The Long Way Home, Part 1

In an effort to explore more of beautiful California, we took the long way home (well, one of them), and drove north from Monterey on 101.  This took us directly through San Francisco, where we learned that for a short time in the city 101 takes you onto the street level, and we made it through unscathed - bikes on the rack and all.

We drove across the Golden Gate bridge, stopped on the Sausalito side and parked with the other hundreds of tourists.  But we also had our bikes.  So we took them off the rack and endeavored to ride them across the bridge.

Even under normal circumstances when the bike path on one side of the bridge and the pedestrian path on the other side are both open, I understand this can be a bit of a rough ride, what with winds and wobblers on rented bikes.  But on the busy weekend day we were there, the bike path side was closed and bikes were rerouted so that we shared the pedestrian path, so we had to maneuver around oblivious tourists going both directions, as well as the bike rental wobblers (in groups and on their own).

Once we got the hang of it a bit, it was exhilarating.  I learned that I just had to be less nice - don't give people as much room as they were taking, be loud and let people know we were coming, and don't give up the right of way or I'd end up going the speed of the slowest walker.  Once I got the hang of that I was able to enjoy the gorgeous day.

After leaving the Golden Gate bridge, we headed further north on 101 through the Redwoods.  We stayed overnight in Eureka, which turned out to be a charming little former lumber port that looked a lot more like Oregon and California port towns than the fancier California ones we'd visited further south.  We ate that night at the Samoa Cookhouse, which was ah-mazing.  The food there is served like it was in the lumber days - one meal served family style on long tables to everyone who's there.  I felt like after our day on the bridge and driving through the Redwoods, we'd earned that meal.

Riding on the Yakima Greenway

Over the July 4th weekend, we drove to Yakima to visit family, and took our bikes with us.  Because it was significantly hotter in eastern Washington, we took our bikes out early in the morning (well, early for a holiday weekend, so around 9am).

We started at the park behind the Wal-Mart (as my dad described it), and rode south.  The path went through some local parks, then abruptly ended.  The Greenway Foundations maps seem to indicate that the path continues further south, but we couldn't find anything that looked like a continued path or signs to point us in the right direction, so we turned around and headed back north.

After a short mile or so, we had retraced our ride, and were on new ground, now following along the Yakima River (although I-5 was still somewhat close to our left).  The river was very high, like many of the rivers in Washington right now, and and moving swiftly.  The path had even been partially washed out in sections.

A couple miles in, we passed a wooden play structure that I'd seen from the freeway many times and wondered how families accessed it.  Turns out, there's no road to the playground - you have to either walk or ride to it.  I loved that!  There was one family there when we passed that had taken a break from their ride to let the kids play.

It started to really heat up, so we turned around sooner than we'd intended.  We're definitely not acclimated to the heat in eastern Washington.  We probably only rode about 6 miles or so total, but it felt like much more due to the heat.

When we got home, J's front tire was flat.  He had a big thorn, which we learned was a goathead, stuck in his tire.  Goatheads are apparently very common on the Greenway and all across eastern Washington.  Since it was a Sunday the local bike shops weren't open, but Fred Meyer had lots of bike repair gear, and J fixed his first flat.  He must have done a pretty decent job because it's still holding up.

We had intended to ride more of the Greenway the next morning, but by the time we got moving, it was too hot.  We're just not prepared to ride in 90 degree weather (yet).  We're going back in late September, and we're looking into staying closer to the Greenway, so we have another chance to ride the rest of it.  With a flat repair kit in hand, for sure.

More to learn at Cushman

A few weeks back, on a warm afternoon, we headed to Gig Harbor to ride the Cushman trail.

This trail is somewhat momentous to me because it's the first one I rode last year when I complained the entire time, and generally thought I would die.  I learned later that cycling could be much more fun on a flatter path (until I was in better shape) and on a bike and saddle that fit me.  Then this year when we test rode our first bikes, we rode on the Cushman trail, and it confirmed for me that riding was fun when done with the right equipment.

In town, the trail joins with local roads, and there's no separate bike path. I also learned that I really like riding on roads.   There's something about being on pavement that's meant for wheels.  I didn't even mind sharing the road with cars, although I generally gave them a wide berth.

I also confirmed what I'd already guessed - I suck at climbing hills.  Part of the trail is very steep (8% - which feels like a lot!) for quite a ways.  It's fun going down, but painful going back up the other side.  On each hill, I at least got into the right gear to climb (granny!), and made it about halfway up before I had to finish the climb on foot.  I didn't really mind, per se, because it didn't take long before I got back on the bike.  But still - I've got a ways to go.

Along the way, we stopped in at J's grandparents, which was a treat.  They both got on their folding bikes and rode around the parking lot at their complex with us.  We just went round and round with them, but I think we all felt like kids again.

Oregon is crazy for cycling

In early June we packed up our stuff and our bikes and headed south to the Oregon coast for a camping trip.  Along Highway 30, we saw the first of many cyclists on this trip -- among the many long-distance cyclists we saw heading east were at least five different tandem bikes.  I've never seen so many tandems in one day.

We stayed at Cape Lookout, which is basically west of Tillamook.  After settling into our cabin, we hopped on our bikes and rode on the trails to the nearby beach (although not on the beach), then we headed off to explore the campground on our bikes.  As usual, I loved peeking into everyone's living situation while riding around.  I was impressed at how many other campers also had bikes with them.

During our trip we encountered many long-distance cyclists (randonneurs?) with pannier racks stuffed full of stuff on the back and often the front wheels, too.  I was amazed at how they were able to climb the pretty steep coastal highways on their bikes.  I wanted to shout encouragement out the window, but didn't - maybe next time.  I'm nowhere near being able to ride the miles they do (yet), but I think I'm adding an Oregon coast bike trip to my bucket list.

Later during our trip, we again rode through the campground, then followed a road until it was no longer paved, and was basically a 4x4 packed path over gravel, sand, and vegetation.  I loved "off-roading" on my bike.  It felt like we were exploring an area lots of people wouldn't.  We also rode around the trails near our cabin, and basically just acted like kids.

Oregon inspired me to get into cycling even more.  It takes a different mentality to decide to explore a hilly coastline on your own power, and I suspect that the sights you see while cycling the coast are even more wondrous than what we see from our cars and short hikes.

Gearing Up

On Friday we were warned that it would be sunny for most of the day Saturday, then it would start to rain again.  So when we saw how nice it was yesterday, we headed out for another ride - this time to someplace new to us, the Soos Creek Trail in Kent.

The trail began in a wooded area with lots of small hills.  I wasn't used to using my gears as much as I needed to in order to gain speed on the downhills and immediately switch to the right lower gear to pedal uphill.  As a result, at one point, I was about halfway up a very small but steep hill on too high of a gear, couldn't pedal anymore, and had to stop and walk my bike just a few steps to the top.  An embarrassing lesson to learn - get in the right gear before the hill.

Soon the path leveled out into what looked like a valley, and we rode under large power transformers for a while.

Here, we took a break to catch our breath, drink some water, and watch people pass us.  Mostly runners and other recreational cyclists, but a couple faster cyclists rode past us in their spendex, as well.

At times, we had to cross various roads, some busier than others.  I still haven't mastered the quick start, especially when my bike is in a somewhat higher gear, and can be slow to get going.  A couple of times, drivers who I'm sure thought they were being courteous drove me nutty because they held up traffic (one even though they had the green and I had the red) waiting for me to cross.  I would have much preferred that they just went, so I could decide myself when to cross.  Instead, I struggled to get my bike going in too high of a gear with an audience of impatient car drivers watching.

After leaving the flat area, we rode through some skunk cabbage in full bloom (not pleasant), then past some horse pastures (much better).

There were even a couple bridges to ride over (which I love).

I was worried that on the way back, I'd have the same trouble with getting in the right gear for the small hills, but I switched to my lowest gear in the front when we got there, and found it much easier to get in the right gear (especially for hills), although I probably gave up some speed on the downhills.  But I made it over all the little hills with little effort, and only had to walk up the last very steep hill that J walked up, too (although I made it farther than he did :) ).