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.