Crusty Cassette

Bill from Canada joins TRC at the Palouose grocery for a snack.

You do have a helmet, I hope?

Bill Warren had contacted me by email about doing the Huckleberry ride a couple of weeks earlier. He claimed to have really wanted to do it, but nevertheless, allowed himself to become embroiled in a home project at the last minute. Doesn't he know that's why I bike? So I don't have to do home projects?

Two sets of photos

Read the Full Story

I want to know who took the pictures on this ride. I don't see any pictures of the beatiful scenery this ride has to offer. I say let's fire the photographer.

I did make it all the way back to Lapwai. My legs tried to cramp several times but they never quite fired.

The ride was enjoyable until I got part way down the Kendrick grade and then the heat kicked in pretty hard. The heat was pretty hard on me. Once I hit Route 12, I was pretty much toast. Any little incline from there back to Lapwai really slowed me.

When I was done my computer said I'd gone 126.5 miles. My average was 16.3. That was the longest ride I'd ever done though not necessarily the hardest. Today, I'm suffering from saddles sores a bit, including some in place you don't want to know about.

more photos

It's 4 pm and Linda and I are almost back to Lewiston when I reach over and crank up the intensity on the air conditioning. It's hot in the valley.

The idea of heading to the mountains during the hottest weeks of the year is a good one but too often it seems we hit the mountains during an extended period of genralized heat throughout the west. 10 degrees cooler doesn't help much when the temperatures are still in the high 90s. Last year's Huckleberry riders endured pretty high temperatures.

But today was different. A slight overcast and a breeze kept us cool all day long. In addition Debbie's knee kept her off the bike so we not only had cooler temperatures but a highly trained sag driver. Thanks for doing that, Debbie. It can't be much fun sitting on the tailgate watching us go by.

Sean made an appearance. Last year he and Eric rode out from Lewiston. This year he parked in Lapwai cutting off perhaps 15 miles. However, he rode all the way back to Lapwai too. At least I didn't see him off in the ditch anywhere so I assume he made it.

Tamra reported that he was losing salt at a furious rate--those lycra shorts were black weren't they? But he loaded up on water at the Convenience store in Deary and headed out. He didn't want to wait around for us slow pokes. He had places to go. At least he got to ride down that nasty hill out of Deary.

But he missed Chris having a beer in the park.

The ride went without incident except for Hammerin' Helen breaking a chain. "I generate tons and tons of wattage," she reported later in the park. Sherry had a chain tool and Lee packed along a quick-link. Now I suppose we'll all have to add one of those to our bags.

Wonder how the STP crew did? Jim, how about a blog?

More photos

"I've got a ride to put on the calendar," Nicky exclaimed over the phone.

I should have known when I saw the Sunday Morning Tribune describing new wine cellars on the Palouse.

Sure enough, Nicky proposed a wine tour starting in Uniontown, riding to Pullman for lunch, a visit at a winery right in town and still another on the Moscow-Pullman highway.

But that was when the weather was cool. Coming off 100 degree days, a ride starting at 10 seemed kind of late when we really got down to it. Still I've been fighting a cold and wasn't sure I'd be able to do more than the 40 or 50 miles I expected the wine tour to become.

Okay, I'll do it. Linda and I arrived in Uniontown early but Nicky was already there. Doug Goodenough had started at the Rose Garden and sat happily on the park bench waiting for the rest of us to get it together. Tamra and Rory were ready to go when Sherrie Kole arrived. Debbie and Camile were going to ride out from Pullman to meet us. We were going to have quite a group and we didn't even know that Dean would show up, crutches and all, for lunch at Basilios.

And the temperature was fine. When we left Uniontown it was in the mid 70s and we had a light breeze out of the west to keep us cool.

We had lots of time. Nicky planned two hours for the ride to Pullman and so arriving early we stopped at B&L. I spent a bit longer there than everyone else as the mechanic identified the source of the creek in my Pilot. They had done the usual on Friday and I had just picked it up but I didn't like the tick and creak I still had.

I caught up with the group at Basilios in time to order. And that's when things began to go bad. Nicky's insulin pump was giving her cryptic messages and was wanting to phone home. Her blood sugar was high. Nicky lost interest in lunch and wine.

Actually Camille had started her first club ride of the year with a flat tire which Debbie helped her fix. We pumped up a bit more at B&L but when we headed for the first winery in the Old Post Office,

Debbie, Camille, and Sherry were no where around. That front tire was flat again--pinched, I guess. By the time we got there the ladies had the tire all changed.

But Dean had taken Nicky back to her car in Uniontown. We were leaderless. We didn't know how to get to the second planned winery. I thought we could ask at the first, but that didn't turn out so well either. Someone was getting married in our Winery!

So, no, we didn't get a taste of wine. Rory did have a beer at lunch. It didn't seem to hold him up as he and Tamra just kept pulling away. We thought we had lost Sherry which stopped us for few minutes.

The weather was comfortable all the way back to Uniontown. I was feeling good and decided to ride on back with Doug. We felt the heat just as we merged back on to 95. The west wind tried to pull us off our bikes descending the grade.