11/15/2005 06:47:00 AM|||John Calnan|||

I'm working on getting myself certified as a ride leader for the Cascade Bicycle Club. Over the past summer, I enjoyed putting together some of the training rides for our RSVP group, and thought that I could expand my riding group by offering to lead rides through Cascade as well.

I attended the mandatory Ride Leader Orientation session at the Cascade offices in Seattle. That was a pleasant two hours of pizza munching, and reviewing the safety and procedural aspects of ride leadership. Next step is to actually go on some of the Daily Rides.

First up, I went on a ride the Saturday before Halloween called "Pedaling for Posthumous Pastures". This was a lovely fall ride from Renton to Black Diamond, Covington, Kent, and back to Renton, passing by some local cemeteries. The highlight of this trip was a small pioneer cemetery on 212th Street in Kent, wedged between the freeway and a grocery store. You'd never realize that it was there unless someone pointed it out to you. Although the roads were wet, the weather cooperated and didn't rain on us for this 33 miler on rolling terrain.

Last Thursday I strapped on my newly acquired headlight and headed to Kent for the "Use It or Lose It" ride. It was spittin' rain when I left the house, but by the time the ride started the clouds had parted and it was a beautiful clear night complete with moon and stars. There were 4 other 50-something fellows on this ride whose flamethrowers made my little headlight look absolutely useless except to warn the neighbor's dog of my approach. I stayed close to my illuminated brethren, and we did 22 miles in the Kent/Auburn valley area at 14 to 15 mph, which is a nice pace for this cyclist.

There is another ride tonight, if I'm not mistaken, and I'm excited to go again. Temps promise to be in the lower 40's by 6:30, however, so I may need to go shopping today to get myself some woolies to keep my bod from freezing.

|||113206740883082664|||Calnan-The Night Stalker11/19/2005 07:59:33 AM|||Jim Carson|||Was that the one where Roger leads you to baby monster's grave?11/19/2005 04:16:06 PM|||John Calnan|||Roger's trip was the "Pedaling for Posthumous Pastures", where we met "Baby Monster". I wished that I had taken pictures, but it was damp enough that I was reluctant to pull out the camera. I'll probably repeat that ride in the spring for my gym cohorts, so I will hopefully get pics then.