Crusty Cassette

White Pine Gallery

All the best stuff happens to Scott. Yes, that’s Scott, naked man, Whitely fresh off Graveyard and riding his first century of the year.

I do own a shirt!

He picked a good one. 118-9 miles through the mountains is not an easy century by anyone’s standards and we appreciated Scott’s joining us. He misses so many of the club rides for trivial things like sleep. What could he be thinking of?

Just out of Deary Scott was offered a beer by someone encouraging him on shouting "Go Lance!" from a wagon drawn by a team of Cydesdales. All the good stuff happens to Scott. Just out of Moscow a truck load of cardboard caught in the wind lost part of its load scattering cardboard across the road and bloodying Scotts arm. Well, maybe that's not good stuff, but he did end up with a flush in the poker run.

Debbie seems to attract all sorts of creatures from Dogs to bears. Yes, Bears. Linda saw a bear cross the road just after Debbie had passed. Check that deodorant, Debbie.

But the real story of White Pine this year for me is Linda did her first century ever.

How far is this?
Now you might say, sure, she is in marathon condition, she just came off a week of daily long rides. Sure she could do a century. For those who might denigrate the accomplishment, I refer you to my legs who staged a quiet lactic acid revolt at each rest stop.

The good news? We thought we’d face temperatures at least in the high 90’s. Instead the sky hazed over, never mind the small threat of a thunderhead, and kept direct sun from raising blisters on the pavement and or any exposed flesh.

The wind is another story. Not quite a good news story. We seemed to have a mild headwind from Moscow all the way to Bovil, Wasn’t bad but it did lend false hope to our club visionary, One Day Dave. He kept claiming we were going to get the elusive tailwind from Troy to Moscow. Turns out he was almost right. When we finally came tired and over a hundred miles into the ride to the hill down into Troy, we expected at least to be allowed a coast. Instead we were greeted by severe side winds and a swirling cloud of dust.

Linda and I had talked about her accepting a SAG from Troy to Moscow before the ride. It seemed reasonable on her first century. After all, using a supported ride for your first makes good sense. The goal is to make the century not necessarily the century plus. At Bovill Linda arrived saying “I’m so toast.” But a Pepsi seemed to revive her and she felt better at the Deary stop. She needed only five more miles for her century and I knew she’d make that but I wasn’t sure the SAG driver shouldn’t keep an eye on Linda and I asked her to do as much.

Still there was Linda at the Troy stop right at the base of that nasty little insult for riders. With the gusting winds and this hill before them Debbie and Linda began talking of sagging on in. They were persuaded finishing would take forever. Dave and I set out grinding up that last climb without finding out the decision. So I was surprised and pleased to see Linda come casually walking into the tent at Tidyman’s, a smile on her face.

Other club notes: Matt Wyan was there. I know because I saw him briefly before the ride. Never saw him again. Bruce Carroll arrived about 6:50 with stories of Ireland on his lips. He also disappeared within a few moments. Pam made it just at the buzzer with her tunes and her 20 inch wheels. Pam had trouble today. Hope you’re fine now, Pam.

Chris had a shoot so planned only to do the 100k ride but start with us. He hung around until the foot of Steak House where he and Scott took off racing for the top. Steak House is far too early in a century for hammering hills and so I was caught between keeping up and riding my own pace. I saw Scott go over the crown of the hill, but he and Chris go down faster than I and I never saw either again until Harvard. I found myself alone for a time but finally caught up with Dave Tibbals on one of the climbs. We stayed together the rest of the ride. Approaching Harvard Chris came out to greet Dave Tibbals and myself briefly before heading for Deary. He complained he’d waited around as long as he could.

Yep, I went to Spokane Friday night got the last room in the motel at 9:30pm and slept really badly! I had been humming and hawing about this event for a couple of weeks. I wanted to try but what with the back problems and late start on the bike this year I really was not feeling as prepared as I would have liked to have been. Chris had implied that it would be a stretch (never suggest to me that I cannot do something, it is a sure fire way of assurring that I will @#** well try) and Dave Henry had told me that I was "nuts" in his supportive spousal way. Given those two pieces of advise there I was at 4:15am in the Mall parking lot wondering where all the riders were hiding. I checked the restrooms and failed to find more than one woman. Oh boy, this is looking REALLY scary, one big assed 40 year old woman and a small number of very lean folks in Badlands jerseys. Not even Bruce's friendly face, I thought for sure he would not miss the chance for a short ride around Northern Spokane! I signed up, yep, I wasn't even signed up; I could have sloped off and gone shopping for the day. I was number 29!!!! The volunteers were very nice but still I was intimidated, BIG TIME!

Steve, the organizer, gave us a little pep talk: drink, eat, drink, eat and if you try to ride with folks faster than you it is a sure way of ensuring you don't finish, guess I'll shelve the plans to hang onto the Badland's rear wheels! Off we went into the sunrise, following the route that the Autumn century uses on the way home (for those of you that have done that tour). Bye bye Badlands! Heading up the first hill I catch up with a guy, Richard. Richard was to become my friend and saviour, we rode the whole thing together and without him I would have either been alone most of the very long day or with the group behind us who were not expected to finish until way after dark. I really wanted to be in before dark as I had no plans for carrying lights. Having said that the second thing Richard tells me is that he has a thing with dogs, not quite Debbie's magical attraction for large, aggressive black mutts. More of a fatal attraction kind of a deal, he ran into and killed a poodle last week right on the spot of road we were currently riding. Is this a good omen? R was hoping that "Sparky's" angel would be looking after him on his first double century though I was worried that if Sparky has an angel it might not be smiling so favorably upon Richard the canine killer. Reminds me of Maria's Dad's joke "What is the difference between a poodle peeing on your leg and a rottweiler peeing on your leg? You let the rottwelier finish! Fortunately Sparky had inflicted no damage on Richard but can you imagine if it had been a larger dog running into the road?

Foodstop #1 came and went uneventfully, it was still reasonably cool though showing signs of being a scorching day. Interesting to read Corrie's blog and note that you had clouds for the White Pine, we saw two fluffy clouds all day. Good food and great volunteers at the stops, also a couple of roaming support trucks. I had expected support to be sketchy (kinda like Ukiah, support? What support?) with such a small number of riders. Richard flatted just before "lunch" in Colville, he had just about inflated his tire when the support van came past with a floor pump, we had not been off the road for more than 5 minutes. Note to self, stay with this guy if you can, he fixes flats almost as fast as Chris. Second note : does this mean he flats as often as Chris???

Colville, great food stop with classic car show in the background. Gosh Chris, you really were on this ride in spirit if not in the flesh. Drink, eat, drink, Bruce would not approve of all this solid food. In truth did not eat much because after Colville was the climb up Tiger Pass. Did I say it was beginning to roast? Up, slowly up, puff, pant, hot, hot. Sally, Steve the organizer's partner, blew by us then stopped at the sag wagon for more water only so she could blow by us a second time. Very demoralizing! We found her at Beaver Creek Lodge at the top enjoying a cool coke. We stopped for a brief look at Scenic Falls on the way up, very pretty and the couple of minutes off the bikes helped our feet which were going numb/hurting. There are a number of small lakes at the top of the pass, all very pretty and with good fishing according to Richard who is a regular visitor to the area. Weeeeeee! Downhill at last, but what is this? Oh my gosh, once we drop down into the valley the temperature skyrockets, it is baking along the Pend Orielle River.

Stp # 3, we are now at mile 125. Remember Steve's words: drink, eat, drink. We had been nagging each other "have you been drinking?" and we continued to do so for the rest of the day. More friendly volunteers and still regular sightings of our three roving trucks, yes three! There were probably only 8 riders within an hour of us but we kept seeing these three trucks, talk about taking care of us. It made me feel very secure to know that if I crashed and burned, either lierally or figuratively, then someone would be along in a very short time.

South along the East side of the Pend Oreille, a head wind greeted us. I think this was the low point of the ride, the wind was gusty at times but we did get shelter from the trees. There was fresh chip seal and aside from occasional filtered views of the lake it was not very scenic. Also assorted body parts were sending memos, mostly my feet which were getting very painful. Richard was suffering similarly, we tried to draft but soon ended up back riding side by side: the distraction of chit chat was better than the benefit of a draft. I had instituted a no whinning before 150 miles policy. I think my odometer conspired against me, I had just convinced Richard that we would hang on to Usk and then get a cold drink and take a "foot break". I looked down and saw that I was reading 0.25 and all my ride data was wiped! Did Sean sell me a computer that only goes up to 150 thinking that I'm too wimpy to ever ride further????? Or was it some scheme to prevent me from ever reaching my whine threshold??? I whinned regardless!

It was hard to leave the porch of the gas station in Usk but we had only 10 miles to our next and final stop. We saw the two riders ahead of us at this stop, a couple of flats had slowed them down. This was at 165 miles and provided an "interesting" bathroom experience. There was a sign in the outhouse requesting that you do not put burning material down the potty, well under the circumstances (hot day, 12 hours in the saddle etc) I experienced an intense burning sensation upon using the potty which had me hooting with laughter at the sign while tears of agony rolled down my face!!!! The next two miles were "uncomfortable" but fortunately everything settled down again to "mild" discomfort. Richard is a physician but we never did have to do the "on a scale of 1 - 10 how would you rate your pain". I reckon I was 9/10 coming from the loo!

We finally hit highway 2 which had its plusses (wide shoulder, fast pavement and downhill trend) and minuses (too much traffic in the left ear). This last section was quite fast, the few hills had us moving slowly but it seemed that we were often at 16-18 mph chasing the rapidly setting sun. The memos were coming more often from my feet, my left knee was getting in on the act too and the butt region was up to sending hate mail!

The Mall, we made it! Just about at dark, the crew was waiting for us and we learned that the riders behind us were finishing by themselves and would be atleast another hour or more.

Lessons learned from this experience: Spokane bike club people are great! Running 19 miles two days before a double century is not really bright! Drink, eat, drink! My bike seat is not "anatomically correct" or maybe I am not anatomically correct?! Riding 200 miles with a man who kills small animals is not necessarily a bad thing!

Thanks Spokane Bike Club and Richard (you are a star!). Hopefully a few more of you into this kind of S & M stuff will join the ride next year!

With the the hot weather we've had lately, Carol and I decided to get up early this morning to go for a ride. We headed up on the Webb Ridge Road and parked part way up. This is just off the Webb cut off that we take on the Lapwai loop. It's a pretty good climb for 8-9 miles. We gained elevation very fast. Though we were out early and it was only in the low to mid seventies, Carol and I were both dripping sweat. We finally reached an area where though it was somewhat steep and constant climb, we were in the trees and cooled a bit.

We had some beautiful views of the canyon towards McCormack Ridge. We were looking for a road that cut back to Flat Iron Road but missed it and came out on the Soldiers Meadow Road just west of the reservoir. The last miles through the meadows was just incredible and the weather was great. There were lots of wildflowers and butterflies and not a single car! (We had one pick up pass us right at the very end of our ride.)

We turned back instead of contining on Soldiers Meadow Road and tried every turn off to our left looking for the road we missed. We went up lots of "roads" that went by streams and through woods and either disappeared or ran into a fence or a gate. Some of the gates were not posted "no trespassing" but we decided to leave them for another day after checking maps again. We will also look for our road from the other end near Waha.

We were running out of fluids as our 2 1/2 hour ride had turned into 4 1/2 hours but we had a great time and the climb at the beginning was a great reward at the end of our ride.

Anybody who can tolerate gravel road rides, you've gotta try this area. We always see wildlife. Today it was two deer just at the beginning of our ride. They were running up a hill and hid in some brush then came out again with their tails wagging like flags. They made a nice silouette at the summit before disappearing on the other side. We've also seen elk on one occassion.

We passed Corrie, Chris, Scott, and Debbie on Tammany Creek Road on the way home in the blistering heat back here in the valley. We thought they were totally freaking nuts to be out riding that time of day!

We congratulated ourselves for having avoided the heat on our ride, ate lunch and helped the movie economy by taking in a matinee.

17 July 2003 41.3 miles 4:10 riding time Kamiah, ID to Winchester, ID

When Chris first saw 7 Mile he described it as “no bigger than an Indiana Spur”. He soon regretted those words! The grade pretty well wore him down. We had PB&J sandwiches in Greencreek & water compliments of the Roman Catholic Church. He was ready for bite-sized steaks in Ferdinand. We’d planned to stay at the lake in Winchester, and Chris had no interest in cycling on down when we got to Winchester, but neither did he want to stop by the new library. We met some people with CEDA who invited us to a pic-nic with them later which was excellent food. First time I’ve camped at the lake since early adolescence. Amazing how little care the park has given the brush which needs removed, and no trees have been thinned since they took over. Oh well, it’s still a beautiful area. I did see Uncle Mike & Cousin Ken that evening but missed friends John & Sandy Young who came by to see us.

18 July 2003 43.1 miles 3:10 riding time Winchester, ID to Lewiston, ID

Riding down the Old Winchester Grade is always fun, and of course Chris enjoyed that. We took a long break at the top of Webb Ridge. That put is in Lewiston early, so I took my bike back to B&L to have the bottom bracket worked on; the creaking which seemed to appear in the hot weather continues.

19 July 2003 no miles. Layover day in Lewiston

Lazy day today for Chris, and one of paying bills and reading mail for me. The Riddles had a great party for us at their home which was a highlight.

20 July 2003 73.7 miles 7:43 riding time Lewiston, ID to Waitsburg, WA

Sheila, Dave, & Carol joined us for the ride to Chief Timothy, and Carol decided to make it her first climb up the Alpowa Grade giving us some fun and interesting company. I think Carol skipped church to do this though! Mark was supposed to meet us on the grade by 10:00 a.m., but we were in Pomeroy talking to another tourist when he rode up. It’s over 100 degrees today. Chris ran out of water outside of Dayton where we stopped at a farm house. I dumped my hot water for the ice water given us. We rode to Waitsburg instead of Dayton so we could stay with cousin Pat Largent. Had a good time with her and her granddaughter; Julianna.

21 July 2003 80.6 miles 6:59 riding time Waitsburg, WA to Umatila, OR

Pat fixed us a big breakfast, and we were soon peddling up the hill outside of Waitsburg (no AC doesn’t route us down Hwy 12). The route was hillier than I expected to Walla Walla but very low traffic volume. Chris wanted to find a bike shop (ever seeking the perfect adjust to his derailers which he’s not found). With the road closures downtown, we never found either shop though. After College Place we rejoined Hwy 12. We met Travis, a L-C tourist going east today. He’d run out of water between Biggs Jct and Umatila, so he warned us to watch that. He’s from Olympia, started there, rode to Portland, and caught the L-C route there. He’s eager to be done with WA and into ID. He extending the ride to North Carolina from A/C’s end near St. Louis. We had lots to discuss. He’s using only A/C book on Lewis Clark without the maps which leave him missing much info. We were disappointed to get to Touchet and find the listed restaurant is closed! We settle for snacks instead of lunch! My old bagels were thrown out in Lewiston, and neither of us had new breads, so it was mostly junk food. Chris says he likes to swim, but he was able to keep me out of the water twice today, another day over 100. He won’t do this again though! I now know he likes swimming about as much as David likes camping!

22 July 2003 80.6 miles 6:59 riding time from Umatila, OR to Biggs Jct, OR

The truck stop at Umatila proved to be low priced with good food, a pleasant surprise. I’d fallen behind on my journal since Winchester, and stayed up late catching up. In North Roosevelt we made sure our water bottles were full, remembering Travis’ warning. Frank, a local cyclist joined us for about 5 miles but the headwinds and heat made him turn around. Those things had caused my water to disappear before the 500 ft climb east Biggs (on the WA side). Chris had fallen behind and found a rancher’s house to get more ice water! As I was dry and waiting for him at the top, he rides up in a pickup! With all the water he could want, he still chickened out of that hill. His host gave me 20 oz of water which was appreciated, but by the time we were in Biggs, I was really dehydrated. 3 pitches of water at dinner (a bit drunk by Chris) and I was back to myself! Good friend, John Young, had offered to come get me in Astoria, and this day has me thinking about it!

23 July 2003 57.4 miles 6:38 riding time Biggs Jct, OR to Hood River, OR

Into the headwinds again today! A frontage road runs about half way to The Dalles & then onto the freeway. Headwinds held our average down to 8.7 MPH today. We enjoyed the scenic Hwy 30, the twin tunnels (opened only to cyclists & pedestrians) and getting into the timber. At a scenic overlook we me Lauri, a local cyclist, who invited us to set up our camp at her place. Chris decided to seek out a hotel, but I enjoyed spending the night with Lauri & Doug.

24 July 2003 71.9 miles riding time 7:12 Hood River, OR to Portland, OR

What a great day of cycling! Parts of the Historic Columbia River Highway, bike routes through the forests, and occasional bits of freeway shoulder provided today’s route. Headwinds were horrible again holding avg speed down to 9.9 MPH including the downhill from Corbett. The old abandoned sections of road turned into bike paths were my favorite, but I enjoyed the overlook and some of the people we met there too. I’m reminded that Doug, the host in Hood River enjoyed July, which is the primo time for the wind-surfers. Apparently July offers the strongest winds! Chris suffered his 3rd flat of the trip today.

25 July 2003 in process

Today started out poorly- at least as poorly as a 70 some degree with blue skies can be on tour! At departure time Chris decided to patch all his accumulated tubes! It was 9:00 before we were out of there! Then we rode the route through Portland, but our bridge was closed for the summer of ’03! Another hour a half later after riding through downtown Portland on Broadway Bridge, we were across the Willamette. Just south of Scappoose Chris’s bike started making a noise. I suggested something was in his tires. As he started to stop, I saw a “historic sign” and suggested we stop there. He didn’t want to. Then, I noticed the sign was removed! It was only 1 mile into town, so I thought we’d remeet there. I waited 30 minutes and he didn’t show up. I then went into ShopKo leaving my bike out by the road where no one could miss seeing it. As I got back to it, there was Chris. He was still headed toward me, on the other side of the road, eyes fixed forward in a very upright position. I jumped and cried out, but he never look my way, and apparently he couldn’t hear me. By the time I got the bike unlocked and waited for the green left turn light, he was gone! We’re both headed for Westport, OR, so we should find each other tonight!

Happy Cycling for fun, fitness, and transportation!

Steve

Seven Crazy Ladies stepped down from their pedals to grab some paddles to do battle with the Snake River this Wednesday. Leane, Sandie (T.M.O.A.C.L.), Helen, Sheila, Julie, Marcia and Debbie hired a really cute captain (Paul, Leane’s husband) from Beamer’s Hells Canyon Tours and seven kayaks to be transported by jet boat 9 miles upriver to Bear Bar for a float and paddle back to the lodge at Heller Bar.

With the high temps of the day, this was definitely the way to spend time. Leaving from Bear Bar around 10 am and bucking a headwind most of the way, leisurely was the key word here. Stopping for lunch at Ann Duckworth’s beautiful cabin and sand bar, Leane decided to have a bud light while the sane ladies ate their sensible lunches. Soon that bud light would be paying Leane back, by causing her to capsize in the “Wild Goose” rapids. How embarrassing for the “alleged river guide” to have Julie and Debbie rescue her kayak, while she braved the Wild Goose with only her paddle…sort of like being up a creek with just a paddle!

A couple more swimming stops, a hike up to some petroglyphs (luckily no snakes!), a stop at Lime Point to watch a deer and a barn owl, some quail and chuckers coming down to get a drink from the river, all the ladies returned safe, sunburned and smiling to the lodge at about 2:30.

The Crazy Ladies decided that this was really fun and plan to make it an annual outing. Girls just want to have fun!