Cheers - 2011

My intention with this blog is to give an honest account of my every day experiences as a car-less bicyclist.  I want casual cyclists (if any ever actually read this) to know they can bike to work two or three days a week, save some money, improve their health, pollute less, burn less gas, and have some fun, all without becoming a fanatic, a radical or making a complete life-style change.

I post lots of scenic photos of Bellingham's sunny winter days and beautiful bike routes and trails because riding my bike is the best therapy and escape I know when I'm frustrated, discouraged, depressed, bored, angry, stir-crazy, whatever.  But I've been avoiding posting about an unexpected blow that hit me in October - partly for fear of jinxing myself, partly because I didn't want to let loose a libelous, flaming rant that might make more trouble for me (if anyone ever actually read it).  But it seems dishonest to leave this out.

My landlord is trying to evict me for keeping my bicycle in the living room of my apartment. There is a bicycle storage area in the complex, but I was never told bicycles were banned indoors, until the manager confronted me on my doorstep in October.  I objected that the storage area wasn't secure or convenient; later I discovered that my keys don't even work in the lock.  I tried to negotiate with the owner and managers.  Too late, I was given a 20-day notice.  I am contesting the eviction and have a court date next Friday.

I think I have a good case, but people keep telling me that renters have no rights.

So, things can only get better.

Or, worse things have happened.

Or other cheerful sentiments of that nature.

Today's Ride

Bellingham Bay from Boulevard Park.  That's a bit of the Canadian Rockies in the background.  I managed to ride past The Woods coffee shop without stopping.

Wardrobe Issues

At this time last year I would have been out of bed before 7am, and out on the road before sunrise, in the wind, rain or snow, riding eighty miles a week to and from work.  This year I'm barely riding fifty miles a week, and only at mid-day when there's no snow or rain.

In August I'd made up my mind to buy a new touring bike, and was starting to shop for rain gear, UnderArmour and fleece, and new water-resistant head and tail lights.  (I've never yet found a tail light that will survive a whole winter.) I was spared all this expense when I got my layoff notice on September first.  I'm making do with last year's gear.

In the summer I almost always wore spandex cycling shorts riding to and from work, then changed to work clothes in the bathroom.  I put in enough miles that I really needed padded shorts to cushion tender portions of my anatomy, but lately I've been thinking that I might actually have lasted a little longer in my job if I'd worn baggy shorts or a cover-up skirt instead of bare-ass spandex.

I've worked with many women (and men, too) who had long-term weight problems, from twenty to sixty extra pounds, up to people I would have said were in the morbidly obese range.  I've worked in office jobs myself, and know how your weight can creep up when you gain a few (or ten) pounds every winter, then don't quite lose it all every summer.  I know it's hard to stick to an exercise program when every day is dark before and after work for four months of the year.

Luckily, as a bicycle commuter I've been spared that problem.  I'm still built more like a fireplug than a Barbie doll, but I can see now that some people probably resented seeing me strut in the front door in shiny black spandex every morning.  And there are many people conservative enough to call any woman who dresses in tight, skimpy shorts a whore, even if I think it's a recognized athletic uniform.  Weight, appearance and body image are very touchy issues.  I probably would have been more well-liked if I'd covered up more, and been seen as a team-player rather than a non-conformist.

Wet Woolie

We're Having More Weather

Saturday the 11th was the Arthritis Foundation's Jingle Bell Run.  I volunteered to be a course marshal, and got to stop traffic and wave cars through gaps in the bunch at a minor intersection.  There was a good turn-out of runners and walkers.  I was near the end of the four mile course so I stood out in the cold for about two hours until the last ones passed.

Saturday night it started raining, and raining, and raining, until late Sunday.  Apparently it was worse farther south in Seattle, but we're still pretty soggy here in Bellingham.  Monday morning I looked out my front window and saw a bit of sunshine and blue sky and decided to take advantage, quickly, and hit the road.

In the summer this is a corn field

I rode north on Hannegan Road, heading for Lynden.  I came to a sign saying the road was closed at Polinder Road because of flooding, but I rode through to see how far I could get.  There had been water over the road in a couple of places, but I crossed the bridge over the Nooksack River before I had to turn back, with Lynden in sight.


I rode back to Wiser Lake Road and headed west to Northwest Ave., where I turned south back to Bellingham.  Northwest Avenue was closed for about a month back in September, for improvements to drainage under the road, and clearly the work was well done.  There is one spot where a new asphalt driveway washed out at the base of a utility pole, and one swampy stretch that had a warning sign about water on the road, but it was dry when I passed by.

This was about a forty mile ride.  When I got to Starbuck's on W. Bakerview the sky was turning dark and ominous again.

Flood water was dammed up north of Abbott Road.

On the north side the water was still almost level with the roadway, and was boiling up through the culvert on the south side.











The water was shallower on the south side of Abbot Road , but with a pretty fast current.

This car turned back, and so did I

Washout on Northwest Avenue

Snow Holiday

Still giving my bicycle a holiday.  Here are some photos from the Thanksgiving snowstorm.  These were mostly taken along the Whatcom Creek Greenways trail.  This area was burned after a June 1999 gas pipeline leak and explosion.  The area has been cleaned up and replanted to create salmon habitat and a bike and foot path along the creek.

The snow came so early this year, the trees didn't have time to lose their leaves.

The totem below is a memorial to three boys who died in the fire, after gas flowing on the surface of the creek ignited. Below that, a restored section of the creek.  People are already trying to fish at the bend in the creek, but I doubt there are any salmon. The fish hatchery farther up the river at Whatcom Falls Park isn't operating yet.

Bellingham's Auto Row, on Iowa Street, backs up against the woods along Whatcom Creek.

In 1999 I worked at OfficeMax in Sunset Square, a shopping center a mile or two north of this area.  From the parking lot I could see a wall of black smoke moving west toward the freeway.  I thought it was a riot, that people - environmentalists or frustrated, underemployed retail workers like me - were torching cars in the lots along Iowa.

(That was before I tried bicycling.  I didn't have a car, so I rode the bus, and often walked four miles home at night because bus service to Sunset Square stopped at 7pm.)

A troll under the bridge along the trail

Enough Resting - I miss my wheels

Snow before Thanksgiving!  Less than six inches, but followed by twenty-four hours of cold hard wind that blew more tiny, icy snowflakes down from the trees and rooftops.  Last Friday afternoon, knowing bad weather was coming, I got out for a sunny 25-mile ride along the waterfront and Boulevard Park.  After two days of snow over the weekend, there is only packed snow and crusty ice left on the streets and sidewalks, the worst for bike-riding.  I've mostly been walking and riding the bus for the past couple of weeks, and now my lame foot and ankle are hurting.  I need to get back on my bike soon!

Bicycle Fuel

That first winter of the Maplewood Avenue hill-climb I discovered the best comfort food for winter bicycle commuters:  Ovaltine.  I mixed the chocolate powder half-and-half with powdered milk and carried it in to work daily.  After changing out of rain-gear to work clothes, I'd have a couple of scoops in my first cup of coffee, and then a second helping for my 10am coffee-break.

I'm not a nutritionist, I just go by the package label, which says the chocolate flavor mixed with milk contains 20% or more of the daily requirement of a long list of vitamins and minerals, including calcium (35%) and Vitamin D (25%).  The chocolate malt flavor doesn't have as many different vitamins and trace minerals, but does contain 40-60% of the daily value for calcium, iron, Vitamin D and a few others.

Be warned, though - one serving is about 170 calories.  This is no problem if you have a long commute or are riding a lot of miles training for an event.  Two servings a day, riding ten miles a day on my commute, caused me to gain about ten pounds over the winter.  Or maybe it was the frequent cookies, donuts and birthday cakes served at my new job.

Hill-climbing Hint #1 - Start Small

In January of 2008 I started work at a job near the Bellingham Airport.  To get there I turned off Northwest Avenue near the fire station, to Maplewood Avenue.  The street is level at the beginning, but rises to a modest hill-climb a bit more than a half-mile long (about .7 miles), to an intersection with Bakerview, near the freeway overpass and interchange.  The pavement is cracked and broken, and bike lanes and shoulders come and go on this two-lane residential street, but car traffic is light and usually not fast.  There are a couple of schools nearby, so there is bus traffic, and adult and child pedestrians in the morning.

Many mornings I would leave home five or ten minutes later than I should have, and the hill climb seemed to be the best place to make up time - I just stayed in high gear, stood up and pumped hard.  This put a lot of wear and strain on my legs and my drive-train, though, so I quickly learned to shift down and climb by spinning the pedals at a steady rate.  After a few months of attacking this same, small hill five days a week, I could climb it pretty quickly and steadily; I would get a bit flushed and sweaty in winter rain-gear, but not too out of breath.  When I tried more challenging hills in the spring I found they came easier, too.

I was still using clips on my pedals then.  I'd heard that you should pull up on the pedals.  Now I'd say it's better  to think of keeping the ball of your foot pressed firmly against the pedal, as far around as you can.  This works even if you don't have clips, and it's better than pulling up, which puts unusual strain on your feet and ankles.

One oddity about part of Maplewood Ave. is that on one side of the street, there is a wide paved shoulder with a raised cement parking-lot type divider down the middle.  Probably the half near the car lane is supposed to be a bike lane, and the outside half is supposed to be sidewalk, but there are no signs or markings and pedestrians walk on either side of the divider.  Monday is garbage day on Maplewood, and some residents like to park their big green garbage toters in the bike lane, and their cars on the sidewalk side, obstructing both sides and leaving cyclists with the choice of swerving out into car traffic, or riding across lawns.

English Major in the Woods

I should add that Agate Bay Road heads straight into the hills for a couple miles, then joins up to Jensen Road, which curves around and intersects with Y Road again, just before the top of the climb.  So I got to ride the downhill twice, but only did the climb once.

I should also have said "neither the bear NOR I was much disturbed."

Bears in the Woods

Wednesday I rode Northshore Drive to the Y Road hill climb, then on Mt. Baker Hwy. to the Nooksack River, and back the same way.  At the bottom of Y Road I stopped to rest, just across from where Agate Bay Road angles up the hill.  After sixteen or so years in Whatcom County, I'd never been on that road, and noting that my odometer was at 3199.6 miles, I decided to go exploring and watch my odo turn over.  At first the road goes over a few small, steepish rolling hills through woods with a few houses.  Near the top of a hill I looked off in to the trees and huckleberries on my right and saw either a very large black Newfoundland dog, or a small black bear. Assisted by the downhill, I coasted by fast enough that neither the bear or I was much disturbed.  When I glanced at my odo again, it said 3200 exactly.

I was riding about 4-6pm, so there were deer out feeding, too.  I saw several grazing in cleared fields or front yards at the top of the hill climb.

Y Road, by the way, is about a Category 2 or 3 hill climb, in Tour de France terms.  I've learned to appreciate low gears, but did not have to drop down to the smallest chainring.

Coming Down from the Hills

The November rains are trying to get an early start.  Usually by afternoon the sky is only partly cloudy, the temperature moderate but uncomfortably damp and humid.  I'm still running errands by bike, and going for flattish 20-30 mile rides for fun.  I've ridden more than 3100 miles since mid-February; I expect to ride 4000 miles this year.

I hate to admit it, but after returning from vacation I found my hilly eight mile commute was beginning to wear on me.  I rode that route five days a week for more than a year and half, and the year before I rode another route with an easier daily hill-climb.  I started doing hilly rides back in a warm spell in January, to test myself before the Chilly Hilly.  And then some hard hill-climbing on my vacation in July.  By mid-August I was getting twinges in both knees and straining my back on the hills on my commute.  I guess it's a good time for a rest.

Now that I'm not commuting any more, maybe in the next couple of weeks I'll revisit my old routes to work and review my hill-climbing lessons from the past two or three years.

Club Univega

This is a newly-created blog dedicated to bicycle commuting and recreational cycling in and around Bellingham, Washington.

My Summer Vacation

NOTE: this is a repost of one of my first posts from September 2010. At the time I was still learning the finer points of placing and sizing photos and wrapping text. Since then something seems to have gone wrong, and the post and some photos went missing, except in draft form. So there they are again, because I miss the sun.

Klamath River

For my summer vacation this year I went away to Bicycle Mechanic School in Ashland, Oregon. I took the train to Klamath Falls, and then rode my bike on Highway 66 to Ashland. At both ends of the ride there is a hard, winding climb of about ten miles, then it's about sixty miles through the mountains, most of it through national forest where there are no houses, rest stops, convenience stores or Starbucks. Not even very much shade, and I picked the hottest day of the summer to ride (as of the last week of July) - the temperature got up to 103F. At mid-day I was getting a little sick from the heat, weak, dizzy, creeping along at 4-6mph. Luckily I came to a store in Mountain View, about twenty-five miles away from Ashland and a bit before the Green Springs Summit. They had a big, beautiful freezer in back, stacked with blocks and bags of ice. I bought an eight pound bag and sat out front of the store hugging it, holding it on my lap, rubbing lumps of ice on my face, neck and head. I slid chunks down my back, in my bra, in my shorts, trying not to look utterly shameless while reveling in the coldness.

Emigrant Lake, near Ashland

The ten mile downhill, almost all the way to Ashland, was a screamer. It's a winding two-lane road without much shoulder, but not much car traffic either, and lovely views of the valley. I was worried that on my hybrid bike with thirty pounds of baggage I would get going like a cannonball and not be able to stop, but I never got above about 33mph and I wasn't even riding the brakes all the way.

Some high points of the ride

Last public restroom for 65 miles

The return trip, riding from Ashland to Klamath Falls, was easier. I started earlier in the morning, and the temperature only got into the mid-80's. The downhill from Hayden Mt. summit isn't as thrilling as from Green Springs to Ashland, but it still made me forget all the climbing. At the bottom I stopped to rest at the Klamath River crossing, where pioneer caravans crossed the river in ox-drawn wagons.

The historical marker there tells about one group who were delayed when an ox became mired in the mud, then had to abandon a wagon after it broke a wheel. To make the climb up to Hayden Pass they had to double-team the wagons, using two ox teams to pull one wagon up, then returning to pull the one left behind.

Alas, I won't have much to say about commuting for a while, as I was laid off from my job on September 1.  But this is a glorious season for recreational cycling in Bellingham and I plan to take full advantage before the November rains set in.

Here are some photos from a recent ride to Blaine, just south of the Canadian border:

My trusty K2 on the public fishing dock across from Semiahmoo Spit.

Quick-Step was here - steam-powered

Some scenes from the 2010 Chilly Hilly, a 33-mile ride

around Bainbridge Island, last February:

The bike deck on the ferry

Lining up to disembark - people were very orderly
and docile, probably because of hypothermia.

Rest-stop at the half-way point

The line-up for the return trip on the last ferry to Seattle.

ClubUnivega

This is a newly-created blog dedicated to bicycle commuting and recreational cycling in and around Bellingham, Washington.