Crusty Cassette

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.