AREA BOY SURVIVES BACON-MAPLE BAR

Nothing quite says Breakfast of Champions like strips of bacon atop a maple bar, wouldn't you say? Bake's been eyeing this thing for weeks at Rocket Donuts but yesterday took the plunge. Today in school, he shared his experience with the class. Would he recommend it? someone asked. No, not really, he said. But at least he took a risk.

Today was a climb up Cleator Road via the 24-pound Fantom CX. Killer climb--1,700 feet (from Chuckanut and Hiline) in 3.8 miles. Subtract about a mile from that for a mostly flat stretch in the middle--1,700 in about 3 miles. Evil.
From the top, I rode (the brakes) down Fragrance Lake Road to an old forest road that lots of folks refer to as the Burnout Road. I've run down it a couple times before from the Lost Lake/Dictionary end of the world and have been meaning to CX-plore up it. Not too far up is probably the best Samish Bay-San Juan Island viewpoint around. See below. It's about a 180-degree view extending far down into Skagit and north to the San Juans and lower BC.
That prominent bump there above is Mount Erie which we rode two weeks ago and I wrote about a couple entries below.

Finally, I'll leave you with some more bacon maple goodness:

MOUNT ERIE RIDE

Ah yes, Mount Erie ...
... let me just say that this is probably the hardest frickin' hill I've ever ridden. (Perhaps contributing to that impression is that Scott Young, this other person, and I had already ridden 40 miles to get there, much of it into those Skagit headwinds.) Mount Erie Road climbs 900 feet in 1.7 miles, 600 of that in the last mile. And the leadup from the south climbs about 400 in probably 1-1/2 miles. Above, see Pinkboy Young doubled over the handlebars in exhaustion and me wearing an expression of a mouth-breathing goober whilst I try to catch my breath.
Afterward, Scott, the other person, and I stopped at the charming Lake Erie Grocery for refreshment. The retired gas pumps were stuck $1.45 per gallon. Below is Mount Erie, also renowned as rock climbing hotspot.


On the way back, we added a loop around Lake Samish and a mini-Donut ride out Marine Drive to total 100 miles. With 4,600 feet climbing. RAMROD, here we come!