Crusty Cassette

Next time I do a camping trip, I won't need to worry about what to pack. I'll just pack Jim.

McCracken does know how to camp right down to the Starbucks Coffee, individual cups brewed, and the commercial 'smores sticks.

Truth to tell, Jim'd rather live on his bike camping than at home. Claire thought she'd married a crazy man, she explained during campfire chat, when his plan to excavate a basement beneathe their small Orchards home to make room for their first born began to include a swimming pool.

I knew Jim was dangerous when her signed up for RAMROD 2007 before he'd even done a century. It hammered home when I teased him with Native Planet only to discover he'd signed up for that too. Yes, there was a time when McCracken was quite the cyclist, though this year he has been distinquished more by his absence than presence on our club rides.

Next year will be different. He'll have a goal--RAMROD 2009. To make sure he'd have company, he talked me into guaranteeing myself a ticket to ride by volunteering this year. Al Coons also got suckered in and both Linda and Claire also volunteered. Apparently Claire will go anywhere as long as she has her air mattress to sleep on. And, of course, Linda just wants to go anywhere.

So that's how I found myself making 800 deli sandwhiches on Thursday at the Crystal Mountain food stop. We were setting up at 9, saw our first rider at noon, and our last sometime after 6 pm.

The riders were 38 miles from the finish in Enumclaw and had done the worst of the climbs, Cayuse Pass, and were over a hundred miles into the ride. The volunteer ladies kept complaining that all the riders seemed young, male, slender, and rested. But by 2 pm the great belly of the snake of multi-colored cyclists had reached Crystal Mountain. We were ready. But even at 25 secs per sandwich, we couldn't keep ahead of the mass of hungry cyclists. The line snaked out nearly to the road from within the Snopark we had set up in.

And then we ran out of bread.

It could have been ugly but everyone was in a good mood and didn't complain about sandwiches on lettuce. We had plenty of fruit and cookies and several times took a tray of goodies up and down the line.

The weather was grand though cold at the start and hot for a couple of hours in the afternoon before it cooled off again. Riders complained of the head winds too, but don't they always?

Finally the ladies arrived and by the end of the day all the women of the volunteer crew had made a pact to use their lottery bypasses to ride RAMROD next year rather than give them away. They've all promised to start training like right now.

I've done many organized rides with support. It was nice to take my turn at providing some support. The riders really appreciated our work and wanted to know if we were all planning on riding in 2009. In the hat of the moment, everyone committed. I think, maybe even Claire. I told her now she's required to ride.

Jim had lured me into volunteering with the promise of a ride on Friday but the weather turned wet Thursday night and stayed socked in. Abotu 10:30 we decided to ride from White River camp ground to Sunrise at 6400 feet. Turns out to be about 12 miles of climbing. Wasn't much to see through the mist and fog so we drove up Saturday morning which was more clear though not perfectly so. Jim said the mountain was just shy this week.

The descent was blood curdling. The mist only made me colder and I didn't have long fingered gloves nor a balaclava like Jim. Once below the mist, though, I warmed up enough to want to ride more. Linda and Jim and I rode out to the park entrance and back for 30 miles. Al headed home.

I'll expect to see more of Jim and Al and Linda on long rides next season. You can start now guys.

For the Ride of it. Corrie

More pictures and three videos

Jim's Pics

I just want to get this ride over.

That was Doug.

Somewhere there's a grain truck driver who'd be pleased when we were off the road.

Doug ought new deep rims and is experiencing flats. To make it worse he's still running tubes with short stems. Very difficult to get a pump to latch onto the valve.

His first flat was at the top of Web Ridge.

Doug, Tom, Dave and I were about to make a clean break with the rest of the group who had started with us at 7 at the boat launch.

Roy Stephesn complained of his back and planned only to do Lapwai, but told us at Barre Road he'd probably turn back at Web Ridge. Jim McCracken, the missing McCracken, discovered that you really need to ride your bike now and then to be able to do a century. Linda decided the pace was too much and was joining Jim for the Lapwai Loop. Jim and Linda spoke of doing Lapwai Loop but showed up The Thuderbird.

And Chris made a guest appearance riding through the way golfers do but he never gave warning. Suddenly there he was having started late and he'd just as suddenly disappear after the Casino adding the necessary miles for his century.

Back on Web Ridge Doug struggle with changing his tire when a woman hopped out of her pickup asking if we were just changing the tire. She warned us that "My husband hates bikers." She warned us that he was driving a grain truck and would likely be along right away. She thought we should be moving right along. this provoked some speculation as to what he might do. Was he armed? Was he going to drive us off the road?

This is why we do advocacy. I understand a driver's frustration at slow moving traffic. I share it when I drive. I know that grain trucks are working vehicles. Yet we share the same public roads. So long as we do so legally and courteously, the grain truck driver has no more right to complain than I do when I get behind a farm vehicle moving from field to field along the public highways. We need to speak up for our right to use the roads and raise that awareness among the grain truck driver's of the world. In the meantime, keep an eye for grain trucks.

Doug needed air up his front tire again at Winchester. And again at highway 12. Before we reached Arrow Bridge, we had to stop and change the tire again. It was enough to make a guy want to get the ride over with.

Linda called as we were leaving Winchester and we were puzzled that they were still just in :apwai. Linda and Jim did climb part way up Winchester before Jim began to cramp and they decided to turn around. They had lunch and continued around Arrow. Linda added Red Wolf and turned in 75 mph herself.

The temps were fine on the prairie especially with a bit of a head wind to cool you off. We made pretty good time despite the head winds. But by the Casino the heat and wind and distance were beginning to show. Chris would jet off in search of a sub 6 hour century. Doug skipped the frontage roads but we caught him back on the bike path so we finished together.

Finished? Chris was off already adding miles. Dave was doing the same. Tom doesn't have a computer on his new Lemond--don't ask me how he gets his wheels to turn without a computer--and when I reported 94-95 miles, he headed out after Dave. Seems like he wasn't willing to call it a century-another mileage junk?

I was feeling pretty good but I soon discovered that I had little left when I climbed onto Southway. It was hot though the winds in my face kept it from being blistering. But then the wind in my face ate into my enery. Getting home was a challenge.

Last Saturday Tom and I did 110 mmiles at 18mph and I felt better then than I did today. 100 miles with a tailwind on the rolling hills of the Palouse are not the same as 100 miles with Winchester Grade and a headwind--Doug, your Karma seriously sucks.

“I earned good Karma last time,” Doug reported looking up from his plate of hash browns covered with gravy and tobasco sauce.

“And I’m cashin’ it in today.”

Doug was referring to the last century bike ride we had done together a couple of weeks ago where we encountered headwinds in three of the four directions we rode. Now he was tempting fate by asserting that fate owed him a tailwind back from Teko to Pullman.

Once the road cyclist finally leaves the bike path and ventures out onto the open road, he or she will eventually try for that first century, a ride of 100 miles completed in one day. Such long group rides were quite popular social events in the early days of the 20th century.

The Twin Rivers Cyclists offered two shorter but demanding rides recently with the Bite the Bullet Day Tour and the Huckleberry ride. Men and women of diverse abilities and training participated setting their own pace to meet the distance challenge.

Today’s ride would be different. Unsupported and without much fanfare, Doug, Chris, and I set out to do a century. Tom Witt of Troy joined us. This was to be his first century ever. We weren’t concerned that he could do it. We’d seen him ride. He’d beaten me up the spiral highway on I Made the Grade, had done both Bite the Bullet and the Huckleberry ride comfortably. Tom is lean and fit and fast. We found that out today.

Chris rode an extra 9 miles over from Moscow to join us at Dissemore’s in Pullman. I had mapped a likely route at 107 miles but wasn’t at all sure I wanted to push to a century today. Heat and wind can change one’s mind. But Tom showed up and we wanted to get him to his goal, a first century.

We had chosen to tour the small towns of the Palouse north of Pullman. The fields south of Pullman are all already golden waiting for harvest, north toward Palouse they are just turning, and further north green dominates. The best way to see the country is on a bicycle. You’ll notice those hills more and appreciate the descents.

Temps about 10 degrees lower than in the valley had brought us up top. This is a great route to do on a Saturday. The little towns are no more than 10 to 15 miles apart making it possible to get food and water nearly everywhere without having to carry much. But on Sunday the small groceries and cafes are not dependably open.

Palouse is the gem with its two parks and a grocery but it is only 15 miles out. Going north on 27 we took the Farmington cutoff just short of Garfield. Farmington has a beautiful park, good water, clean restrooms, but no food. The men’s room was severely short on TP today so Farmington lost one star in its rating. Six or seven miles further north lies Teko nestled around and over a steep Palouse hill.

Chris was ready for lunch at Teko though it was only 10:30. He lured me into the café with promises of a milkshake but we found only the breakfast menu available. Three orders of hash browns and mine of pancake and sausage later, and Doug made his bold claim for tailwinds.

Doesn't this look a Largent Lunch? _______________________ “Are you sure this is your first century,” I panted to Tom.

“Yeah.”

“Then start behaving like it,” I complained.

We left Dissemore’s about 7:36 with Chris already sporting a 10 mph average. Just as I feared, we set out too fast, enjoying nice tailwinds. Tom stayed with us on every hill and even took a turn or two pulling—that is riding out in front to break the wind for the riders “drafting” behind. He didn’t look like a rider concerned about having enough strength to finish the day.

But then none of us did. We did take full advantage of each community stopping for food and water. But back on the road we always seemed to push that pace to 20mph or more. Tailwinds helped, drafting helped. But could we really ride a century at 18.5 miles per hour? Tour de France riders wouldn’t think that was much, but it is a good 2 to 3 mph faster than I usually ride even for shorter distances.

Doug’s Karma wasn’t helping much as we climbed out of Tekoe toward Oaksdale only 12 miles away. In fact, Doug’s Karma became a synonym for head winds. Doug complained we-of-little-faith had spoiled his Karma. Doug began to drop off the pace. The Karma wasn’t working.

Chris would get more miles on the day and decided to return directly through Garfield rather than riding out to Steptoe and back on Dry Creek road. We needed those extra miles to get Tom a century, but we decided we could go back with Chris and add Albion Loop for the extra miles.

Chris apparently felt he didn’t need to hold back for us and picked up the pace outside of Oaksdale. I went with him and despite the winds we faced, we had a nice pace line. The pace line reduces the effort each trailing rider must make significantly. But after a couple of miles I knew I couldn’t hold it. I pulled out of the line, indicating to Tom that he should take up the slack and I’d fall back to the end of the line for a rest.

Chris must have felt guilty and backed off. Tom, however, didn’t. He shot around Chris and took off. Doug and I rode together for a few minutes while I recovered. Then I sped up a bit, catching Chris who shook his head. “Doesn’t look like Tom’s going to have a problem with this century,” he remarked. “No,” I agreed. “I’m going to give him some sh . .” I said catching up with Tom. Tom kept agreeing we needed to pace ourselves but he couldn’t seem to resist the challenge of going fast. Too much riding with the Matt Morra Fast Thursday crowd, I guess.

In keeping with the full service First Century we offer, I gave Tom one more chance. At about 70 miles leaving Garfield for Palouse, I knew I’d never keep up the pace with Chris who was as usual beginning to sense the end and riding correspondingly faster out front. Tom was hanging back behind Doug and me when I suggested, “Feel free to ride up there with Chris.”

“I guess it’s worth a try,” Tom said scooting by us.

Just one more rule Tom didn’t understand. First rule on these club rides. We don’t leave anyone behind and generally ride at the pace of the slowest rider or we wait at the top of the hills for the group to reform.

Second rule. Don’t try to catch Chris, also known as Cruel. For a time we could see them both, Chris out in front a few hundred feet. And then they were both gone. I glimpsed Tom briefly as he crested the big hill ahead and I thought he’d stop and wait there for Doug and me. But Tom is fast and strong. Had he not already ridden farther than ever before in one day, and had Chris not had a significant lead, Tom might have caught him.

We found Tom waiting above Palouse. “Learn the error of your ways?” I asked.

“Yeah, Chris is really strong,” he said.

Chris left us for real at Palouse and Tom behaved himself quite nicely most of the way back though he did surge around me up one hill. But now he was beginning to show fatigue. It’s a big jump from 70 to 100 miles and we were going to finish with more than 100. Doug waved us on saying he’d pedal around Pullman waiting for us but didn’t want to add Albion Loop.

Chris had suggested Albion would add only 10 miles. I suspected more. By the time we finished Tom and I had 110 miles for the day at a pace of 18 mph. Oh, and that first century? 5 hours and 28 minutes, thank you. Probably the fastest century I’ve ever ridden. And now that Tom knows he can do a century, he’ll probably expect to ride them all at 18+ mph.

Doug’s Karma may not have helped Doug, but it definitely pushed Tom today.

More Picture

For the Ride of it. --Corrie