John’s Ramblings

Or, yesterday’s encounter with James Bond’s younger brother, Cletis.

Saturday I led a Cascade Bicycle Club ride to/from the Issaquah Brewhouse.  The route led us over the ridge at Eastgate, down the Lake Washington Loop to the new Seahawks training facility in Renton, up the hill & through May Valley, then a little side trip to Tiger Mountain Road.

The pedal-by-pedal account of this ride is not really important, but here are the highlights:

• Beer and Bicycles is apparently a worthy combination.  Despite cold temperatures, we had a stellar turnout.  I had 20 riders for my “faster-longer” version, while Allyson and Jim must have had close to that for their “shorter-slower” version around Lake Sammamish.
• The McDonald’s at 44th (just off I-405 in Renton) is apparently worth the stop.  4 people from my group went inside to use the facilities and came out exclaiming “Wow, a posh McDonald’s”.
• The climb up to Coal Creek Pkwy. from 44th still sucks.
• The climb up Tiger Mountain Road sucked worse.  I was pretty gassed at this point, and re-dedicated myself to doing intervals on the bike.  I felt as unfit as I did 2 years ago, which is not all that fit.

Now about that truck.  We were heading East on Issaquah-Hobart Road (the from-Issaquah/to-Hobart direction).  I had a dozen or so riders still in tow (the others had chosen to head back to Issaquah without doing the Tiger Mountain portion).  We were riding on the shoulder of the roadway, all riders below the fogline.  A largish red diesel pickup (Dodge Ram-like, but don’t quote me on that) passed close by my left shoulder.  The passenger threw a small object at me which passed just in front of my front tire.  It looked like a cigar butt, but it could have been a dog turd for all I could tell.  Once he was just past me the truck then pulled onto the shoulder just in front of me, shifted gears so as to severely “lug” his diesel motor, and laid down a very large cloud of black diesel smoke directly in our path.  After 30 or so yards of this he downshifted and hurtled back down the road, out of sight.

I got neither accurate description, or a license number.  Unfortunate, because this guy is a danger to cyclists, and who knows if he may escalate this behavior in the future.

Tags: beware_of_assholes, cascade_bicycle_club, Cycling, red_pickup_truck, vehicular_assault

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