Santa Cruz beach time and Marin mountain biking

 We took a break from home remodeling and November Seattle weather to visit friends and family in the Bay Area.  We spent a lovely weekend in Santa Cruz for a wedding of a dear family friend, and enjoyed a quick dose of beach time.  

 Chad and I on the pier at Santa Cruz

Sea lions hunting

June Methow weekend - rattlesnakes and mountain bikes

The last weekend in June, we headed east on Highway 20 for a quick Methow getaway.  The objective of the weekend was to put the dogs through a rattlesnake aversion training class, so that they could learn to steer clear of rattlesnakes on our many Eastern Washington adventures.  

Though we had intended to do this training for quite some time, it was an encounter with this guy over Memorial Day weekend, on a hike in the Tieton River Valley, which solidifed our decision:   

Summer Epic- Suntop

Our good friend Jeremy came up to visit from Oakland in late July, and Jeremy likes to ride bikes.  He likes to ride bikes so much, in fact, that he rode his bike the entire way to our wedding in Winthrop, WA from Seattle (the rest of us rode from Newhalem, which was rather epic all by itself).   His plans for this trip included a solo 200 mile effort from Seattle up to Vancouver, BC, then a second one from Seattle down to Portland.  Slacker.  To toughen him up, we thought we'd add a 20+ mile, 5,000 ft climb on dirt to the mix.  

We had a great crew of 7 assemble to tackle this IMBA designated Epic Ride.  Present were myself and Chad, Jeremy, Tye H, and team mates Jilly B, Theresa H, and Brian T (Chase came too, although we left Lexi to take a nice snooze in the truck, which we parked in the shade).  We had bikes spanning four decades in age.  Jeremy rode the grandaddy, a mid '80's rigid steel Stumpjumper, Theresa rocked an early '90's aluminium bike of unknown branding, and I rode my trusty late '90's steel hardtail, Rocky.  Chad and Tye broght us to 21st century with Chad's mid-2000's steel Soma and Tye's full suspension Trek of the same age. Jill and Brian had the newest, shiniest steeds in the mix, Brian on his sweet Intense (4 or 5 years old) and Jill riding her gorgeous Indy Fab 29'er, custom built last season.  

We camped the night before at the Greenwater, WA airstrip (just a bit north of Crystal Mountain, these trails are off of highway 410).  

The ladies looking so fresh and so clean pre-ride!

Unicorn Redemption (Part IV of Spokane Round and Round)

After a deliriously high lap 3, I slept hard for nearly three hours.  Apparently going without caffeine had been a great decision.  I woke up, stretched a bit, had some food and yes, coffee, then got ready.  I then made my way to the start line, where I signed in for my lap, then chatted for a bit with some friends from Bike Works in Seattle.  In hardly any time, TBD crossed the finish line on his final lap, going strong and looking great!



I headed out, dressed in full unicorn regalia to mark this final lap.  The unicorn first came out to play at the Magnuson Cyclocross race last fall, and I'm sad to report that she had less than stellar results.

Spokane Round and Round, Part II

The Spokane 24 hour mountain bike started with a "Le Mans" style start, which you'll most definitely want to experience via the link below.  I was skeptical about this element of the race.  We're going to be racing for 24 hours- is it really necessary to tack on an additional 800 meter lap for one unlucky soul?  Isn't this just a footnote on the weekend's guaranteed agony?  Lucky for us, Dave actually does some running on purpose, and even enjoys it, so he agreed to be our start man. 

With a gun blast, the race commenced.  I must admit, I did get quite a kick out of watching a gaggle of lycra and helmet-clad athletes trotting awkwardly across the start line in cycling shoes.  

24 hours- Spokane Round and Round Part I

I spent Memorial Day weekend with four teammates at Riverside State Park in Spokane, doing our first ever 24 hour mountain bike relay race.  This particular race has been on my radar since I learned how to ride a mountain bike, and I was thrilled to finally have a critical mass of people in my life who are crazy enough to undertake this kind of madness.  The format was to ride as many 15-mile laps as possible in a 24 hour period, from noon on Saturday until noon on Sunday.  We were nutty enough doing it on a team of five riders, but there were 50+ other uber-nuts who signed up to do the race SOLO.

Approximately three fifths of our team, dubbed the Boadcious Booties and Bulging Beer Bellies, departed Seattle mid morning on Friday, packing Tyler's Volvo station wagon to the tippy top with gear. We even had a four-bike hitch rack on the back.  JillyB's fancy Indy Fab went on the outside slot, which made me a little nervous, being the nicest of all our bikes by a factor of at least 5, and considering how low the wagon was riding.  Luckily, all the bikes (and riders) arrived unscathed after a smooth, uneventful, sunny drive across eastern WA.  We rolled into camp around 3:30pm to find an expansive scene of RV's, tents, bike racks, camp chairs, and very fit, muscly people packed in tight like sardines. Like burning man, but with Gu and Nuun instead of acid and magical cookies (and spandex instead of fuzzy mini skirts and kilts). The race directors directed us to the back of the camping area, and because Tyler boldy wove the Volvo between the trees into the woods, we scored a huge wooded area with virtually no one else around (great for letting the dogs loose, and for tired racers trying to catch some quiet time between laps).

Lupines and Arrowleaf balsamroot were in full bloom.

JillyB getting ready for a pre-ride

Cookin in the Kettles at Whidbey Island

Sunday's race was blessed with the best weather, by far, in this mountain bike series.  The scenery was also superlative.  Jill and I warmed up in sunshine, taking in the views. 

More dirty fun- Soaring Eagle and Steilacoom

The West Side MTB races have been keeping me active all winter.  Races 2 and 3 were great muddy fun, and added great variety to the twisty turny thrillfest of Dash Point.

Race two went down at Soaring Eagle.  Jill and I were joined by one of my favorite bike buddies, Mr. Justin Calvo.

Amara Boursaw's great shots!

My First Win

This past Sunday I raced in my first second mountain bike race ever (the first one in high school).  My alarm went off at 5:45 am.  I hit the snooze button, still sore and sleepy from a hiking adventure the previous day, and fell back into a dream in which my mother (who lives in Spokane) was asking to use our bathroom.  The conscious part of my mind broke into our dialogue, tapped on my forehead, and whispered in my ear that perhaps I'd been snoozing too long.  I rolled over to check the clock, and it was 6:25.  Shit! Jill was scheduled to pick me up at 6:30 and that woman is never late.  I bolted out of bed in a panic, dove headfirst into my racing kit, ran downstairs and grabbed my bag, which luckily I had packed the night before.  Jill pulled into the driveway just as I was pulling my bike out of the basement.  I collapsed into the passenger seat and settled in to enjoy the comfort of the heated seats in the Subaru for the drive down to Dash Point State Park.
As we traveled south, I medicated with caffeine, to wake up, and Advil, to help my sore hips and legs loosen up. Warm up started off rather stiff and slow, but after about 20 minutes and I started to feel good- loose, relaxed, comfortable.  The course really suited my riding style- lots of ups and downs, plenty of turns and roots, on the technical side, but still nice and flowy. Excellent!

We headed back to the start line about 15 minutes before our start. That's when the nerves and self doubt started to settle in. I had no idea how this was going to go.  My heart sank a little bit when some Team Group Health ladies lined up.  These are ladies I really enjoy racing with, but they generally beat me in road and CX and I was intimidated by their arrival. I actively tried to push those thoughts out of my head and focused on the start. With a "ready, go!" we were off.  I stomped in to my pedals and took off down the incline, grabbing the hole shot.  I  expected someone to come flying around me at any minute, but no one did.  I flew over the first knoll and nearly over my handlebars as the trail dove to the right.  Somehow I recovered and sat back in the saddle, reminding myself to calm down and ride within my means.

A train of TGH and Cycle U ladies coming down the first descent (I snagged this shot from the TGH flickr stream).  

Stinky Spoke recap

Chad and I did the Stinky Spoke poker bike ride on Saturday.  An off-road but not technical ride, it is scheduled every year for what should be some of the worst weather of the year.  In terms of bad weather, this ride definitely did not  disappoint!

We started in a bit of rain, temps in the mid '30s.  About a 1/4 of a mile in was the dreaded Heart Attack Hill. You got a "medallion" (really a Redhook beer coaster) if you made it all the way up without stopping.

The dreaded Heart Attack Hill.  Lots of people walked.

Entiat Epic

Chad and I spent Labor Day Weekend exploring the  Entiat River area of the Wenatchee National Forest.  We camped along the North Fork of the Entiat River, then headed off early Sunday morning on a mountain bike / fly fishing/ hiking adventure.  We parked the car at the North Fork Entiat River trail and took off on our mountain bikes for about 6.5 miles, just to the edge of the Glacier Peak Wilderness.  We ditched our bikes and hiked up to Fern Lake (another steep 1.5 miles) where we spent the afternoon fishing, eating lunch, and lounging.  Below is a video of our adventures at the lake and our return trip to the car.  Apologies for the rookie video footage- this is my first attempt at a video, and also my camera broke part way through the day so I used some video footage from my cell phone video cam.

Mountain Bike Gran Fondo at the Pass- an epic day of riding

A few weeks ago I took a last minute trip East to embark on a mountain bike adventure with my dad- an organized mountain bike Gran Fondo, or "great distance" ride.  A celebrated ride format in Europe, the Gran Fondo is just catching on over here across the pond.  This particular Gran Fondo, organized by Bicycle Sales and Service , a North Idaho bike shop, offered a number of distance options- 10 miles, 17, miles, 35 and 50- to explore the trails at 4th of July Pass, just east of Coeur d' Alene.   Dad had called me a week prior to ask if I was interested.  I said maybe, let him know I'd get back to him, but he called three days later to let me know he had signed us both up for the 35 mile option.  I had no choice but to hoof it over the mountains to join him, or face serious shaming.   

Chad and I left Seattle at about 7:30 on Friday night, putting us in to Spokane about midnight.  A night cap with buddies resulted in my staying up until about 1:30 am, leaving just four hours of sleep before dragging myself out of bed time to make it out to my dad's and meet him before the start of the race.  Eesh. I'm definitely getting too old to do long endurance rides on that short of sleep.   

We rolled into the parking lot at the top of Fourth of July Pass at about 8:15 am, which gave us plenty of time to register, eat and stretch before the official start of the ride.

A bit of a festive feel greeting us at the starting line

Dad getting his stretch on- he's gotta keep that 'ol back of his limber.

We took off for our first lap, a 10 mile warm up loop to the south of I-90, with some up and down rollers but nothing too crazy.  There were about 25 other riders opting for this distance and we left the start together then settled into our own pace.  I was amazed at the diversity- a rage of ages and lots of women represented, which was something you don't always see at mountain bike events. 

Some ladies of team REP getting ready to ride (photo borrowed from the event album).

Buck Mountain trail ride (and a crazy coyote encounter)

We recently headed to the Methow to celebrate our friends' Morgan and Casey's wedding at Spring Creek Ranch, the same amazing venue where Chad and I got hitched. We rolled into town early Saturday morning and set up camp at Buck Lake Campground, a beautiful quiet spot about 14 miles northeast of Winthrop.

After the tent was assembled and air mattresses/ sleeping bags rolled out, we still had a few hours before the wedding.  We set off to explore Buck Mountain Loop, one of the more famed Methow Valley mountain bike rides in the area, heading out along a forest service road which followed the edge of Buck Lake.