2012 IN PHOTOS (Part 1)

As 2012 draws to a close, I thought I'd share some pics from throughout the year. Lotsa, mostly, pretty much all bike-related. Here's January through June. Enjoy! 

JANUARY 

Saw about three dozen Snowy Owls just north of the border at Boundary Bay. Here's one on the wing.

Orcas Island 25K. We're heading over there in about a month for the 2013 edition. 

(We'll skip FEBRUARY AND MARCH. Everything I shot then was gray 'n' rainy.)

APRIL

I met governor-elect Jay Inslee at the top of Badger Mountain above Wenatchee.

Some CX-ploring at Sage Hills on the other side of the Columbia River above Wenatchee. Much of this area would be scorched by fires in the fall.

MAY

My latest book, "75 Classic Rides: Washington," came out!

Riding across the Skagit Flats with the Titanium Cowboys in the Skagit Spring Classic. 

Here I am as featured guest author person on the Chuckanut Radio Hour.

JUNE

Met with Seattle's Tom Meloy (seen here) to rip it up down at Duthie Hill Bike Park.

The Manson Loop of the amazing Chelan Century Challenge.

Titanium Cowboys at the top of McNeil Canyon during the Chelan Century Challenge. 

ORCAS ISLAND 25K PHOTOS

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

It's tomorrow. ...

Above, the reason you do this race--to run to the top of Mount Constitution and check out the view which, even on a gray day like yesterday, one visited by falling ice pellets or rain or whatever it was that fell down upon us from time to time, is nothing short of amazing.

Here were are, walking to the start. Just 10 minutes earlier, I was freezing me airse off out there, but as soon as you walk out with a couple hundred others, it instantly feels 10 degrees warmer. That's Jeff Dewitt (I believe), Steve Roguski and John Clark.

Back to the top. Notice the snow. The amazing course was snow covered from about 1,800 feet on up, maybe 5 miles in all. Kinda crunchy, kindy icy in parts (especially heading down from the top), kinda runing-in-sand(ish) in others but really, not that big of a deal. Made it more fun in a challenging-slash-beautiful way. 

In all, my chest-mounted GoPro camera fired off about 700 shots, of which maybe 35 weren't mega-blurry. The above is just blurry, but somewhat conveys the early miles where the narrow, winding singletrack would get stacked up in spots. 

Titanium Cancellara (Scott Young) and those scrawny chicken legs of his. Poor guy took 4th overall and first Masters. The TC legend continues to grow. That's Steve Roguski in the corner. He had a killer race too despite having a couple health issues along the way. These two be tuff mofos, that's sure. 

Nearing the top of Mount Constitution ...

... ditto. You can see the tower in the distance.

Up, and up. In all, it was a 6-mile climb with the toughest part being a 1.7-mile stretch that climbs 1,300 feet.

Moments before the start when Rainshadow Running's impresario James Varner was giving out race directions, of which I heard nary a word.

One of the 665 blurry pictures but this one almost looks like it's intentionally blurry for artistic effect. Almost.

The first glimpse of "the view". When the big climb finally lets up for a bit, the trail momentarily swings out on the edge of the ridge offering up a glimpse of that spectacular island-mountain-B'ham view. Then you're back into the snowy woods for another mile before reaching the below--the snowy summit and aid station. 

Here's Debbie, Alex and Jacob, Glenn Gervais' lovely family, who were doling out food, drink and good cheer.

I like this sequence. Here I am with banana in hand ...  

                                ... here, I'm peeling the banana ...

... and here, it looks like I'm offering the peel to an innocent (and understandably uninterested) bystander.

ORCAS ISLAND 25K; DUFF MCKAGAN BOOK

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!

DECEPTION PASS 25K SATURDAY

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.)



NOVEMBER SUN RIDE

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.

OOPS. ... I DID IT AGAIN

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!

AREA RUNNER MIGHT JUST NEED JOGBRA FOR HIS CALVES

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!