Easter Celebration

A sunny Easter morning, early service, and lunch with Bro-in-law at Delta Rehab...  Why not squeeze in a ride?

Eliott Highbridge was in decent shape for the early season and the light traffic consisted mostly of bicycles.  Did a raging up-down pass on my Meadow Lake stash, then headed on in to Snohomish for dinner.  Reversing the route with Nay and Adarius in trail, got in another fast uphill and most of a downhill run on Meadow Lake.  Light traffic on High Bridge for a Sunday afternoon but it was still dinner hour...

65 miles, four passes on the Meadow Lake silk gives me a four star grin.

First ride of 2014

I spent some time with Elliot Highbridge today, a short out and back to refresh my muscle memory. Fresh air and fuel. Very light traffic and surprisingly, clean pavement. Temp: 37F, max windchill: 17F!, 30mi.

It Was a Dark and Soggy Commute

While I'm generally averse to commuting in cold, dark, and fog,  today was one of those days when circumstances made it advantageous to suffer through the triple combo and ride so I could exploit the HOV lane.  Note to self:  Sort out your anti-fogging solution for your visor and glasses.

Kudos to most of the cagers on the freeway today for being deliberate and apparently watching their blind spots.


 

Northern California 2013

• Day 1: Nasty fatal crash on 139 north of Susanville (Motorcyclist collided with CDF fire engine!) forced a 2+ hour detour and put us into Lake Tahoe late.  

• Ensconced in Heavenly Valley condo but thunderstorms rule out riding.  Not sure what it is about August and me;  snowed out in Central Oregon in August, rained out on day 1 of the 2009 Oregon Coast, now this. 

• Short & Sweet out and back on Kingsbury Grade was a hoot AND I now know what it feels like to ride into a wall of hail at 75MPH     

• Day 2:  Epic Sierra:  US50, Ice House Road, CA193, Mosquito Ridge!  --    Brutal Fun!  US50 is an interesting road in its own right, with multiple summits, descents, and ample passing lanes.  
• I rode Ice House up to the intersection with Wentworth Springs on very nice pavement with seemingly endless combinations of turns.  Right, left, right left, lather, rinse repeat.  Not much scenery to take in due to smoky skies but not much traffic either.  By the time I got to the intersection of US50 and  CA193, the smoke was behind me. 

• Freshly reworked pavement on the southern half of CA193 turned this section into my favorite of the day; 2nd gear madness + no guard rails + light traffic + Crazy||Accomodating locals.  Unrelenting turns and combinations turned this via route into the prime attraction, a 25-mile-long, highway-speed go-cart track experience.

• Now the promised land;  Mosquito Ridge Road - 600 curves in 36 miles.  On the approach to Foresthills, I spotted the source of the smoke in the area just south and east,  Sure enough, the "Incident Center" sign was set up just before the turn onto Mosquito Ridge Road and I rode around the prominently-displayed "Road Closed" sign with iniquity in my heart.  No matter,  there was no barrier and it seemed as though the real closure was up well past the French Meadow spur.  Pavement was rougher than advertised but typical of high-country  backroads. 

• Because I was solo I held the pace down to highway speeds and enjoyed the rhythm of the road without trying to subdue it.  This route offers a constant series of ascents and descents and no straightaways.  R. mirror broke, Side stand fell apart half way through the ride.  Will need to figure that out before I can go again.  325Mi.     

• Day 6:  Route scouting  down CA29 to Calistoga, then back up West side of Clear Lake.  Traffic was pretty heavy so I had low expectations.  Instead, I had the good fortune to encounter very courteous cagers and to arrive at the head of the line at two construction stop points, creating a huge gap between me and the traffic ahead of me.  So both trips on the entire 9 mile technical section, I was able to choose my pace on this silky stretch of near-perfect pavement with resultant high lean angles and scorched tires.  120 miles, 18 of which were unadulterated, freeway-speed go-cart tech track blitzkriegen.

• Day 8:  Stewart Point/Skaggs Springs Loop - 285mi. 
• CA175 heading west out of Clear Lake started out grooved, bumpy and uneven to the summit, west side smooth but steep.  I've gone 35 miles and my arthritic wrists already ache,  

CA175

• 253 was fairly smooth, reasonably technical, but with narrow shoulders and a regular diet of switchbacks and sweeper combos. The ascent out of Ukiah has some amazing, even intimidating vistas and the descent into Boonville was pastoral and a tad shy of drama after the raging ride up and over.
• Mountain View Road had everything except a view of the mountains. The road had the appearance on Google Maps of having two lanes, double no-passing lines, and no shoulders. It had no shoulders.  It also had nothing approaching two lanes.  The paved road averaged about 13 feet wide and every oncoming truck and drilling rig (Seriously, I don't NEED to exaggerate) was using up thee or four feet of my lane.  And steep.  Did I mention steep?  I may not have emphasized that it was also steep - signs you don't see everyday:  16% grade next four miles - narrow and no meaningful straight stretches meant, yes indeed, Technical Heaven.  I required a two-pint transfusion of adrenalin when I finally got to Highway 1.  

First turns on Mountain View Road

• Made my way south to Annapolis road and had an fun for awhile but turning back to the west to gas up, Skaggs Springs road got mighty rustic.Once back on the eastbound route past the Annapolis Road intersection, things improved rapidly, with epic ascents, steep canyons, and almost no traffic and steadily improving pavement as I got further East, eventually turning sweepy and grippy with epic combos and views.  The posted speed limit (35?) defies explanation although there are a few blind driveways near the wineries above Geyserville. Serious Sport Touring fun at Freeway+ speeds! 

Skaggs Springs-Stewarts Point Road

• Day 9:  CA20=>Mendocino=>Competche-Ukiah=>CA175 - 195mi.  --    CA20 traffic, silky pavement and sweet combos,  Ukiah-Competche Wetside very sweet, no traffic, Eastslope four-goats, improving to three goats at the bottom,  CA175 ascent from the West was epic, silky, and exhilarating but I often had to deal with gravel on the insides of turns.  The east slope is grooved, traffic-clogged, and is unevenly design.    

Triple Digit North Umpqua Headache

Late afternoon blast up the North Umpqua from Lone Rock to Diamond Lake.  I wish I had had time to ride the Panther Creek spur. 66mi.  

Fun way into Portland

OR47 is always a great ride although the pavement has deteriorated a bit since I last rode it in 2009.  Heading east on Scappose-Vernonia Highway, the ascent was great with excellent pavement and laughter-inducing combinations but the pavement turned a bit rough on the descent into the Columbia basin.

Rocky Point Road is a technical ride heaven, a fun stash not to be missed.

Logie Trail was a bust, the lane-and-a-half remaining was in terrible condition, but the non-stop turns signify what once was.  Traffic was very light - None on OR47 and I only had to pass two cars the rest of the way until I got into the exurbs.  102mi warm-up.

Usual Suspects to "Isle of Lk. Cavanaugh"

XLSR Meetup Ride with combination of club members and meetup.com folks:  Pace began fairly mild, further north went wild.  High Bridge-Ben Howard-Reiner Rd, Woods Creek to Granite Falls.  Half the group dropped off so we headed up Burn Road, cut off on Lake Cavanaugh for a scorching backroad blast, then back on SR9. 165mi.

Cathcart to Lake McMurray

Ran out east toward the foothills, then north hitting my local favorites;  High Bridge Road out to Meadow Lake, then up Burn Rd and Hwy 9 to Lake McMurray, then back home mostly reversed course.   Meadow Lake was awesome, free of traffic both times.  Afternoon temps in the mid 80s.  Hwy 9 was packed with Cagers and Road Sofas, including a wreck.  Monday AM, I learned I should have started with a shorter workout for the first ride of the season.  142mi.  

High Bridge/Carnation/Old Woodinville-Duvall

Garage Sales, both High Bridge and OWD were traffic-free.  OWD has some sweet turns! 106mi.  

Adarius' First Ride

Fresh oil @ ODO 22800.  Down 9th to 228th, out 527 to Bothell, return on back roads, hit 55MPH. Adarius LIKES! Wants a longer ride!

Fresh Skins

'Nuther set of Conti Road Attacks, ODO 22280

Diamond Lake 2012

• Day 2:  Clackamas River Canyon OR224 to FR42  Starting ODO 21520 mi. Route: 70 miles
• Day 4:  Pavement on the lake loop road is astonishingly good, just not crooked enough.  The road design defies the 35MPH speed limit.  So did I... The north end has a few sweet combinations that work nicely at freeway speeds.
• Day 7:   Toketee Tour --    Got trapped in OR138 construction traffic, trying to ride a bungled route. Finally went back to Watson Falls and realized FR37 was what I was looking for.  Several Fun miles at the top. One long straight stretch but definitely worth the trip.  Scouted Old Toketee road but ran out of gas and time.  Will try again tomorrow.~79 mi.
• Day 9:  Ilahee+Copeland/Canton/Panther Creek Tour
• Ran up the Ilahee while trying to scout the Old Toketee road. Definitely an interesting old road but the pavement is simply too far gone for sport touring.  Adventure bikers can feast on this but I turned around after about 7 miles.  

• 22 miles up and down on Copeland Creek.  Nice curves and decent pavement. Brush ruined excellent views of Copeland Creek, but the occasional two lanes, road engineering, and generally good pavement is worth many repeats.

• Fueled up in Glide, then ran back up to Steamboat to ride Canton Creak road to the summit intersection of Canton, Rock, and Sharps Creek roads.  Long stretch of awkward straights finally give way to several miles of challenging technical twisties on a steep ascent to the summit.  Badly overgrown brush on the sides of the road made for very limited sight lines and took a lot of the juice out of the ride.  Worth doing, done it, won't go back. 

• Panther Creek (NF-4714)  was dessert for the day and it was twenty miles (round trip) of unadulterated, five-star, technical riding on a classic Oregon one-lane logging road.  Unrelenting curves start less than a half-mile off OR138 and there are very few straight sections, none of them of significant length.  Sight lines were unusually good with many opportunities to see to the end of six turn combinations, possibly due to fires or controlled burns in the not-so-distant past.  Not that there weren't tire-scorching switch backs and blind rock overhangs, but sight lines are generally better than what you encounter in the Coast range or on the west slope of the Cascades. Pavement was generally good all the way to the interection with the gravel-only NF-2703.  Yes, there was gravel, wood debris, and an occasional sunken grade - one in the best part of the line through a sharp bend that will launch the incautious rider into the trees - but you won't find many go cart tracks like this in the Pacific Northwest.  The net effect of this end-of-the-day ride was to make me want more.  I will be back to do Panther Creek and Copeland Creek as often as I can get back home to the North Umpqua. Rear tire is toast after only 4K; time for new skins. ~220 mi., ODO 22060        

ESSB Snohomish-Skagit Backroads

ESSB ride hosted by Dennis, with Caroline and Will.G.  Cathcart out to Granite Falls, then up to Arlington, Hwy 9 up to the combos north of Lake McMurray.  Dennis took us out west of I-5 and showed us a few interesting stashes of typical farm-market roads.  Scouted the backroads to Flowing Lake.  Ran up and down W.end Meadow Lake road a couple times.  325 mi.  

First commute --

First ride of 2012:  ODO 20720 miles

Scouting trip North of Monroe

Found it!  That sweet, long combo is at the west end of Meadow Lake Road and constitutes one of the longest, best-paved section of true, hang-off-the-seat twisties within 50m of Seattle. Just need to formulate a coherent route that incorporates it. 77m total. SummerFest at Delta Rehab was awesomely executed. Those folks ROCK!

Here's a 70 mile suggestion...

Cathcart/Sky valley

ESSB 'Usual Suspects' ride with Glen.  Two 6th Gen VFRs!!!  

Thermostat stuck open

Oil change, coolant redone, ODO 19700 miles

Take a hike, La Nina. Por Favor!!!

First ride of 2011: Starting Odometer: 19.6k,  hit all The Usual Suspects.

Seahawks losing... Might as well change the tire

ODO:  19.4k, New skin on the front, just need some dry weather.  

Central Oregon 2010

• 18075mi.  New skin and binders on the rear wheel, electricals seem OK. Ready for Central Oregon tour.    
• Day 1 (26-Aug):  OR74-US395-FR52-FR74  - Very windy on 74, Battle Mountain Summit was complete riot, FR52 was fun but most of FR74 was torn up for repaving that was supposed to be completed in June.  225m.   
• Day 2:   Baker City to Sisters  - Dooley Mountain was epic, as expected;  Blue Springs summit on OR220 out of Sumpter was very nice, pavement a bit of a challenge but a typical, backcountry technical ride;  I just got spoiled on Battle and Dooley Mountains.  OR7 was a pleasant surprise, as I don't normally like high-speed sweepers but the great sight lines and lack of traffic, not to mention law enforcement made it enjoyable.  The summit climb out of John Day on US395 up to the intersection with OR380 goes on the "Epic" list, but the rest of 380 was barely worth the visit, no thanx to nearly 20 miles of new gravel and oil on top of the chipseal.  Then, near the end of the ride, just out of Post, I hit the section just south of Eagle Rock and it almost made up for the 70 miles of boredom
• Day 6:  Pony Butte Road-OR218-OR207  -  Discovered an interesting side route on Pony Butte Road - Pavement ranged from rank to wonderful, scenery was exceptional, starts out with a typical summit climb/descent then winds into a very narrow defile.  Riding out of Antelope up the go-kart track toward Shaniko was unbelievably fun;  scraped metal on both sides, wasn't able to master the nasty, decreasing-radius, two-turn combination in two round-trips.  The rest of 219 was awesome and the ascent on OR207 up from Spray to the summit to Bull Prarie was very much worth the time, although absolutely the coldest place I've been in August.  OR207 back to Mitchell had a few interesting sections but the day's highlights were definitely the technical section north of Antelope - on my list of all-time major grins with Battle Mountain, Dooley Mountain, and Blue Springs Summit (OR220) - and the run between Spray and Bull Prairie.    
• .Day 7:  Aufderheide rained out  --    Did a late afternoon run up east slope of McKenzie Pass just for grins.    
• Day 8:  Aufderheide rained out  --    McKenzie Pass, northern third of Aufderheide twice, Quartzville road twice.  Quartzville is the second best ride of the trip, behind Dooley Mountain and just ahead of the Antelope Ascent.  Front tire has a nasty nick, so that's it for the Central Oregon Tour.  Looks like the total mileage is ~1400, well short of the 2200 I had planned.