Off-Message

https://www.cnn.com/videos/sports/2023/11/06/billie-jean-king-cup-career-highlights-spt-intl.cnn

Before I took up bicycling, my first sports love was tennis. My dad taught me to play when I was a kid, back in the days of wood racquets. He admired the Aussie players Rod Laver, Stan Smith and John Newcombe, and also the stoic, cool Swede, Bjorn Borg. I was trained on Col. Nick Powel's original Code of Conduct of Tennis, and fantasized about playing like Billie Jean King, Chrissie Evert, Steffi Graf and Mary Jo Fernandez.

I played on my high school team, but I was awful. I was horribly shy and self-conscious, to the point that I couldn't focus on the ball and react to my opponent's shots, or concentrate on placing my returns. And I was always shocked by opponents who violated The Code with questionable line calls, temper tantrums and arguments about scores or calls. I played off and on after graduation, until finally in my mid-30s I developed enough confidence and mental focus to begin winning some matches, and truly enjoy playing. For several years, tennis was the center of my social life and the consuming interest that kept me happy even while working low-paying drudge jobs to pay the bills and support my tennis habit.

After moving to Bellingham I struggled to find a new tennis crowd. The tennis social scene was dominated by a local private tennis club; I was very, very broke in my first few years here and never fit in very well in clubby situations. One year I attended a conference put on by the US Tennis Association, where they announced a new marketing strategy promoting the pitch that "tennis is not just a sport for rich white snobs." I'm not sure the Bellingham club really got behind that message.

Still, I kept trying to make new tennis friends and compete in USTA or local public park tournaments, until I began to have pretty bad chronic back pain, and then blew out my knee. But I stubbornly kept limping around the court, hoping it would be fun again. In the summer of 2005 my car broke down, and I resorted to a Goodwill bicycle for transportation. I rode my bike to play matches at public courts, and found the bike rides were much more enjoyable than the tennis matches. Besides, the bike began to cure my knee and straighten out and strengthen my back. At the end of the summer I junked my car and gave up tennis forever.

This morning I saw a news item that just might revive my interest in tennis, although I'm not sure I want to play again myself. The Billie Jean King Cup is the newest incarnation of World Team Tennis and the Federation Cup. It is kind of the women's version of Davis Cup, which started as a competition between Ivy League American university teams and British Oxbridge teams, back in the days when women weren't admitted to universities, never mind competing in international sports tournaments. Now the Billie Jean King Cup gives women from all over the world the chance to train and compete at top levels in a beautiful game.

Reality Check

Mount Baker on a clear day

 A few days after my Squalicum Harbor ride I woke one morning with severe back pain. I'm not sure if it was from straining too hard on that steep uphill bit, or just a vertebra slipped out of place while I slept.

I couldn't even sit up in bed, I had to turn to my side and push myself up with my arms. Sitting down was the worst, it was all right standing up, walking around or lying flat on the floor, until I started to get stiff from immobility. Driving my car hurt when I lifted my foot between the gas and brake, and I didn't even try to get on my bike, though I did get out for a five-mile walk. I tried a cold pack at first, then found that a heating pad and ibuprofen worked better.

After three or four days of hobbling around, I Googled "low back pain" and read the ever-respectable and trustworthy Mayo Clinic website. They pretty much said "Yeah, that happens. You should probably see your doctor if pain persists for three weeks."

Ghost bike & me

Three weeks! I'd been taking 3-4 hour naps in the day time in addition to at least eight hours sleep at night, just because doing anything else hurt, and seemed to risk causing a sudden, worse injury. Normally I'm pretty stoical and patient about pain, but I couldn't have taken it for three weeks.

Fortunately the heat, rest and ibuprofen seemed to help. I started doing some very gentle, easy core exercises, similar to Kegel exercises, that involve sitting or lying down and tensing internal abdominal muscles, low back, hip and butt muscles. Plus just paying attention to my posture, straightening up my spine.

Luckily we had a spell of stormy weather so I had an additional excuse not to ride in the rain. After ten days or so the weather cleared up and yesterday I was able to get out for a ride. My hip sockets clunked when I threw my leg over the saddle, but after that I was fine. I rode an easy twelve miles on the flat lands out around the Lummi casino.

A few years ago an older woman - actually probably about my age - was killed crossing Slater Road on a bike. There is a memorial to her at the intersection with Ferndale Road.

And I'm back on wheels. But I guess October is the season to slow down and take it a bit easy.

My Favorite Season

That perfect time of year again. On Saturday I took a ride to the post office, then a side-trip to Squalicum Harbor for a snack break. I don't actually know anything about boats except that they are pretty to look at and I enjoy idling around the harbor and waterfront.

Saturday fish market

Americano & croissant

The streets around the Bellingham waterfront have been torn up and detoured all summer, while intersections and railroad crossings are improved. The pavement has been in terrible condition for many years, and there have been some pedestrian deaths at rail crossings, so the work is much needed.

When I headed home on Saturday I decided to try a detour on a little connector street called Seaview Way,  a small, steep, curving road that goes under the train tracks from the waterfront up to Eldridge Ave. When I turned off I could see it went up sharply and I down-shifted, but as I rode under the tracks and around the curve it suddenly got much steeper, going from a 45-degree slope to pretty near 60-degrees. It was too late to down-shift any further, if I'd let up pressure on the pedals, gravity would have taken over and I would have fallen over in the roadway, right in front of the large 4x4 truck that was following me up the slope. All I could do was stand on the pedals and try to keep my feet circling, pulling back against the handlebars, bearing down as hard as I could.

I made it all the way up and stopped by the stop sign at the top, gasping for breath, and turned to apologize to the guys in the truck. They pulled up beside me, cheering and yelling "wooohooo".

I think I strained something in my back. On Sunday I took an easy ride that loosened things up, but as of Monday I'm still a bit sore and achy from the base of my skull all the way down to my knees.

This is why I don't ride clipped in anymore.

Cherry Point in Fire Season

For the past few weeks wild fires have been burning in Lower BC, and near Hwy. 20 in the North Cascades, close to Diablo Dam, the hydroelectric project that supplies electricity for this region, including even northern California. The dam isn't threatened now, but the air has been hazy and smokey down here at sea level all week. Today the weather is turning, and I'm waiting for rain to start this afternoon. Rain is good.
I've mostly been staying indoors - it almost seems like the pandemic shutdown days sometimes - unless I get up early enough to go for a bike ride before the air gets too hot, muggy and smelly. Last week I tried the Mountain View hillclimb out of town, and rode out to the beach at Cherry Point, but I forgot to "resume" MapMyRide after I stopped to take pictures and didn't get good data or a route map, so I rode again on the weekend. City crews had been out repainting the lane markings on my first ride. They kindly swept up all the loose gravel and debris, as well, so I got brave enough to get aero on the downhill, and got my speed up as high as 28mph. The climb felt easier than before, and the hill even looks smaller than I remembered. Maybe an optical effect of the smoke? The grey looks like typical Pacific Northwest clouds and fog, but it's hot and makes the eyes burn.

Bike at the beach

Cherry Point, by the way, is a disused oil tanker unloading port for the former BP Refinery, where the road washes out every year in winter storms. Now it's a public beach and an undeveloped park. The beach is rocky, but it looks like a good place to put out kayaks or other small boats. If I was into that.

Coming Around Again

A year ago yesterday I tried out Map My Ride for the first time, with a 25-ish mile ride around the Lummi peninsula. Today I repeated the ride for my anniversary. On the flat roads between Ferndale and the casino the headwinds were so strong I almost decided to turn aside and cut the day short, but I pushed on over the boardwalk to the roundabout at Kwina Road, and as soon as I hit the hill climb the wind came around behind me and I started flying along at 12-13 mph. For me that's faster than average even on flat land.

I wasn't feeling well last week, I think from mild dehydration and chronic over-heating during the warmish weather. Our temperatures have only been in the mid-70s, with a couple of days over 80, but I'd been doing a lot of walking and errand-running without paying much attention to eating and drinking right. By the end of the week I was feeling fatigued, headachy, with a stiff neck and back, and tired, sore muscles even though I didn't do anything much more strenuous than walking while carrying groceries. Friday I spent the day resting and drinking several liters of water with Fizz hydration tablets. By Saturday I was feeling better, and with cool, breezy weather on Sunday I decided to repeat last year's ride.

I was a bit worried at first, struggling so much against the wind, but it ended up being a very pretty and fun ride. All the way around I was thinking the hills were much easier than I remembered, and I even bent down into the drops for one fast downhill. Very happy to ride again.

Danger - Danger - Danger

Google continues to send notices about transitioning to Google Analytics, with no clues as to how this site doesn't conform to Google policies. This morning, out of curiosity, I clicked on an ad that just said something like "Continue . . . " and didn't show a clear product or company name (all the ads on my site were the same).

Instantly I was thrown on to an alarming Windows ransomware screen, with an automated voice warning that my computer was locked, don't shut down, contact Microsoft Help immediately, etc. etc. etc. Just like the old Windows 10 forced upgrade thing.

I shut down immediately, restarted, cleared my cookies, ran some security checks and an update. (A Chromebook appears to be immune to Windows bugs.)

And removed all advertising from this blog.

Don't click on ads!!!!!!!! Or hyperlinks!!!!!!!

Ride the Willapa

I've been the feeling the need to get out of Whatcom County for a while now, but somehow couldn't get myself moving, until I started seeing Facebook notices about a June 24th ride on the Willapa Trail to celebrate the opening of a new overpass above Hwy. 6. I registered on impulse, made some hasty arrangements, and trained for the ride mostly by tapering off my coffee drinking so I wouldn't have to suffer a caffeine withdrawal headache.

The drive south on I-5 on Friday was awful. I got stuck in a mid-day traffic jam near the Lewis-McChord army base and spent hours creeping a few miles in afternoon heat. I tried a detour on SR510, but new roundabouts didn't match up with my paper map or Google directions and I ended up on a driving tour of the small towns southeast of the state capital in Olympia, before accidentally finding my way again on Hwy. 99 near the Olympia Regional Airport.

Two hours after my planned arrival time I made it to Reiki Ranch, where I'd reserved a camp site through HipCamp. The placed looked a little shady (not in a good way) from the road, with RVs and rusty cars parked next to the driveway, but the camping area a short drive up a twisty gravel road was surrounded by trees, quiet, private and breezy after the hot drive. I felt safe and comfortable there for two nights sleeping in a one-woman tent. The place has a natural spring but I wouldn't recommend drinking the water untreated. I only used it to brush my teeth and take towel-baths, which were cool and refreshing. I brought along a supply of drinking water and two thermos cups of espresso. There was also no wifi or cell phone service, which might be a plus if you're looking for a peaceful escape.

Saturday morning I woke with the birds at dawn, drank my tepid espresso shots, and headed out on my bicycle by 6:30am for a five mile ride to the trail start at Adna, a tiny town which mostly consists of a small grocery store, a drive-through espresso stand and a state-park maintained parking lot and restrooms by the trail. My T-Mobile wifi and MapMyRide signal picked up near the trail, but I must have hit "pause" by mistake along the way, so there was a big gap in my mapping and ride stats for the day.

New bike-ped bridge over Hwy. 6

The new overpass is a few miles east of Adna and I rode that way first, before doubling back toward the official ride start at the Owl & Olive venue. The trail here is paved, giving way to packed dirt and gravel for most of the rest of the way. In some places riders need to watch their front wheel where the gravel is a bit loose and deep.

It was gratifying to see that most of the early riders were middle-aged (or older) women, and most of the volunteers setting up the rest-stops were women, too. A little later in the day some families with kids turned out. I saw road/gravel bikes, hybrids, comfort-cruisers, e-bikes and even one man on a unicycle who crossed the trail at Meskill Road. He probably preferred pavement to gravel but I saw him again at the finish, still looking fresh and smiling. Apparently there were also paved road routes for faster, more competitive riders. I never saw an official route map, except for the 2022 maps I had printed out at home, but it didn't really matter, I just stayed on the scenic gravel trail. I heard later that two or three hundred people had registered for the ride, but the trail was never crowded and people were relaxed, friendly and pleasant.

Doty General Store & P.O. - doesn't open until 9am

Welcome cows at the turnoff
to Rainbow Falls State Park

I detoured through Rainbow Falls State Park, a pretty park which has hiker/biker and equestrian camp spots in addition to car camping. The spots were already full when I made my plans, which is why I stayed five miles away.

An old railway station, I guess ...

... since it's located on Railroad Ave.

Trees along the trail seemed to be draped with Spanish Moss

Main Street - Pe Ell

Pe Ell is a tiny town a few blocks off the trail. A former railroad, timber and farming hub, it has a huge, wide main street. Only a few businesses are still open, and one whole block looks like the shops all closed down during the 1930s Depression, and never opened again.

Pe Ell Saturday Farmer's Market

The historical sources I found (via Google search) say the town was named after a French-Canadian Hudson Bay Co. guide called Pierre Something. Sources say that natives couldn't pronounce the rolled "r" in "Pierrrrrre" and it came out more like "Pielllllle." However, they also say that most early settlers were of Polish, Russian or Slavic origin, so it may be the Europeans were really to blame. The next town down the trail is called Pluvius, which I suppose means "rainy" or "pluvieuse" in French.

Here are some typically beautiful trail scenes:

Jones Brewing Co. served burgers and beer at the end of the ride, which I reached a little after lunchtime, but I'm not a big beef & beer eater. Besides I had to ride a good twelve or fifteen miles back to Reiki Ranch afterwards. I stopped at the little store in Adna, hoping to pick up a sandwich, but they were pretty much cleaned out already. I had to settle for some ice cream bars for dinner, along with the bananas and granola bars I had brought with me.

When I got back to my camp spot my bike was covered with grey dust. I don't ride in the rain very much any more now that I'm not commuting by bike, but I'd forgotten what a dry, gravel trail can do to your drive train.

I rode a total of about 66 miles on Saturday, including ten miles to and from my camping place. My wrists were a bit sore, but otherwise I felt good and tired. I slept well that night, and got an early start driving back home on Sunday. Traffic on the return trip wasn't awful, but if I was going to try the trail again, I'd take the train instead of driving. Amtrak runs between Fairhaven Station in Bellingham to Centralia or Chehalis. I could have brought my bike and camping stuff on board and settled down in comfort, for probably about the same price as the gas I burned up driving there and back alone.

In fact, maybe once the trail is complete from Chehalis to Willapa Bay, I'll try it again. Make it a long weekend trip, riding the trail both ways out and back, carrying my gear and camping along the way.

Next time.

June-uary Miscellany

For the past several weeks I've enjoyed some random rambles around the county, in between spells of cold, rainy weather. Usually by mid-May I've cracked open the windows of my apartment and turned the furnace off, until the late September chill returns. This "summer" I've been wearing long pants, sweaters and wool socks indoors. I've even been tempted to turn the heat back on several times.

Optimistically, I signed up for a weekend event ride next week, which I will report on post-ride. I hope I'm in decent shape for it. In the meanwhile, here are some photos from sunnier days.

Mount Baker from the top of Olson Road

In September of 2010 I started this blog with the hope of creating a forum and support group for local recreational cyclists and bike commuters. Sadly, I never really connected with local people. Google does give me statistics on traffic to this site, though, and from the beginning it was exciting to see that people all over the world were reading about my misadventures.

AdSense also placed advertising on the site, offering to pay per click. I thought it might be easy money, but never really tried to optimize traffic or revenues. Not surprisingly, in twelve years the site only earned about $28, not enough for Google to even issue a payout.

Now Google is instigating a more sophisticated Analytics system, and has been urging me to convert. My digital skill level is limited to drag & drop, point & click, copy & paste and I have not yet succeeded in migrating to the new system. Lately Google's reminders have started sounding a little bit ominous - "set up your new site or we will create one for you" - and I'm thinking it won't be worth the trouble.

So come July 1, the advertising may disappear (along with my $28 revenues), and I may consider looking for another creative outlet than BlogSpot. But I will bring back one more event ride report before signing off.

Birch Bay at low tide

The Next Generation

Often when I go to a bike shop to buy basic replacement parts like inner tubes or brake pads, a nice young man will offer to help. They tell me the shop offers classes on how to fix flats, or ask if I've ever worked on brakes before. I just pleasantly say yes, I can handle it, and they'll say "Well, just bring the bike in to the shop if you need any help . . . " I don't see any point to getting huffy about it. After all, they are there to help, and it's better than not being able to find anyone when I do need customer service.

One sunny day a while back, though, I stopped for a mid-ride coffee break at a nice neighborhood espresso place served by two young guys behind the counter. When I ordered my usual americano and croissant, the young man looked doubtful. He asked if I wanted the coffee black, and still looked uncertain when I said yes. When he served my cup and plate he offered cream and sugar again and watched when I took my first sip, as if he was sure I wouldn't like it.

The coffee was so dark and smoky I couldn't see the bottom of the cup, and it did need to mellow a bit as it cooled - just the way I like it - and the croissant was fresh, warm, crackly on the outside, tender and buttery on the inside. Also just right.

Remember back when Starbucks was a new thing, people used to complain that the coffee tasted burnt, or make fun of older suburban ladies ordering their first latte?

That was decades ago, kids. My generation practically invented espresso, along with sex, drugs and rock & roll back in the 70s. Geez.

April Showers

Thanks to cold, stormy weather the tulips were late this year. But on Wednesday, between rain and wind storms, I made my annual visit to Mount Vernon, starting my ride from the Chuckanut Park & Ride Lot. Somehow I always take the wrong fork coming out of the roundabout after crossing the freeway overpass, and get stuck riding too far north on Hwy. 11. I caught myself early this year though, turned back toward the tulip fields at Cook Road and ended up riding about ten miles on Avon-Allen Road before I caught sight of the tulips. At least I had a nice tailwind. After that I just cruised around and admired the flowers from a distance. I rode about 25 miles total for the day, and somehow managed to keep the gusty winds mostly behind me.

It was about noon when I started though, and the chill, brisk ride made me hungry fast. I'd been craving fish & chips but I was too hungry to spend time looking for a good shop so I headed to my usual stop, the Skagit Food Co-Op.

The deli has a new automated ordering kiosk which I tried for the first time, ordering a half ham & swiss on whole wheat sandwich. I guess I missed some options, though, because I got one bare slice of whole wheat bread, one slice of swiss cheese, and a couple of thin slices of ham. No lettuce, tomatoes, mustard or mayo. I was disappointed, but too hungry to complain. My cafe americano was good at least.

I don't really mind losing cashier or food service jobs to automation, or to younger workers for that matter, but I do wish they did a better job. I can't complain, though, because I'm afraid of being called a Karen.

You can have your choice of weather in April

Travel Planning

Still not riding much in our usual dreary March weather, only about 25 miles a week. But I have been optimistically collecting information about some Washington state scenic trail and road rides for summer. And last week I noted a couple of news items about regional travel.

Good news first: Amtrak is restoring train service through Bellingham, after shutting down in May 2020 due to pandemic restrictions. The Cascades route from Eugene, Oregon to Vancouver BC, passing through Portland, Tacoma, Seattle, Everett and Bellingham and other towns, has returned to normal service. Amtrak intends to extend direct service from Portland, Oregon and increase the number of daily trains to Seattle. More accurate, reliable schedule information is here: https://www.amtrakcascades.com/our-train-schedules

Too rough for fishing

Not so good news: Ferry service in the San Juan Islands is running again, but at reduced levels. Last summer ferry sailings were often delayed because of maintenance problems, and fewer reliable boats are available now. For 2023, ferries will be operating between Anacortes, Lopez Island, Shaw Island, Orcas Island, and Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. Fare is paid in Anacortes, and bicycle and foot passengers can still travel for free between the islands. Full schedule information is available here:   https://wsdot.com/ferries/schedule/scheduledetailbyroute.aspx?route=ana-sj

Unfortunately, the international route between Anacortes and Sidney BC on Vancouver Island will not be running this coming summer, and maybe not until 2030. The state legislature gives priority to providing essential service to San Juan Island residents, before offering tourist service between the US and Canada.

Private ferries or cruise boats will travel to Victoria BC from Seattle or Port Angeles, and there's the option of driving (or bicycling!) across the border into Canada then taking the BC ferry from Tsawwassen to Schwartz Bay. In Bellingham, San Juan Cruises offers small-boat whale-watch cruises. Several years ago they allowed me to bring my old pink Schwinn bicycle on board so I could spend an afternoon biking around Victoria Harbor, but that was an expensive day-trip and they might not welcome too many cyclists. As I recall, I had a little trouble getting the bike through customs and back on board for the return trip.

A Walk in the Woods

After last month's major snow-dump the weather has settled into alternating spells of rain and wind storms and sunny days. It has now been two months since I've been out for a bike ride, but I'm planning to put my bikes up in the repair stand for a thorough cleaning & tune-up this weekend so I can begin to ride again. I have kept up with my DIY physical therapy plan, and since New Year's I've been able to get out for a walk of at least two miles every day. I have begun to lose last year's winter weight gain, or at least haven't added anything to it.

Last week I tried out a new trail that is under development in a recently-acquired forest south of Bellingham. The land, called the Hundred Acre Woods, was originally planned for housing, which is sorely needed around here, but community groups pressed to change it to park land, which is also good to have. The controversy now is whether to designate it for recreation or conservation. In the meantime, foot paths are already going in. At the beginning of my walk I started up MapMyRide, but it didn't track the route along the way, just showed distance. However, when I finished a winding red line appeared, so I guess the trail is on the Google map now.

The developed trail starts from the far back corner of Fairhaven Park, where the city has put in some seating and Japanese garden features, and an educational sign board. The trail starts out as typical wide packed-gravel Greenways surface, but quickly fades into a narrower dirt path, with some rocky, rooty or muddy patches. It's pretty flat most of the way, and goes for a bit less than a mile before connecting with the old Interurban Trail that leads to Arroyo Park. I've heard talk of creating a trail system that connects to Lake Padden Park, but I don't know how it would get to the other side of the I-5 freeway.

This area has been logged before so the trees are mostly second-growth Douglas fir, hemlock and cedar, with pretty sword-fern thickets. It's a little bit bleak in the winter but brightens up when the sun breaks through the clouds.

In some places the trail divides, with no signs to show which branch is the main trail, but the paths seem to join up again and end up in the same place. However, there are some small dirt side paths, and I walked up one steep trail with some ruts cut by mountain bikes. The park is so close to the city, probably the best way to protect and preserve its wilderness nature is to develop trails that direct human traffic and try to limit damaging use. That way people who are stuck in high-density housing can have a chance for an escape, close to home.