TITANIUM COWBOYS WELCOME DECEMBER

I've been doing mostly cyclocross and running this fall and thus haven't been out on the MTB in a while. So it was great to hit the Galby on Saturday for three hours with the Titanium Cowboys. We even got lost (sorta) a couple times which added a bit of variety to the experience.

Check out Scott's sleek and sexy Niner carbon fork which makes his already feather-light titanium rig even lighter. Oh goodie!

Mellow Johnny whooping and woodling.

Deception Pass 25K is this Saturday. (Yikes!) 

TODAY'S GALBY-PADDEN RIDE

Saw this dude, Mark Miller, up on Unemployment Line. Kwazy!

And of course as one often does, we ran across Miss Whatcom County, Kimball Gainor, at Lake Padden. (Makes perfect sense, right?)

Titanium Cowboyz in the Galby House!

Carol Frazey and Christy Fazio, some running compatriots of ours.

Me, gettin' all hard-core on the unicyle. It only looks like I'm holding onto the tree for support.

 

 

 

EARLY MORNING GALBRAITH MOUNTAIN RIDE

Super cool, super fun, super early MTB ride up on Galby this a.m. w/ Glenn G., Bryan S. and Asa K. (the Logos Crew). Glenn's partaking in some Strava contest and wants to climb a bizillion feet this week so we essentially climbed the Tower Road to the top of Unemployment Line, rode down it, then climbed the Tower Road back up again. Four times, I think. Finished off with some Mullet, Cheech 'n' Chong, Not Shawn's action. And then I dropped down and did the Padden upper loop. So much darn crazy-arsed fun it's almost not to be believed! (Bryan above, Glenn below.)

Glenn and I (me rocking a pair of ill-fitting and not-too-comfortable Lowe's safety glasses) on the Tower Road climb.

In other news, the book ("75 Classic Rides: Washington") has been getting some cool press this week. Yesterday, the Seattle Times ran a Q & A interview that I did with the very nice Mary Ann Gwinn. (Who, btw, is a past Pulitzer Prize winner!) And Biking Bis wrote a review of both my Classic Rides Washington book and Jim Moore's "75 Classic Rides: Oregon". Thanks a lot Mary Ann and Biking Bis! Much appreciated.

Oh, and here's our route:

GALBY MTB, FIRST TIME IN A WHILE

On this day four years ago, me da' passed and I generally like to mark the anniversary date by getting in a ride or run or hike that tips my cap to him for among other things, influencing my love of the outdoors. (Here's a link to something I wrote a few years ago for the Seattle Times about that very subject.)

It being the middle of the week, I didn't have time for anything epicish (i.e., multiple repeats up the Mount Baker Highway, which I've done in the past) so instead, I broke out the single-speed--which I haven't ridden in a while--and headed up to Galbraith with the intent of setting some personal bests on Strava. (Which I did; amazing how much faster one can go when it's dry.) 

Check out the above Lord of the Rings-ish tree with its roots spidering across the top of a boulder; I'd not seen that before. (Of course, with all the logging up there lately, I saw lots of stuff I'd not seen before.)

At the top, I met some downhiller-freerider types from Victoria, B.C., who were in the midst of an epic mountain bike tour of the Northwest (Wash., Oregon, Idaho, etc.) with their final destination being Moab, Utah. Sounds fun! I, of course, took the time to pimp my new book, showing off my sandwich board-esque bike jersey:

Speaking of my book (we were speaking of it, weren't we?), I heard from Seattle's Adam Morley who just received his copy of "75 Classic Rides: Washington," which he ordered through Mountaineers Books--so I guess it's now available! 

Anyway, another terrific ride, another terrific day in the great outdoors--thanks, dad!





MORE POWERDIRECTOR MADNESS

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.)

PHOTOS OF AN APRIL MORN ON GALBRAITH

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

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.