END-OF-YEAR FRANCE PHOTS

Though these photos aren't bike-focused per se, I wanted to post a year-end batch of never-been-posted photos from our Paris trip last spring, which was amazing, incredible and everything we imagined it would be. (Most of them haven't been posted yet anyway.) Please enjoy!

Sunrise over the Seine.

Crescent moon under Tour Eiffel.

The boy Baker looking out the window of our Paris hotel room.

Parisian schoolkids pass in front of Notre Dame.

Youth choir inside Notre Dame. I'm not the least bit religious but the sound of their voices in such an incredibly beautiful, historic place absolutely gave me chills.

Baker chatting up some breakdancers in front of the Paris Opera House.

Throng of Mona Lisa admirers at the Louvre.

Shakespeare and Co., the famous bookshop just across the Seine from Notre Dame.

Fabian Cancellara destroys the field at Paris-Roubaix and WE WERE THERE! (Photo by Baker McQ)

Happy New Year from the McQs! (Photo taken at Luxembourg Gardens.)





SOUTH WHIDBEY STORY IN SEATTLE TIMES

Click here to read my travel story in today's Seattle Times about South Whidbey Island.

MORE 2010 MONTHLY BIKE PHOTOS

Here's some more, July through December. Please enjoy!

July - Chinook Pass on the east side of Mount Rainier. A frozen Tipsoo Lake is in the foreground.

August - Vern Latta (Mary's hubby) and the chirpy Tammy Bennett climb the last couple miles to Artist Point at the end of the Mount Baker Highway.

August (again) - Me (again) on the last section of the 17-mile, 5,000-foot climb to Hurricane Ridge on the Olympic Peninsula.

September - Tom Meloy and Mark Clausen bomb down from Artist Point on our superfun Everson-to-Artist Point-and-back Hundred-miler.

 Sept. (again) - Titanium Cancellara at the finish of the Capitol Forest 50-mile Mountain Bike Race. Because of a mechanical, he ran about seven miles of it and rode the last 10-plus miles with this wheel strapped to his pack.

October - Steve Hindman descending Atomic Dog on a day in which some of us rode every single trail on Galbraith Mountain.

November - Near the top of Galby's Towers during a snowy Thanksgiving Day ride.

December - View of the San Juan Islands from Galby's Wonderland Trail.



MONTHLY BIKE PHOTOS FROM 2010

Right. It's that time of year. Year-end roundup stuff. Which this sort of is. Bike-related pics one from each month throughout the year. Today, I'll post January through June; tomorrow, July through December. Please enjoy.

January - Johnny Boy Clark on the Taylor Dock on a foggy, foggy morn.

February - Titanium Cancellara and Johnny Boy at the top of Lost Lost Lake Trail on an epic day in which we linked Chuckanut and Blanchard Mountains with some Pine and Cedar Lake action thrown in for fun. I broke a chain and a spoke.

March - T.C. taking a break from tiptoeing through the tulips during our hundred-miler down in Skagit Land.

April - Fat Tire Bike Tour in Paris. Wow. What a place!

May - John and I with our broken collarbones that happened in separate bike incidents about a week apart.

June - T.C. checking out some weird futuristic art thang during a 40-miler on Camano Island.

SINGLE-SPEED SATURDAY

San Juan Islands, including Mount Constitution on Orcas Island, from the Wonderland Trail on Galbraith Mountain.

Saturday, I headed up to the Galby Towers on the Redline Monocog. That's my single-speed 29er mit der rigid fork and Elixer brakes which I added and which I love. Three hours, 2,500 feet of climbing including the Wall (stupid steep) and that last pitch to the top (only slightly less stupid steep). Down via Wonderland, Mullet, Three Pigs, across the road and down Padden back trails which were clogged by various and sundry ABDP's (Annoying Bellingham Dog People). A route I ride often; a route I love.  

Looking east toward Mount Baker from just past the Galby Towers.

But enough about me. Looks like Roger Michel and company have a date for the 2011 Capitol Forest 50- and 100-mile mountain bike races. (See here.) August 27, about two weeks earlier than this year's race, thus offering more daylight and better chance of good weather. (Though this year's raceday weather was great.) I highly recommend this race and plan on being there myself depending on how things do or don't go with the High Cascades 100 which is just three weeks earlier. Registration for Capitol Forest opens Jan. 11.

I like my Ed Grimley grimace in the above photo from this year's Capitol Forest 50.