Doug takes his bike for a ride
A Few More Shots
"You mean this isn't Saturday," I interrupted Sean's blustering when I walked into B&L on Wednesday afternoon.
The truth was I hadn't planned to do a long ride on Wednesday. But I looked out the window and sunshine and little wind Wednesday morning and then glanced at the forecast for the weekend. I saw rain on Friday and wind and much cooler temperatures on Saturday and Sunday.
So, when you are retired, you have some options. I took one and enjoyed tailwinds most of the day. Steve will be scandalzied but I didn't leave home until after 9 and yet I found myself with nearly a 20 mph average at Wawawai. I was living right.
The ride into Pullman saw blustery wind but mostlly tail wind especially from Almotta road on in.
I though I'd pay for my fortunate winds on the way back and indeed leaving Pullman was slow but once again I found favorably light winds that made my trip back smooth sailing.
At the rose garden I stopped for food and water. 81 miles. I'd have to ride out to the Casino and back before going home to get my century. And once again I managed to avoid serious head winds. My average actually improved on that out an d back.
I lost a lot of conditioning to that cold and infection. My rides this summer have been tentative, tired and beset with a weakness in the gut that disturbed me. I made Tour de Lentil a century with Doug and found myself sucking his wheel from Palouse to Uniontown.
Even by the Joseph ride I was still fading around 50 to 60 miles. But on Wednesday, I rode down in the drops spinning most of the way and felt strong when I finished.
I took a 25 mile spin on Thursday, skipped riding at all on wet Friday. I worked on the new Twin Rivers Cyclists website all day. I found myself close. I had managed to apply the new template to all of Pete's pages as well as creating several new pages. I had now only to edit the menus, test, and post.
The weather had been questionable so I hadn't tried to call for a Saturday ride and now I was hooked on getting the website posted. But the weather
turned nice in the valley. Crisp, clear air and temps at 60 or so are ideal. I knew I'd go out and I was glad I hadn't tied myself to a start time. Linda left for a ride but I couldn't break, I was posting and testing the posted links.
By 11, though I was on the road for Lapwai Loop. I felt an east wind going down Critchfield and expected to fight it all the way up Tammany. But once again the winds favored me. Actually I don't think there was much wind at all. I felt a bit of a rush from having gotten the pages up and that kept me moving. And I felt good. At 30 or 40 miles I realized that I had been spinning effortlessly most of the way and that I didn't feel any of that weakness in the gut. Surely there must be a head wind in this story somewhere, but there isn't. I made good time returning from Arrow bridge I managed 20 mph spinning slightly up or down as the wind did change. Another great ride.
So what to do for Sunday? The 1pm start? I'd like to see that happening but Doug suggested that single track on Asotin Creek. I had never done that and it would give me a reason to get on the 29er. Sean probably thinks I've sold it.
The cool part of the arrangements was that Doug and I did it through the new twinriverscyclists@googlegroups.com list. Lee McCarley chimed in that he might join us and felt great that at least there were a few on the list. This could be a great tool for arranging rides that aren't on the calendar especially at the last minute.
So, at 10 I and my 29er met Doug at Chief Looking Glass park in Asotin for a ride up Asotin Creek. Doug apparently doesn't ahve a computer so he was vague about distances. "I think it is about 4 miles past the end of the pavement," he said. Make that 11. I had 16 miles at the trail head.
The ride up had been pleasant on pavement and hardpan. Now my week began to come apart. There was no trail. Only a rocky creek bottom over which we carried our bikes. "Watch out for puncture weed," Doug said as soon as we put our bikes on the ground. We rode only a few yards before he jumped off and began pulling out goat heads. I did the same.
"Uh oh. I heard air." That was me. The front tire had lost a little pressure but not much and I had over filled them for the section on pavement anyway. We walked the bikes to the end of the meadow where Doug's prediction proved correct that there'd be no puncture weed in the trees.
The trail ran through trees and tall grass and along Asotin Creek where, should you not be paying attention, you'd certainly get a bath.
Yep, that's me and a mountain bike and just before I realize both tires are going flat. I so love mountain biking.
We stopped to enjoy the stream and take a couple of pictures when I realized both tires were getting low. I pumped up the front and then a few yards up the trail I stopped to pump up the back.
That was the way it went for the rest of the ride. Dodging rocks and sticks and stopping to pump up my tire. I had worn leg warmers and all this walking around made them slide down my legs.
Back at the trail head I carefully changed the front tire replacing the tube with my only spare. I might have tried to do the back, but I had no idea how many patches I need and it wasn't going down too fast. We only stopped a couple of more times on the way down Asotin creek.
Lee McCarley hadn't made our start time but he and a friend passed us, Mt. Bikes in the back of the pickup. "We're trying to beat the rain," he said. The sun was shining at the moment. "It's not going to rain," I promised him.
We headed on down the road, this time into a head wind. But it had been a great week of cycling for me on the road, off the road, and on the web.
