camp sites in the Meadow and I suspected that may be quadrupled Saturday night when we got to the meadow where we said hello to many hikers as we returned to our campsite.

When we got to our campsite backpackers continued to appear at the entrance to the meadow. The temperature was dropping fast, clouds were blowing in and we decided to head out, possibly camp closer to Lake Wenatchee and get a head start on a hike in the Twisp river valley the next day. As we were breaking camp a group of 7 were happy to see a good spot becoming available. It was cool and breezy and much of the trail back to the car was downhill. It was around 4 when we left and we needed to make time on the trail so we weren't setting up a tent in the dark. Somehow we made the 5 mile hike with packs in 2 hours. Were pleasantly surprised as the WOW book reads that strong hikers can do 5 miles in two hours but since we're always taking photos and looking through binoculars we rarely hike fast. Would love to visit Spider Meadow again and stay for 2 nights so we can do more day hikes or continue to Spider Gap and Lyman Lakes, however would prefer week days to have a little more solitude.

See the gallery of photos from this trip on HawgFuel's flickr.

Third time isn't quite the charm but a decent third race

2010-10-05T11:09:00.000-07:00

On the one hand I'd like to say my third cross race was the charm. I'd like to say I tore up the course, punished my opponents with my relentless hammering on the bike, new insights were revealed and I found my inner racer, because well using cliches makes writing that much easier. My third cross race Sunday was my best in my short 3 race Cat4 35+ cycling career. I didn't finish well enough to inspire beer sponsorship although I want to make it known that I will ride for beer, however not any beer as I'm a bit of a beer snob. The first race I felt inspired by the newness but I was exceptionally winded. My second race I really didn't have my head in it. I was annoyed about the 30 minute registration, had nearly no warm up, didn't preview the course and didn't know how to run with my bike on my shoulder.

I got to my third race much earlier. Pre-registration went fast. I took 4 laps on the course. Before arriving I ate my oatmeal, 5 hour energy shot, drank my cytomax mix, and lost some hearing listening to a recent download of Pantera's Vulgar Display of Power. Allmusic.com has this ranked as Pantera's best album according to their star rating by the way. The course was fairly flat. There was one short steep run up with a fun little hill down, around a couple corners and a bit of sand on the beach, a couple sharp switchbacks but no mud. Cat4 35+ was the first group out. I lined up pretty much in the middle to back of the pack and that is where I finished 45 of 70. I felt good on the turns, the run up, the beach and the barriers. I did drop my bike once atop the run up, and smacked my ankle with the pedal just so I remember cross for another week. The sand was fairly ridable but the middle part at the end where the course turned just a bit became dug up so to speak and my bike washed out underneath me and I had to pick it up and get back on it. I was pushing hard, following a rider in an Amgen kit. I kept catching up to him looking for an opportunity to pass when something in the course slowed me down. Maybe it was riders bunching up around a sharp corner or the barriers, me dropping my bike at the top of the run up or my bike washing out from under me in the thick sand. I'd catch up to the Amgen rider. Sometimes it looked like the Amgen rider. Another rider with a kit made up of similar greys and browns would appear in my view I'd think "now I have him!" only to realize it was someone for a realestate company and then I'd have to pass because I could see the Amgen rider a few more riders ahead. The Amgen rider rode a nice steady fluid race. I always seemed to catch up to him, but by the time I'd get my wind to make a move to pass some other obstacle slowed me down. Of course if I consumed the one product created by Amgen, EPO, I may have passed him and many other riders.

The last lap was announced and I felt like I had a little more in the tank. Not much, but it was the last lap so it's time to let it all out. Not a secret. Everyone is letting it all out by the 5th lap, or if not they let it all out in a previous lap and are feeling like dog dirt. I think it was somewhere after coming out of the barriers I saw Chris from the new Cat 4 team, Soft Like Kitten. You should be seeing their rad pink and grey kits at a cross race near you some time soon. Near as in within the Seattle area. Soon as in maybe November, but more likely in the new year. So I see Chris. He looks at me, smiles and says "this is it". I had been looking for Chris much of the race. We started out just a row apart and I didn't know if he was a head of me or behind. I was simultaneously glad to see him on the second half of the last lap and inspired to ride harder because. 1.) I had to catch the Amgen rider. 2.) As glad as I was to see Chris, I didn't want to give up the bragging rights and let him pass me. I want to be able to cash in that card myself. So I past a couple riders heading towards the switch back by the street. After we came out of the switch back area we roll out and around a simple left turn into the gravel straight away to the finish where I use my secret weapon, the big ring on the triple and hammer to the finish with Chris right on my wheel. Soft Like Kitten 45 and 46 place in a field of 70. Now time for a Rainier tall boy.

Cycle of my cycling

2010-09-26T18:11:00.000-07:00

I'm often amazed how a new interest or activity leads to refueling the interest, passion and participation of an old interest or activity that for many reasons I simply haven't participated in for years at a time. This may seem fundamental aspect of life to some but I still remain with my mouth open in awe of what transpires in front of me. For instance in college I studied fine art with a concentration in sculpture, and I really got into ceramic sculpture. So when I moved to Seattle and got an apartment in Queen Anne I began taking pottery classes at Northwest Pottery studios for a couple years. Made a bunch of pottery, and had visions of becoming a studio potterer there. Never did become a studio potterer there, but I'm sure to return to the pottery studio and get muddy.

There is something about the mud. For a number of years I road with the Back country Bicycle Trails club better known as the BBTC and now known as the Evergreen Mountain biking Alliance. They have a knack of creating club names that just role off the tongue. Or rather club names that tie up your tongue until you choke or vomit in your mouth just a little. But more importantly they are a local mountain biking club with members who possess a broad range of skill and fitness levels so one can easily find people to ride with and the club calendar offers a lot of great local group rides to join. They are very big in local trail advocacy and have built and maintained many trails. One of the great things about mountain biking is you get out of the city, away from cars and the daily grind and travel farther and faster on lovely single track than you can in your hiking boots. One of the things that kind of sucks about mountain biking is that unless you live in cool little towns and cities like Boulder Colorado you probably have to drive to the trail even if it is the local trail system you hit regularly. So when I got a job downtown whose hours are sometimes unpredictable I found it difficult to go on any after work group rides with the mt. bike club. I purchased an old cannondale road bike for commuting so I could hit the trails on the weekend. The first year this worked out like a charm. I was getting many more miles on my road bike throughout the week increasing my bike fitness and was able to hit some bigger somewhat more exotic trails with little repetition of some of the common local trails to build up fitness for the bigger ridge rides.

That summer I logged more road miles and more trail miles than I had in a number of years. The next year I bought the black Jake and my Gary Fisher hard tail played the role of the redheaded stepchild and was sentenced to stay on the balcony of my apartment for a year. Which by the way is not a good place to story one's bicycle as the steel pieces still may carrode and rust even without being directly in the rain. Of course a more expensive bicycle with primarily aluminum, titanium and carbon material may not rust but more likely to be stolen. So a combination of a new job downtown and a new cross bike, I didn't do any mountain biking for 2 years. But this year I put the knobbies on the black Jake and tried out some cyclocross racing with a club and 2 races so far with the MFG cyclocross series. Subsequently I tuned up the Gary Fisher and got it muddy. Nothing too technical but muddy just the same. It felt odd at first to ride the hardtail as the handle bars felt like a mile wide after riding only drop bars for two years, but it quickly felt like an old friend.

So now on the one hand I'd like to spend the remaining decent bike days this fall mountain biking, I feel like I need to investigate this cyclocross business more. My first race was inspiring. My second race was less inspiring and more of a learning experience. I didn't have the fire in my belly in the second race that I felt in the first one. The lines for registration were long and took 30 minutes to register, and I didn't arrive in time to warm up on the course. While I thought I prepared my bib numbers in advance when I got to the race the judges were on the other side of the course so I had to frantically switch them to the other side of my jersey. So the first lap felt like a warm up and when we hit the two sections of sand on the beach I dropped back even further. Each lap on the sand was a learning experience. Except I found out quicker than my learning curve for figuring out how to carry my bike on my shoulder that I don't have time to learn during the race, so what I learned can only be applied to the next race. What I learned was how to run in sand with my bike on my shoulder. I saw other racers weaving their arms through the frame and holding their handle bar with one hand with the front wheel turned. I didn't figure out how this was done until after the race. It probably wasn't until the third lap that I felt like I knew what I wanted to do when I reached the sand. So when the results came out that I finished 40 of 72 I was surprised and excited. I thought wow, I improved from the previous race's 48 of 65. And then MFG reviewed the film after many complaints regarding the standings and I dropped 21 places. Not what I call a good margin of error, but it appeared much more realistic. So this weekend will be my third MFG cyclocross race. I'll try and create that fire in my belly once again. Is it in the oatmeal? Loud doses of Fu Manchu?

There is certainly something there I find myself wanting to investigate, but I'm not sure I have an inner racer, or maybe I haven't found him yet. I may do some more mountain biking this fall. It would be a great way to end the bike season before the crappy weather, and my new bicycling interest will have been a big motivating factor in my return to a kind of biking I've really enjoyed in the past.

My first cyclocross race and the stages of grief.

2010-09-12T19:30:00.000-07:00

September 12th I ~~rode~~ raced in MFG's Cyclocross Kick off race at Finn Hill. I registered and ~~rode~~ raced with the Cat4 35+ group. This was my first bike race of any kind. I had ridden with some friends in three local cyclocross club rides and had a ton of fun. I didn't ride faster than many people. In fact I was usually one of the slower people, but I had a blast and so I decided to ~~ride~~ race this weekend where they give you a number, 60 some other guys bunch up at the same time and we haul ass or try to for the next 40 minutes barring cardiac arrest or breaking body parts entering the single track in the woods.

The local club rides were ad hoc races in local parks. The club leader brought barriers, steaks and caution tape, and spray paint. Within 20 minutes a handful of the early arrivals and the club leader would have a course laid out within the park for 40 minutes of cyclocross fun. This wasn't the instructional club ride where someone stands next to the barriers after demonstrating how to dismount and mount your bike again and offer suggestions. You would learn from watching others, asking questions, practicing on your own and just trying it at race speed. Race speed with maybe 20 people and then share some beers and laughs afterwards. Good times.

So I haven't really trained to race. I trained to ride a couple century rides in June and a relatively flat double century in the STP one day in July and none of these rides were competitive. I like to ride fast because riding fast is fun, but this is very relative and certainly not a measure of whether I might be any good at this. I did a fair amount of mountain biking for a good 7 years where I hit local trails 30 to 40 times a year. Again this was purely recreational club rides and rides with friends. My hope was these mountain biking trail skills might benefit me in cyclocross as it is a sport that requires skills from both areas. But I really haven't gone mountain biking since I bought black Jake. These were basic thoughts and concerns I imagine I share with many people who have entered their first cross race. Goals: no DNF and no DFL and have fun doing so. Simple.

So Sunday morning I headed out to Finn Hill near Kirkland and picked up my number and met Mike and Dylan who were also racing. In fact these were the two that convinced me it was fun, and after a little exposure I agreed that yes this is fun. Why riding as fast as one can for 40 minutes through the sensation of burning legs and lungs and pounding heart is fun I can't reason why but we share this similar exhilaration of pain. Except they go faster than I so they have a little more of the glory to go along with the pain. Numbers pinned, the once through on the course, mental notes on a couple potential problem areas. What I'll do at those problem areas TBD. Why do I have to pee all morning? Let some air out of my tires. I never liked mt. biking on low air, but the grass was really bumpy. Yet it looks like some of these guys are going to be riding on near flats. WTF? O.k. ready for the race.

^ Remember it is essential to remain properly hydrated during the race. Hopefully your buddies have your favorite beverage in hand when you are in need.

The cat4 35+ was the first group on the course. Closely followed by the cat4 45+ group. We bunched up at the start and were roughly positioned based on the last number on our bibs. Not sure how they handed out numbers, but apparently noobs got numbers that ended with "8" because I was in the last line of people in our group. The race started. We start. It takes a couple pedal strokes and the group begins to break apart. It is easy to pass a few people but over all every one is so close together it's like a group ride until we hit the mud before the dip into the little tease of single track. There is a small drop into the single track. There are two ruts in this dip and it turns into fly paper. It is fairly narrow so anyone who gets off their bike makes everyone behind them get off their bike. I reach this mess and I'm caught up in the moment and I start yelling go! go! go!

This of course spreads out the pack. I just wish I got to it before the first guy got off his bike. At this point I'm feeling strong and ready to eat up what is fairly simple technical course. My lungs and legs and back start to burn. I experience the first phase of grief. Shock. I look down and see we've only been riding for 4 minutes. WTF?! 4 minutes? The idea of doing this for 30 to 40 minutes suddenly doesn't sound very appealing. Can't we just do a spin around the lake and get some beers afterwards? What's up with all this competitive shit? My moment of weakness passes and the second phase of grief begins. Denial. I groan and bear it. Not grinning unless grinding my teeth counts.

The first 15 minutes I continue to pass people. I notice I'm pretty fast on the twisty 's' turns. I can cut the corners fairly easy and pass some people. I see a few fall on these turns and I'm not sure why. But after we get out of the turns everyone hauls ass on the straight away on the pavement and I get passed by multiple people. 20 minutes pass and my back is aching and I hope it holds up. I'm not passing anyone but people continue to pass me. I can't do much about it as I've ran out of whatever high octane gas I started with. And thus the next phase of grief begins, bargaining, and I try to negotiate the pain. Where can I rest? Rest means not redlining, but has little to do with what normal people call rest. Yes it hurts, but as all things this will pass. I begin to think about the course.

So I really didn't feel the guilt. Whatever. One single weak thought entered my mind that I wasn't fit enough for this. I called bullshit and hammered on. Ahh anger. Much better for racing. Depression momentarily came when I looked down to see we had been riding for 30 minutes and they didn't ring the bell for the last lap? Did I not hear the bell? Insert f-bomb. I could hear Mike cheer when I went by. He suffered a mechanical early in the race and did not finish. I could also hear Dylan cheer as I climbed after the barriers (he was in the next race). At one point I came out of the woods up the incline around the turn and simply panting. My rib cage is a bellows and I thank the downhill for a breath, and the rider ahead of me who directs the paramedics to the fallen rider because I could barely speak.

The amazing thing is that after brief moments of feeling like I'm going to have to begin walking or puking I find energy and push harder. I see a rider ahead and just think get his wheel. I get his wheel and look for a place to pass. I only did this a few times. I got passed many more times but I managed. Finally, acceptance. I can do this. Remember my lofty goals of no DFL and no DNF? I'm not thinking of winning. Just competing and I feel I can. The second last lap my foot hits one of the barriers, I don't fall but feel caution so on the last lap I managed to drum up on reserve energy and I go through the barriers better and faster than I did the entire race. I hammered up the hill. This was the last lap and I somehow felt stronger than the previous lap and there were still guys behind me on the course. Hopefully some of them were from my category.

All the riders around me are riding as hard as they can on the last lap. There was a couple riders that didn't have anything in the tank as I passed and I felt a sadness that was the equivalent of 'bummer dude'. We came out of the 's' turns onto the gravel, turned on the pavement and across the finish. Mike greeted me at the finish. I was happy it was over, unsure I was actually finished, and surprised I wasn't falling over. Damn that was fun! Let's do it again, but after I stop coughing. What a lung burner. I ended up placing 48 of 65 which I felt was a success for my first cyclocross ~~ride~~ race.

Goat Rocks

2010-09-08T10:23:00.000-07:00

August 27th Ellie and I packed up the car and drove to Packwood for the night. We often find a cheap motel near the trail head the day before we hit the trail. It simplifies things and sets us up for hitting the trail at a decent time, which isn't always our strong suite. In fact we joke that we hit the trail later so that we have the trail to ourselves as we see hikers returning to the trail head as we are hiking up. This also provides us with information about the trail ahead as we say hello and question the hikers returning to their cars. How much longer to the meadow? Are there fewer of these nasty little bugs at the top? Are there many campsites available at the lake?

This weekend we were returning to a overnight backpacking trip up to Goat Lake in the Gifford Pinchot forest. We backpacked up to Goat Lake last year, but this time we were wanted to make it a loop. After getting a map and asking some questions at the ranger station in Randal, we headed out to the Berry patch trail head where we would take the Snowgrass trail to trail 86 to Goat lake to trail 76 and back to the car. Estimated travel 12 miles.

Lattes, last minute visits to the Packwood grocery store, sporting goods store, and Randal ranger station delayed us a bit and we hit the trail at 12:10pm. This is an exceptionally early time for us to be hitting the trail. I'm not sure the two of us together have begun a single hike in the a.m.

Snowgrass trail slowly ascended through a wooded area that periodically opened up to show us the meadow below and a bit of ridges on the horizon. Snowgrass is similar to the Goat Rocks 76 trail but the nicer of the two in my opinion. Snowgrass ascended more gradual than 76 and never had the tougher rocky climb to the valley below the steep switchbacks just prior to the ridge that leads to the lake. We made our way onto trail 86 and started to enter the valley below Goat lake along the eastern ridge. The trail opened up into meadows of wildflowers. On the approach to a wooded area halfway to the lake along the ridge we came across a ton of bear grass. Very alien and appear as if they would glow but biology wouldn't be changed that day. We saw over a dozen people on this trail and asked some of the hikers about the trail ahead. From the conversations we had, it appeared that most of the campsites were occupied at the lake so we proceeded to find a good campsite nearby as established sites could be seen a couple miles before the lake.

A few sites were already taken at this point. We found a nice site right of the trail near a stream and with the view of Mount Adams. We set up camp, stashed the gear and hiked up past the lake to see if we could get a view of some mountain goats.

We past the 1/4 mile sign that approaches the lake on the west side and not much more than 30 yards away we saw 3 goats looking down off a rock not too far. The battery in my camera had lost it's charge and I wasn't able to get a photo. The image of the goats above are from the same ridge near Goat Lake in the second week of September 2009. We continued along that ridge until we knew we could not see any to the ridges end. As we got halfway through the immediate area around the lake we could see roughly 15 goats move along the ridge above the lake. When the goats got atop the snow fields alternating between rocky ground they galloped across the snow field until they reached the rocky ridge area and then raced again across the next snow field and up into an area hidden my some misty low lying clouds hung up on the top of the ridge. This ended our goat viewing for the evening and we hiked back to camp, ate some diner and dug out the Oskar Blues Old Chub from the bag. It is a scotch ale that was just right in the cold evening air with Mount Adams on the horizon. Pack it in. Pack it out.

The next day was cooler than the day before. I got the bag from the tree where we tied it up in the night before. No signs of bears or other critters except the usual marmot, pica, or chipmunk. Oatmeal and dried bananas with a cup of coffee among the bear grass but that morning Mount Adams was covered in clouds. We ate, filtered water at the stream, packed up and start backpacking towards the lake to continue our loop back to the car. The sky was fairly cloudy and while we slowed to enjoy the wildflowers on the ridge after the lake we elected not to visit the lookout above the switchbacks heading down as the cloud cover offered little compared to what we experienced the day before. We descended quickly on the switchbacks and I was glad we chose to do the loop counter clock wise so we did not have to climb up them. We ate lunch between the rocky slope and stream below and watched nearly a dozen marmots chirp and scamper among the rocks. Once we were fueled up we hiked down the shake like rocks to where the trail contained more soil and easier hiking. We saw fewer people on the way down on Sunday but spotted a couple deer after the 76b loop trail. We made it back to our car packed it up and headed home after another great weekend at Goat Rocks.

Dead Baby Downhill 2010

2010-08-25T10:41:00.000-07:00

Biking isn't always about spandex, shooting gu's, electorlyte supplements and training in the rain at 40 degree temperatures for 4 hours. Sometimes, or hopefully more often than not, or more often than it occurs now because this is the important part; it is just fucking fun. Riding bike is fun. Drinking beer can be said to be fun. Hanging out with some of your biking buds drinking suds, listening to rock bands, racing through Seattle at high speeds after a prefunk at a local pub, cheering tall bike jousts, looking at all the different bikes and different bike people is fun. So I circled the date for the 14th annual Dead Baby Downhill, blocked that off on my calendar, and obtained approval from my girlfriend months in advance. I did this because I went to the 13th annual Dead Baby Downhill last year, and it too was a helluva lot O'fun.

So for the uninitiated, the Dead Baby Downhill is a bicycle club. What goes on inside the club is unknown to me. From my vantage point they appear to be a group of creative bicycle enthusiasts who not only like to ride bikes, but also like to create bicycle powered contraptions and new bicycle creations such as tall bikes and vehicles resembling the conference bike (in function not in appearance). Oh and they seem to hold a high importance in having fun. But they seem to resemble Harley bike club more than the spandex riding dweebs on the other end of the bicycle spectrum. I'm friends with some of those dweebs and may be considered one at times. So this club has a big ass annual bicycle centric party and it is called the "Dead Baby Downhill".

It begins with a prefunk at a local pub. Prefunk = hanging out with friends and drinking beer before going to whatever larger event which in this case would be the ride to Georgetown the past two years. Here enters the part that is somewhat unsafe, anti-bicycle advocacy yet really fun. At the start some 600 people ride their bikes in large and small groups as fast as they can or at a rather fast pace to Georgetown. This isn't some sanctioned city approved cycling event so there are no roads that are blocked off to cars during this ride. Red lights are optional and up to the bike riders discretion whether they abide by the law. If you ever seen Critical Mass, this is like that but much faster with no side street corking.

So that part isn't really good for community bicycle advocacy but is sure is a heck of a lot of fun. Once everyone gets to the event location, there is much beer to be had, bicycle powered amusement rides, food vendors, live music and bicycle entertainment such as burlesque bike girl dance troops, and tall bike jousts. Hooligans and drunkards you say? If so, probably not your type of fun. But I can't wait until the next one.

Horseshoe Basin - North Cascades

2010-08-23T13:45:00.000-07:00

A couple days after the STP, Ellie and I headed out over the Cascades up route 20 past Loomis and into the Okanogan National Forest to backpack up to Horseshoe Basin. We took the north Cascade Highway out to Wintrop, stayed the night and then down 20 and up past Loomis to the Iron Gate trailhead. This is a really great backpacking trail if you have a four wheel drive vehicle because your vehicle does all the work driving up and up past grazing cattle to roughly 6000'. We hit the trail fairly late even by our standards at nearly 5pm. We expected to reach the meadows by 7 and begin looking for a place to camp.

The trail took us through a wooded area and then after a mile it opened up a little as we entered the area of forest that had been burned in a forest fire in '06. Many trees remained standing but only as burnt branchless remnants of what they once were. Their bark was black and at times appearing smooth and shiny. We saw forest like this in Chelan and they offered a strange beauty in their destruction with green grass and yellow wild flowers contrasting the charred black pole like trees. As the trail approached the meadows and began to open just a little I stopped to take a photo of 5 deer down an embankment not far below the trail. I motioned for Ellie to see them and they ran off shortly after she spotted them. The sun was setting over the ridge to the north of us. We were heading to the meadows below that ridge looking for a camp site as day light and warmth were disappearing quickly. I then quickly learned a few important things.

Temperatures at elevation can be more than 30 degrees lower than the nearest town at the foot of the mountains.
Gloves are a really light weight essentials to pack.
Pocket hand warmers definitely have a shelf life.

The wind coming down the ridge was pretty cold and I could see my breath. Ellie broke out some pocket hand warmers and commented that she hoped they still worked despite the fact that they expired four years ago. We found a spot to set up the tent and our hands were stiff and red once we were done. I put on all the clothing I packed and started the camp stove. Four backpackers came by, all wearing t-shirts and shorts. No more prepared for the weather than us except for one. The leader of the group was wearing gloves, and at this point I thought that was a stroke of genius. I now own a light weight pair of all weather gloves. They will always be in my pack from this day on. Sure my hands were cold. Sure we set up the tent and cooked a yummy dinner with no issues with the cold, but it could have been an issue, and I hope to be prepared next time.

We tied our food in a tree away from the camp and went to bed. The wind was still coming down the ridge, but we chose a good spot on the other side of a few trees. Nature called as it often does in the middle of the night and as I stepped out of our tent with my headlamp on I saw a deer grazing on the meadow grass just 12 feet in front of our tent. His eyes widened in the beam of my headlamp and it took off into the night. When I returned to the tent a few minutes later, the deer also returned to the same spot and this time didn't run off when he saw my light. It looked a bit curious at the light and stepped a few feet closer. I got into the tent hoping the deer wasn't going to get too curious. That night we heard hooves walking around our tent and wondered if they may have taken shelter from the wind behind the trees near our tent.

We woke up with the morning sun shining on our warm tent. After eating some oatmeal and filtering some water from a nearby stream we headed up to Horseshoe basin. The weather was perfect mid 70's and sunny. The basin opened up with spectacular far reaching meadows surrounded by mountain ridges. We spotted a lone hiker on the side of one mountain who we would later meet and say hello to. We at lunch near Louden Lake and had a great conversation with the four backpackers we saw the night before. They said they saw bear skat near their campsite, but we didn't see any signs of bear the two days we were out there. They continued onward to Armstrong mountain and we stayed by the lake and soaked up the view. The area was quite large and offered much more to explore and with so few people we would have loved to stay another night, but we headed back to camp, broke it down and packed back to the car, and drove back to Twisp for a pitstop before our next days adventure.

Seattle to Portland - STP 2010 - The One Day

2010-07-28T09:47:00.000-07:00

Saturday July 17th was the start of the 2010 Group Health Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic otherwise known as the STP. This was my second year riding in the event. Last year was the first year I rode in the STP and I had a blast. I rode the course in 2 days and stayed at the 135 mile point in Castlerock at the Castlerock high school. The students provided snacks, sodas a spaghetti dinner and a pancake breakfast for a modest fee as well as camping on the lawn, inside the gym and access to the showers. All one had to do was tag their bags and drop them off at the truck at the start heading to Castlerock. I was up early the next day stopped at the mini market down the road, slammed a red bull and was in the beer garden at the finish by noon.

This year I decided to ride the STP in one day. I followed pretty much the same training regimen as the previous year. I printed out Cascade Bicycle club's basic training schedule and tried to get close to the weekly mileage they recommended. I ride to work nearly every day for a basic 14 mile day, and then have numerous longer rides for returning home. I don't have the time to do two big rides on the weekend so I try and get as many miles during the week as I can. So I might go into the weekend with anywhere between 60 and 100 miles. Oddly enough when it was all said and done the week prior to the STP I had exactly 100 fewer miles of training than the previous year. The big difference was that I had more long rides over 60 miles than the previous year. Regardless the difference I was ready for the 1 day, and very excited about it.

I took off the Friday before the event for last minute preparations to my bike and whatever items I needed. I had everything out and ready to wear and take with me the night before. It was a good idea as I was meeting Mike and Thomas at the start at 4:30 am. Having everything ready turned out to be yet more advantageous as I over slept and awoke to see the clock ready 3:55. That didn't provide a whole lot of time to ride 6 miles to the start let alone drink coffee and eat some oatmeal. I jumped out of bed put my bike clothing on and slapped on sunscreen. Promptly rubbed my tired eyes and rubbed sun screen into my now burning watering eyes. Proceeded to gather my things, eat a quick cup of oatmeal and down a cup of joe and out the door I went. I raced up the Burke Gilman trail to the start of the STP and caught up with Mike and Thomas. We set out at 4:50. Less than an hour after I woke up. But I didn't care. I was pumped and excited for the days ride.

It seems the first 20 miles can be some of the most problematic. We passed a couple riders with mechanicals and some who had minor accidents before we even left the Seattle city limits. The three of us do well for most of the first half. Thomas was having some problems with nausea and knee soreness and when we got to Centralia we weren't sure if he was going to continue with us. But despite his rough start we were at Centralia before noon. It never did warm up in the morning and when we did get to Centralia we were searching for some hot food. Cheap spaghetti did the trick. We refueled and rested for about 45 minutes. Thomas felt better and we began to push on.

Soon after we left Centralia the sun began however very slowly, shine and the day began to warm up. I mistakenly didn't pack the STP complimentary rain jacket, or else I wouldn't have been riding hard just to stay warm in the morning. It was another case of my optimism exceeding the reality of the weather forecast, and I'm not sure if it ever became 76 degrees, and it was no where close to that warm for most of the day. How many peanut butter bagels, bananas and nuun tablets can one consume in one day? Oh but the salty corn chips always are delicious when on these long rides. So many a lines for food, water and port-o-potties later and we are roughly 15 miles from the finish. We call the women in our lives who were so generous to meet us at the finish and let them know we'll be crossing the finish line in approximately 1 hour. At this point I'm so tired of eating the food at the rest stops. I'm dreaming of flame broiled beef and a beer. I down a regular pepsi with all the great sugar and cafeine and we make our way through Portland to the finish. As I expected my feet hurt. Primarily my toes, which would remain numb until the next morning, as well as some boy parts that were somewhat disturbingly numb that evening too. I had read about this and the next day all was no longer numb. We finished without a mechanical or incident. At one stop light I narrowly missed colliding into the back of a car at a stop light. I did notice the vehicle slowing and when I came to a skidding stop my front wheel was no more than 2 inches from his bumper. Unfazed I continued but tried to concentrate on safety as the riders were bunching up at stop lights and riding with traffic. We passed the International Beer festival along the way where I would watch others finish on Sunday as I enjoyed some of the fantastic northwest microbrews.

We crossed the finish line. I found Ellie and gave her a kiss. We did it in one day. It went as expected. It was fun. It was an adventure, and it was easier than I had thought years earlier when I spoke with a mountain biking club member who told me how he was preparing for it. Made me feel like a vet on my second STP and my first one day STP. I'm looking forward to doing it all over again. Including the 40 mile training rides in the rain.

Livestrong Challenge Seattle

2010-06-26T13:33:00.001-07:00

Father's day Sunday June 20th I participated in the Seattle LIVESTONG Challenge for the second time. The LIVESTRONG Challenge is a cycling and running fundraiser event and proceeds go towards LIVESTRONG's programs and services, which inspire and empower people affected by cancer. The event began with registration and fundraising months prior to the actual ride that started at the Seattle Center. The forecast for the ride was cloudy and a 10% chance of rain. The day before the clouds were so dark it looked like rain could start falling at any moment yet it never did. So when Sunday came along with no rain the day before and a low chance of rain for Sunday in the forecast, I was skeptical and decided to bring my rain jacket. It was in the low 50's and cloudy when I left the house and rode down the hill to the Seattle Center. No driving for me that day.

Our Livestrong team had 2 more members this year for a total of a 5 man team, and they jumped on board with Cutters jerseys for our second annual tradition. Yes it only takes 2 years to begin a tradition. We met outside the Seattle Center before the start of the 100 mile riders and took some team photos and the crowds of riders inching to the starting line. The start had Livestrong decorations and banners providing a real sense of a big event that something was happening. We found our way into the crowd of 100 mile riders and took in the energy. It isn't a race but everyone gets excited for the start of the ride.

There was a local radio personality pumping up the crowd and a doctor encouraging us to eat and hydrate and we started the ride.We left the Seattle Center and proceeded down 5th avenue among the Monorail pillars. This is a place where no cars go as Arcade Fire might sing as we had a police escort from 5th avenue downtown to the I-90 bridge express lanes across Lake Washington for the Mercer island loop. Riding through the tunnels on I-90 at 30 miles an hour was a blast with riders wooping it up to hear their voices echoing off the concrete walls. I feel an excited energy and want to ride faster but try and maintain a pace where the cutters don't get too spread out. We take the Mercer Island loop counter clock wise and start to warm up the legs.

The nervous excited energy of the beginning of the ride begins to subside, I find a good ryhthm and webegin riding the rolling hills around the island. We regroup at a rest stop and I remove my jacket as I have thoroughly warmed up. About 30 minutes later I pull off the road to put my jacket back on as a steady rain has begun. It started out as just the typical Seattle light spray that made the roads and our brakes wet and an hour later our group is discussing possibilities of what parts of the course can we skip because it looks like we're in for an afternoon of steady rain. From the start one can see that the 30 mile loop the 100 mile riders take on Tiger Mountain road can easily be skipped. 70 mile riders take a left. 100 mile riders take a ride and do the 30 mile Tiger Mountain road loop. In the rain we regroup at that turning point and take a left for the 70 mile course. Same as the 100 except for that one loop, which means we can still ride Montreaux.

The rain continues and we become more and more cold and wet. No one has shoe covers. Only two of us have rain jackets. I only witessed one practical rider with fenders on her bike all day. Most were not prepared for the weather. At one point the moral of our group seems pretty low. The idea of heading back across I-90 and cutting off the route along the bottom of Lake Washington is proposed. Skip Montreux, skip the Finish altogether were a couple more ideas. Riding west on Newport Way the rain slowed and a few more miles we would approach Montreux, the big hill. We see Montreux, the big hill that ascends the side of Cougar Mountain. The rain slowed and the skys looked a tiny bit lighter. We look at each other, ask "want to do Montreux?" shrug, smile and take the left up Montreux. If riding up this hill doesn't warm you up nothing will. Montreux ascends Cougar Mountain and with it's 1.4 mile, 689 climb it has a maximum 16% gradient. This is the kind of hill triples are made for. At the steepest I was standing on the pedals in the smallest of gears giving 100% effort.

At the top I meet Mike our team captain. We wait 15 minutes or more for Mike and Thomas. Another rider who stopped to rest at the top tells us he saw two riders turn back down the hill. Thomas was having troubles with his derailler and Mike was concerned about traction up the steep wet road. We later found those were exactly the reasons they did turn back down the hill.

At the start there were 5 of us. We dropped Peter somewhere after Mercer Island. He was riding the 45 mile course and didn't want or need to ride at our pace. With Mike and Thomas finding an alternate route, it was Mike and I to finish the 70 mile course. Any heat we generated climbing Montreux left our bodies waiting at the top and we set out on a quick pace keep warm and finish up as soon as we could. The rain returned. The course wound the others side of Cougar Mountain and we returned to ride the south end of Lake Washingon. By the time we were riding the south end of Lake Washington towards Renton the road was filled with puddles, I was completely soaked but warm enough and spinning the legs, splashing and hydroplanning all the way. At one rest stop I noticed a box of Starbucks coffee and asked for a cup. It was one of those moments that made the hot caffinated drink seem quite magical.

We pass through Renton towards Seward Park and drop down on to Lake Washington Boulevard. This could be any day. The lake loop is our back yard and I ride it many times. But hell if I would be out there on that day if it weren't for the event. We make our way along Lake Washington Boulevard and then up towards the pedestrian tunnel above I-90. A couple more hills on Jackson, through the International District and then north of 4th avenue. The home stretch, but now we're sharing the road with motorists. Road construction detour near Westlake Center directs us to travel north on 1st avenue around a recent car accident and past the Key Arena. There was a volunteer directing riders towards the finish. He held a walkie talkie and read our rider numbers to someone on the other end. As we approached the finish line an announcer read our names and the fundraising dollar ammount we raised and a small crowd who braved the rain clapped as we crossed the finish line. We quickly found a dry place and some food, Mike and Thomas and learned of their 74 ride to the finish. Once your thoroughly wet and cold why not just stay out there in it and enjoy it right?

So the ride was a challenge, at times an adventure, and overall a success. I want to thank the people here again who donated in my name. The Seattle event raised roughly $800,000 and our Cutters team raised $4800.

Flying Wheels Century 2010

2010-06-14T11:35:00.000-07:00

Saturday I drove out to Marymoor park again with the Jake atop the old Honda for the Flying Wheels Century. The forecast shown sunny skies and high of 76 degrees for the day and looked to be as awesome a day as it was last year. I had my new mavic ksyrium equip wheel set with thinner 700x25's than my typical commuter 28's. We had a large group, which is sometimes difficult to orchestrate starting at the same place in at the same time especially when there are 3000 other people wanting to park, register and use the restrooms at the time. I met two of the Mikes' and Thomas from our LIVESTRONG team and Patrick who is a LIVESTRONG mentor. There was Ben and Lou from work and Kimiko and her friend.

Kimiko and her friend start before the rest of us because we can't get everyone together and they think we're going to be speed demons on the road. We finally get rolling at around 8:30. Fantastic Saturday morning. Around 4 miles we hit the first hill which has a 12% grade. It isn't real long but it is a lung burner to warm up for the day. We hit the first rest stop somewhere around 15 miles and run into Kimiko and her friend who is having mechanical problems so Thomas stays back with them and the rest of the group rolls on. Now we are six. We don't fall into pace lines much we just enjoy riding together and with all the other riders. At the 30 mile mark Mike, Patrick and Ben peal off to do the 60 mile route, which left Mike, Lou and I to finish the 100 mile century. Somehow it takes me 40 miles to really get warmed up. Yes 2+ hours riding the bike and slight aches disappear and I'm not as easily winded as on the first hill of the ride. Maybe this is where the "runners high" kicks in, or in this case the "bikers high". This is when I can start pushing the pace and leading the pace lines like a GC rider, at least in my own mind. We ride out into the country air around Duval and Carnation. Yes that sign read "aged manure". Ah yes, was that a 6 year or an 8 year cow paddy? Wonder if they use oak barrels for additional flavor? No? Probably not. We quickly reach the half way rest stop, take care of business and are on our way.

This is Lou's first century, and while he was a little concerned about keeping up with us before the ride, we keep wondering when he is going to stop pushing the pace and hit a wall because is is enthusiastically riding ahead of us. He never hit the wall. Fortunately for me he was slower on the hills so I could get a break at the top while regrouping.

It really is amazing how fast mile 50 to mile 80 seems to go. The last big hill is on my mind, and I remind the guys not to push the pace as we have the big hill coming up. Last year I blew off the rest stop just prior to the big hill at mile 80 and only had one water bottle. By the time I reached the top of the big hill I was out of water and having muscle cramps when stretching. So while I may not be the smartest bear in the woods, I do learn, and this year I fuel up and fill my water bottles at the stop prior to the big hill. We approach the hill, and I find a good rythm. Sometimes I attack the hill with enthusiasm, and burn out too soon, but I felt like I held back just a little. So we climb finding our own paces. I slowly begin passing riders and loose Mike and Lou. My legs burn a bit at the top but I feel good, have water and not a single muscle cramp. We regroup at the top and enjoy some down hill at about 46 miles per hour. Woot!

We hit the last rest stop. My toes are hot and I take off my shoes as I have bite to eat and some water. We head out and finish the route along lake Sammamish. Just 10 miles from the finish I see the first guy of the entire ride with my same jersey at a stop light. We joke that we're on the same team. We end where we started in Marymoor park and Ellie greets me with a photo finish and a kiss. Off to the beer garden for some hoppy goodness and another great century ride is complete.

Lake Chelan Lake Shore Trail

2010-06-09T16:51:00.000-07:00

Memorial day weekend Ellie and I drove out to Chelan to backpack the Lake Shore Trail along Lake Chelan. We drove out to Chelan on Friday, stopped at a couple wineries for wine tasting, went out for dinner and spent the night in a hotel. This is usually the best way for us to be able to hit the trail as soon as possible the next day as we tend to be a little slow going in the morning. We couldn't hit the trail this time until the Lady of the Lake boat dropped us off, so we just needed to make it to the boat on time in the morning which was just under 2 miles away from our hotel. Sounds like we would be putting ourselves in a position for success. Sometimes tasks take as long as the alotted scheduled time, and we like to do things in a very short period of time. So after dropping our gear and Ellie at the dock, I quickly parked the car and was running down the dock towards the boat hoping I needn't do my best Indiana Jones impersonation and take flight off the dock to land on a moving boat. My childhood fantasy was halted as a woman stepped out of the office and told me to inform the crew that there were two more passengers boarding after us.

We chose the slow boat to travel to Prince Creek in order to soak up the scenery of the mountain ridges surrounding this 50 mile long lake whose greatest depth is 400 feet below sea level. The day was sunny and in the low 70's, and the boat was completely full. When we got to Prince Creek approximately 90 people got off with backpacks. Seems like a lot of people for what we hoped to be a remote backpacking getway, but the beach resembled the opening episode of Lost but with backpacks replacing plane wreckage. Ellie and I got our gear together and started the 17 mile hike to Stehekin. The plan was to do 11 miles to Moore Point and then the remaining 7 miles the next day. So 90 people hiking in the same direction might seem like critical mass of backpackers, and probably the number was less than the boat captain noted. We continually played a backpacking game of leap frog with a number of the other hikers. We'd hike, rest, get passed and do the same to them.

Just about 3 miles into our hike, I hear Ellie call my name from around the corner I just turned. I jogged back to her location glad to see nothing was wrong. She was of course peering through her binoculars in search of siting some critters, and this is when she showed me a black bear. The bear looked like it might be a teenager as it didn't seem thick as I might expect, but I don't know much about bears. He was approximately 80 yards away, but also down a ravine making our trail side view feel like a rather safe vantage point. The bear just stood and looked around for a few minutes and then walked a few steps back and laid down next to a tree for what looked to be nap time. At that point some other hikers caught up to us in our game of Leap Frog and we tried to point out the bear but he was somewhat obscured by a bush and was laying down so he didn't look like much more than a log if you had not seen him walk there and lie down.

The book we used for reference called this hike easy as there is little elevation gain, but put a 35lb pack on my back and I'm not calling 17 miles easy. Due to our start we arrived at Meadow Creek in the late afternoon and I have no energy to get to Monroe Point, so we elect to camp 7 miles in at Meadow Creek. It was somewhat disappointing at first as many of the backpackers stayed there that night. I counted 28 tents in the camp area we set up, and there were nearly a dozen in the area on the other side of the stream. At this point I'm hosed and can't imagine hiking 11 miles the next day. The only consolation is that I stashed two cans of beer in my pack. Sure to be warm but also tasty as these 2 little gems were Gubna Imperial IPA's.

We tied up our food in a tree hoping our bear friend or one like him didn't get the munchies during the night and come into our camp. There wasn't much to chose from in setting up our tent, and the area we did find while free of rocks, it was on an incline. Each time we woke up at night we would crawl back up to the top of the tent only to slide down in our sleep. The number of people in the camp didn't bother us and we tore down our site the next day to make the 11 mile trek. The second day was even more beautiful than the day before. Sunny and a little warmer, we started up the trail snapping photos and searching for critters at every turn.

Later in the afternoon we came to one of the many stream crossings. Most of the streams are small creeks one can just walk through or step on a couple well placed rocks or logs, but this time we came across one a little wider. The boy scout troop was taking a break on the other side and we saw them nonchalantly walk across a downed tree. The downed was wide and sturdy, and appeared very stable. The caveat was that it was 8 feet above the stream. Easy walk but if you make a mistake the consequences look to be much worse than a wet foot. I was about to walk across the log when I looked back and saw Ellie preparing to cross the stream in her sandals carrying her pack. I returned to help her just in time for a boyscout to offer to carry her pack for her. She's elated and hands him her pack warning him how heavy it is. He slips it on and walks across the big downed tree. She walks through the stream and retrieves her pack from the boyscout, and I try to step on the logs and rocks to cross and only step in the water once getting a rush of water entering my boot. A handful of additional hikers make it to the stream and we exchange some small talk before moving on. There were a few more streams to cross, but not more wet feet. There were three streams we did cross that were large enough for the forest service to build some bridges and there were enough that we weren't exactly sure which one we just crossed on the map. I stopped taking photos as I got more tired, and was glad we didn't have to hike 12 miles as I was pretty much toast by the time we go to Stehekin.

There were a few times while making the 17 mile hike that I thought that it would be better to do in in 2 night instead of 1. We entered Stehekin with the sun shining and in the low 60's. We stopped at the only restaurant in this boat in only town and I sat down at a picnic table, removed my pack and took in the view. Ellie went into the restaurant to get directions to the hotel we had reservations for and to confirm our dinner reservations at the restaurant. Then one of the greatest moments of the day happened. Ellie walked out of the restaurant with a cold six pack in hand, and boy that Sierra Nevada IPA was GOOD! We took in the view some more. Cracked open a second beer and then made our way to the hotel. It was a modest little room, but offered what we needed with a shower and a bed that wasn't on an incline. We had a very nice time at the restaurant. Had a bottle of wine and a conversation with our server about Stehekin.

Monday was our last day in Stehekin so we rented some bikes and rode out to the famous bakery where I found a sticky bun the size of a large grapefruit. The bikes were cheap to rent and definitely touristy rental bikes. The roads we used them on had little traffic other than some of the other backpackers riding bikes. We saw the boy scouts racing down the hill from the bakery. We visited the falls, and looked for the end of the road where the Stehekin Valley Road was washed out. We never did find the washout and returned our bikes, spoke with the woman at the bike rentals and then climbed on board the slow boat back to Chelan.

2010-05-25T09:56:00.000-07:00

The cool thing about a ride along a lake is that it provides a beautiful view as you ride. Riding along Lake Washington on a clear day, one can see Mount Rainier, Mount Baker, Cascade and Olympic Mountain ranges as well as the vast landscape of the surface water and views of Seattle and Bellevue skylines. Lake Sammamish offers similar views and one can feel even further removed from the city on this route. The not so cool thing, or rather somewhat cold thing about riding around lakes is that the ones I just mentioned are fairly large and provide ample room for wind to blow off them onto the roads and trails circumnavigating them. This means when it says it is 50 degrees on an online weather source for Seattle, it possibly could feel like 40 riding along the top of Lake Washington or Lake Sammamish. This epiphany, insight or eventual gain in common sense of this matter finally sunk in this past weekend when I joined a couple of the guys from LIVESTRONG to go on a training ride.

Last year it seemed like I was getting a healthy dose of Lake Washington Loops. The North Lake Washington Loop. The South Lake Washington Loop, and the full Lake Washington Loop. Enough already. Lets do something new. When this season started I really wanted to mix up the locales for training and do other loops. Training takes a lot of time especially when you're riding 50, 60 and 70 mile training rides so the idea of exotic training rides quickly falls to the wayside and training rides beginning at my doorstep move to the forefront. So this year I have done fewer loops around Lake Washington in exchange for more loops around Lake Sammamish.

Sunday I met Mike and Patrick of LIVESTRONG at Gaswork. Mike is the team captain and Patrick his fundraising mentor. Both very are very strong riders relative to myself, so there was a few times I felt like I needed to draft just to keep up with the headwind coming off north end of Lake Washington. When I go for a ride I check the weather forecast, see what the temperature is and the hourly weather forecast to see how it will warm up as the day progresses and thus make a good decision as to what to wear. It never really warmed up until around the 50 mile mark. In fact the first half of the ride was pretty darn cold, and colder with the wind off the lake. The skys were threatening rain but didn't follow through. We got a sun break as we approached Montreaux, the big hill in the LIVESTRONG challenge. This was the second time in two weeks I rode up this climb. Can't say this time was any easier, but a worthwhile investment for the event in June. This was one part of the ride I was not the least bit cold. One of the good things about big hills.

At the top the three of us regrouped and stopped at a coffee shop on the other side and planned our return to Seattle. Descending the hill is always fun. Traveling at 40 miles an hour down the other side a van rode along side of Mike. I was too far behind to tell if the driver was giving Mike the "you should get off the road because I hate cyclists" speech or not. When we got to the stop light they were engaged in a good natured conversation about how fast he was going, and I find out the driver was impressed and amused. Nice to see the other side of car/cyclist relations for a change. We rode back on Newport Way, which I always enjoy. It is a road with rolling hills wide shoulders and a smooth surface unlike the crumbling streets of Seattle, that make me glad to have a cyclecross bike. The sun made an appearance as we returned to the west side of Lake Washington and the wind was less or at our backs. We split up as we headed back to our own homes and I still had energy to ride up 3rd avenue in the middle ring after 65 miles and climbing of Montreaux. Turned out to be a good week of riding with 167 miles and 280 in the past 10 days. I'm feeling good about my training for the two centuries in June.

2010-05-17T10:32:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I took a spin around 2 lakes. The first lake was Saturday morning with Mike. We did one loop around Lake Sammamish plus the big hill in the LiveStrong Challenge, Montreux, a 1.4 mile, 689 foot climb in Issaquah. It was this climb last year where a dude dressed as a devil equiped with a pitch fork provided light hearted encouragement to the event participants slowly tempting cardiac arrest and broken chains at mile 75 of the century course.

In the Tour De France there is a similar character or characters that do this type of thing only they are running up the hill chasing the riders. During an amateur fundraising event, he probably could have walked backwards and maintained pace with the riders. I'd like to imagine every time I return home on my bike riding up 3rd Ave west that the 291 feet of climbing in .8 miles is preparing me for Montreux on a daily basis. Every time I ride from my house I have to ride up this hill. Saturday the truth was in the pudding and while I rode up Montreux without stopping, I do believe I should ride up it a couple more times before the 20th of June. Good day though including 32 miles and 1300 feet of climbing and a burger and a beer at the Roanoke tavern on Mercer island on the way home.

Sunday the tale of two lakes continued as I set out for the familiar South lake Washington loop. Not much climbing to speak of, but not entirely flat and the body was feeling Montreux from the ride the day before. From the Seattle side looking East before getting on the I-90 bridge there are great views of the Cascades and Mt. Rainier on clear days. The ride in the bike lane on the bridge is always windy. If you're lucky it is a tail wind.

I normally stop at a park along the route on Mercer island to refill one water bottle before moving on. A crowd had gathered below the awning by the restrooms as a rain shower began. Just 12 miles into the ride and I'm warming up and feeling good, so I get some water eat a Kind bar and continue in the rain expecting it to be a passing shower. The rain continues but lightly and doesn't stop until 15 miles later. Thank goodness for bike clothing. At this point I'm warm, but wet. I continue riding and the high tech bike geek clothing dries and I grab an ice cream sandwitch at Seward Park. Woot! Sugar! By the time I'm back by the University of Washington the sun begins to shine and before I begin my climb up 3rd avenue I pull off the arm warmers and get 15 minutes of sun on my pasty pale arms. Another good ride in two days making it a total 75 miles for the weekend.

Shi Shi Beach

2010-05-12T11:32:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth and I went out to the Olympic National Park this past weekend. I crammed in some miles during the week with the expectation of a three day weekend sans spandex. So Monday I commuted to work. Tuesday I spun around Mercer island after work for a 38 mile day. I commuted Wednesday and on my way home I hear a "ping" ring out from my front wheel and I realize I broke a spoke. The broken spoke throws my wheel out of alignment and ends my ride home and I find a bus to make the remaining commute home. It is after 7 and I don't have time to visit my LBS so I swap out pedals from my mountain bike and put them on my old Cannondale road bike.

Great. I don't miss a beat. The Jake is out of commission until I can get the wheel fixed. No biggy, but with the weekend quickly approaching and my desire to get miles in before the weekend, I shelve the Jake and ride into work on the red Cannondale, my first road bike and the beginning of my interest in long distance road riding aka century rides. The red Cannondale is a fun aluminum frame and fork, compact geometry with a biosphere 52 big ring. Fun on the flats, light weight, but doesn't take the bumps as well as the Jake and the lower suicide shifters make me feel a little shaky at first when shifting but I get used to it. Gorgeous evening to take the long way home. I decide to add the Magnolia loop to my ride home. Just an additional 6 miles but quite scenic. I ride up to Discovery park. Still not quite familiar with this old friend I end up hammering up to the hill at Discovery park in the big ring thinking the double is simply more difficult with the climbs. As I reach the top of the hill and look down into Discovery park I realize I am in the big ring and look forward to easier climbing ahead. Spin around the west side of Magnolia and take in Mt. Rainier, Downtown Seattle and enjoy the downhill stretches at over 30mph. I climb up 3rd avenue towards Queen Anne finishing up a 22 mile day feeling great. I'm going to get my miles in and backpack with my sweetie all in one week.

Exactly 2 blocks from my apartment building I'm trodding up the hill. Leaning on the Right leg pushing down. Leaning on the Left leg pushing down all the while standing and feeling strong again and again until finally when I go to lean on the left, I don't stop. My body continues to go down past the pedal and me and my bike fall on our sides on the street. Fortunately there are no cars or pedestrians nearby to further my embarassment or possibly run me over. As I lay on the ground I think one that I didn't get hit, two I didn't hit anything else, so why the f*ck am I laying on the ground? I look just a couple feet away to see the answer. My left pedal is laying next to my bike. I wasn't hit. I didn't hit anything, but I did not tighten my pedal enough when swapping them out with my mountain bike and the pedal slowly loosened and I finally pushed it out of the crank arm. Long sleeves saved my forearm a bit of road rash. The side of my left shin was raspberried as I have done many times before, but otherwise I was feeling fine. Picked up my pedal and pushed my bike the remaining 2 blocks to my apartment. No bike for Friday. Oh well. We're going to Shi Shi Beach!

First camping trip of the season and it takes much longer to get ready as it often does. We don't leave Seattle until after 12pm and reach the Olympic National Park Visitor center outside of Port Angeles at 4:45 to purchase permits and pick up bear cannisters. But it has been a long day, and it has been a busy April, so we elect to go wine tasting and stay in Port Angeles for the night. Win Win. Next day we drive to Neah Bay, buy additional permit and find secure parking near the trail head. Muddy trail and 2 miles later we reach the beach. We hike down the beach nearly 2 miles and find a lovely campsite near the point of arches. Scramble over some rocks during low tide and take many photos. Ahhh great stuff, and I didn't even have my bike.

But now I have 2 bikes at home that need tender loving care. So I ping Second Ascent about the Jake and the spoke. They are fantastic as always and tell me to bring it in asap. I run the red Cannondale over to Recycled Cycles possibly looking for a used crank arm as the threading appears stripped. One of their clever bike mechanics proposes threading the pedal in backwards and realigning the threads in the front. Fantastic idea. Especially since the alternative was looking like a new crank set. I drive home with the red Cannondale and pick up the Jake the next day and ride it home, and all is well in my little bike world once again. This weekend though, is going to require some long miles on the bike.

See the gallery of photos from this trip on HawgFuel's flickr

Finding Miles

2010-04-26T20:20:00.000-07:00

Sometimes life gets busy, and hours for riding become a rare commodity. It is at these times I may find myself riding many times during the week, but zero days to invest the number of hours required for a longer ride. So I find miles where I can.

There is the basic commute. The shorter commute. The I have to get there now, but I want to ride home commute, and there are the longer commutes. It's almost a game. What little additional jog in my commute can I add? Magnolia loop +6 miles. Cross the bridge ride up the BG to the next bridge and back up the hill +2 miles. Do both of these in the morning and I'm starting the day with 15 miles in my pocket. Add these two routes to the commute home, and I've got 22 to 30 for the day and I never was further than 8 miles from my house.

And when riding shorter distances the idea of climbing hills harder comes to mind. Ride up the north end of Queen Anne from Nickerson on 3rd avenue in the middle ring. No granny gear even if the panniers are full. Ride all small hills seated and strong. And at the end of the week I've found I can still work an extra long week and still get 110+ miles and feel fatigued in all the right places as I feel like I'm challenging myself and getting stronger. Not going to race with that training, but hope to enjoy a couple centuries in June and a double in July riding the STP in one day. I do have to get a couple 60 and 70 mile days in before then, but until time becomes more abundant I find the miles when I can.

Meet Black Jake

2010-04-04T18:46:00.001-07:00

I imagine the bike mechanics at my LBS know me as the Black Jake, just as my local barrista knows me as double tall soy latte, and hophead by some of my local favorite pubs.

It's a great all around bike, the '08 Kona Jake. Eyelits for a rack and panniers for commuting, aluminum frame for rigid light weight responsiveness, steal fork to soak up some of the bumps, cycle cross geometry for well cycle cross racing. The Jake is the entry level cycle cross bike in the Jake series. Same frame as the Jake the Snake but with a lower end component package. Oh, and a triple to get me up Queen Anne after a long ride.

Versatility doesn't make it great for any one type of riding. I can put panniers on the bike but probably wouldn't want to load up the bike as much as a Surly Long Haul Trucker. It is aluminum but certainly not light enough to road race. The Jake has treated my good on century rides. The geometry is wide, open and the more upright cockpit has helped eliminate any semblance of neck pain I used to experience with my 86 Cannondale (which is currently for sale ;)). And the cushy mountain bike saddle has enabled me to keep smiling at the end of those long rides and get on the bike the next day. This is incredibly important point. Live to ride and ride another day. This is an idea I thought of when I did a fair amount of mountain biking.

I've been asked by people recently getting into the sport of biking, "is this a good bike?". I tell them any bike that gets you out biking and having fun is a good bike. It's kind of a love affair cyclists have with their bikes. After a long ride I may look at my bike in the next room admiringly. It is the black Jake. Not a sexy Italian named beauty that one might refer to with feminine qualities, but a workhorse that sometimes makes me feel I have super powers.

Hot dogs are the new sport supplement

2010-03-21T20:29:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning I set out to investigate a bike route I found here: http://veloroutes.org/bikemaps/?route=1891. They also post their rides via Twitter, http://twitter.com/seattlebikemaps.
The route begins in Capital Hill and is an out and back to Snoqualmie Falls. This week was the first week I had commuted to work 4 days this season. I felt strong on the bike and I rode with great enthusiasm, but the 16 miles/day in two intervals/day riding pretty hard suddenly had me feeling fatigued Saturday. I got 24 miles in and thought it would be best to stop for something to eat and head back. So I rode a couple more miles into Issaquah. I really wanted to stop at the Alehouse and get a burger and a beer, but the outdoor tables were not yet setup and I didn't have my u-lock with me so I elected to do some bottom feeding within reach of my unsecured bike. Translation: Gas Station Hot DOG! I managed to get the last hotdog. There it was spinning under the heat lamp without any hotdog pals to keep it company. I knew I must liberate it from it's confines. 1 hot dog, 1 apple juice (yummy and contains mucho potassium) and a low calorie Gatorade. Lunch of champions.

Last year during the STP towards the end of the first day I had a hotdog near Vader and a Red Bull. Oh how good it tasted after 120 miles with low sugar level and low energy I could barely make small talk with the other riders seated outside. But how that dog got me going. Oh and lots of sugar and caffeine too from the drink. There was the Chilly Hilly this winter when I found the footlong Cosco dog sans chilly at one of the rest stops, and it too powered me through the early winter hilly ride. And Saturday that processed pork and bun fueled me back towards Seattle with thoughts of reaching Snoqualmie falls via my bike another day. With 52 miles logged at the end of the day I wasn't so concerned about the calorie and fat content of that dog, but it did get me to thinking of some of the food that doesn't come in foil like packaging in gel form, or compressed rice/nut/gut wrenching supplements marketed for the cyclist. The hot dog may not fit in one my my 3 panel pockets in the back of my jersey, or would it stay quite as fresh as when I put it there hours earlier, but hotdogs are now on my list of bonk prevention food supplements.

South Lake Washington Loop

2010-03-14T21:27:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning I met Mike and Thomas at Gas Works park for the South Lake Washington loop. If you live and ride in Seattle this is an old standard training loop or simply a nice ride from your doorstep. It is a fairly flat 38 mile loop beginning and ending at Gasworks park, and 43 miles and a bit hillier from my home on top of Queen Anne. The past two Saturdays have been the kind of March days where Seattlites like to continue the stereotype of our region being grey and rainy, because the past two weekends have been quite nice. At least quite nice for biking because if you're a sweathawg like me, cooler is better.

We stopped before crossing the I-90 bridge, and road the loop clockwise, which worked in our favor as the headwind we felt in the beginning of the ride was at our backs at the end of the ride. On clearer days Mt. Rainier is big and bright right of the bridge. Yes it rains all the freakin time in Seattle. Don't move here. So it was a great ride on a nice March day, and I think Mike and I may have convinced Thomas to ride the STP in one day with us.

2010-03-09T17:26:00.000-08:00

Check out http://www.peopleforbikes.org. Looks like they have a real nice bicycle advocacy program. I found this bike video on their site to be particularly charming.

Livestrong Challenge Seattle 2010

2010-03-04T15:23:00.001-08:00

Last year I rode the century course in the LiveStrong Challenge with 2 friends from work. This was my first fundraising bike event. It was my second century ride I ever rode and my second in 8 days as I rode the century course in the Flying Wheels the weekend before. It was a great feeling getting out for another big ride one weekend after the last. The Flying Wheels Century had fantastic mid 70's crystal clear sunny skies, and our 6 man team finished the ride averaging 18 miles/hour. I got hooked that day.

We rode our bikes through Downtown Seattle and across the I-90 bridge towards Issaquah that Sunday for the LiveStrong Challenge. Mike, Mike and I sporting our Cutters jerseys pedaled past many riders getting warmed up and getting into a comfortable rhythm and began talking to some of our fellow riders. It was about 15 miles in when the gravity of the fundraising portion of the ride really started to dawn on me. Many supported bike events raise money for non profit organizations. But the participants in the LiveStrong Challenge had much more personal reasons for why they were there. I saw many riders with photos pinned to their shirts or jersey's. These were photos of loved ones they had lost to cancer, and some riders had written tributes to these loved ones on their jerseys. The joy they experienced riding that day transcended the joy of riding on a beautiful day as I have experienced many times in my life. I can only interpret what they felt. Being able to do something positive, a feeling of accomplishment in a previously lost battle, making a tribute to their loved ones who they couldn't save, but now they could be part of the solution moving forward. It was then I started to slow a bit. I didn't need to hammer out the course anymore. I always thought if you put a handful of guys on bikes together it turns into a race even if their is none. But not today.

We rode up Tiger Mt, up the Issaquah plateau, and up Montreax. It was on Montreax where the thought of this ride being different was reinforced. I wasn't getting passed on the hill. I was passing people on the hill. Why is this? I'm not that strong of a rider. When we got to the top, we chatted with some of the support people for the event. Fantastic support btw. The support people told us how many of the participants aren't all cycling junkies, and that it was the fundraising element for very personal reasons they had come.

The cutter jerseys were a hit and other riders were shouting out Cutters! throughout the day. We of course got a couple guys in pickup trucks flipping us the middle finger. Wouldn't be a ride without that. We got caught in the downpour and tried to keep from getting any more drenched under the pavillion of a gas station. While out of nowhere the LiveStrong Challenge volunteers caught up to us and handed out ponchos. We made our way back to Seattle. Riding down 4th avenue drafting a metro bus and approaching the Seattle center I didn't want it to end unlike my first century where my rookie enthusiasm had me burning up the road and hurting at the end the week before.

So I'm participating in the LiveStrong Challenge again. This time I know going into it that it isn't about the bike. Join me and many others in the fight against cancer. Your modest donation along with that of others can go a long way in getting us closer to winning that fight.

Chilly Hilly 2010

2010-03-01T09:59:00.000-08:00

Sunday was my second year riding Cascade Bicycle Club's Chilly Hilly ride. It is their first supported bike ride of the year and a kind of a cycling opening day of sorts in Seattle. I started from my apartment in upper Queen Anne and rolled along the waterfront and arrived at registration around 8:00am. Last year there was light rain in the morning, but this year promised partly cloudy high in the 50's weather, and in the Puget Sound that = pretty nice riding weather. So there were many more riders. After registration I got in line behind the ferry parking lot on the sidewalk. The line continued down the sidewalk to Ivars. I waited for the 8:45 ferry but too many riders. After the 8:45 loaded and left we (ton of cylcists. I was actually riding alone) moved forward, and I took the opportunity to get a cup of coffee at Caffe Appassionato. The 9:45 ferry came, and I got on with a few hundred other cyclists. The lower deck and much of the ramps are littered with bikes. I find it amusing seeing people riding on old moutain bikes I wouldn't take for free or fancy Cervelos that cost more than my old honda.
We arrive at the island and ride. I was happy to find the spin classes, occassional yoga classes or light weight workouts and weekend riding I've been doing all winter prepared me for the 34 miles and 3300 feet of elevation gain. I stop at one rest stop around 15 miles and look for a chili dog, but can't find the chilli and opt for a foot long Cosco dog and sauerkraut instead. This fatty goodness powers me for the rest of the ride. The hills towards the end start a good burning feeling in my legs as I ascend, but because the hills aren't too long the pain is easily put aside. I find my way to the finish line in a thinner group of riders - one of the benefits of skipping rest stops, I briefly check out the schwag and continue on to the ferry. I join another large group of riders waiting to cross the Sound and on board I seek the comfort of a tasty ESB for the scenic ride back to the city and look forward to another season of biking.