John’s Ramblings

My cycling friend and Newcomer’s Rides co-leader Albert came up with that moniker for a 45 mile loop from Auburn to the Green River Gorge. Having gone on this ride yesterday, I can’t for the life of me figure out where the “comfort” part of the name comes from.

I started from the house, which involves a fairly steep climb out of the neighborhood. I have the entire 20′ of the driveway to warm up however, before the tarmac pitches up. It gets easier every time I ride it, so I suppose it’s a good gauge of where I’m at with my climbing. It would just be nice to live someplace where I could have a bona-fide warm up.

It was into a cold headwind that I pedaled my way down the the start point in downtown Auburn. We ended up with a total of 10 riders, which for a cold morning with threatening skies was a pretty good turnout. The ride was billed as “brisk” pace, meaning 16 to 18 mph on the flats.

We got started shortly after 9 AM, and rode east on Main Street through downtown, then caught the “R” Street connection to Auburn-Black Diamond Road through the Auburn Narrows. The repaving work here is complete, and a vast improvement up to the Auburn City Limits. It’s all smooth concrete, with a nice shoulder. The county has done some repair work on the remaining stretch, so it feels way better going through this section than in years past.

After a 10 mile warmup through Green Valley, we turned right to climb Whitney Hill up to the Enumclaw plateau. At the bottom, several folks did the “I’ll be sweeping up the hill ’cause I’m the slowest” banter, but your’s truly won the grunt and groan award for the day’s big climb. I can chalk it up to being early in the season, having done some hill work the day before, and having started from my driveway, but the bottom line is I still need to drop several pounds in order to improve my hill climbing.

Once at the top, it’s a nice meander for 10-12 miles to the Green River Gorge.
The group admiring the view from the bridge. This is now a one-lane road, so cyclists must stay well on the sidewalk or risk being a speed-bump for someone in a pickup truck.
Your author, blissfully ignoring the rain clouds behind him.

After our stop at the Gorge, we made our way into the town of Black Diamond for a snack stop at the local bakery. 20 minutes or so later, we’re back on the bikes and heading west, meandering our way back to the start point by looping around Lakes Sawyer, Holm and Moneysmith. After looping around Sawyer & rejoining Auburn-Black Diamond Road briefly, I decided to part ways with the group as I was pretty dog-tired, and I knew I had one more big climb to do to get home. I waved off to Louise, the designated sweeper for the group, and took the direct route down Auburn Black Diamond Rd. Then the rain started in earnest. For about the next 8 miles, I might as well have been standing in the shower. I was wet, but not too cold at this point, so I finished out my day with the climb up to the entrance to our housing development, and the descent to the house. Mileage for the day was spot-on 50 miles. I was absolutely exhausted, though, way more so than a month earlier when Kevin and I did the Lake Washington Loop for similar mileage. The difference I’m sure is that the Lake Loop doesn’t get anywhere near the 1500 feet or so of climbing that I did Sunday.

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