Correction

Several times in this blog I've made reference to the distant rugged mountains roughly north of Whatcom County as the Canadian Rockies. This is a mistake. I blame it on some childhood misconception that no one ever bothered to correct.

These mountains are actually part of the North Cascades. The Rockies, of course, are farther inland, extending north from the state of Montana. There are a couple of smaller mountain ranges north of here in Canada, the Pacific Ranges and the Vancouver Island Ranges, but I'm not sure what I'm seeing from here. I'm trying to find a map or panoramic photo that will tell me the names of the peaks on the horizon, just because I've lived in Whatcom County since 1995 and think I ought to know by now. Getting the right range will help narrow the search a bit.

This one is Mount Baker

BC Cancer Ride

On Saturday I wandered through the rest-stop for the BC Cancer Ride in my old neighborhood. This was the first large group fund-raiser/club ride of the summer, and while it wasn't a huge crowd, a steady flow of riders in yellow jerseys passed through town all afternoon.

At this point they would only have heard rumors about the monster Samish Way to Lake Padden hill-climb that lay a mile ahead.

Civic Stadium is a half-block down from the manager's office of my old apartment building, the place I was evicted from a bit more than two years ago, for keeping my bicycle in my living room. I hope the managers were nervous about the throng of lean, fit cyclists getting in their faces all day. I still feel uneasy the few times I've been back in that area, vaguely worrying that the resident gossips will come out and nag, gripe, snipe, sneer or yell at me and try to run me off.

Vancouver BC bike shops sent support crews for the riders

I've done a few big event rides or fund-raisers, most notably the Seattle-to-Portland ride with Team-in-Training in 2007, as a fund-raiser for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Sometimes I don't quite get the connection between getting a bunch of people to dress up in bright-colored shirts and bike, run or walk long distances to raise money or awareness for some cause. But I think getting people out to train and exercise is direct action to improve public health. And for people who have lost loved ones, or are affected by illness themselves, it's a chance for catharsis and memorial.

Funny Thing . . .

Why is it that when I'm boarding the bus at the transit center, kind men will hurry to help me lift my bike on to the rack at the front of the bus, but hardly notice young mothers struggling to board carrying two or three small children, a bulky fold-up stroller, a back-pack and a diaper bag?

A Birthday Ride

My work schedule at my (former) barista job was Thursday through Sunday. There's a lot to be said for a four day work week, but I didn't have a Saturday or Sunday off for two years. Now is my chance to revisit all the weekend festivals and farmer's markets I've been missing.

These photos are from the Big Bird Fly-In, a showing of radio-controlled model planes put on by the Bellair RC Flyers club. It made me a little nostalgic thinking of my Dad, a Boeing worker who experimented with building model planes from scratch, using balsa wood covered with paper or silk. He didn't do so well with engines or aerodynamics. We had some handsome-looking models around the house when I was little, but he didn't like to fly them and take a chance on wrecking.

Orville and Wilbur Wright started out as bicycle mechanics, but Dad didn't take me through a bicycle phase. I did have a purple Schwinn Hollywood that stayed in the garage as soon as the tires went flat. That's why I've had to struggle alone with elementary bike repairs as an adult. Which might be for the best, because I was sulky and easily frustrated as a kid. I'm not a crier now, I've learned patience, persistence and confidence in my competence (within some limits).  Of course, a lot of this maturity developed after I took up bicycling.

I explored a river-side bike route, along the Nooksack and Red Rivers, to get to the airfield by bike. I cut through Hovander Park, going past the Tennant Lake Interpretive Center to the Nooksack River where a gravel bike and pedestrian trail branches off to the left. I rode this to the Slater Road bridge, then crossed the river and took Slater Road to Haxton Way, by the Silver Reef Casino. Turning left there, I followed the signs to North Red River Road, which led to the airfield, about a five mile ride from my apartment.

In this area North Red River Road and South Red River Road run on either side of the Lummi River, a small twisty river that runs out of the Hovander Park and Tennant Lake wetlands down to the bay. I left the airfield on the south road, crossing Haxton and continuing on Slater Road. After crossing the Nooksack bridge I left the road to try out a stretch of trail along the Nooksack River.

The small gravelled parking lots on both sides of Slater Road on the east side of the bridge are maintained by the state parks system and a $30 annual Discover Pass is required to park a car there. The bike trail on the Hovander Park side of Slater Road is mostly wide and newly gravelled, or mowed grass with narrow double or single-track trails.


On the other side of Slater Road the trail is rougher, grass and dirt tracks all the way, with some muddy patches, and a few places where there are roots, pot holes and small creeks where you'll have to dismount if you can't jump. Still, I rode it on my Surly Cross-Check with 700c street tires. I encountered several runners and couples walking dogs along the route. The trail runs for a bit more than two miles to Marine Drive, where I turned back. It's just a few yards from the river bank, though for much of the ride you can only get glimpses of the water through the tall grass and brush. It's a pretty ride, with lots of birds, Monarch butterflies, and rabbits to chase down the trail.

Before the weekend, the battery for my bike computer had died unexpectedly, at 1008 miles - they usually last a lot longer. So I started out on my birthday ride with a fresh battery and my odometer back at zero, and rode twenty miles exploring the trails and river roads.

A postscript: Crossing Slater Road is probably the most difficult and dangerous part of this ride. Slater has nice bike lanes on both sides, but many (most?) cars travel way above the 50mph speed limit. Car crashes and police chases are common, often involving DUI's. At the point where the trail intersects with Slater Road by the Nooksack bridge, it's safest to walk your bike across the road. While I was standing at the pavement edge waiting for traffic to clear, a few passing drivers played that little game where they drift slightly to the right in passing, so their right tires just cross over the white line into the bike lane.

Lookin' out my backdoor

On Thursday, May 30.