John’s Ramblings

After having talked with fellow ride leader Albert on Friday (“you are coming tomorrow, aren’t you?), I did join up with the Le Paysage à Vélo (countryside by bicycle) ride. It was a sort of joint production of the Seattle Randonneurs and Cascade Bicycle Club.

I was greatly surprised that a large group turned out for this ride, maybe as many as 50 riders. There is apparently great pent-up demand for ride time. That, and these Rando’s are a hale and hearty bunch that will ride just about anywhere, under any conditions it seems. They were joking during and after the ride about the steepness of some of the hills, and the Cascade Bike Club ride listing for this ride actually billed it as “rolling terrain”. I bailed out 2 big climbs shy of a full load, and I had done 1,240 feet of climbing already, on two hills. I found out later that one fellow that I chatted with at the top of the Redondo Climb was actually in irregular fibrillation, and had to pop a nitro pill to settle his heart down! I decided to turn off the route and save a little leg power for Sunday, when I would be leading a ride up to Black Diamond and the Green River Gorge. It was a beautiful winter day for a ride, with only partial cloudiness. 30.4 miles for Saturday.

This morning I had 7 riders show up for my Black Diamond/Green River Gorge ride. It was about 36 degrees at the ride start in Downtown Auburn. Much of the ride ended up being in temps well below that, and caution was the watchword of the day due to the potential of ice. There was also a ton of sand and debris on the roadside. Although we had none of Saturday’s sunshine, it was still scenic due to the snow on the foothills. There was quite a bit of ice that had formed on the walls of Green River Gorge. The river is running just high enough to look like genuine rapids, so we spent about 10 minutes on the bridge, ogling the scenery and snapping a couple of photos. The ride ended by skirting across the Enumclaw plateau, dropping down to Green Valley, and then a quick stop at Green Valley Meats to so that those that wanted some could buy some delicious home made beef jerky. 38.45 miles for Sunday.

159 miles ytd.

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