THANKSGIVING WEEKEND RIDES

Thanksgiving we had snow in Bellingham. Relentless snow that just kept falling and falling. This after days of crazy cold temps, crazy wicked wind and ice everywhere. But Thursday in the snow, I headed up to the Towers on Galbraith. My tire tracks the only ones in the snow. Up to four inches of snow in spots. Hidden ice underneath on some stretches. Took a few tumbles, one on my formerly broken collarbone side but I made myself small and rolled through it. Got up laughing.

 

The heavy wet snow made for sloooow going; felt like I was riding with my rear brake on the whole time. But I made it--first up the Wall (had to walk a coupe stretches, I admit), then up to the top. It was beautiful, and all the world was silent save for the wind blowing in the trees. And 24 hours later, the snow was gone.

The above is from today: John Clark, Steve Vanderstaay and I rode down to Chuckanut Mountain for some Two-Dollar trail action. Couple patches of ice but snow. Great riding.  

HIGH CASCADES 100; COLLARBONE UPDATE



Saturday, I enjoyed a three-hour mountain bike ride in the Chuckanuts with chiroprator Steve Noble who raced last August's High Cascades 100-mile mountain bike race near Bend, Ore. He gave the race mucho thumbs-up ('cept for the two flats he suffered) and so I've been ogling the race website ever since. And since the Capitol Forest 50 was so much fun, I'm putting High Cascades on my short list of very possibles for 2011.

And for those interested in broken collarbone recovery, I'm pretty much at the six-month mark. (This blog comes up a lot when people, most likely cyclists, are Googling info for when they can get back on the bike after breaking their collarbones.) Six months after surgery, I feel no ill effects. I think I started running/riding at six weeks, rode a road century at just under three months, did a 50-mile mountain bike race at four months--all with no soreness or discomfort. Strengthwise, for about a month now, I've been able to lift the same amount in the weight room that I was lifting before the break. And I can finally sleep on my right side (broken clavicle side) with no problem. 

Surgically implanted pin and prominent screw. (Please excuse my Sean Connery chest-hair wig.)

If I have any issue it's that one of the nine screws sticks out--a bump under my skin--fairly prominently. (See above photo.) Doesn't hurt, just looks weird. I know some people get their pins and screws removed--i.e. world champion Thor Hushovd among them--but I don't like the idea of more surgery. I guess I figure if I'm just going to have it taken out, then why did I have it put in in the first place? But who knows, there're so many pro take-it-out/pro leave-it-in stories on the Internet all I can do is what seems like a good idea to me. And right now, leaving it in seems fine.     

WHIDBEY ISLAND STORY HITS SEATTLE TIMES

Click here to enjoy my story in the Seattle Times about fun things to do on Whidbey Island. Beautiful place, that's for sure!

FOGGY MORNING ON GALBRAITH MOUNTAIN

DICTIONARY TRAIL UPDATE; MORE TALES OF STUPID FUN

Right. Well, first off I'd like to update something that's of import to the handful of people who are interested in this sort of thing. Those being folks such as myself and my fellow Titanium Cowboys who like to connect the Chuckanut end of the world with the Blanchard and/or Pine 'n' Cedar lakes areas. As Titanium Cancellara (Scott Young) and I found out last weekend (see post below), the Dictionary Trail--or Overlander, as it's called on Square One's Chuckanut Recreation Area map--is kaputski for right now because of logging. But since we'd approached it from the Burnout Road (south) side, I wasn't sure where the trail stops on the Dictionary (north) side. Today I pedaled up via the Fragrance Lake Road-Lost Lake Trail, took a right at the Dictionary and in about 300 yards, had my answer. (See above pic.)

The trail is blocked by a pile of logs and beyond that's it's all new logging roads, a new clear-cut (great views of the Sound though), and lots of scary machinery making lots of scary sounds. So, we'll have to come up with a new way to get our Blanchard-Pine 'n' Cedars lakes on.


Sign warning folks to stay from the logging.

In other news, I wanted to share some e-mails I received in my response to my story in last week's Seattle Times about Stupid Fun. (The story was basically about crazy workouts/races/informal competitions that people come up with on their own.) Brock Gavery of Seattle (who, by the way was featured in Outside magazine a couple years ago for being one of the Fittest Real Men in America) wrote that in August he and two friends biked 120 miles from Ballard to Paradise on the south side of Mount Rainier. The next day, they climbed to Rainier's 14,411-foot summit and the day after that, ran the 93-mile Wonderland Trail which circles the mountain. (I've got a feeling they did it over four days but I'm not exactly sure.)

Dustin Wallace of Ellensburg included a bunch of crazy stuff that he's done. Among them, he and a friend challenged each other to run the Yakima Marathon and then bench press 300 pounds within 20 minutes of finishing. (Their marathon time was 3:59:46; they were able to press 275 pounds.)

Bruce MacLean of North Seattle wrote that he recently rode his bike 50 miles to Mount Si, which he then climbed including the Haystack scramble to the top.

Cool. Love to hear about folks doing stuff like that!