John’s Ramblings

Last Sunday I took part in my second go-round on the May Day Metric, a small fundraising kinda ride that starts in Federal Way, Washington and travels east and south through Milton, Sumner, Orting, South Prairie, and Wilkeson.  There was a longer version that goes out to Carbonado and beyond, but the collective brain trust opted for the “70 mile” version of the ride.  More on those quotation marks later…

I was joined by Big Roddy and Russ, both of the Green River Riders group.  The morning was cool (lower 40′s), and although there were large areas of blue skies, there was also the occasional big dark cloud.  Rod engaged the group on what clothing would be appropriate, reviewing our kits and asking for opinions on how many layers we/he should be sporting.  Russ, being the wiser cyclist, wandered back to his car to adjust his non-existent shoelaces, while I gave Big Roddy the benefit of my opinions on clothing.  This, of course, opened me up to regular criticism because of my unwise counsel.  “Sure is cold”.  “I bet my feet would have been a lot warmer if I had kept those shoe covers on”.  “Unlike you, I think I’m not going to regret having the sleeves to put on this jacket”… etc. etc. etc.  While he never crossed the “crabby” barrier on the ride, it got kind of close with that whole shoe-cover issue.

But I digress.  We managed to click in and start riding at around 7:15.  We wound our way out of the Twin Lakes area, past Enchanted Village, and headed to our first “character building climb” of the day in Milton.  I suppose if I were to do this climb twice in an afternoon, and one of those times I carried 30 pounds of bricks, I would be able to tell you just how much easier it was to climb this hill than last year.  But I’m no idiot, and I’m not about to climb no hill with 30 pounds of bricks.  So I am not going to quantify just how much easier other than to say that it was 30 pounds easier.  That’s a lot.  There’s no quicker way to improve your bicycle climbing ability than to de-lard your ass, my friends.

Russ was sporting his brand-new titanium Habanero, here (barely) seen in rear view during a brief stop in Sumner:

Roddy lost a screw holding a fender, and Russ being the consummate boy scout had a zip tie (several, actually, in multiple sizes and colors) in his saddle bag just for such an emergency.

Through Sumner, and onward to the short, steep climb known as “Victor Falls”.  I think Victor may have been the first guy to try to ride his bike over this thing, and he lost all momentum and fell over.  Then it was the flat run in to Orting, and food stop #1.  No, let’s call this crushing disappointment #1, because while the food stops retained their cute Hostess Bakery names (Twinkie, Ding-Dong, and Ho-Ho), there were NO HOSTESS BAKED GOODS at any of the stops.  “Have a bagel”.  “There’s Rice Krispie Treats, I really like those.”  No, thank you.  It’s safe to say that I haven’t had a Hostess ANYTHING since I did this ride last year, and I haven’t had anything remotely that evil since mid-January when I started this weight loss thing, and IREALLYWANTEDATWINKIEDAMMIT. Alas, twas no twinkie for me.  I settled for a half a whole-wheat bagel with peanut butter and jelly.

Onward to South Prairie, Dog Hollow, and up character-building climb #3 past that waterfall thing.  I didn’t take a picture this year, but here’s last year’s shot, including that tandem couple we saw again this year.  Imagine more water in the waterfall, and you’ve got it.

At the Wilkeson rest stop, we decided that we would indeed head for home, opting for the metric-century 70 miles.  Only the 70 miles is actually 76.  And a half.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but why would you call it a 70, if it’s not a 70?  Call it a 75, and I’d say “close enough”.  But 70? No way.

The rest of the ride was uneventful, unless you consider a persistent headwind eventful.  At mile 65 we enjoyed the climb up “Little Italy”, a favorite of the Green River Riders.  Unlike last year, I did not have to resort to the granny-gear on my bike, which is a nice affirmation of all the work I’ve put in losing ballast.

The ride does still end with pie.  Mine was apple.  Good, but it’s no Ding-Dong.

Still, a good ride and a nice little tune-up before we head to Pendleton for Memorial Day Weekend.

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