John’s Ramblings

On our best days, we get maybe a dozen folks. I think we’ve even had 20 or so on occasion for one of our Newcomer’s rides in the valley.

Today the count was 47.

I think that there was a confluence of a few things that led to this large number.

• The weather was absolutely perfect today. A few big beautiful clouds making the blue sky even sweeter.
• The Cascade Bicycle Club profiled us in their latest newspaper, The Cascade Courier, in their “Meet the Ride Leaders” column.
• A group of Bike Friday owners decided to join our ride. There were 18 Friday-folks, 6 of which were riding tandems.
• There were no other Cascade Rides scheduled for the day, other than the Cascade Training Series.

Terri and I were a little nervous at the start, as the riders kept coming and coming and coming. We had to go to a third sign-in sheet in order to get everyone signed in, and even then I think we may have missed a couple of signatures due to late arrivals and general chaos.

The ride went very well, and the riders ended up being strong enough to complete the distance (something that does not always happen). The Bike Friday group was a nice addition, although they tended to be a little independent-minded and some of them had a hard time adhering to the time schedules allotted for stops. We had a brief and confusing encounter with the “Yellow” group on the Cascade Training Series ride, their 30 or so riders pulled in to Christensen Park alongside our 47. We managed to extricate ourselves from their rush to the restrooms, and had a lovely day in the saddle. We did our mid-point break at Kent Station, then headed back to Tukwila via the Interurban Trail.

It was a 23 mile ride, but I ended up with 26 for the day with the doubling back and herding that I did in my ride leader role. Tomorrow, I’m going to try the Sunrise climb on Mt. Rainier. It should prove to be a perfect opportunity to curse every french fry I’ve ever eaten.

2,627 miles year-to-date.

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