Mike McQuaide

ORCAS ISLAND 25K PHOTOS

2012-01-28T20:31:00.000-08:00

Fun day at today's Orcas Island 25K. I's beat; I'll write words tomorrow ...

ORCAS ISLAND 25K; DUFF MCKAGAN BOOK

2012-01-27T09:01:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow, way too early, the Titanium Cowboys are heading over to the islands for the Orcas Island 25K. Should be great fun and great strenuousness but hopefully, not great pain. Or at least, not the kind of pain that lasts.

The route heads out from Cascade Lake, climbs up to Mountain Lake whereupon it hightails it straight upward to the 2,100-foot ridge that eventually leads to Mount Constitution--at 2,409 feet, the highest point in the San Juans. (That's the view of Bellingham and Mount Baker from Constitution.)

Orcas Island is one of my favorite places so, despite leaving B'ham at about 4:15 a.m. to catch the ferry, I'm looking forward to it. I'll wear the chest cam and be sure to fire off about 2,000 photos of which, hopefully five or six aren't blurry.

On the reading front, I’ve been quite enjoying "It's So Easy: And Other Lies" by Duff McKagan, former Guns N’ Roses bassist. Though I run to two or three GNR songs on my iPod and will admit that “Sweet Child O’ Mine” boasts one of the best guitar riffs ever, I wouldn’t consider myself a Guns N’ Roses fan per se. They just seemed like the epitome of the wasted druggie rock band who happened to turn out a few good songs before they flamed out from their own excesses. Which they were. So why would I care to spend any amount of time reading a book by their bassist? (I mean, a bassist for god’s sake, not even a guitar player.)

Here’s how I got there. Not long ago, I stumbled upon Duff’s name on the ESPN website. Apparently, he writes a weekly sports-music column, a quite engaging one from a fan’s perspective, and since he’s from Seattle, much of what he writes has a Northwest-Seattle slant. The site also had an excerpt from his autobiography and since I so loved Keith Richards book “Life," I checked Duff’s out. It's great.

The excerpt was all about how he was training for a 19-mile mountain bike race in Big Bear, California. He’d just gotten off a two-year tour from hell with Guns N’ Roses, he was a full-on cokehead and raging alcoholic (drinking 10 bottles of wine a day!), but when his pancreas burst, he realized he had to clean up. But instead of going to rehab, he starts mountain biking and working out like crazy.

Since the band is mostly kaput, he has loads of time so he also takes up reading, and becomes obsessed with all the books and authors he missed out on because he never finished high school nor went to college—Shakespeare, Fitzgerald, Melville and especially Hemingway. In short, he turns his life completely around. In the book, he gets into martial arts, starts a family, runs a marathon, enrolls at Seattle University's business school and more. It's redemption tale that’s really quite inspiring. Here’s a link to the excerpt.

Wish me luck on Orcas tomorrow!

CHELAN CENTURY CHALLENGE 2012

2012-01-19T15:03:00.000-08:00

B'ham and most of Western Washington are stuck in a hellatious period of snow and ice and frigid temps and so of course I'm looking ahead to next summer already. And just a couple days after the soltice I know how I'll be welcoming in the summer: by schlepping the Tarmac Pro up the 8,600-plus feet of climbing that is the Chelan Century Challenge. One of my favorite rides ever! I just signed up for the 2012 event a couple days ago. Looks likely to be a Titanium Cowboy team assault too so I'm very much looking forward to it!

Click here for my report on last year's amazing ride.

CHILLER CROSS 2012 VIDEO

2012-01-15T18:34:00.000-08:00

Here's a vid from yesterday's Masters B race. Fun, muddy, wet, mucky day full of falls and mechanicals.

BELLINGHAM CYCLOCROSS RIDE

2012-01-13T09:12:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, the excellent Glenn Gervais invited me on a lunchtime CX ride with some of his co-workers from Logos Bible Software. Beautiful ride on a beautiful day. (For Jan 12, that is: about 38 to 40 degrees, some sun, no wind.) Our route: south through Fairhaven, across Taylor Dock, the back trails at Padden, a traverse of Lower Galby and down the pipeline, Whatcom Falls Park and back to downtown. Enjoy the vid!

SNOWY OWLS AT BOUNDARY BAY

2012-01-08T17:27:00.000-08:00

A true Owl-apalooza in the Great White North today. Saw about 30 Snowy Owls hanging out on the driftwood beaches of Boundary Bay. Incredibly amazingly beautiful!

It's very simple to get there too, about a half-hour once you cross the border into Canada.

From the border, follow Hwy 99 to Ladner Trunk Rd. (exit 20, I believe.) Head west for a few miles (not far) to 72nd Street, turn left and follow to the end. (Again not far.) Park on the side of the road, walk toward the obvious dike-top trail and start counting snowy owls.

BELLINGHAM TRAIL RUNNING SERIES

2012-01-05T09:11:00.000-08:00

This looks like fun. (I mean, if you're into that whole running sort of thing, which we appear to be these days.) James Varner's signif. other, Candice Burt, is heading up the Bellingham Trail Running Series with races at Fragrance Lake, Stewart Mountain, Alger Alp, Sehome Hill and Raptor Ridge. Nice thing about these is that, like Varner's Rainshadow Running Series, they offer a short and long option. Fragrance Lake will feature a 10K and a 20K, Stewart Mountain a 5K and 10K and so on. To me, this seems like a perfect fit for B'ham. Way to go, guys!

First race is Fragrance Lake on February 12.

NEW YEAR'S OWLS AT SANDY POINT

2012-01-01T16:49:00.000-08:00

This is one of those years when the snowy owls descend upon the Northwest in higher than normal numbers so the fam and I headed up to Sandy Point in the hopes of spotting a couple. Here they are: Hedwig 1 (above) and Hedwig 2 (below), both of which were perched atop folks' roofs across the street from each other right there on Main Street, Sandy Point. (Sucia Drive.)

They're incredibly beautiful birds that exude sort of mythical, otherworldy presence. About 15 years ago, Jen and I spotted 6 down at the West 90 Turn in the Skagit Flats and 22 (22!) up at Boundary Bay.

Above, Jen and Bake check out Hedwig 2 whilst Hedwig 1 hangs out across the street.

LAST MTB VID OF 2011

2011-12-30T22:55:00.000-08:00

Here's a couple long shots from the Hemlock Trail on the north side of Chuckanut Mountain. (That's the one that connects Arroyo Park to Pine and Cedar Lakes.) This just might be my favorite XC descent around. Scott Young (Titanium Cancellara) is the rider.

MORE 2011 MONTHLY BIKE PHOTS

2011-12-28T12:31:00.001-08:00

Here's July through December.

July. A lovely summer afternoon climbing the upward-tilted Burnout Road with terrific views overlooking Samish Bay. Samish Island is the foreground (ish) strip of dark forest with super-steep Mount Erie in the distance.

July (part 2). Mount Shuksan as seen through the spokes on one of my repeat rides up the ski area on the Mount Baker Highway. Because of 2011's mega-snowfall, this year the road never opened all the way to Artist Point.

August. Mount Shasta Summit Century. Ultra hard, ultra long ("That's what she said" joke goes here.)--130 miles with 14,750 feet or so of climbing, 10-plus hours on a bike. Glad I did it but it was the day I realized that anything longer than about 6 hours begins to enter the This-isn't-a-whole-lot-of-fun-anymore zone. Also in August, I turned 50.

September. Riding across the Skagit Flats on the way to La Conner and back with the Cowboys Titanium. Seventy-three miles, a stop for coffee in L-town, some hellatious town sign sprints thoughout--certainly one of the year's most enjoyable rides.

October. Crazy Jacob Stewart holds onto his bike for dear life after dropping down into a hole atop Anderson Mountain. This was on a cool MTB ride with Jacob, Ryan Rickerts and Scott Young.

October (part 2). I just really like the colors on this helmet cam photo of Titanium Cancellara pedaling down the Interurban Trail.

November. Another helmet cam shot, this one during a warm-up lap of the Cross-Border Clash CX race outside Ferndale. That's Glenn Gervais in blue; he won the men's master C race that day..

December. I've not taken many bike photos this month. (We've been running too damn much.) Here's a snapshot taken from a helmet cam video I shot of our Samish Loop ride 'n' bushwack. The reason I'm not wearing a helmet is that I'm pointing the camera at myself whilst riding.

Happy New Year, y'all!

MONTHLY BIKE PHOTOS FROM 2011

2011-12-26T20:48:00.000-08:00

Here's January through June 2011. (Might be more than one photo per month.) Enjoy!

January. The Ridge Trail on Galby with Titanium Cancellara and John Clark in the background. So much snow. Heavy wet snow. Every week, it seemed, through about March.

February. T-Cancellara gots himself a single-speed 29er. The frequency of our visits to the pain cave increased significantly.

March. Sights like these started becoming more and more common up at Galby. This is just off Cedar Dust.

April showers during the Saturday morning Donut Ride.

May. Stottlemeyer 30-mile Mountain Bike race on Whidbey Island. Scott won the single-speed, John took 3rd Masters. (I was 4th single-speed finisher and ended up in the bushes when I overshot the finish.)

May (part 2). Couple of clowns we saw on the ferry ride over to Whidbey.

June. David Longdon climbing killer McNeil Canyon on the amazingly beautiful Chelan Century Ride. I'm going back in 2012 fer sure!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS ...

2011-12-25T08:10:00.000-08:00

... from the Titanium Cowboys! (Thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Titanium Cancellara for the cool bottle.)

SEATTLE TIMES HOLIDAY HIKES STORY

2011-12-23T12:11:00.000-08:00

Here's the link to my holiday hikes story that appears in this Sunday's Seattle Times Travel section, but is available now on the Times innerwebber site. All pics are from the cool Padilla Bay Shore Trail, just off Highway 20 on the way to Anacortes. Enjoy! And Merry Christmas too!

DECEPTION PASS 25K PHOTOS AND WORDS

2011-12-10T18:28:00.000-08:00

Wore my helmet cam (mounted on a chest harness) during today's first-ever Deception Pass 25K, another cool event put on by James Varner and Rainshadow Running. While the majority of phots came out blurry as heck, here's a sampling of the 40 or so that didn't and that hopefully give you and idea of what a terrific, unique course this is. I'm pretty beat so I'll write more words tomorrow.

(OK, now it's tomorrow ...) Above, first time across the Deception Pass Bridge. Kinda freaky, kinda scary, but way, way beautiful! (Kinda innerestingly cooincidentally appropriate: "Under the Bridge" by R.H. Chili Peppers came up on the iPod as we ran the North Beach Trail just under the bridge. "Starlight" by Muse played as we crossed it; perfect in its own way.)

One of the cool, waterside jaunts on the many little loops. Not sure if this was loop 2 or 3. (Or 4?)

Here was that weird, squishy seaweedy (and to be truthful, stinky) section.

The start, about a mile on pavement out along Cranberry Lake.

The bounteous aid station.

Refilling the bottle with booze, cocaine, methamphetamine--whatever it took to get me through my first 3-plus hour run in almost 5 years.

Running one the cool bluffs on Loop 4, I think. That would make this Rosario Head. That's not a bear lying in wait, but a photographer.

The return run across the bridge. By this point, I was too tired to be freaked out about dangling 180 feet above the water.

The cruel climb up Goose Rock. By this point my goose was more than cooked. (Rimshot.)

One of many slippery bridges.

Up and over the top of Goose Rock. (Finally.)

On the north side (Fidalgo Island side) looking back after crossing the bridge for the first time.

With cars on one side, and that freaky-stunning view on the other, it was a tight fit crossing the bridge.

The excellent Christy Fazio before the race; she finished first Masters woman and took home a cool mug.

Scott Young (Titanium Cancellara) added to his legend. Despite doing an extra loop, adding about 2 miles, he took 2nd Masters and 9th overall!

Here's where I got off-course on the Pass Lake loop and ended up in this person's front yard. D'oh!

A great race. Results come out later today, I believe.

Side note: After the race, I talked to the climbing-ultrarunning legend that is Doug McKeever and he told me that Krissy Moehl plans to open up the 2012 Chuckanut 50K to 1,000 runners. Wowzer!

DECEPTION PASS 25K SATURDAY

2011-12-09T16:26:00.000-08:00

Looking forward to tomorrow's Deception Pass 25K, my first run longer than 10 miles in almost 5 years. Not sure what to expect, really. My approach will be that it's really just a long run-walk(ish) training for next month's (izzit really only next month?) Orcas Island 25K. Regardless (or irregardless--is that even a word?), it'll be beautiful (hopefully we can see the lunar eclipse on the way down there) and not a little freaky crossing the quarter-mile long Deception Pass Bridge ... twice. As you can see from the above photo, the guardrail is not high and race rules state that we're not allowed to run in the road.

It's kinda narrow too, innit? I'll be fine; I'll just keep my eyes straight ahead and as with mountain biking and snowboarding, look where I want to go, not where I don't want to go. (Over the side.)

SAMISH LOOP RIDE 'N' BUSHWACK

2011-12-04T15:34:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, the Titanium Cowboys rode one of our favorite running routes from years past, the Samish Loop. Very simply, head up through Arroyo Park, continue south on the Lost Lake Trail--climbing one of the toughest sustained, no let-up climbs around (1,200 feet in less than 2 miles)--to Lost Lake, then across to the Land of the Lost, up another mega-hill (Sick Joke) to Pine and Cedar Lakes and down Hemlock back to Arroyo. (All phots are stills from the video I shot; in above pic, I look like some droopy-faced cartoon dog, don't I?)

John and Scott switchbacking through Arroyo Park.

South of Lost Lake, the trail is barely runnable, much less ridable, and requires what one of us had termed a "10-minute bushwack." However, when it comes to bushwacking, actual time has been scientifically proven to be three times that of the estimated time. Thus, our "10-minute bushwack" really took 30 minutes.

Scott and I took a couple falls; conveniently, my camera was turned off during my spills.

The Cowboys on the shores of Lost Lake. A hella ride: about 23 miles with 3,200 feet of climbing. Next week, Scott and I run the Deception Pass 25K; John runs B'ham's Jingle Bell Run. For those of you so inclined, here's the vid from Saturday's ride featuring a cool tune by Two Door Cinema Club (I hope).

Here's the route on Strava:

PUTTING FINISHING TOUCHES ON CLASSIC ROAD RIDES BOOK

2011-12-01T16:40:00.000-08:00

I'm in caption-writing mode now for the 100 or so color photos that my Classic Road Rides book will feature. (Comes out in May, by the way.) Never had a color photo book! Above, racers in Enumclaw. Below, riders head north out of Winthrop during the Methow Fall Bike Festival.

The last hairpin turn before Artist Point.

The last mile on the oh-so-steep McNeil Canyon climb near Chelan.

B'ham town's Donut Ride passes through Fernburg.

Man vs. clock in the race of truth during the Tour of Walla Walla.

NOVEMBER SUN RIDE

2011-11-27T19:41:00.000-08:00

Pedaling the Taylor Street Dock on that rarest of rares: a sunny November day with almost no wind.

Headed through the back trails of Lake Padden and on up to Galby. Haven't MTB'd there in a while, or anywhere, really. We've been running, of all things--two, even two-and-a-half-plus hours (that's too damn far)--against my better judgement. Deception Pass 25K is two weeks away, Orcas Island 25K two months away. Happy to report my calf bras (compression sleeve thingees) seem to be doing the trick; haven't had any calf issues in a couple months. (Am I jinxing it by saying that?)

Titanium Cancellara chasing the sun. Yes, really, the sun. I mean, in November 'n' all.

Steve Vanderstaay joined us for Friday's ride; nice to have him along.

Stellar pic of me at the Galby Towers eating a PowerBar.

Lastly, check out my story about Ryan Rickerts and Jacob Stewart in the latest issue of Adventures NW available now.

MORE CLASSIC RIDES WASHINGTON PHOTOS

2011-11-14T18:15:00.000-08:00

Headed out last Thursday to get some final shots for my 75 Classic Rides Washington book, which comes out next May. Above is that cool, switchbacky hill just outside Plain, which is just outside Leavenworth. Below is a little south of Snohomish, just minutes after sunrise. Rode the new Giant 'crossbike for the phots; she acquitted herself admirably.

Above, Tom Meloy, rocking an epically beautiful (and new) Tarmac SL4 (I believe) was kind enough to do repeats up Squak Mountain for me. Seventeen percent that hill be, in parts!

Stevens Pass.

Hughes Road, near Cashmere (of Aplets and Cotlets fame).

CROSS BORDER CLASH-PADDEN MUDFEST WEEKEND

2011-11-06T21:19:00.000-08:00

Friday: bought a ‘cross bike, the lovely ‘n’ sexy Giant TCX 1. (See below.)

Saturday: rode my first ‘cross in three-plus years, Ryan Rickerts’ Cross Border Clash in the DeltaTech industrial park, just north of Ferndale. (See top pic.) Super fun time. Course featured a rotating surfboard of death, sand pit, pump track and more. Dead flat, thus lousy, stinky, terrible time trialists (such as me) were not among the swiftest on the course. I had to laugh, before the race, Charlie Heggem gave me a hard time for racing with the C’s. After my stellar 7th place finish (out of 17 racers), I don’t think he’ll be bugging me again. (Just found out that Glenn Gervais won it! Way to go, Glenn!)

Below is a short vid of the first lap:

Sunday: ran my first running race in almost 5 years, the 6-mile Padden Mudfest. Lots fun. Lots runners too, which was nice. Quite comforting to be able to turn around from time to time and see that I’m not last.

Sorta scary moment, coming down the last steep rooty, rocky hill, I came across an annoyed, limping and bleeding Dean Taylor. Apparently, he’d just tripped over a log, opening up a deep gaping laceration on his knee. (His shoulder and hand were pretty banged up as well.) Ever the resourceful one, he pulled the flap of skin back up over his kneecap, and with his shoelace, tied his headband around his knee to stop the bleeding.

I decided to stay with him for a bit and eventually we were able to walk the last mile back in together. (I’ve certainly appreciated the times when I’ve had misfortunes on the trail and folks have stayed with me; so I was more than eager to help someone else out for a change.)

I found out later he fractured his patella and needed 18 stitches. Yikes.

OOPS. ... I DID IT AGAIN

2011-10-30T21:21:00.000-07:00

Not sure what got in to me, but yesterday I signed up for the Deception Pass 25K on December 10. D'oh! (That, after having already signed up for the Orcas Island 25K at the end of January.) My last running race? Chuckanut 50K in March 2007. (See above; note bulging calves which, these days, require calf bras.) That's almost 5 years between races.

In other news, I find myself once again lasciviously eyeing cyclocross bikes. Must be some 50-y-o guy mid-life crisis thang.

Oh, and here's a Galbraith video shot last winter of Whoopsie Woodle in the snow. Cheesey effects added:

Enjoy!

MORE POWERDIRECTOR MADNESS

2011-10-28T08:56:00.000-07:00

School conferences yesterday so once that was done, 12-y-o Baker and I hit Galbraith for a couple hours. He's not ridden in a while--once in July and I can't remember the last time before that--but he's still a ripper. Lots fun!
(Conference went well, btw.)

WASHINGTON STATE ROAD RIDING

2011-10-26T20:48:00.000-07:00

Here's a vid I compiled of the Titanium Cowboys riding some places that are featured in my "75 Classic Road Rides of Washington" book which comes out next May. First up is Sunrise at Mount Rainier, then Hurricane Ridge, then the Skagit Flats and finally the Mount Baker Highway.

Enjoy.

UNOFFICIAL TEAM'S OFFICIAL LOGO

2011-10-21T12:47:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Titanium Cancellara's wife, Gail for coming up with this cool logo!

AREA RUNNER MIGHT JUST NEED JOGBRA FOR HIS CALVES

2011-10-16T14:45:00.000-07:00

Been trying to get my running back--all three Titanium Cowboys signed up for the Orcas Island 25K in January--but have been hampered by annoying calf tweakage. (That's the official medical term, 'tweakage'.) I've got freakishly gargantuan calves--18 inches around--that are fine when I ride but for whatever reason, have been tending to seize up when I run. My latest theory is that it's the pounding from running and that thus all I need is a jogbra, of sorts, for my calves. Thus for the past six weeks or so I've been wearing calf sleeves on me lower legs whenever I run. So far, so good.

Friday, I put in a 90-minute run(ish)-hike at Lake Padden, the longest I've been out in over a year. It felt great. Very encouraging.

Soon as I was done, I checked my phone and there's a message from Titanium Cancellara seeing if I could ride. I hesitated for about 10 minutes then got back to him whereupon we headed up to Galby for 3 hours of single-speed madness. Quite excellent fun, that. (See above photo of Scott Young at the Top of the Towers.)

Saturday, absolutely dead. (Though I had a great time helping out at the Red Wheelbarrow Writers Conference.)

Today, the Titanium Cowboys hit the trails once again sans wheels, this time running 2 hours! So far, no calf issues. (Shout-out to the boys, John Clark and Scott Young, both of whom are strong swift runners but who patiently dialed it back to slow-motion speed for me.) Orcas Island, here we come!

BIKE BOOK PHOTO FAIL

2011-10-13T17:25:00.000-07:00

Spent the day down south shooting some final pix for my bike book. Here's one that I don't think will make the cut. The below shot's not bad though.

BROKEN WHEEL VIDEO

2011-10-11T11:43:00.000-07:00

For better or worse, I'm back to trying to post biking videos, this time in hi-def. Seems to be a whole different ballgame when you get to hi-def. It ain't just MovieMaker drag 'n' drop, throw a song on and you're done. This is of Shakletonian proportians and for a non-techy like me, takes forever. (I'm using PowerDirector 9 btw.)
And the results? Well, it's kinda cool, but I haven't figured out how to add music (right now, the soundtrack is labored breathing, hucking and spitting), the transitions are inconsistent and the deep-forest-on-a-cloudy-day setting doesn't make for super sharp images. (Have I sold you on watching the video yet?)
If nothing else, watch at 2:07 when Scott breaks his wheel.

OCTOBER PHOTO ESSAY: A BUSHWACK, A BROKEN WHEEL 'N' MORE

2011-10-09T21:00:00.000-07:00

The ride started with Titanium Cancellara leading the Titanium Cowboys down the Interurban.

Looking for So Easy near the top of Lost Lake Trail, we followed pink ribbon that led ...

... to nowhere. Whilst TC looks intently for the trail John makes like the honey badger and pretty much doens't give a s***.

Actually, John was resting for what was to come. On the way back toward B'hamTown we detoured onto the new Raptor Ridge whereupon Scott's bike slipped out from under him on a muddy rock and his back rim was knocked all a-catawumpus. Eventually, after much bashing and spoke-tightening they straightened it enough that Scott was able to ride out of there. Albeit, at less than race pace.

(Golly, but red photographs well, don't it? Please always wear red whenever I've got my camera out, OK? Thanks.)

On the way back, we stopped for a few moments of chinwagging with legendary runner Chuck Dooley.

And then we saw a horse.

After saying good-bye to Scott, John and I got stopped by one of them damn coal trains at the south end of Boulevard Park.

So we climbed the tower to get over the tracks ...

... but of course the train was past by the time we got to the top.

No matter. We closed the ride with a latte, a muffin and a quad-tall americano (no room) at Starbucks.

LEAVENWORTH BOULDERING

2011-10-05T21:09:00.000-07:00

Check out my Seattle Times story on bouldering in BavariaTown, USA--Leavenworth.

THE MAGNIFICENT ANDERSON MOUNTAIN

2011-10-02T16:45:00.000-07:00

For a while now, Anderson Mountain, down Alger way, has been on my to-do list. So on Saturday, we raised out goblets of rock, broke out our big boy climbing legs and scaled its thirty-two hunnert feet of whole-grain awesomeness. The players were, as pictured below from left to right: Jacob Stewart (on a ‘cross bike), Titanium Cancellara (intoduction not nec.), Ryan Rickerts (‘cross promoter and all-around outdoor adventure stud), and myself.

After driving to Alger, we rode about four miles on Butler Creek and Cain Lake roads before heading up. Seriously up. Following the PNT trail's white blazes--painted on trees and from time to time, onto rocks on the ground--we pedaled up both forest road and winding single-track trail, gaining some 2,800 feet in 6 miles. By comparison, Lookout Mountain climbs 2,100 feet in 5.3 miles, so this is the longest sustained mountain bike climb I've done. (Actually I take that back, Devils Gulch near Leavenworth climbs about 4,000 feet.)

Parts of the trail were crazy steep; I'd pedal in my granniest of gears 'til, with heartrate at 183, I could pedal no more and had to walk and even then my h.r. would only drop to 179 or so. Others were crazy overgrown; today my arms and legs are streaked red with tiny scratches as if I'd spent Saturday rassling with kittens. But 'least I was on a mountain bike that offered help up those hills in the form of a 22 X 34 gear. Not so Jacob who rode his Bianci 'cross bike; see below pic of Jacob emerging from the pain cave.

(Later in the ride, btw, Jacob earned the distinction of being the first peson I've ever thrown a golf ball at during a ride; I'll leave it at that.)

Though we hit no rain, overcast and foggy skies didn't allow for the most far-reaching of vistas. At the summit, we were treated to views of yet another higher bump--Lyman Hill (or Mountain)--which looks to be about a thousand feet higher. Perhaps that's next on the to-do list.

Also cool about this ride was that it was basically a day at the office for yours truly. I'll be writing a profile of sorts about Ryan for the December issue of Adventures NW.

HAIL TO THE CAV!

2011-09-26T12:24:00.000-07:00

Here's my son, Baker, getting the newly crowned World Champion's autograph during the '09 Tour of California. (My guess is that Baker is now as tall as Cav.)

FANTASTIC FALL RIDE TO LACONNER

2011-09-24T17:24:00.000-07:00

The Titanium Cowboys got in a 73-miler down to LaConner and back, our first road ride together since the Tour de Whatcom at the end of July.

Terrific ride down Chuckanut Drive across the Skagit Flats into a headwind we knew would be a tailwind on our way back from L'town.

In LaConner, we got down to serious bidness: foofy espresso drinks, Gatorade, Three Musketeers bars--it was all good. The ride back was the aforementioned tailwind (22 mph w/ nary a pedal turned in anger), several hellatious town sign sprints, a two-mile stretch of gravel road at the top of Colony Mountain Road (suggested by me; I don't think it was popular) and a climb up out of the Lake Samish basin.

A super kickoff to fall with all matches burnt down to the end.

Every last one.

LOOKEE HERE, IT'S THE BOOK COVER!

2011-09-16T14:24:00.000-07:00

Any guesses where this shot was taken? Any guesses who the rider is? Any guesses what jersey he's wearing?

WASHINGTON PASS STORY HITS SEATTLE TIMES

2011-09-15T09:10:00.000-07:00

Wow! Click here for a terrifically amazing story in the Seattle Times about the revamped trail at Washington Pass. Pulitzer worthy fer sure. Let me see who wrote it. It was ... oh. Well, now this is embarrassing.

SEPTEMBER ENNUI; ROADS TO NOWHERE

2011-09-14T11:22:00.000-07:00

Other than downing a fair amount of Peanut Butter Cup-flavored Breyers Blast ice cream, I've not been doing a whole lot lately. Skipped the Mount Baker Hill Climb, not doing the Bellingham Traverse, might do a 50- or 60-mile leg of Sunday's Chuckanut Century though, for the first time since St. Swithin's Day, the weather looks iffy. So I don't know.

I'd been planning on picking up my running a bit--I even signed up for next January's Orcas Island 25K--but have been plagued by an annoying calf tweakage issue. I run for two minutes, all is fine and then BAM!--my right calf hurts like heck. Doesn't bother me at all when I bike, but running right now is pretty much out of the question. So, more than likely I'm gonna go eat worms.

Before I do that, however, here's a story I wrote a couple months ago for The Seattle Times. Lots of people told me they liked it so I thought I'd share it here. (On the July day it ran, the story rose to Number 1 on the most e-mailed list. Story it knocked out of the top spot? The one about the guy whose wife cut his you-know-what off and put it in the garbage disposal.)

5 roads to nowhere: the best of Washington's boonies

Outdoors writer Mike McQuaide, fresh from penning a Mountaineers guidebook to Washington cycling routes, offers his five favorite roads to the middle of nowhere — suitable for riding or driving.

At 2,622 feet, Waterville, which is northeast of Wenatchee, boasts the highest elevation of any incorporated city in Washington.

In researching an upcoming guidebook on road cycling routes in Washington, your intrepid author has been all over, sniffing out great places to ride throughout the hidden corners and back roads of this grand Evergreen State. Along the way, he's seen some spectacular sights: the sparkling waters of the Similkameen River cutting through rocky canyons up near Oroville; the bird's-eye views of the Columbia River Valley set against the Cascades from way up high on Badger Mountain; the roly-poly Dr. Seuss-esque hills surrounding charming Waitsburg and Dayton in the southeast corner of the state. And lots more.

I was looking for cycling routes — and strenuous, fairly longish ones at that — but for those who aren't given to pedaling, these make for some terrific drives as well. They're mostly on rural, low-traffic roads smack in the middle of nowhere but pass through small towns and parks that offer plenty of diversions.

Here are five Washington routes to the best kind of nowhere:

Badger Mountain-Waterville
Where: Northeast of Wenatchee.

Admittedly, this is two places. Or rather, this route to Waterville includes a climb of Badger Mountain which, for you cyclists out there, rises 2,750 feet in 8.3 miles. Youch! (Uh, and it's the route's first 8.3 miles; so much for a warm-up.)

But turn around on the way up — or pull over at one of several pullout spots and check out the view — Incroyable! Down in the valley, the mighty Columbia River lazes its way through the rich, fertile Wenatchee Valley while foothill upon foothill and rocky ridgeline upon rocky ridgeline rise ever higher to the majestic Central Cascades.

For you GPS-enabled riders, the climb is mostly 7 percent, with some stretches up to 12. (Did I already say, "Youch!"?) NOTE: This climb is unshaded and the route as a whole can be very hot. Carry two water bottles and avoid riding it in the heat of the day.

A little past the 8-mile mark, the climb levels out and bumps up and down — more up than down — through sagebrushy hills and pine forest, eventually topping out at 4,100 feet, 18 miles from the start. A 2-mile gravel-road descent follows (which might give skinny-tired cyclists pause), delivering one onto the high, dry flatlands of the Waterville Plateau.

Once on the plateau, the miragelike clump of trees and buildings to the north reveals the quaint, nowheresville burg of Waterville, the highest incorporated town in Washington. (Elevation-wise, that is.) The town of about 1,200 is at an elevation of 2,622 feet.

Get there by turning left onto paved P Road Northwest and in 2.5 miles, right onto 2 Road Northwest, which, just ahead, runs into Highway 2, Waterville's main arterial. Founded in 1885, Waterville has long been a hub for the area's wheat commerce and boasts many historic buildings.

Places to eat and stay: Blue Rooster Artisan Bakery and the Waterville Historic Hotel.

Speedy cows roam the outskirts of Oroville.

Tonasket-Oroville loops

Where: Northeast of the Methow Valley.

In Northcentral Washington, the Okanogan River town of Tonasket and the border town of Oroville, on Lake Osoyoos, can be linked together by a couple of fun riding and/or driving loops.

Loop 1: From Tonasket, a cool, funky town of about 1,000, an eastern loop heads up through the high, dry, open forest and farmland of the Okanogan highlands. It's a consistent, but not brutal, 20 miles of climbing, but the sweeping views down into the Okanogan Valley are stunners and make it all worth it. Passing ranchland and dodging tumbleweed after tumbleweed through tiny spots on the map such as Havillah, you feel like you're riding through the set of an old Western movie.

About 20 miles from Tonasket, reach the tiny, one-chairlift Sitzmark Ski Area (Whistler it's not), this loop's literal high point, and begin the fun 17-mile descent back down into the Okanogan Valley and the town of Oroville, just four miles south of the Canadian border. (There's an official border crossing there.) From Oroville, head south back to Tonasket on Highway 7 along the west bank of the Okanogan River (less traffic than on Highway 97 on the river's east bank). Or ...

Loop 2: Follow the western loop on Loomis-Oroville Road, which traces the Similkameen River through a stunning rocky gorge on the edge of the Pasayten Wilderness. This loop passes through tiny burgs such as Nighthawk and Loomis and alongside Palmer Lake, a mouth-gape-causing stunner at the foot of 5,000-foot peaks, and climbs significantly less than the first. Eventually, Loomis-Oroville Road heads east to Highway 7, whereupon you turn right and follow it south for about five miles to Tonasket.

Places to eat and stay: Try the Tonasket Pizza Company in Tonasket or Oroville's Trino's Mexican Restaurant. For lodging: Tonasket's Junction Motel.

During the annual Tour of Walla Walla cycling race, riders begin a big climb just outside Waitsburg.

Waitsburg-Dayton

Where: Southeast corner of the state.

The dry, rolling grassland hills north of Walla Walla are home not only to a couple of picture-postcard Small Town, USA-type places — Waitsburg and Dayton — but also some terrific low-traffic cycling (and driving) roads.

Head south from Waitsburg on Middle or Lower Waitsburg roads (they eventually hook up) and have a blast riding up and down the roller-coaster farm roads 'twixt Waitsburg and Walla Walla. Most of the hills aren't very big and if you wisely dose out your effort, your momentum descending one hill might just carry you up the following one. (Ideally.) Unshaded, these hills and roads offer stunning views of the agricultural wonder that is this corner of Washington.

From historic Dayton, which can lay claim to the fact that Lewis and Clark slept there (that is, in 1806, at what would become the town's eventual location), an out-and-back ride to Bluewood Ski Area scrolls through a dazzling progression of landscapes.

Climbing about 3,400 feet in 22 miles, North Touchet Road (which starts out in town as South Fourth Street) transports one from the dry wheat-field hills characteristic of the Palouse to the dense Inland Northwest pine forest of the Blue Mountains. Climb-wise, it's gradual, with nary a switchback along the way. Turn around at the entrance to Bluewood Ski Area; the return ride is fun and fast.

Link Waitsburg to Dayton (10 miles apart) by riding Highway 12 but detour from the potentially busy highway by throwing in Bowman Hill and Lower Hogeye roads, both on the south side of Highway 12.

Places to eat and stay: In Waitsburg, try the Whoopemup Hollow Café, a Cajun eatery, and Pamela Jane's Vacation Rental.

Winthrop and the Methow Valley were made for bikes, both road and mountain.

Forest Road 51

Where: North of Winthrop.

Renowned for its Old West vibe and for being a mountain-biking destination spot, the Methow Valley is also a great place to pedal the skinny-tire rig. While Highway 20 offers the option of tackling a couple epic climbs — Washington Pass (5,477 feet) in one direction; Loup Loup Pass (4,020 feet) in another — it's the paved Forest Service roads that offer that peaceful, out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere feel.

Chief among these is FR 51, which follows the gurgling Chewuch River north, deep into Okanogan National Forest and its lovely dry conifers. (It's basically an extension of West Chewuch Road, which starts just outside Winthrop.) Traffic is low, the road a little rough in spots, but the river scenery is terrific. Several trailheads and campgrounds along the way allow for pulling over, taking a stroll and soaking it all in.

Turn around at the Andrews Creek Bridge and trailhead, where pavement ends. It's about 23 miles north of Winthrop. The road climbs gradually — about 100 feet per mile — almost the entire way. That's generally not enough to cause one to suffer on the way out, but plenty enough to make one feel invincibly fast on the return ride.

For a change of pace on the return, cross over the Chewuch River Bridge and head back into Winthrop via East Chewuch Road.

Places to eat and stay: Choices in the Winthrop-Mazama area are many. Among them are the Arrowleaf Bistro and the Mazama Country Inn.

Mossy trees near Tum Tum Mountain.

Chelatchie-Tum Tum Mountain

Where: Northeast Clark County.

There's nowhere and then there's deep in the heart of nowhere. Chelatchie and Tum Tum Mountain qualify for the latter, making their low-traffic roads perfect for meandering exploration. (Not only that, but Chelatchie and Tum Tum are fun to say.)

Chelatchie (say "chu-LATCH-ee"), east of Amboy, north of Yacolt, south of Mount St. Helens, is a census-designated spot on the edge of Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

It's surrounded by terrific rural roadways that pass prairie fields and farmland — as well as through the above-mentioned towns — and the conical mini-mountain, Tum Tum, which looks sorta like a giant Hershey's Kiss. (Legend has it a Native American chief is buried at the summit.)

Forest Road 54 leads (and climbs) past Tum Tum deep into Gifford Pinchot and is a springboard for popular trails in the Siouxon Roadless Area. Though paved, FR 54 can be rough in places (info: www.fs.usda.gov/giffordpinchot). Near tiny Yacolt is the site of the Yacolt Burn, the state's deadliest wildfire, which burned a quarter-million acres and claimed the lives of 38 people in 1902.

To get here, take Exit 21 from Interstate 5 in Woodland. Head east toward Amboy and just let the roads and your inclination guide you.

Places to eat and stay: Chelatchie Prairie General Store has food and there's a Best Western in Battle Ground, the closest big(ish) town.

Tum Tum Mountain.

SEPTEMBER SUMMER RIDE

2011-09-05T18:41:00.000-07:00

Summer came late to the Northwest this year but when it finally got here, it put it's feet up, made itself comfortable and decided to stay awhile. Another incredible day weather-wise so we headed up Fragrance Lake Road, Lost Lake Trail and to the logged area above the old Dictionary Trail where the views on days like this are out of this world. Beyond the Titanium Cowboys (above) are Bellingham Bay, Lummi and Orcas islands, Western Whatcom County and Canada.

Area Man (me) is proud to announce that for the first time ever, he was able to ride the psycho-steep and usually muddy-slippery-as-hell Lost Lake climb clean on my single-speed. (Please hold your applause 'til the end of the post.) The almost-no-rain-in-the-past-six-weeks was a big help. Still, a first-ever after turning 50 is nice. ('Course, Titanium Cancellara has always been able to ride it clean ...)

Along with the water- and island-side views, with a few pedal strokes to the east, you've got terrific views of Mount Baker, local hills and faves such as Lookout Mountain, Lake Samish, Galbraith, Blanchard, Lost and Mud lakes, Raptor Ridge, etc. and all that. Pretty much everywhere we've mountain biked and run over the past 10-plus years.

Here's John on a stump. Unfortunately, I ran out of film before his dismount. Which was a three-quarter triple half-gainer with a 900 Fakie McTwist Cork thing. Pretty amazing, really.

Whilst we were up there, the Titanium Cowboys posed for this year's holiday card. (Not really; sorta looks like it though.) Return ride was an usually dry and way-fast Lost Lake Trail to Arroyo Park and the outdoor fireplace table at Boulevard Park's Woods Coffee. Terrific super happy fun.

LATE AUGUST MTB, ROAD RIDES

2011-08-28T20:57:00.000-07:00

Got in a couple great rides this past weekend. Saturday was mountain biking with Titanium Cancellara. With some bushwacking through a recently logged stretch, we were able to connect the old Burnout Rd.-Land of the Lost-Pine and Cedar Lakes loop, one of our faves but one that had been out of comission for almost a year now. Above, Scott picks his way down toward what remains of the Ender Trail and the Rockyard. Just follow the ridge in the direction of Lost Lake, which you can see in the above pic. (Pine and Cedar lakes are on the ridge beyond Lost Lake.)

Here's a shot that looks a lot like the top photo except when you zoom in and see that Titanium Cancellara was being buzzed by ...

... a Titanium Hummingbird! Cool. It was great to connect this loop again; we bushwacked for probably a half-mile through serious ankle-buster underbrush, but saw a route where we could probably cut the bushwacking in half. Burnout Rd. has four (or five) killer steep stretches and of course, the climb back up to Pine and Cedar is a mega-hill. In all, I rode 28 miles with 3,600 feet of elevation gain. And broke a chain. And was eaten by mosquitoes as Scott and I (mostly Scott) fixed it.

Sunday, I rode the Rabbit Ride for the first time. This group road ride leaves out of Fairhaven Park and is essentially a ride of the Colony Road loop (about 30 miles) at race pace. Self-seeded groups leave at 3-minute intervals with the goal being to catch the groups that leave before you; slower groups leave earlier, faster ones later. Despite my 3-1/2 hours spent climbing up and down the Chuckanuts the day before, hubris made me join the fastest group and I surely paid. I had a heck of a time hanging on to wheels and my time at the front was short and puny in power. Oh well, did the best I could, hung on for most of it before I ended up in no-man's land on my own. Still and all, a great ride and I spent the rest of Sunday totally dead!

BELLINGHAM BIKE STORY HITS SEATTLE TIMES

2011-08-25T08:42:00.000-07:00

Click here for my story on today's Seattle Times website about biking in Bellingham.

LAZY DOG DAYS OF AUGUST

2011-08-24T10:52:00.000-07:00

Been mostly taking it easy since the Shasta ride. Took me almost a week before I felt sorta human again and was able to get in a three-hour mountain bike ride on Galby with the Titanium Cowboys. Always a good time. Then it was off for a few days holiday with the family, sans bike. First to Chelan for the glistening waters of that amazing lake, the ultra-fun waterslide park and skatepark (see above), which the boy Baker carved up but good on his scooter.

Then down to Bend, Ore., which we’d never been to before. A very cool high desert town with lots of sun, lots of heat and lots to do. Funny story about Bend--five minutes after checking into our hotel, I note a Nissan Pathfinder parked outside the lobby with "Official Vehicle" painted on the side. I look inside and who's behind the wheel but Chris Horner!

I tap on the window and with a big as-if-he-knows-me grin, he rolls it down, thrusts out his hand and gives me a big "How's it going, man?" He was super affable, said he's recovered from his crash, concussion and subsequent blood clot suffered in the Tour de France and feeling great. No more racing this year though. He was genuinely nice to my son too, who was with me. A truly satisfying brush with greatness.

A few other tidbits: For a change of pace, I'm hoping to pick up my running again. I've been ultra casual about it since I broke my collarbone in spring 2010. I was so eager to get back to cycling afterward that I paid almost no attention to getting my running legs back. So now it seems newish and funnish and out of the ordinaryish. Anyway, one of my favorite places to run is Lake Padden where, just a couple weeks ago, a friend of Titanium Cancellara's spotted a cougar on the trail. And not even on one of the back trails (or horse trails), but rather right on the main 2.6-mile loop that hugs the lake. Thankfully, it slunk (izzat a word?) away fairly soon after being spotted.

And in related something-else-to-keep-in-mind news, B'ham chiropractor and stud triathlete Erik DeRoche wrote on facebook that up on Galbraith, he came across a fishing line strung across a trail and hung with hooks. That's just seriously f'ed up.

In unrelated news, the Mount Baker Hill Climb (I'll never call it Ride 542) is still going on despite the road not opening to Artist Point this year. I understand that registration is down for the September 11 race which is a shame because this is one of Washington's true gems. You can't beat the scenery, you get the road to yourself and if you're not particularly hill-inclined (ha, a pun), this is the year to do it. That last 10.5-mile climb is 2 miles shorter in this year's version and climbs about 650 fewer feet. (2,350 feet as opposed to 3,000.)

Last two: I gots a story about some of my favorite outdoor schtuff in the latest Adventures NW, available now.

Lastly, early this week I turned frickin' 50!

SHASTA SUMMIT CENTURY REPORT

2011-08-12T20:15:00.000-07:00

I’m a few days removed from the Shasta Summit Century and have had time to reflect on my 10-plus hours in the saddle. Here are my thoughts, all sorta bullet-pointed.

• It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Harder than the 2006 Ironman Coeur D’Alene which I did in 92-degree temps. There, however, I was able to stop every mile during the marathon and shove ice and cold sponges in my cap, my shirt, everywhere. I tried that here (and the Shasta aid stations were terrific) but during a bike tour/century ride, aid stations are fewer and it's farther between each one.

• Because of the heat, I felt horribly nauseous from the four-hour mark on, which was the start of the second climb. (The high was 86 degrees but riding all day on the shadeless tarmac felt much hotter; the ambient temperature was about 100.) I also reached a point on both the third and fourth climbs where I couldn’t elevate my heart rate above 130 (usually on rides like this, I try to stay right around 150) and I began to wonder if I was doing damage to myself. First time I’ve ever had thoughts like that. During these climbs my interior monologue was filled with personal vows: this is the last of the ultra-long stuff. No more Ironmans, no more 50K running races, I’ll probably never do a 100-mile mountain bike race, etc. They’re just not my strength and I don’t want to do permanent damage. Give me three-, four-hour events, but that’s it; Shasta is my swan song to the long stuff. I’m turning 50 in a few weeks so the time seems right.

Mark Clausen and I. Photo by Adam Morley.

• Truthfully, I have no idea how I made it to the end of the final 14-mile climb (with its 4,150 feet of elevation gain) to the foot of Mount Shasta. When I hit the lunch spot after climb 3, I was done and though disappointed, I knew I’d gone as far as I possibly could. So I lay in the grassy shade for what seemed like hours, commiserating with some dude who was going through the same thing I was. I couldn’t eat or even drink anything; I just wanted to go back to my air-conditioned hotel room, lay in bed and watch the Yanks-Red Sox game on TV. At some point though, I realized I was beginning to feel only regular horrible, as opposed to I-want-to-vomit-up-my-guts, shoot-me-now-please-and-put-me-out-of-my-misery horrible, as I'd been feeling. So I got on my bike to pedal back to my car at Mount Shasta City Park.

• Luckily, the route to the park was the same as to get to the final climb and, since I wasn’t feeling quite so bad, with the help of my Garmin 500, I did some quick math. I’d ridden 100 miles to that point and climbed 10,000 feet which I’d done only once before (RAMROD ’04). But if I could just make it another 3 miles or so, I’d have 11,000 feet—my biggest day of climbing ever, so I’d at least be able to salvage something. So I did that. Felt a little more horrible, but not terribly horrible. Then figured I’ll try for 12,000 feet. Did that. Then I figured out where the halfway point of the climb was, then the two-thirds point, then what time does darkness hit? OK, I should be able to make it to the top by then. Bit by bit I fought my way to the top. Meanwhile, however, the heat nausea was back (along with the I-want-to-vomit-up-my-guts, etc.), my upper hamstrings started barking (never had that before) and again, my heart rate wouldn’t elevate past 128. (Lower down on this climb it had more or less been normal.)

• By the time I reached the top, I was certainly relieved, felt some feeling of accomplishment but also was a bit concerned. Other than making a pedaling motion, I couldn’t move my legs very well and at the summit aid station, getting off my bike and trying to walk to get some of the lovely peanut butter-filled pretzels was sketchy. But I’d made it to the top and that's all I cared about. I got me an orange sody pop, soaked myself with ice water and just sat there admiring the views. At 14,162 feet, Shasta is a mega mountain and from our 7,800-foot vantage point, the panoramic vista was incredible. Then it was on to the descent.

This shot is from the hill climb race the day before the century ride. Black Butte is the peak in the foreground, Mount Eddy in the distance.

• Note that at the top, I soaked myself with ice water which at the time felt terrific. However, on the descent this proved to be a problem—weirdly, the exact opposite problem I had on the way up. For by now, the sun had lowered enough that the road was fairly shaded—I swear, I would’ve paid thousands of dollars for any amount of shade during the first nine hours of this ride—and with the 6- to 8-percent downhill grade spurring my bike to speeds of 40-plus m.p.h., it wasn’t long before I was freezing cold. Shivering uncontrollably, in fact, with my bike weaving and wobbling no matter what I did. This had turned into a comedy of errors. And all I wanted to do was get the cuss off the cussing mountain. Alas, I made it down, back to City Park where I ate lasagna and traded Shasta war stories with Seattle’s Mark Clausen and Adam Morley, with whom I’d ridden much of the first 60 miles.

• All this said, this ride and routes are highly HIGHLY recommended. Organization and food are tops. The course is well marked and the towns—Weed, Edgewood and Mount Shasta—are small and traffic doesn’t seem to be an issue. (Though we did see at least one police officer parked by an intersection seemingly itching to hand out tickets to riders who didn’t come to complete stop. I heard about riders being warned about riding too fast on the Castle Lake descent too.)

The 5:30 a.m. start made for early preparations.

• Here’s how the day started: After meeting at City Park at 5:30 a.m., Mark, Adam, Cliff (whose last name I forget) and I rolled out, about 40 minutes before sunrise. The first climb begins at about 13-mile mark (Parks Creek Summit: 13 miles long; 3,800 feet gain) so we were nicely warmed up by the time we hit it. The climb itself is mostly one-lane forest road with some bumps and potholes here and there but ride organizers made sure to highlight them with orange spray paint. Nice safety touch for the descent, which was screaming fast. First climb out of the way we headed for Climb 2. ... which didn't start until after the 60-mile mark. In the meantime you meander across scenic flat and rolling ranchland with giant Mount Shasta overlooking all. Beautiful yes, but by this point the sun is getting ever higher and hotter and truthfully, this stretch through the valley was like pedaling through a furnace. By the time we started climb 2 (Mumbo Summit: 10 miles; 3,300 feet gain), I was roasting, sweat dripping from my arms to my hands and off my handlebars, my jersey totally unzipped and flapping behind me like I’m a school boy with a paper route. (See previous ad nauseam comments re: nausea, etc.)

• Partway up climb 2, I decided I’m going to skip climb 3 (Castle Lake) and go right to climb 4, the 14-mile one to Mount Shasta. That’s the longest, highest, most scenic one and to me, the one that counted the most. But descending from Mumbo Summit, I thought what the heck, I’ll give Castle Lake (7 miles; 2,200 feet) a try. Not a good move. This was the hottest part of the day, where my Garmin registered 100 degrees and where my heartrate first showed a reluctance to go above 130. I got to exactly the halfway point—1,100 feet of the climb gave me 10,000 for the day—and pretty much couldn’t turn the pedals anymore. I was done. After calling my wife for some moral support, I turned around and headed down to the lunch stop, which is pretty much where I started this narrative. Somehow I was able to muster another 4,700 feet of climbing. Total stats for the day: 130 miles; 14,754 feet of climbing; ride time of 10 hours and 23 minutes.

• I don’t think I would do the Super Century again but since I love riding the area—it really is spectacular—I’d be interested in riding the Saturday morning hill climb race (the 14-mile climb to Mount Shasta) and then on Sunday, riding a personally customized century or thereabouts. Maybe the first and last climb, or just the three–Mumbo Summit, Castle Lake, Old Ski Bowl (the 14-mile one)—that are all close to the city of Mount Shasta. Apparently, a lot of people did this or similar rides.

Near the top of Parks Creek Summit, climb 1.

• Pretty cool: I added two new road biking events this year— Mount Shasta Summit Century and the Chelan Century Challenge and they’re probably my new Number 1 and 2 all-time road rides.

SHASTA SUMMIT CENTURY PHOTOS

2011-08-08T23:44:00.000-07:00

More words and pics to follow in coming days ... The updated post is here.

About two-thirds of the way up the Everitt Memorial Highway climb to the foot of Mount Shasta. It's the last climb of four, 14 miles long with 4,100 feet of elevation gain.

Me, relieved to have finally reached the top of that last climb (7,800 feet). In all, I rode 130 miles with 14,750 feet of climbing. Toughest thing I've ever done.

Some incredible (he wrote facetiously) over-the-shoulder photography whilst riding.

More incredible photography whilst riding. Seattle's Mark Clausen and I make our way up the first climb (Parks Creek Summit; 3,800 feet in 13 miles). This is before things got crazy hot.

Me, at the 100-mile mark, when after climbing 10,000 feet despite feeling ickily nauseous for hours--the heat just killed me--I was pretty darn sure my day was done. For a contrast, see above pic taken 15 miles later, and 4,700 feet higher up Mount Shasta.

More from the road to Mount Shasta. It's got to be one of the most beautiful places I've ever visited!

TOUR DE WHATCOM 2011

2011-08-01T13:25:00.000-07:00

Above photo is from the Bellingham Herald website--John Clark and I are the blurred riders; the in-focus dude is someone who rode with us all day but whose name I unfortunately forget.

Given my super-strenuous, epically repetitive ride just two days earlier (four times up the last 8 miles of the Mount Baker Highway; 9,100 feet of climbing) I was kinda sorta fearing Saturday's Tour de Whatcom. Certainly, 105 miles is long and is never something to be taken lightly. But more than that, I knew that given the mostly flat route, the pretty much perfect weather conditions (60s, 70s and sunny) and that all three Titanium Cowboys were riding, that at some point a group mindset of "How fast can we do this?" would take over. And it did. We rode the last 100 miles in 4 hours and 54 minutes My first sub-5 hour century! Cool.

(Way too complicated to get into, but very simply: John Clark and I rode the 4 miles to the start from our homes and then finished the route 4 miles before the end, so I'm counting the last 100 miles of riding as an even century.)

John Clark, Scott Young and I at the Birch Bay aid just stop just before the annoying, head windy return ride to Bellingham.

Fairly early on (I think it was near Lake Samish) we hooked up with two other riders (photographer Tyler Mitchell and a nice guy whose name I forget) who were able to share the workload for the rest of the ride. This was key because, like I say, I wasn't at my strongest. Odd thing about riding so hard for so long is that you don't get a chance to really talk to one another; you're just kind of taking turns rotating off the front. Wouldn't want to ride like this all the time, but every once in a while it's fun.

Our Tour de Whatcom group of five.

Seems to me that in just a half-dozen years or so that the Tour de Whatcom has become insanely popular. Which I hope doesn't begin to work against it. All rides (105-miler, 50-miler, 25-miler) have staggered starts so that they return to Bellingham at roughly the same time. This clogged up a lot of the roads in the north and northwest corner of the county and we saw some odd-slash-dubious choices being made by both riders and vehicle drivers. And the Ferndale Rd.-Slater Rd. intersection was backed up for a few hundred yards with both cars and bikes, something I'd never seen before out in the county. Perhaps in future editions, someone needs to be stationed there to direct car and rider traffic. You'd hate to see riders get hit taking unnecessary chances while trying to cross Slater Road.

But all in all, a great day. Next up, the Shasta Summit Century on Sunday. Yikerz!

MORE MOUNT BAKER REPEATS, REPEATS, REPEATS, REPEATS

2011-07-28T18:14:00.000-07:00

Headed up to Mount Baker today to do four repeats from the D.O.T. shed. Each one was about 8 miles with 2,300 feer of climbing. Here I am right after number 4; I was seeing spots before my eyes.

The road is clear to the visitor center, about 3/4-mile past the upper ski lodge which is as far as they're going to clear it this year. As you can see, there's still a ton of snow. This is where the final switchbacks start and where, during the Mount Baker Hill Climb, things start getting really, really painful.

Bit the bullet yesterday and signed up for the Shasta Summit Century. I think I'll spend my taper week taking a hatchet to the hair on my legs; I need every advantage I can get.

Kinda cool. Nice idea, anyway.

Elevation profile from today's ride.

MORE CLIMBING; TOUR DE FRANCE THOUGHTS; BELLINGHAM-ROUBAIX

2011-07-24T15:48:00.000-07:00

McNeil Canyon descent in last month's Chelan Century Challenge; I'm scared and this isn't even the steep part.

With just a couple weeks to go 'til the Shasta ride that I may or may not do, I spent the last few days getting in a rather eclectic collection of climbs. Mountain biked up the Pine and Cedar Lakes Trail which is probably the steepest ridable trail around B'ham. (That I can think of anyway.) Climbs 1,360 feet in 1.7 miles; my Garmin doohickey registered grades of 36-percent in spots. (Though I don't know how accurate that is.)

Also a climbing workout of Cleator Road followed immediately by a schlep to the top of the Galby Towers (MTB); the next day was some Squalicum Mountain repeats with a foray down to Lake Samish (road bike). Between the two days, I got in eight hours of riding with about 8,000 feet of climbing. So we'll see ...

Speaking of the Tour de France, methought this one was amazing, and I'm super glad Cadel got it done. I'll make a prediction too, that Andy Schleck will never win the Tour de France. Great climber, but that's all he can do. Along with not being a good time trialists, we learned during this tour that he's not a great descender either (he's like me in the top photo) and since Alberto Contador excels at both and is highly motivated to win the next few (he's already said he'll never again do the Giro), I think Andy's climbed as high on the podium as he's ever going to get. (I'm a big Cadel fan but at 34, he's already the oldest Tour winner in the post-war era so I don't expect him to repeat.) The only way Andy wins the Tour de France is if there are no time trials, just 21 mountain stages, and Alberto Contador crashes out. (Or is serving a drug suspension.)

So ends my catechism ...

Switching gears (pun sorta intended), watching so much Tour got me thinking about our Paris trip last year and the incredible day we spent watching Fabian Cancellara destroy the field at Paris-Roubaix. So I thought I'd share a story I wrote about that experience and how it ultimately led to a broken collarbone; the story originally ran in last fall's Adventures NW. Please enjoy ...

The cobbled streets of Compiegne.

Bellingham-Roubaix
by Mike McQuaide
For as long as you can remember, you’ve been this way. You watch someone do something really cool and you get inspired. You think, I can do that! I can be just like them! Even when you probably can’t. Even when you’re probably a little too old to still be thinking this way. Even when it might not be smart or even safe to attempt what it was that so inspired you.

So there you are in the north of France at Paris-Roubaix, the most prestigious one-day bike race in the world. Held each April since 1896, it’s a 165-mile megamarathon known as the Queen of the Classics. Known also as the Hell of the North because of the 28 sectors of rough cobblestones—called pavé—that the riders have to negotiate. Big, blocky hunks of granite lain in the earth a tad sloppily to be honest; some sectors are so rough the riders say it’s as if the cobbles fell off the back of a truck and were left to lie where they landed.

And there you stand at the most famous pavé sector there is, the Arenberg Forest. (Or Trouée d'Arenberg to true aficionados, as you now consider yourself.) You and thousands of screaming, beer-filled Belgians and Flemish and French and Brits and Australians and Americans and Netherlanders and Colombians and cycling fanatics from everywhere.

Tom Boonen pulls the peloton through the Arenburg Forest.

I want me some of that! you think to yourself. I want to be just like them!

You are inspired.
And that evening, on the high-speed train back to Paris, you come across Yoann Offredo, a pro racer who’d just finished Paris-Roubaix for Française des Jeux, a French team. And your mind is boggled because here’s a professional cyclist not only riding the same train as you, but apparently—like you and your family—he doesn’t have a proper seat. Like you he’s forced to squeeze in near the luggage racks. And you talk, you and Yoann Offredo who just finished Paris-Roubaix (64th out of 71 finishers, but he finished!) like you’re two normal cyclists chatting it up at the Farmer’s Market after the Donut Ride. And outside the windows of the high-speed train, the French countryside scrolls by and eventually you see the unmistakable spire of the Eiffel Tower and you think, This is the coolest thing in the world.

Again, you are inspired.

So what you do when you get back to Bellingham is you take that second road bike of yours, the one that hasn’t been ridden much since you upgraded a couple years ago, and you turn it into your Bellingham-Roubaix bike. A bike on which, Tom Boonen-esque, you’ll power over the pavé of Bellingham. OK, if not exactly pavé, you’ll power over the hard-packed dirt and gravel trails of Bellingham’s Greenways. Heck, you figure, if the pros can survive Paris-Roubaix on those delicate bike of theirs, your beefy aluminum bike will be fine.

Fabian Cancellara on the homestretch through Roubaix.

And it is. (For a couple days.) You have a great time pedaling the flats of the Interurban, hitting 22, 24 miles-per-hour, hands on the tops of the bars just like you saw Tom Boonen do in the Trouée d'Arenberg. And you think, This is so much fun! Why doesn’t everybody do this?

Then rudely your question is answered.
You’re Bellingham-Roubaix-ing it on the trail from Boulevard Park to downtown. It’s deserted this early afternoon two-and-a-half weeks after Paris-Roubaix, and so you let it rip. You’re Fabian Cancellara making the winning move in this year’s race, a move so sudden, powerful and fast, that he was accused of riding a motorized bike. Today, Mike, that’s you. You’re hammering it, riding so hard you convince yourself that aging is a myth. That getting slower as you get older is something other people suffer from. Not you. No, Mike, not you.

But then …

… your skinny tires, the ones made for smooth paved roads not rough and tumble riding like this, hit a bump—a thimble-sized bump a hundredth the size of the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix—and your hands slip off the handlebars. You’re launched airborne like Superman, which is a problem because as far as you know, you can’t fly. So while your return to earth isn’t surprising, it’s still jarring, what with the hard crash, the sliding and tumbling over on your right shoulder, and your helmet grinding against the ground before you finally come to a halt.

Ouch.

Your shoulder hurts and when you trace your right collarbone with your finger you reach a point where it just disappears. Like a road that comes to an abrupt end at the edge of a cliff. Broken. You have surgery to pin the pieces back together again and two days later you get a phone call from your buddy John Clark, whom you’ve been riding and running with for the past 10 years and whom you’ve never known to suffer even the slightest injury. He’s calling to tell you that he’s sitting in a ditch waiting for his wife to come pick him up because he just flipped over his handlebars and broke his collarbone. W, T, you-know-what?!

Neither of you are allowed to run or ride for far too many weeks than seems fair and so you go on long walks together. You feel like patients from a mental institution out for your daily exercise. Life, as you know it, has been flipped upside down. How, you wonder, did you go from being Fabulous Fabian Cancellara to someone whose main exertion is a pleasant bayside walk?
You’re one of those annoying types who search for some reason or meaning to attach to things like this, as if your inconvenient little collarbone break has some major role in the order of the universe. Nah. Prolly not. You got carried away and fell off your bike. The law of averages caught up to you. Forty-plus years of riding, probably 40-plus years of getting inspired and carried away, yet this is the first time you’ve broken a bone. Actually, that’s pretty good. You hope you learned something. Maybe, that it’s good to be inspired—fired up, even—by the actions of others. But if your inspiration happens to be a professional athlete two decades younger than you, it’s probably not best to go out and pretend that you’re him.

Or at least wear shoulder pads next time.

John Clark and I.

And when that distinctive French siren heralds the riders’ arrival, and big Tom Boonen wearing the black, yellow, and red of Belgium’s champion, powers past—like a locomotive pulling a train of the best cyclists in the world— you, like the thousands of the beer-fueled fanatics around you, erupt in absolute cycle-craziness. An arm’s-length away, the riders’ bikes rattle and shake over the rough and tumble pavé, like they’re being pedaled down the middle of the railroad tracks on that last annoying section of the Ski to Sea mountain bike course. On their sleek, elegant, featherweight road bikes—bikes not at all built to take this kind of pounding—these pros pedal past with such speed, power and grace that the rush of wind makes your eyes blink.

MORE CLIMBING FOR A RIDE I MIGHT NOT DO

2011-07-14T10:22:00.000-07:00

For someone who's only possibly maybe considering riding the Mount Shasta Summit Century, I've sure been putting in a lot of upward-tilting riding behavior lately. Monday was four times up Squalicum Mountain Road with two of the repeats starting at Northshore Drive and Academy Road (15-percent grade for the first few hundred yards). Academy to Toad Lake to Squalicum Mountain is a sustained 3-mile climb that gains just about a thousand feet.

Yesterday was fat-tire climbing Cleator Road and Burnout Road with a side exploration for what seems to be the sadly departed (and ironically named) So Easy trail. Depending on where you start, the roads are good for 40- and 30-some minutes of sustained climbing. Not exactly sure, for unfortunately my beloved Garmin 500 do-hickey kinda went haywire on me. I got caught in a foggy downpour (as the above pic sorta attests) but I hope-slash-can't imagine that that was the cause of my Garmin's current spot of bother. It's certainly not the first time it's gotten wet.

Looking across the Land of the Lost toward Lake Samish and Lookout Mountain (in clouds).

Re: So Easy, known as Ender and Rockyard on Darrell Sofield's terrific Chuckanut Mountains map, I did not --as Bono sings on one of the biggest hits on "The Joshua Tree"--find what I was looking for. Or rather, I didn't find a ridable trail, just sort of a messy (ish) path (ish) that kinda continued but nothing that beckoned, This is the way! Admittedly, I went only a hundred yards or so, but carrying a mountain bike through the above tangle isn't a good idea especially when you're by yourself. So I headed north down the new logging roads across the open clear-cut (incredible views) and met up with the Dictionary Trail (called Overlander on Solfield's map) and back down toward Fragrance Lake Road and the Interurban. Before I did I snapped off a few pics.

Past the clearcut one can see Bellingham Bay and the lowland part of Lummi Island; Chuckanut Mountain (Chinscraper side) is in the foreground. The curving dirt road leads to the Dictionary trail.

Moving a few degrees to the right (east), that's Lost Lake between Chuckanut Mountain and the big ridge one needs to climb to get to the Pine and Cedar Lakes side of the world.

On the way out, I stopped at Clayton Beach at the south end of Larrabee State Park. (Must remember not to tilt my head when taking self-photos; it don't look butch. And the upside-down glasses behavior looks dodgy as well.)

In other biking news, last Sunday Bake and I headed up to Galby for the first time in perhaps a year. Had a great time. The top Pig and then Atomic Dog (which I kept mixing up with Unemployment Line and refrerring to as Unemployment Dog) which he found great fun!

Oh, and check out my latest story about 5 Roads to Nowhere in today's Seattle Times.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES

2011-07-08T15:49:00.000-07:00

Samish Island, Mount Erie and Samish Bay from about the 1,000-foot level of Burnout Rd.

I wanted to get in more climbing so 24 hours after my Mount Baker repeats, I pulled out the 29er and headed up Cleator Road for a sustained 45-minute climb. Followed that up with Burnout Road, off the south side of Fragrance Lake Road. Along with probably the best unobstructed water views (see above and below) around, it's got four crazy-steep pitches that thankfully, aren't super long.

Burnout Road tops out at about 1,800 feet or so and in the old days, before last fall's logging, you could find the So Easy Trail that dropped down beyond Lost Lake, pass behind Samish Lake and then climb up out of the basin to Pine and Cedar Lakes. And maybe you still can, I just need to take the time and make the effort to find it. Today, I wanted to see if I could connect the Burnout Road with the Dictionary Trail and thus Lost Lake. And as I found out you can. Yipee!

At the top of Burnout--which, like Cleator, tops out at about 1,800 feet--just head through the clearing, look north toward B'ham and Chuckanut Mountain and follow the above road to that point right there. Just before you reach the end, there's a semblance of a trail off to the right. Pop down there and in two or three overgrown trail-riding moments, you'll be at the Dictionary. Very cool. This should make for some epically fun, scenic-as-heck loops.

In all, I got in 31 miles with 3,700 feet of elevation gain. Not sure how mountain bike miles and climbing feet translate to road-riding units. I'd think it'd count for more since my mountain bike is much heavier than my road bike and mountain climbs sometimes reach pitches of 25 to 30 percent. Whatevuh--I've got close to 11,000 feet of climbing in two days. (Which is still 5,000 feet less than the Mount Shasta Summit Century.)

MOUNT BAKER HIGHWAY REPEATS

2011-07-07T18:40:00.000-07:00

Second time up.

I'm getting ever closer to maybe, possibly, I just might consider thinking about doing next month's Mount Shasta Summit Century , the idea of which sorta scares me half-to-death while also intriguing the heck out of me. It's 140 miles long, climbs 16,000 feet, most of that up four mega climbs. A 3,800-footer, a 3,300-footer, a (mere) 2,200-footer and a (gulp) 4,200-footer.

Bizarre, weird dirty sun cups. Like a snowfield of mini-pyramids.

For those of you who know what we've got here in B'ham and Whatcom County, the road to Artist Point (when it's open all the way) climbs just about 3,000 feet. According to my calculations and analysis that means that three of Shasta's four climbs are bigger than the Baker climb. One of them significantly bigger. So that means I gotta do VOLUME! VOLUME! VOLUME! (I mean, if I'm gonna consider possibly thinking about maybe signing up for it 'n all ...)

So that's what I did today. Three rides from the D.O.T. shed at the bottom of the hill to just past the upper Heather Meadows ski lodge and the Road Closed sign seen in the top pic. It's about an 8-mile climb that gains 2,200 feet. I rode it three times which means ... I was still about 10,000 feet shy of the Shasta ride. (Have I made it clear that I'm only thinking about signing up for it?)

I do love this ride. Even on days like this when the weather was getting progressively worse. Each time up I found myself pulling up the arm warmers and zipping my shirt all the way up lower and lower on the mountain. By the last time up, I climbed the last couple miles in a whiteout fog which soon became spritzing showers. In the past week or so, summer has finally come to Bellingham but it was definitely chilly up at 4,200 feet. An typical March day in the Whatcom lowlands, it was. I can't say that descending in rainy conditions was the funnest thing I'd ever done but soon enough I was lower down on the mountain where it hadn't yet begun to rain.

Foggy rainish with hardly any visibility.

Climbwise, I felt pretty darn good. Probably because I knew I was in it for the long haul and never once turned the pedals in anger, as it were. The repeats were for climbing endurance, not speed. Heartrate was pretty darn pedestrian. Nearing the D.O.T. shed on my last trip down, I realized I'd end up with about 51 miles and 6,700 feet of climbing. So I turned around and climbed back up for another mile to get over 7,000 feet of climbing. That felt like something. An accomplishment with a nice round number. That's still 9,000 feet less than the Shasta ride ...

Area man holding up three fingers all Europe-style.

ROAD TO ARTIST POINT WON'T OPEN THIS YEAR

2011-07-01T11:26:00.000-07:00

Story in the B'ham Herald yesterday says that there's so much snow at Artist Point (and on the last few miles of road leading up to it) that they're not even going to attempt to plow it this year. (Read it here.) This adds a whole new twist to September's Mount Baker Hill Climb (Ride 542). Perhaps turn it into a multi-sport event: road biking to Austin Pass, then snowshoeing for the last 2 miles and 600 feet of climbing to Artist Point. And as long as you've got the snowshoes on, might as well make it a race to the top of Table Mountain.

Seriously, this has got to be a bummer for RD Charlie Heggem. Chances are though, he'll come up with something. Stay tuned ...

STEVENS PASS STORY IN SEATTLE TIMES

2011-06-30T10:12:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all, please check out my story about the amazing Stevens Pass Scenic Byway in today's Seattle Times.

MORE CHELAN CENTURY CHALLENGE SCHTUFF

2011-06-28T10:02:00.000-07:00

Hey, check out David Longdon's terrific Chelan Century Challenge post on Velocity, his Seattle Area Cycling Blog on the Seattle P-I website. Great job. Nice detail and pics.

Speaking of Seattle media, I'll have an outdoor-travelish story in Thursday's Seattle Times. It's about the Stevens Pass Highway from Monroe to Leavenworth. Check it out!

CHELAN CENTURY CHALLENGE REPORT AND PHOTOS

2011-06-26T13:45:00.000-07:00

That's David Longdon, who does the cool Seattle-area cycling blog for the Seattle P-I, nearing the top of McNeil Canyon, the featured spot of bother on the spectacular Chelan Century Challenge ride. He's a little less than a mile from the top, a stretch that's consistently 11-percent with a bit of 14-percent thrown in for fun. He, like many riders I saw yesterday, was rocking a SRAM Apex cassette and taking full advantage of its pie-plate sized 32-tooth gear. But of course, there's more to the Chelan Century Challenge than McNeil Canyon so enough about that for now.

The ride's slightly more than 100 miles are split up into three loops--a Manson loop on the north side of Lake Chelan, a McNeil Canyon loop that makes its way down to the Columbia River and then heads up toward the Waterville Plateau and finally, a Navarre Coulee loop which does an up-down to the Columbia, then an up-down which spits you out on the south shore of Lake Chelan about 10 miles west of town.

Longdon dancing on the pedals up McNeil Canyon.

With two epic bodies of water--Lake Chelan and the mighty-as-hell Columbia--as well as those wonderful Eastern Washington dry-side pine forests and craggy canyons, the route can't help but be incredibly scenic. Loop 1 was perhaps my favorite, yanking you up, up, and up on the north side of Lake Chelan before delivering you lakeside via a series of winding, no-traffic roads through orchards and vineyards. These were some fun descents. (I'd never been to this Manson side of the lake before and was just wowed by it; one suggestion though for the town fathers: change the town's name. And don't change it to something like 'Bundy' either.)

After 30 miles and about 2,400 feet of ups, we headed for McNeil and loop 2, which was 40-miles long. I'd ridden most of the loop 1 on my own and figured I'd hook up with a group for the 20-mile jaunt to the base of the canyon. Sit in the back, get a free ride as it were, save my energy for the big beastie. Which pretty much didn't happen. For whatever reason, except for about 5 miles just before the McNeil climb when I hooked up with Longdon and three (or four?) members of Seattle's High Performance Cycling club, I rode the entire route by myself. Kinda surprised me. Wonder if it's because I have that disease that makes me leave as early as I can on rides like this. Most people probably prefer a later start but I want to get at it, and get 'er done, as it were. (And stop as little as possible along the way; thus my lack of photos on Loop 1 and 3.)

Your Titanium Cowboy at mile 6 of the 7-mile McNeil Canyon climb. Photo: David Longdon.

At McNeil, we all went our separate paces and headed for the top. Mile markers have it at a 7-mile climb but it's really the last 5 miles that make one question one's sanity. Though to be honest, I love to climb so I dig this hill. There's something about finding that deliberate, methodical rhythm within me that I find ... I don't know what the word is, maybe it's what other people get from meditation or yoga or prayer or whatever, all I know is that it's a head/mind/soul (?) space that I love.

Weather-wise we were blessed--sunny, not too warm, and though sweat was dripping in my eyes while I climbed and I could feel my arms getting sunburned, because we've had such a dreary wet spring in Bellingham, it felt glorious. Aid stations and volunteers were great throughout the day too, and located in key spots--at top, bottom and middle of McNeil Canyon, for instance.

I'd had much agita about the descent but it wasn't nearly as bad as I'd remembered it from my previous ride. Then, I was by myself, just three months after collarbone surgery and the landscape, while beautiful seemed a tad tumbleweed 'n' rattlesnake scary. Today though (yesterday), I was one of hundreds and felt more comfortable letting the Tarmac Pro hit speeds of 40-plus mph. (Saw Steve Noble heading up while I was heading down; only time I saw him all day.)

Upon returning to Chelan we embarked on Loop 3, up Highway 97 Alt., then after blazing through a tunnel, find ourselves once again beside the Columbia River. Upon which, we immediately headed back up toward (or through?) Navarre Coulee. This was a gradual hill, which sorta climbed, sorta didn't, and with sorta a headwind and sorta not, I found myself at about the 81-mile mark wondering if I was going to bonk. But eventually, after some salty potatoes, a turkey-ham wrap thang from the aid station (as well as Gatorade fortified with Enduralyes Fizz--I kinda like 'em), I made it up the last hill and after another fast descent found myself on the shores of Lake Chelan with about 10 miles left.

Chelan Century Challenge elevation profile.

Found myself aided by a generous tailwind too, which, after some quick calculations in my head, made me realize if I brought it home in strong fashion I could average 15 mph for this thang. Not that that's particularly fast but given the hills (it'd end up gaining 7,800 feet), given that I rode just about all of it by myself (and thus had no draft to benefit from), given that I'm not a time-trial guy, given that I don't have a big endurance engine like a lot of the people I ride with, given that I'm on the cusp of 50, given that I'm from N.J., given that I can't hit lefties very well, given that ... I was psyched. So I hammered, as it were, my Garmin GPS reading 22-, 24-, 21-miles per hour and I brought her home in 6:38 (ride time) for 101 miles. (15.2 mph.)

Here's a caveat (think that's the word I want): the course calls for a ridiculously steep 1.5-mile hill that climbs 600 feet at about the 98-mile mark, but I skipped it. It just seemed dumb and too painful and unnecessary at that point. My sense is that a lot of people skipped it. (Or perhaps I'm rationalizing it to myself.)

Anyway, an amazing event. I highly recommend it. As I was riding the first loop, I was thinking that the Chelan area might just be the most beautiful place to ride in the state. And that the Chelan Century Challenge might just be my favorite organized ride. This or RAMROD. Close call.

CHELAN CENTURY CHALLENGE

2011-06-24T12:14:00.000-07:00

All spur-of-the-moment like, the McQuaide family decided to hightail it out of B'ham and head over to Chelan for tomorrow's crazy-tuff Chelan Century Challenge: 103 miles with 8,600 feet of elevation gain including dread McNeil Canyon.

As I wrote about last year (go here), this beast climbs 2,200 feet in 5 miles, but it's probably the descent that gives me more spots of bother than the ascent. I've a bit of anxiety when my Tarmac insists on going 40-plus m.p.h. whether I want it to or not.
Obviously, with 8,600 feet of climbing, McNeil Canyon isn't the only hill. Looks like the Manson loop on the north side of Lake Chelan has some upward tilters, as does the final loop toward Navarre Coulee. Check out the course here.

Spur-of-the-moment means dealing with the challenge of all rooms in Chelan, Wenatchee and Leavenworth being sold out. But there's always Pateros. So instead of Highway 2 and over, we're approaching from the north--Highway 20 through Winthrop and Twisp, and then 153 along the Methow River to our room at the Pateros Motor Lodge. Or something like that. Hope it's safe. (Actually, it's only 20 miles from Chelan; lots closer than L'worth or W'chee.)
Lookin' forward to it; I'm the only Titanium Cowboy heading over but several other B'ham folks will be there as well as a bunch of High Performance Cycling folks. I'll let you know how it goes!

LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN REVISIT

2011-06-12T15:19:00.000-07:00

Titanium Cowboy steeds atop Lookout Mountain overlooking Galby and Bellingham Bay.

Ran into Val Thompson at Haggens the other day and we got to talking about Lookout Mountain. Which got me a-thinkin' how I've not been there in years. So the following day, which be yesterday, the Titanium Cowboys and I loaded up the steeds and headed for the top of the 2,600-foot bump that from Bellingham looks like Galby's big brother.
Below are some pics and directions for how we got there. First, we headed up Galbraith from the Birch St. side (click here for info on the latest Galbraith Rd. access closure), and made our way via Cedar Dust, the Wall, etc. to the Tower Rd. We turned left, headed up and then left onto Rd. 4000 (the one that passes the Mullet) which we'd eventually follow all the way down to Lake Louise Rd. and Sudden Valley. Along the way we passed the Naughty Nelly-Keystone intersection; just keep following signs for Rd. 4000. See pics below.

Rd. 4000 by intersection of Naughty Nelly and Keystone. The small bump in the upper left is the top of Lookout Mtn, which is about 800 feet higher than Galbraith Mtn.

On the way down to Sudden Valley, we came across a porcupine (really, that's a porcupine running like heck for that black drainage pipe ), ...

... I got a flat tire, and after fixing that, we found ourselves at Lake Louise Rd. where we turned right. A half-mile farther ahead on the right, we found the gated access road ("Lookout Mountain Preserve" was painted on it) and we headed up. It's a pretty epic climb--2,100 feet in 5.3 miles--and given that there are several flat and even downhill stretches along the way, it boasts some crazy-steep pitches. For whatever reason I wasn't quite able to access my big boy climbing legs (perhaps I was still feeling the effects of the City Steeps ride just three days earlier), so it seemed harder than I remembered. The other cowboys climbed like angels though, dancing on the pedals the whole way.

Even though it wasn't a super clear day, at the summit we were treated to terrific island-, lake- and city views.

View from Lookout Mountain: that's Lake Samish in the foreground with Blanchard Mountain just beyond.

Beyond Titanium Cancellara is Bellingham Bay, the San Juan Islands, Lake Padden and a little bit of the Whoopsie Woodle side of Galbraith Mtn.

Heading back down requires 5 or 10 minutes of bushwacking. Just make for the stand of trees in the pic below, trending toward the left side. There're remnants of a trail (ish) so keep your eyes open.

Eventually you reach a logging road. Go right and almost immediatlely, left (not straight). From here, there're myriad logging road intersections, but just stay on the main road that keeps descending; it's fairly obvious. After a 6-mile descent, you'll reach the rifle range (no doubt hearing it long before you see it), where you squeeze around a gate and follow the paved road down to Samish Way. You come out near the I-5 exit 246.

Turning right we headed up to Lake Padden and rode through the horse trails-slash-Indie Series expert loop (or whatever they call it) with an eye toward's next month's Padden Mountain Pedal. Click here for info on that race.)

Another great ride!

IN SPRING A YOUNG MAN'S FANCY TURNS TO THOUGHTS OF ...

2011-06-09T15:58:00.000-07:00

... climbing on a road bike. And so does the fancy of older, more mature dudes like the Titanium Cowboys. Wednesday evening Titanium Cancellara and I linked together a simply nasty series of climbs which I've deemed the City Steeps Sufferfest.

In this photo included for aesthetic purposes only, Titanium Cancellara (Scott Young) huffs it up a climb not on our route. This one's on Camano Island.

In 41.6 miles, we climbed 4,760 feet and here's the kicker: we were never more than six miles (as the raven flies) from my house in the Columbia neighborhood. Here was our route: to Fairhaven where we headed east on Old Fairhaven Parkway to Steep 1, Col d' Steps-40th St.-Samish Crest. Already written about in the below post, this beastie climbs 600 feet in 1.5 miles.

Steep 2 was nearby Governor Street (climbs 200 feet in 0.4 miles) which sorta led to sorta steep Yew Street Rd. which sorta got us over to the Lake Whatcom side of the world. Steep 3, L'Alpe d'Academy Road was the first real spot-of-bother maker, rising relentlessly straight up from the shores of Lake Whatcom. It climbs 550 feet in 1.3 miles and my Garmin GPS doohickey was pinned on 14-percent for the longest while.

The author, himself on a climb not included on the City Steeps Sufferfest. This one is Hurricane Ridge.

Academy Road is on the southern flank of Squalicum Mountain; the next two are in the middle and north side of the hill. Steep 4, Toad Lake-Squalicum Mountain Roads, was the longest and most like the Powerhouse Hill on Ride 542, the Mount Baker Hill Climb. In all, it climbs 885 feet in 2.8 miles with the toughest part (and where I sometimes do hill repeats) being the last 1.5 miles; it gains 580 feet with extended stretches at 10 to 12 percent.
Speaking of Ride 542, Steep 5 passed by RD Charlie Heggem's house on its way to climbing 650 feet in 1.1 miles. It's an obscene bugger, that's for sure, and with stretches of 18- to 20-percent, is by far the steepest of the route.
Except that it's not. For we headed just around the corner (sorta) to Steep 6, King Mountain, at the north end of James Street Rd. Pretty darn short, the 0.3-mile hill climbs about 250 feet with a sustained stretch at 24-percent. Crazy! Not only did I have trouble standing and turning the cranks on my 34-27, but it was all I could do to keep from yanking my front wheel up off the road.

Another non-included climb. This one is Lion Rock near Ellensburg.

That was supposed to be the last one, but then I unwittingly suggested Sehome Arboretum--another great spot for hill repeats--and of course T.C., who was just getting warmed up, was all over it. So that became Steep 7; it climbs 380 feet in 0.9 miles.

Looking at a map, the only steep that's sorta on the route and that we didn't include was Alabama Hill. At one point T.C. did suggest it, but I pretended not to hear him.

Killer ride!

UP FOR AIR

2011-06-01T14:11:00.000-07:00

June 1 was my book deadline for "75 Classic Rides: Washington" and I'm happy to say that this morning, I hit 'Enter' and sent 63,500 words to Mountaineers Books. (Yesterday, I'd Fedexed them 75 maps with elevation profiles and 185 photos.) With luck, those words will be in book stores early next year. Thanks a heck of a lot to the countless bike clubs, bike shops, bike folks, family, friends, as well as John Clark, who helped me out. Whew! The last six weeks have been a push, that's for sure.

For a while now, it's kind felt like the above photo, the last turn before Artist Point during the Mt. Baker Hill Climb when you're so close, but so knackered it's all you can do to just turn the pedals over, and no matter what you do, you can't get to that great big parking lot in the sky fast enough. Mentally, I've kind of felt the below, whatever that look is. (Sideways, too, if you can believe it.)

Celebrated said accomplishment (that I seem unable to shut up about) by riding my bike of course. The Samish Lake loop, hammering the hills and tossing in 15 seconds of standing sprints every two minutes. Hit that residential section above Lake Padden too--Samish Crest--where it's all Tony Soprano mansions on smooth, wide streets that tilt upward at 14-, 15-, even 17-percent. Also linked together a killer 1.5-mile hill that climbs 600 feet--the first part is what B'hammers know as the Steps, then it crosses Samish Way and heads up 40th St. and Samish Crest Way to the end. It's quite rude, and I love it!

Speaking of rude hills, last Sunday, whilst all of Northwest Washington was getting their Ski to Sea on, Titanium Cancellara and I headed down to Skagitland on a 60-miler during which we climbed that bump just off the freeway near Burlington. Hillcrest Drive to Tina's Coma Drive (what kind of name is Tina's Coma?) went seemingly straight up--17-percent--for about a mile. Kwazy!

Ah, feels good to be able to breath again.

MORE STOTTLEMEYER 30 60

2011-05-16T12:06:00.000-07:00

Area man is scrambling to meet his June 1 book deadline so here's the quick and dirty on the Stottlemeyer 30, which the Titanium Cowboys tackled on Saturday. (First up, thanks to Yumay Chang for all the great pics.)

Photo proof (not Photoshopped or anything) that I at one time was actually ahead of Titanium Cancellara and John Clark in a race. Granted, this is about 100 yards into it but I'll take what I can get.

A super day both weatherwise and race wise. The course (for us 30ers) was two 15-mile laps through lots of tight, twisty (in parts, muddy) trails, some fast crazy-fun flowy sections and some dirt road bits too. Not big long climbs or anything (nothing Tower Road or Fragrance Lake Road-esque) but certainly challenging in its own way.

Mild-mannered Scott Young before he turns into ...

Scott and I opted for Single-Speed of which he won and I was 4th. Way to go, Scott! (I think 4th place earns me a naugehyde medal. Or is it pleather?) Johnny Boy Clark rode geared and, sporting a sleek new sexy carbon Niner fork, took 3rd in the Masters division. Quite nice. Our times were something like 2:50 and 2:53 for John and Scott respectively, mine was 3:07.

... Titanium Cancellara with a bit of Jens Voigt's "Shut up, legs!" mindset.

I enjoyed the most cringe-worthy moment of the day when with about 100 yards to the finish , I commenced an all-out uphill sprint to catch the rider just ahead of me. I believe I caught him, but it was all for naught as, in my blind-rage sprinting fury I had no idea where the actual finish line was. Seeing an arrow pointing straight ahead, I followed it back into the woods as if I was about to start another lap. When I caught my error, I skidded to an ugly stop and, now crazily out of control, somehow ended up on my airse in the bushes, embarrased and exhausted, a rather interesting combo. Feeling rather foolish as I sat there, I finally spotted the finish line and watched as three four riders (who, unlike me, weren't sprinting jackasses) crossed it ahead of me. I think I finished 23rd but would've been top 20 had I not sprinted.

The beginning of a very fun, if painful 3 hours.

Truth be told, I learned nothing. I'd sprint again in a second. Though perhaps with an eye out for the finish line next time.

STOTTLEMEYER 30/60 PHOTOS

2011-05-15T07:06:00.000-07:00

Words to follow.

Start of the 60-mile race.

A mile in and I've already got a glob of mud on my helmet cam.

Clowns on the ferry.

Moments before the start of the 30-mile race.

And there goes Clark!

The fun flowy part of the course. (Note smudge on camera lens where mud glob used to be.)

Titanium Cowboys.

Titanium Clowns.

LOGGING AFTER EFFECTS ON CEDAR DUST; MORE EASTERN WASHINGTON

2011-05-08T20:46:00.000-07:00

Today was my first ride on Cedar Dust since all the logging they've done up there. Even though the trail is intact and still ridable it just feels like a completely different place. The familiar has been made unfamiliar which is a good thing, if you're say, writing a story or a song or something, but a bit disorienting otherwise. Below, Titanium Cancellara at the ladder bridge section.

Below, Johnny Boy Clark at the bottom of El Polo Elastico (Rubber Chicken). Bits of the Mullet were thinned out as well.

Spent a lot of the past week in Eastern Washington collecting routes for my Classic Road Rides book which comes out next year. Please enjoy some pics:

The Palouse. Like giant wheat covered moguls.

Highway 2. Flat. Straight. And windy.

Mount Spokane. A very cool climb.

Outside Walla Walla. Beautiful smooth rounded hills and very few cars.

They've got fast cows over there near Oroville.

AREA MAN WEARS HELMET CAM ON DONUT RIDE TO BIRCH BAY

2011-05-01T13:13:00.000-07:00

Rusty Dodge laughs at the prospect of myclimbing efforts on the upcoming Vista Drive hill.

Farmland outside Fernburg.

The Vista Drive rotary. I believe that is Ironman age group world champion Kelly Molaski in blue on the right.

Leaving B'ham on the way to Ferndale, Birch Bay, Red River Rd., etc. Lots of Fanatik dudes on the Donut Ride.

The streets of Ferndale.

Fun ride despite the rain. Forty-something miles. Day before was the first true epic mountain bike ride with the Titanium Cowboys in ages. Both Chuckanut and Galbraith mountains--38 miles with 4,600 feet of climbing, more than 4-1/2 hours of ride time. Terrifically fun, dirty and muddy. As all of life should be, really.

LUMMI ISLAND STORY HITS SEATTLE TIMES

2011-04-28T08:45:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all, today's Seattle Times features my story about Lummi Island's Baker Preserve Trail, as well as a bunch of the island's other cool features and things to do. Read it here.

Above, some cool helicopters at Blue Earth Monuments and Signs (located down the end of Wild Wabbit Woad), made from recycled tools 'n' such. Below, Lummi Island in the foreground (B'ham and Mount Baker in the background) as seen from the top of Orcas Island.

EASTERN WASHINGTON IN APRIL; GALBY NEWS

2011-04-21T17:19:00.000-07:00

Headed over to Eastern Washington this week for some more book route scouting, photo-ing and even some riding. Into your Leavenworths, Wenatchees, Watervilles, Chelans, Malagas, Ellensburg, Yakimas, Naches—stop me, please. (Above is P Road NW on the Waterville Plateau, above the Columbia River.)

Below are rock walls of the amazing Yakima Canyon between Ellensburg and Yakima.

Something else I'd not seen before--or at least not for a while--blue sky, as seen in the photo below at the top of Joe Miller Road, a seriously crazy-steep hill just south of Wenatchee. My Garmin sed it was 14-percent in stretches, which is even steeper than Bow Hill. They race the Wenatchee Omnium on it, which is crazy.

Below, a cool view of Wenatchee from Badger Mountain, the 4,000-foot wall that rises high above the east bank of the Columbia River.

Don't want to get my hopes up too much but today's Herald story seems to imply that there's some positive movement in the Galbraith-B'ham-County-WHIMPs issue. If nothing else, it looks like runners, hikers, bikers, sightseers etc. will still be allowed up there after the original agreement with the WHIMPs ends on Monday. And unless I’m wrong it looks like they’ve got another agreement worked out. Yay! (Read the latest from club president, Mark Peterson here.)

PHOTOS OF AN APRIL MORN ON GALBRAITH

2011-04-16T15:27:00.000-07:00

We'd planned on riding the Donut Ride but the roads were still slick from last night's rain so with helmet cam in tow, we headed up to Galbraith instead. Hoping, wishing, fingers crossed, etc., that isn't our last-ever ride up there. Above, Titanium Cancellara up and stomps it. (Somewhere, I'm not sure where.)

Above, John and Scott catch their respective breaths and get ready for the ride down from the Towers. We talked much about the whole Polygon-Galbraith-the city-the mayor-etc. thang, wondering how it'll play out. To lighten the tension, we tossed up ridiculous Onion-esque headlines, such as: "Polygon Moves to Have Ski to Sea Cancelled"; "Polygon Buys Mt. Baker Ski Area; Illegalizes Snow," etc.

Above, T.C. on the slippery Mullet bridge. Below, he again stomps it. (Dammit.)

Kinda cool: the three of us have signed up for next month's Stottlemeyer 30-Mile Mountain Bike race near Port Gamble. Should be lots fun. (And hard as hell.)

A great ride; let's hope there're many more!

THINGS BEGINNING TO SEEM OMINOUS FOR GALBRAITH MOUNTAIN BIKING

2011-04-12T08:05:00.000-07:00

Bummer story today in the Bellingham Herald reporting that Polygon Financial, who owns the 3,000-plus acre hiking-biking-running-family walking playground, is ending their agreement with WHIMPs Mountain Bike Coalition. (WHIMPs is the Bellingham mountain biking club that's been the recreational stewards of Galby for some years now.) In January, Polygon started logging the lower flanks of the mountain closing (we hoped temporarily) a few trails. Now though, they're ending the stewardship agreement and I can't help but wonder what's next. My guess is nothing good. (And boy, I'd love to be wrong on this one.)

A part of me wonders if they're doing this to try to get the city (and/or county?) to pony up the $20 million to buy it. Read (and weep) the story here.

Here's a link to Preserve Galbraith, a group working to keep public access to Galby. And here's a link to the WHIMPs site which details the agreement termination.

Ugh.

AREA MAN'S PARIS-ROUBAIX PREDICTION: THOR

2011-04-09T19:47:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know the above shot is of last year's winner Fabian Cancellara haulin' arse through Roubaix just before entering the velodrome, but for whatever reason I think it's going to be Thor Hushovd's year. (Or maybe Flecha finally gets one?) Above pic is from last year's race; below shot is a video capture my son took at pretty much the exact same moment:

He got the better shot.

Rode the Donut Ride today for the first time in about a year-and-a-half. (Titanium Clark and Titanium Cancellara rode it too.) Man it was fast, especially the tailwind-aided ride out to Birch Bay which we made in an hour and three minutes. (It's 21.5 miles.) The Donut starts early, 7 a.m., and so by 9:45 you're back in town and you've already got 45 miles in. Nice.

I took the above pics at the end of Walnut Street where the peloton passes coming from downtown. I thought I'd have no trouble latching onto the back after taking my last shot. But with the tailwind (or my dubious time-trialing skills), it took me 10 minutes of pedaling about all-out to finally get on a wheel. I'm not sure I ever recovered the entire ride. Still a lot of fun though. Below is the Birch Bay stop.

TWO GREAT JANUARY RIDES ... IN APRIL

2011-04-03T12:53:00.000-07:00

Saturday was mountain biking Chuckanut with the Titanium Cowboys, John Clark and Scott Young. Down the Interurban, Fragrance Lake Road to Cleator wherein we all decided we don't feel like climbing any more, then down 2-Dollar as evinced in the above photo. Sunday, Scott and I got in 40-mile road ride: down Chuckanut Drive, where we hooked up with a group of triathletes for a bit, before tilting at a nasty headwind in the Skagit Flats and then turning inland where the evil 13-percent Bow Hill awaited. Both days were damp with temps in the low 40s which isn't bad for January. But of course it's April. Then again, it's NW Washington so what do I expect? (Just a hint of sun and about 12 to 15 more degrees.)

Hey, these are really cool. Titanium Cancellara's wife Gail, made some Titanium Cowboy buttons. (I guess that makes our wives Titanium Cowgirls.) See below:

Suh-weet!

Switching gears, interesting story in this month's Bicycling magazine: Bill Strickland, long-time Lance Armstrong supporter and author (he wrote "Tour de Lance: The Extraordinary Story of Lance Armstrong's Fight to Reclaim the Tour de France") comes right out and says he's convinced that Lance doped. Bold move by such a mainstream magazine--I noted there were no Trek or Carmichael Training Systems ads (both as usually big advertisers in the mag) as well. Curious as to how this will affect the magazine's bottom line.

MORE PENINSULA PICS; KILLER ROAD RIDE

2011-03-27T19:17:00.000-07:00

First up, here're more legitimate (as it were) phots from last week's Olympic Peninsula foray. Above, Port Townsend. Below, mountains, the North Cascades to be exact, shortly after sunrise. Taken from the Coupeville-PT ferry. Below that, Mount Baker from about 65 miles away. That be some big mountain!

Now to the matter at hand. The weekend riding excursion. All week, the weather reports forecast nothing but rain, wind, etc. I thought for sure we wouldn't be riding. So I went out Friday and ran hard (for me). About 45 minutes in all with a 20-minute stretch where my heartrate was consistently 170-plus. No biggie, I'd for sure be taking it easy the next day.

Imagine my surprise and delight (sorta) when I woke to blue skies and no wind. A text, a phone call and a couple hours later, and I'm chasing the Titanium Cowboys across the windswept chipsealy landscape of the Skagit Flats, turning far more pedals in anger than I should've been. I was hanging on for dear life, in one spot of bother after another, until finally I fell into the pain cave and couldn't get up. That's how it felt anyway. But it was great fun. We did 60 miles, threw in Chuckanut Drive, Bow Hill (14 percent, that one), Lake Samish--all the goodies. And oh yeah, the single-speed mtb has made Titanium Cancellara even stronger and more impossible to keep up with. So there's that.

Great weekend for sports watching too--Fabian Cancellara wins E3 Prijs; Tom Boonen wins Gent-Wevelgem; and in the NCAAs, both Butler and VCU advance to the Final Four!

AREA GUIDEBOOK AUTHOR VISITS OLYMPIC PENINSULA

2011-03-23T18:51:00.000-07:00

Sure, there's breathtaking beauty over here--incredible mountains, forests, lakes, not to mention terrific road riding--yet somehow, I find myself perhaps most intrigued by these road names, all of which are just outside Sequim, in the banana belt. (Or should that be banana hammock belt?)

Saw some turkeys too!

THINGS WE SAW ON TODAY'S GALBY RIDE

2011-03-20T14:23:00.000-07:00

Logging. Saw evidence of logging on trails we ride frequently. To the left would be Cedar Dust, to the right Rock 'n' Roll, both of which are closed now and for the foreseeable future. (The Wall would be straight ahead.) Also closed was Family Fun Center (see below) and the Intestine and probably a couple others as well. Good story with map of what's impacted can be found on the WHIMPS site here. Essentially, it's pretty pointless to enter Galby from the north side right now.

But the whole south side of the mountain appears unaffected for right now so the Titanium Cowboys and I made our way after a few fits and starts to the Tower road--Whoopsie Woodle-Three Pigs side of the world. Theys trails still is da' bomb over there, that's fer sure!

Saw the above, too, on the side the Ridge Trail on the way up. A pair of binoculars in a box for all to enjoy the great views of Bellingham, the San Juans and the surrounding mountains. (See B'ham and the bay below.) Thanks a lot for generously sharing your binocs, whoever you are!

Also wanted to give shout-outs and kudos to all those folks doing trailwork connecting Raptor Ridge to the Lost Lake Trail on North Chuckanut Mountain. Here's a story on the WHIMPS site. Seems to be a WHIMPS-Whatcom County Parks and Rec-Daniel Probst and his cronies production. Good on all ya'! (And if I don't have the credit right, feel free to correct me.)

SPRING OUTDOORS STORY HITS THURSDAY'S SEATTLE TIMES

2011-03-16T20:24:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all check out my story in the Northwest Weekend section of Thursday's Seattle Times on outdoorsy ideas for kicking off spring. Which starts Sunday. That's what the calendar says anyway. The weather lately? Not so much.

BIKE EXPO; BOOK ROUTE SCOUTING

2011-03-13T22:42:00.000-07:00

Area man looks fairly stunned to be standing astride a $9,000 carbon Specialized Epic (29er, of course).

All right so the weather's been unbelievably crummy for as long as I can remember blah, blah, blah. Perfect indoor weather, however, for the Seattle Bicycle Expo this past weekend and since I have a book due June 1 (Classic Road Rides of Washington) and need to scout out a bunch of routes, I combined the two. Hit the expo for a few hours, reupped my supply of bike porn, then headed down to the Rochester-Galvin-Vader- Boistfort-Adna end of the world. (In fact, I'm in a motel in Kelso as I type this.) Heading down to Vancouver, WA, tomorrow.

Below, please enjoy some expo pics.

Padauk and black walnut time trial/triathlon bike ridden and Kona Ironman last year. $3,500.

Cool wooden mountain bike at the Renovo booth. The wood is hickory and padauk, $6,700.

World champion artistic cyclists--Stefan Musu and Lukas Matla from Germany.

SNOW, SNOW, GO AWAY ...

2011-03-06T15:47:00.000-08:00

At the top of the Wall, which we had the good sense not to ride, we came across Robin Smith and Tjalling Ypma, one of whom (I forget who) took the above pic. Thanks!

Saturday, the Titanium Cowboys headed up to Galby where, guess what, we ran into snow for a change. About 4 to 6 to 8 inches starting at 900 feet. Luckily, someone (or several someones) in a truck (or several trucks) had dug some nice tracks for us (see below) and staying in them as far as we could, we made it just about to the top.

Whoever made the tracks didn't go all the way so I walked the last stretch to get the below photo. The hard, crunchy, fairly-impossible-to-ride-through snow is so deep my bike is standing up on its own.

The way down was Woopsie Whoodle (which we bailed out on halfway down because of snow), the Three Pigs and the back trails at Padden which were mostly snow-free. Nice running into Cathy Crouch who I tried riding all of Galbraith with one day last October. (See below post.) She was making her way up towards the towers, taking avantage of aforementioned truck track.

Sunday, we did something we haven't done together for almost a year--fired up the road bikes for 30-some miles in the county. What larks! First road ride for Johnny Boy Clark since last May when he broke his collarbone. (Ten days after I'd broken mine.) Saw tons of eagles and swans on the way out to Wiser Lake; we rode back on Noon Road which delivers one to the Mount Baker Highway via a series of stinging hills.

Two great days of riding!

SPRING 2011 'ADVENTURES NW'

2011-03-02T19:42:00.000-08:00

Pick up the great new issue of Adventures NW--lots of great stories and photos including one story about a band of idiots who attempted to ride all of Galbraith Mountain in one day. (What a bunch of galoots!) We--I mean, they--were 50-percent successful!

Adventures NW is available free at hundreds of locations throughout Washington.

AREA MAN PRETTY DAMN SICK OF FREEZING RIDES THROUGH DEEP SNOW

2011-02-27T15:10:00.000-08:00

View yesterday from the top of the Wall on Galbraith Mountain.

When's spring?

ADVENTURES NW STORIES AVAILABLE ONLINE

2011-02-25T10:59:00.000-08:00

Vern Latta and Tammy Bennett on the home stretch to Artist Point.

Past stories from Adventures NW are now available online which is coolio because I've written for every single issue in its five-year history. Here's one I wrote about great road bike hill climbs that appeared in the Winter issue. Enjoy!

PAVED TRAILS STORY HITS SEATTLE TIMES

2011-02-24T07:44:00.000-08:00

Hey, check out my story about some of the cool paved bike trails around Puget Sound in today's Seattle Times. I highlight Soos Creek, Centennial, East Lake Sammamish, Snoqualmie Valley and Foothills trails. (That's the Foothills trail above.) Find the story here.

OUTDOOR WRITER GUY STARTS FACEBOOK PAGE

2011-02-22T20:17:00.000-08:00

Ever on the cutting-edge of technology (he wrote facetiously), I've started a Facebook page devoted mostly to my outdoor writing and photo-ing. Find it here. Enjoy!

SINGLE-SPEED HURTS SO GOOD

2011-02-19T15:47:00.000-08:00

Above, note mega-smile playing about the lips of our Titanium Cancellara whose wife, Gail, suprised him a week or so ago with a Valentine's Day single-speed, the Redline Monocog 29er. It's the same model I've been enjoying the past year-and-a-half (as well as spent a fair amount of that time in the pain cave) and well, now that Scott's got one, the single-speed rides are sure to get more fun. (And more painful.)

Last week was Scott's maiden S-S foray and I could tell it was love, lust, and long-term commitment from the first mile. He Ioves the simplicity--no shifting, no potential chain-suck, no choices really--just pedal.
"It's so quiet; it's like running," he said at one point.

I echo his sentiments. Now we just gotta Johnny Boy Clark (below) to take the plunge.

Today's route was down the Interurban, up Fragrance Lake Road and the Lost Lake Trail--seriously steep, but S-S Cancellara rode it clean the whole way whilst I had to walk at three spots. (That's good for me). Then down into the Lost Lake basin and out north to Arroyo Park, with a detour for Lower Hush Hush.

The stretch north from Lost Lake is in a sort of slot between Chuckanut Ridge and Raptor Ridge and is always a crazy fun ride: arrow straight with a few dips, doodles and obstacles to keep it interesting and overall, slightly uphill. But you can ride it pretty fast if you're motivated and of course, we always pretend we're in the Arenburg Forest in Paris-Roubaix and push it as hard as we can. Today was no different; I hung onto Titanium Cancellara's wheel as long as I could and then had to let him go. So much damn fun!

While up on Chuckanut, we got off the bikes and went exploring to see if we're any closer to being able to use the So Easy trail. I'd say no. They've been logging up there for about six months don't look close to being done. Great views of Lummi Island and the rest of the San Juan Islands though.

Below pic is me after riding the Fragrance Lake Road stretch, trying to keep Scott in view. It climbs 935 feet in less than 2 miles and I think I rode it as fast as I ever have on the single-speed (heart monitor read 183 at one point), which probably explains why I look a bit knackered.

INDIE SERIES 2011

2011-02-09T10:48:00.000-08:00

Some info, including a tentative schedule, just came out regarding this year's Indie Series. Find it here. Looking forward of course to the Bellingham race July 24th, and very intrigued by the Methow race (Methow Cycle and Sport Challenge--June 25th) which takes place at Loup Loup Ski Area. Gots to get my climb on. Of course Leavenworth is always da' bomb (June 4) and man oh man, I can't wait for summer.

AIN'T NUTHIN' BUT A GALBY THANG, BABY

2011-02-05T14:10:00.000-08:00

John and TC on the Mullet bridge, the kind of bridge I like: wide as heck, no more than a foot off the ground. Nice.

I dig that creepy smile I'm rockin'. The ill-fitting glasses too. Behind me is da' boyz: Glenn (Ricky) Gervais, Titanium Cancellara, Johnny Boy Clark and Professor VanderStaay.

The handsome Glenn (Ricky) Gervais pretending to do something important to his seatpost. I dig his new Radio Shack jersey. I hear black is the new black.

Glenn rocks the Mullet bridge.

AND PEOPLE WONDER WHY SO MANY CYCLISTS ARE DOPERS

2011-02-03T16:23:00.000-08:00

Sign on the Soos Creek Trail encouraging cyclists to succumb to performance-enhancing drugs.

Oh, and in other news, check out my story in today's Seattle Times about Camano Island.

RIDIN' AND SHOOTIN' WITH THE HD HERO

2011-01-27T17:09:00.000-08:00

Got the HD Hero camera for Christmas and so far have used it more for photographs than the HD video. The video’s great but HD doesn’t work with MovieMover and since I’m not the overly eager techie geekmeister-type, I’ve not pursued it too much re: what one has to do to convert the MVI files to AVI or viceversa. (Or something therein related.) But I have been getting a bang out of the photos it takes on rides. Granted, 90 percent of them come out like this …

... or like this...

... but since they’re digital it doesn’t matter because I can just toss them.

When I'm out for a ride, I mount the camera to my helmet, set it to take photos every 10 seconds and forget about it for the next hour or so. With an 8 gig disk, when I get home I’ve got like 900-plus (literally) photos, of which about 30 are keepers.

Here's a cool sequence toward the end of last Saturday's ride on Old Fairhaven Pkwy where we usually try to push it as hard as we can. Scott demonstrates why we call him Titanium Cancellara.

Scott is in yellow, just ahead of him is John.

I skipped a shot so this is 20 seconds later; Scott is still just behind John.

10 seconds later, Scott has already opened up a huge gap.

Ten seconds later, I've passed John but Scott is already in the next county. I've got no chance. All in the span of what--20 seconds? (I think he's got one of those motors Fabian C. was alleged to have used at Flanders and Roubaix last year.)

I’m eager to use the camera this spring and summer on the road bike to get some cool shots for my book. Speaking of road riding, I got out on two road rides this week! Boo-yah, plus one bag of chips, as the kids say. (Or maybe I just imagine them saying that.)

GALBY RIDE PHOTO ESSAY (as it were)

2011-01-22T16:13:00.000-08:00

Scott Young, John Clark, Glen Gervais and Steve Vanderstaay at the top of the Wall. (Which we had the good sense not to ride.)

Steve and John make the turn at the blue rock to head up to the towers. (Which we never made it to; we descended Whoopsie Woodle.)

My shadow on Whoopsie Woodle. Damn nice shadow, innit?

The gang before the second half of Whoopsie Woodle, the half where at some point I inevitably damage my manhood failing on this minor drop that's not even all that difficult.

Steve disappearing ahead of me on WW.

Ever the time trialist, Scott even rests in an aero position.

At the bottom of Three Pigs, we say good-bye to Glenn; great to have him along today!

And there goes Young!

Scott, as usual, stoned on the ride. Actually, that's not true; he's narcoleptic and falls asleep from time to time.

Here my crew is negotiating a peace settlement with Steve Noble's crew which includes Dave Flemming and Val Thompson. Luckily, violence was averted.

And thus we cruise back to town via the newly opened Pattle Point Bridge. A super duper ride!

RIDIN', RACIN' PLANS FOR 2011

2011-01-14T16:12:00.000-08:00

Crummy January weather has me looking ahead to when it'll one day be warm and sunny. Or at least not so cold 'n' wet 'n' windy. First up, I've gotta finish my Classic Road Rides of Washington book, however the weather hasn't exactly been cooperative of late. Oh well, nothing I can do about that.

So I'll look forward to mountain bike races and road rides. I've already mentioned ad nauseum Oregon's High Cascades 100 and Olympia's Capitol Forest 50, both of which are beginning to fill and making me a little nervous that I won't get in. ('Course if I made a decision on which I want to do, that'd probably solve everything, wouldn't it? ) Another one that's caught my eye is the Test of Endurance 100-miler (and 50-miler), also a Mudslinger event in Oregon.

Certainly want to do a couple of the Indie Series races. Had a great time two years ago but missed all of last season with a broken collarbone. (2011 schedule doesn't seem to be out yet.) BuDu Racing also has their series which runs February through April so I may jump into one or two of those races. Last year I single-speeded (izzat a word?) Cookin' in the Kettles, on a great course through Whidbey Island's Fort Ebey State Park.

Probably do some local(ish) road events too--Skagit Spring Classic in May, the Tour de Whatcom in July. I've done Wenatchee's Apple Century a couple times, which usually heads north along the Columbia River to Chelan. I notice this year's course, however, heads inland toward Leavenworth and Lake Wenatchee. That could be kind of cool, especially if there's a tailwind from L-town east. One that intrigues me (and one that will definitely hurt) is the Chelan Century Challenge which heads up McNeil Canyon. The overall ride climbs 9,000 feet with 2,200 of it up the 5-mile McNeil Canyon Road. Not sure how they do it, but apparently you can ride McNeil Canyon as a timed hill climb. (See here for my McNeil Canyon write-up.)

Speaking of hill climbs, after a couple years off, I think I'd like to give the Mount Baker Hill Climb (Ride 542) another shot. (Click here for my write-up on the last time I raced it.) Which means of course I'll be starving myself throughout July and August to somehow get my weight below 160. My best time was 2008: 1:38:10. This year I'll be in a new age group (as opposed to say, a New Age group), 50-59. Damn, that sounds frickin' ancient!

KEITH RICHARDS' "LIFE"

2011-01-11T12:16:00.000-08:00

In non-bicycle related news, I'm really quite enjoying the Keith Richards autobiography, "Life". I've been a huge Stones fan ever since I reviewed their 1994 Kingdome show for the Bellingham Herald. I'd anticipated a bunch of ancient bizillionaires sleepwalking through worn-out classic rock hits but was absolutely blown away by their energy, humor and fantastic musicianship. Surprised most of all by Keith who proved to be a kick-ass guitarist genuinely appreciative of, and humbled by, his audience. (My 20th-row seats probably added to the experience as well.)

Anyway, the book is great fun. A lot of excess of Keith's part but that's no surprise. Doesn't seem to pull any punches on his opinions of other musicians (Mick, Prince, Springsteen among others don't come off too well), and as a guitar player, I get a kick out of reading how Keith discovered the five-string key of G thang.

And hey, check out the below pic of Keef holding off Lance on Alpe D'Huez. Who knew?