Crusty Cassette

I've added my blog of the ride on Sunday, unfortunatly I didn't have time to figure out how to get pictures up but here you go:

Twin Rivers Cyclists offers many rides during the summer and we invite everyone. We usually have a mixed group of riders for our weekly Ice Cream rides. These rides are short, easy and can be as short or as long as the riders want. The group makes a point of never dropping a rider, but many slower riders are reluctant to take on the longer rides.

Sunday June 28 we scheduled the Winchester Ride. This ride is long (68mi) and involves the Winchester Grade, which is not an easy climb. I've never been a fast rider, but over the years I've found my pace and the "Easy Does it Philosophy". This discovery has made any ride possible for me.

Bike riding begins with a good bike. A bike should be comfortable and for anyone who wants to follow the Easy Does it Philosophy (EDP) should include plenty of low granny gears. We used eveyone of those gears on this ride.

Another aspect of EDP is the realization that there are rabbits, strong riders who are fast, strong and can handle any number of miles without beating an eye. I am not a rabbit, but I find I can cover the same ground, enjoy the ride and the climb and get to the same place as the rabbits with a smile on my face.

Food and water will keep any rider going. My favorites include peanut butter and jelly on whole wheat and gatorade in a polar bottle. This keeps the drink really cold for over 2 hours. I found a new product Sunday that I'm definitely put on my list of 'good to have with you" The sport jelly beans put out by gatorade. They didn't melt in the sun, and they where just enough to give me a boost on the grade Sunday.

Carol Ellis and I traveled together Sunday. The core group of about 10 riders, including our rabbit husbands where miles ahead of us. Sunday offered almost perfect temperature and a slight cooling breeze to make this beautiful ride, just about perfect. Carol and I had a great ride thanks to another important EDP tool.. A sag wagon! My son Tony volunteered to be sag for the Winchester ride. Unfortunately he wasn't familiar with the route and missed a few important turns, but he showed up at lunch and we all could relax. A sag wagon can be available for all the riders in the group for extra water, a bicycle floor pump, or just encouragement and information about how the group is doing. A sag wagon can also help out riders if they have an accident or just need to take a break. We have offered a Sag Wagon on a few rides in the last few years and it is really important for new riders and the EDP rider. I've had times when I was able to do the hardest of rides but sometimes not. I find it a great way to humbly enjoy the best parts of the ride but call it quits when your body, the weather or the ride says.. this is going to be really miserable. No one should ever be ashamed to call for a sag. Some times it can save a life.

This ride is a challenge and no one should take on a climb like Winchester without knowing what it means to climb for 7 miles in the heat. Winchester offers a bit of shade though and the hill is pretty similar to the Lewiston Grade, with plenty of easy switch backs but any rider, especially someone with an EDP needs to really plan for a climb and 50 miles after the climb. I would encourage any rider to come out for longer rides. Our group offers lots of opportunities to give bicycling beyond the bike path a try. As long as you have an Easy Does it Philosophy, you can enjoy any ride.

I just read Corrie's account of his ride.. did you notice not a single easy does it rider in the group picture he has of this ride!! That's cause we where still on the hill.... Good thing I wrote up our ride a bit. When you take your time and forget about hammering you can enjoy a summer day on your bike.

Linda writes her own account of Bite the bullet. Read it on her own blog which she cleverly calls Linda's Blog. If you like babies, you'll definitely want to see this blog. If you ride a bike, you'll see occasional posts like this one expressing her Easy Does it Philosophy.

Slideshow: Yeah, I know. Sean's in some of these pics. He insisted."

Jim's pics from Saturday

"He thanked me for riding!" Doug was a little surprised. After all, he loves riding his bike too. Why should I thank him for doing what he likes?

And what Doug likes is a long, steady grinding climb. The longer and steeper the better. I've been on some of those gravel road routes he and Scott come up with. So Doug got to grind one out on the Old Winchester Grade today.

Mike Riddle likes those rollers on Reuben-Gifford road. Sean says the trick to riding the rollers is to tuck in behind Mike on the descents. Nobody catches him downhill.

Linda and Carol like country rides with great scenery and lots of time for chatting.

Scott and Jen just like each other--newly weds.

Lee likes testing his fitness. Do you know he's doing the Couer d'Alene Ironman next year?

Tom was looking for his first century of the year. We'd have to ride back to Lapwai to get it though. He was up for it despite what promised to be pretty tough head winds on 12 back to town. They really were'nt all that bad.

Mike Warnock likes shorter faster rides but he does show up for some of these longer ones. Never complains though he might be struggling a little to get those bandy legs under him here.

Well, I like it too and this Winchester route is my favorite local ride. Chris and I did it once together and I've done it once already by myself this year. It is not an easy century (95 miles) from the Southway Boat Launch

I had many rides today. The first was from home to the boat launch where I met Tom Witt from Troy who was joining me to make this Day Ride a century. We start at 7 because I wanted to arrive in Lapwai in time to organize the start.

We could have started at 7:30. I had plenty of time to wait in Lapwai and wonder if anyone else was coming. I didn't expect Chris who is retiring the Broken Spoke Award this year. I did expect Dave. I missed you both. Jim McCracken had to do the century on Saturday because of church committments on Sunday.

Soon Doug showed up, Mike Warnock, Mike Riddle, Sean and Carol, Scott and Jen, Bill Arnold (who has started a Facebook group for TRC), Lee Bauer, triathlete; Tom Witt, and Linda.

Now we had a ride.

Garden Gulch was graveled. There'd be no repeat of last years melted-tar on Garden Gulch. We hoped the heat wouldn't get to tar melting temps either. The route would have to be changed. We turned up Garden Gulch but took the frontage road through Sweetwater and then 95 to CuldeSac where I learned my first lesson about organizing SAG.

Tony, my son, had agreed to drive SAG for us. I thought the worst problem he'd have would be boredom. Instead, he missed CuldeSac. Easy to do really if you are expecting to find a community on the roadside. Nor did he know about the old grade. Fortunately we didn't really need much SAG early in the morning, even climbing.

This was one of those days Sean likes to complain about. Lots of sunshine, not too, hot, lovely cooling breeze, fields still green along the slopes of the grade. Just another boring beautiful day. I had to apologize to Scott for lack of suffering. "No, problem," he said. He'd brought his own "sufferage" having ridden 670 miles on a motorcycle on Saturday.

Funny how the grade separates the group. I settled in with Mike Riddle while Doug and the others headed off to the races. Sean, Jen, and Tom apparently kept an even and sane pace. Had Chris been around Tom would have had to push him again this year. I missed Chris.

Mike and I, cruising along, caught Bill and Lee. The four of us rode for a bit until Lee seemed to pull away. Soon I found myself alone with Bill and Mike riding together. I picked it up and began to pace Lee. As we talked, he kept speeding up.

"You know you are picking up the pace," I told him.

Made no difference so I matched his pace. He kept pulling clear to the top. And when I wanted to ride back down a bit to meet Linda and Carol, it was Lee jumping at the opportunity to do a bit more climbing.

Carol wanted to do as much of this ride as possible. She and Sean are getting ready for a ride with Trek in Waterton/Glacier. Sean's been a bit under the weather and claims to have been off the bike for five weeks. He didn't seem to ride like it. Oh, yeah, I could stay with him on most of those rollers, but only by pushing myself beyond what I would have liked.

I had called Lake City Inn to let them know we'd be coming through but by the time Carol, Linda, and I arrived only Lee was at the cafe. A little checking revealed the group had gone to the convenience store where the fare wasn't as good, but the welcome was broad. We got our own little table in the parking lot.

Tony had found us by now and I felt like I could join the rest the faster crowd for time, but they were already heading out when I got my Burrito. I choked it down, pocketed my Fritos and headed out thinking I'd catch Scott and Jen before they reached 95. Turns out the west wind gave us all a boost. Though I was doing 23, I didn't catch them until the Reubens turnoff.

For a time we had a pace line with Scott, Jen, Doug, Sean and me. But Sean got it in his head we'd be able catch the Mikes and Tom. He claimed he could see 'em out ahead and it was like dangling a carrot in from of a dumbass. I tried to get him to back off, but that carrot was just too delicious. And, of course, I couldn't resist hanging in there.

Scott and Doug disdain those rollers. I truthfully they've been more fun. We did have a head wind.

We hadn't been back in Lapwai long when Tony pulled up with both Linda and Carol in SAG. They'd decided they didn't need to ride highway 12. That put us all back in Lapwai before 3 and roughly at the same time.

Tom and I grabbed ice cream sandwiches and looked forward to that windy ride back to the boat launch.

The only part that worried me was Spalding Bridge. Already narrow, a few years back the road department reduced the shoulders by putting some entirely useless metal railigns inside the stone work. there's no place for a cyclist to go if two big trucks are meeting as they pass you.

We didn't have much traffic on 95 to the bridge but no sooner than we got on the bridge than the gods sent us two big rigs in a row followed by a stirng of cars. Fortunately the oncoming traffic didn't include any big trucks.

Somewhere, probably on that bridge, I picked up a staple in my rear tire and was flat by the time I got over on 12. Lee stopped in his pickup to make sure I got back on the road.

I definitely got my heart rate up over the rollers today. But, that's what I like. We had a great ride today. I had several great rides, the ride out, the ride to Winchester, the rollers, the ride back to town. So thanks to all my friends for coming out to help me enjoy my favorite ride. Special thanks to Tony for making it possible by driving SAG.

For the road of it.

Corrie

I have proposed two Easy Does it Rides in July. I've checked out a few local businesses and made a few inquiries so we have something besides the usual rides planned.

Saturday July 11: Meet at the Clarkston Corps of Engeniers parking lot at 8:00 am. We'll start by riding to Asotin, but continue up river past the old Three Mile Inn. We'll turn around at the first fork in the river road. If people want a shorter ride they can cool off in the park at Asotin or have a cool drink at the Daily Bakery. We'll return back on the bike path after regrouping, and continue on to Clarkston. We've been invited to visit Beth Rimmeslbacker studio, Gallery. This is a real treat. She is a working artist who specializes in local scenes. You'll recognize her work and she's a biker wanna be, so we might convince her to join us one of these days. After our visit to her studio, we'll head back to town. We'll cross the bridge and head to downtown Lewiston. We will finish with "brunch" at "The Lady in Blue Teahouse" in Morgans Alley. I talked with the owner today and she said she would love to have our group visit. She said she would fix almost anything we wanted, but she has scones, iced tea, specialty Tortellini salads, sandwiches and pastry. She said plan to spend up to about $8 for a full lunch. I figure we'd arrive for "brunch" about 10-11 am.

Our next Easy Does it Ride is planned the following Sat. July 18. I'd like to plan a Spokane Centennial Trail Ride. I'm planning on going to Spokane on Friday eve. I'd plan to meet for our ride at 8 am at the Carousel in down town Spokane Expo park. We can ride the trail for 10-15 miles to Sullivan Park in the Valley. We would plan to have a snack here but return to Spokane for lunch... decided by the group, lots of choices, such as Cyrus O'Learys. This ride is a bit more complicated than the usual Easy Does it Rides so I would like to have people RSVP if they intend to join me. We've had a great turn out of new riders for these rides this season and lots of talk from our usual group about ride options for those who aren't into long, hard, hot rides. If you're interested in a fun easy ride let me know. These rides are usually 10-12 mi/hr. Riders who want to go faster are always welcome, but I will stay with the riders at the planned easy pace. This is a great ride along the Spokane river and winds around Gonzaga university and some beautiful spots along the river. Spokane Centenial Trail

Jim's Slideshhow

Jim's "Going to the Sun" ride didn't pan out but he did join the Mountaineers for a substitute ride on the Trail of the Couer d'Alenes. Here's his story. Oh, and Jim, Hiwatha Trail is pea gravel. You'll need your biggest thickest touring tires for that section.

For Crusty: I got an invitation to join a ride on the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes with the Spokane Mountaineers on Saturday. The original ride was the "Going to the Sun" road in Glacier Park but the park service opened the road to cars sooner than anticipated so this was a plan B type ride. Since I hadn't had the opportunity to ride on the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes yet, I was excited to get a chance to try it out.

There was a small group of six riders at the Cataldo trailhead at 10am and this was going to be a 52 mile ride, out to Harrison and back. For two members of the group, this would be their longest ride ever. The pace was leisurely and I had plenty of time to enjoy talking with the members of the group and to take some pictures with my new camera that my kids got me for father's day.

We had lunch in Harrison, which is a cool little town that was celebrating "Pig out at the Park" day with a BBQ. After a good lunch and a huge ice cream cone we headed back for the 26 mile return trip. I know the club has done this trail before starting out in Plummer. I'd like to ride the whole thing sometime and maybe camp at Heyburn State Park and add on the Hiawatha Trail to get in at least a little bit of a hill along the way!

Jim

Linda's Slideshhow

Helen reports ridership for "I Made the Grade" was way down on Saturday. (I see Bill took fourth and Brenda MacIntosh took second among women, Congrats) While I feel bad about that, we've ridden the grade so many times, it just didn't seem attractive to me. If I could've gotten a couple of companions for extending that ride to a century, I'd have stayed in the valley.

On the otherhand, Walla Walla is only a couple of hours away. I knew Ann Weatherill. She was a teacher and subbed a good deal for a couple of years at Lincoln. She was killed on a Mother's Day club ride in Walla Walla by an on-coming car passing without recognizing the bicycles in the lane. As I understand it, she was stopped while the other club riders, still moving, headed for the ditch. Clint, the organizer for this memorial ride, says he barely missed a row of mailboxes hedaing for that ditch. Linda and I met Clint in March. He was becoming a League Certified Instructor, too.

This event is about four years old and still pretty small. Impressive organization using Active.com for online registration. They offered three routes this year of 33, 66 and 100 miles. The 66 and 100 shared much of the same route through green fields.

Used to be a ride through the Walla Walla valley would have smelled of onions. Not so now. Every thing is wine. Even the convenience stores have racks of wine. In addition downtown rerstaurants have all acquired a French flavor with sidewalk seating, unappetizing and limited menus, and extravagant prices.

I had a good ride, though most of the time I was by myself. To make sure we knew this wasn't a race, start times were as you felt like it. That meant it was tough to find a group at your pace. A twenty minute lead means you are not likely to be caught or to catch anyone.

I enjoyed dealing with even the steep rollers in lieu of long grinding climbs. For comparison, Doug rode to Bogan's and back for 80 miles probably tougher than my century. Can you imgaine grinding up Rattlesnake as opposed to whoosing through the green fields of Walla Walla at 17 mph?

I made Linda write up her ride here

Nikki and I agreed that we weren’t too interested in doing the Lewiston Grade again this weekend. We had heard about the Ann Weatherill ride In Walla Walla and it sounded like a fun ride and a wine tasting at the E’Cole winery at the end seemed like a perfect way to finish a long ride.

Carol Ellis decided she would join us and of course Corrie couldn’t pass up a chance to ride a century. The weather was cool and windy but a threat of rain never materialized, we pretty much figured it was absolutely perfect.

The organizers said they had about 90 registered riders but about 30 showed up the day of the ride. We met people from all over the area.

Corrie started off on his century about 7:20 am, our metric century group began at 8. The route took us over Highway 12 and off into lush vinyards, wheat, asparagus and onion fields. The vistas of wild flowers, billowing clouds, green hillsides and country homes made us feel like we’d been transported to the fields of France.

To top it off we finished with a great sandwich and wine spread under the trees at the L’Ecole winery.

This ride will defiantly be on my list of have to do rides for next year.