Crusty Cassette

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.

Jim McCracken opted to stay on the roads and dealwith the winds to Baker City. He also chose to bring along his own food so he could camp wherever the Gods and Jim's whim allowed. Here's his account. Sadly he didn't bring a camera. Can you imagine? You can see pictures we took on our Post.

I left Clarkston at 7:30 on Thursday morning and after a big pancake breakfast at the Mountain Air Café in Joseph, I was pedaling at 10:45. Perfect weather for a bike ride. Heading out of Joseph, the best scenery was in my helmet mirror as the snow-capped Wallowas, seemed to be saying “Hey, you’re going the wrong way!” But the green pastures east of Joseph provided the right kind of easy warm up for the first day of a tour. Red-Tailed Hawks soared overhead.

Before long the Halfway turnoff heads south and my first thought was “Wow, this would be a nice place to live!” Rivers, forests and meadows surrounded by snowcapped mountains for the next seventy miles, smooth roads and not much traffic; it doesn’t get much better than that! Two big climbs in this section on either side of the Imnaha Valley. I stopped for lunch at one of several campgrounds along the Imnaha. I really would have liked to camp here but it was too early to stop for the day. I’d like to drive back here this summer and do some car camping. Saw two elk along with a few deer.

I bypassed the Hell’s Canyon overlook because it involved a 6 mile side trip and it was getting toward dinner time. I stopped to camp along Pine Creek 23 miles from Halfway which gave me a 50 mile day.

As I was about to fall asleep in my tent I heard a chewing sound and grabbed my flashlight. Some critter shot away from the tent but I didn’t get a good look at it. Bigger than a squirrel but smaller than a raccoon. I was keeping a close watch on my food but didn’t suspect that my bike would be attractive to wildlife. The next morning however, I discovered that the varmint had chewed the edges off my bike saddle, my handlebar tape, the straps on my helmet, and had sampled every other nylon strap I had including the safety strap on the Burley and the rain fly strap on my tent. Salt was what it was after. I guess next time I’ll have to bear bag my bike! Well, everything was still functional but my Klein looks like it was abandoned at the thrift store.

It was raining steady the next morning and I was glad to have full Gortex for the 23 mile descent into Halfway. I stopped at a grocery store for a snack and started off toward Baker City. Before long I had shed the layers and put on the sunscreen. There were two good climbs between Halfway and Baker City and the trip along the Powder River through cowboy country, with the smell of fresh rain on the sage was enjoyable. I met a couple on a tandem on their way cross country who stopped and talked with me for awhile. They were from Modesto, CA and looked well equipped with a Co-Motion & Ortliebs. They said they had a head wind coming out of Baker City and that I’d probably have a tailwind. Life smiles upon the road tourist!

There is an RV park at the edge of Baker City that looked inviting; lots of grass and shade trees, very clean. I had 77 miles for the day so I pitched my tent, took a shower and rode into town for dinner. No peace and quiet tonight though as a big Biker convention was going on and the Harleys started rolling in from early evening until about 1am.

I got off just after 7am on Saturday and took the Medical Springs road from Baker City. I thought maybe the mountain bike crew would catch up with me today as they were taking a “short cut,” but I didn’t see them. The road started with flat pastureland, climbed gradually through the rolling sagebrush country and into the forest with the snow-covered Eagle Cap to the east. I stopped for lunch at Catherine Creek State Park, reached Union at 12:45 and then continued to La Grande where I had a second lunch at Wendy’s at 2pm. The day was young so I continued to Elgin but the a rain storm moved in heavy and I was back in Gortex for the next three hours. I camped on the Grande Ronde at the Hu Na Ha RV park with 82 miles for the day. Watched a beaver work his way upstream munching on willow branches that were easily within his reach from the high water.

I was in full rain gear again the next morning for the climb between Elgin and Minam, but the sun poked through again as I rolled along the Wallowa River, stopped for lunch at Lostine, and reached Joseph at 2pm with 51 miles for the final day and 260 total miles. Had a celebratory dish of ice cream at the Mountain Air Café before driving back home.

GEAR Report:

Klein Reve X with a 30 inch low gear. Burley Nomad, 15 pds, plus 35 pds gear & food: 50 pds total. 0 flats. 0 mechanical failures.

The Burley performed great, hardly knew it was there in terms of bike handling. On down hills I was going about 35mph and it didn’t wobble, pull or push. I was able to do the hills on this trip with no problems.

I was fully self-contained so I had all the gear and food I needed for 4 days, plus I had a 2 pd keg of Heed powder and my water filter so I always had hydration & energy available and that was huge!

I was glad I had three layers of riding clothes: light wicking layer, insulating layer (arm & leg warmers, headsweats cap) and Gortex outer layer. Gortex can save your life in hard rain with a long downhill.

This was a great road ride and the only thing I didn’t have was a head wind!

Jim