Short Intense Ft. Lewis Area #23 Ride Today

An interesting profile of an intense ride today.
Thanks Jeff for the mapping provided at this link:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/6350343

Roadies Suprised by Non String Being & Pimped Mtn Bike

One of us P.O'd a couple of "roadies" on separate occasions Friday afternoon on a paved Chehalis-Western "recovery" (HA!) ride of 32 miles. The riders weren't happy to see your editor being less than 6', and . . . stocky keeping up with them as "string beings" for respectable distances on a "Pimped Out" mountain bike compared to their fancy-smansie racing bikes. This editor thought he lost one particular rider only to come around a corner to see him red-faced, drinking, and leaning up against his bare-boned elegant racing bike. He looked stupefied to see someone on a mountain bike, full Camelback pack on, and mouth guard hanging from a chin strap. He was panting, mouth wide open, and eyes followed suite. He looked absolutely stunned. It was precious and worth every forced pedal stroke this editor delivered. The muscle burn was worth it! (Okay, tomorrow we'll recover.)

Sprint and Leisure

Started the day with a 9 mile sprint up and back from Benham Falls parking lot to Lava Lands Visitor Center. 777 feet elevation gain, running 32 minutes out and 26 minutes home. Sweet ride - i.e., no snow or falls like yesterdays five hour hike-a-bike marathon. Just what the doctor ordered.

Second ride of the day was a nice family ride - about 9 of us altogether. Helen and Maggie toughed it out for 10 miles, though Helen did not enjoy the single track and Maggie is now running a fever. Suzanne took her Yukon on it's madien voyage and has a couple of bruises to prove it. Pinky's rear brake seized up - only one bolt left on the disc. Took one from the front and nursed it home on the front brake when required. Picture is of Suzanne on her new ride with Maggie and Uncle Pete trailing behind. Heading home to Olympia in the morning.

Doing "B52 Bomber"

Awesome views today with a 19 mile, 4 hour, 2,400’ elevation gain ride. Started from Summit Lake area up B5200 (a.k.a., the “B52 Bomber”) to Rock Candy Mountain saddle and back. Legs got spent way early in the ride while trying out a new seat. During the first 2.5 miles and steep 1000’ pitch, the seat was initially angled down far too much. It changed the whole dynamics of leg leverage and peddling. Adjusted the seat two more times and finally found the sweet spot but legs were tapped after already experiencing such a l-o-n-g edgy muscle burn. Here’s pic of the Sound from Rock Candy and a vid of Summit Lake and South Sound.

Hike-a-Bike-athon

Note to self: Memorial Day weekend is too early to ride Cultus Lake. A normal 2 hour, 12 mile ride was a five hour marathon of pushing bikes through snow and much hoisting of iron ponies over winter falls. Egads. Notwithstanding, Pete and the boys (Christian, Michael and Bryant) were troopers. The effort was rewarded with shakes and fries for the boys and pie a-la-mode for the men at Cultus Lake Resort when all was said and done. Looking to ride the lower elevations around Sun River tommorow with the wife (on her new (used rental) full-sus Giant Yukon FX). Here's to seeing today's ride in the rearview and tommorow's ride yet a dream of bliss on rubber on dirt.

mtbMistress.

Edge 705 Initial Exploration

A 01:44:20 ride covering 11.48 miles and 623 ft of elevation gain. That is what Edge tells us. The Edge misses, of course, the sun, the trees, the roots, the puddles, and the companionship. A good exploration ride today, mostly on double track and a few single track sections which had been previously discovered. And, the maiden voyage for the Edge. Will be nice when the Topo Maps are loaded - still hoping I can add trails to the Topo using some third party software. Will have to wait for that. In the meantime, you can (I think) check out the ride.

Mystery Poles & "Go Figure 8" Work(aholic) Out

One is wondering about this mystery of poles found today on a trail waaaaay out in the woods off of Kennedy Creek area. Any ideas? (They are 6-7' tall poles, and mostly all debarked.)

Today was “Go Figure 8” (like last weekend) and “Then Some” (extra special pain hill-riding) today at Kennedy Creek. Goal was and has been to focus on hill climbing skills, and middle-gear workouts. We didn’t do the very steep “Heart Attack Hill” today but the next one, “LSDH” – Long, Steep, Daunting, Hill.

Today there were about 80-100 horse trailers parked under the power line at Kennedy Creek for the “Back Woodsman, Fun Trail Ride.” We talked to the organizer and she told us they got approved a bunch of new trails in this area (Green Triangle), and started punching them in shortly before this ride. They are well marked with yellow and orange hanging survey tape. We went on a few tails but kept running into horses. Some of the new trails are steep, very narrow, and rocky "baby-head" rough, especially dropping DOWN from “Windy Gap” (the scenic area previous pics were taken from.)

Stay in touch. Phone is on. So are we, except for Jell-O-ee legs. (They're out of commish for the evening until they can "get pumped" . . . up again tomorrow, maybe? Please? Please!)

Garmin Edge 705

At last I have taken the plunge and it has arrived. The Garmin Edge 705 - the ultimate in bike tech geek according to one article I read. Just out of the box and no playing with it yet. It is smaller than I thought it would be. Not a lot of information out there on how to use it, particularly in the manner I hope to - cartography 101: riding our home trials and creating accurate maps to share. Looking forward to the first ride this Saturday and the ensuing learning experience in map making. Stay tuned - hope to post maps of Ft. Lewis riding areas soon that make sense of the maze.

Remembering Mother's Day in a Fatherly Way

In honor of Mother's Day -- an early Father's Day ride yesterday with 2.25 hrs of hill-climbing, 12 miles & 2,200 feet elevation gain. 1st pic shows Eld inlet (?) near Shelton, and 2nd pic shows Olympics in the background.

Gum Surgery Recovery Ride and Nothing to Say

A ride with friends that took John's mind off throbbing pain (in the mouth). [Jeff, Don, Todd, Lisa]