Surprised Myself

WYSIWYG

I hate taking selfies, but here I am with helmet hair at 65 years old.

All this month I had been meaning to go for a 65 mile ride to commemorate this milestone birthday. I thought, given my usual average speeds, that the ride would take me at least six hours, maybe seven, so I procrastinated because I just haven't felt like devoting a whole day to logging miles around Whatcom County. Suddenly it's the last week of the month and the weather is iffy, with only a few days when rain isn't in the forecast.

Today, Wednesday, I woke early in the morning. My other plans for the day had been cancelled so it seemed like a good day to get out for a ride before the rains came. I didn't really feel like doing the whole 65 miles, but thought I'd head out to Everson and then maybe cruise through Lynden and add on other detours and loops, depending on how I felt.

People have told me I'm a diesel engine - I start slow, but once I get warmed up and get my steam up I keep going pretty strong for a long time, though maybe not very fast. When I got to the Glen Echo Community Center, about 20 miles from home, I was getting warm. I took a long way around to get to Lynden, coming in on Hampton Road, which is being repaved and widened, with new bike lanes. On the smooth, virgin blacktop I was zipping along at about 15mph, pretty fast for me, until flaggers and orange cones for the paving project appeared, and I had to stop for about 10 minutes until they waved traffic through. Not long after that the wind turned around and I had to fight to keep my speed up until I got on to Front Street in Lynden.

Conveniently, my odometer hit 30 miles just as I reached The Woods coffee shop, where I stopped for a snack break. After that I back-tracked down Front Street to Hannegan Road, planning to add on 10-mile or 5-mile increments to maybe eventually add up to 65 miles. Or not, if I didn't feel like it.

A new roundabout is under construction at Hannegan and Smith Road, so I turned off before that intersection, at Axton Road. There are a few small rolling hills on the first bit of Axton, and I had to push hard to get up the first, steepest ones, but after that I got the momentum and rhythm worked out and had a pretty speedy ride back toward Northwest Drive. By this time, at about 40 miles, I was fired up and decided to aim for the whole 65 miles. I began zigzagging around to add distance. Now I'm not exactly sure what route I followed.

By the time I crossed the freeway overpass to Main Street in Ferndale, I was still about 12 miles short, getting pretty tired, and it was beginning to rain. But I stuck it out, looping around the flat farm roads west of the Nooksack River, and finally returning to town by way of the gravel trail through Hovander Park.

My bike computer showed my time at 5:22:54, with a 12.1 average speed and 24.8 maximum, probably because of the construction delay on Hampton Road. My back was hurting in the last several miles, and now my legs are sore, but I'm pretty pleased with myself. If I hadn't been so pessimistic about how long the ride would take, I probably would have gone out earlier in the month. However, I usually ride faster in cool, rainy weather. Maybe I wouldn't do so well on a warm, sunny summer day.

On Woodlyn Road, at about 50 miles

 

Dept. of Transportation

I'm still feeling a bit foolish and ambivalent about a trip I took this Memorial Day weekend, when I volunteered to help out with the 2024 Ski to Sea relay race. Usually I just stay in Ferndale to watch the canoes passing under the bridges over the Nooksack River, or walk to Hovander Park to see the paddlers staggering out of their canoes to make the hand-off to their cross-country bike rider. This year I got to see an earlier phase of the race, from the Washington State DOT station on the Mount Baker Highway, which is the start of the fourth leg of the relay. Farther up the mountain the ski and snowboard legs take place, then the road running leg, then the runner hands off to a road biker for a 44-mile ride into Everson.

Early cyclists at check-in

On Saturday morning I joined a crew of a dozen or so volunteers to set up tables, tents, signage, barriers, traffic cones etc. Then on Sunday, for race day, I left Ferndale in the dark to arrive at 5am and get organized before the first runners started coming in after 7am. I was assigned to cover the First Aid Station, even though I only have very basic first aid training, plus personal experience self-treating my own injuries. Luckily the only aid required was for a few runners who came in with blisters and needed band-aids. After the last bicycles were on the road, we packed everything up and left the DOT station as it was before the race, finishing around 1pm.

I got pretty well chilled standing around in the cold and damp, despite wearing winter layers, while runners and bikers milled around with bare legs in thin shorts, t-shirts, and various styles of road-bike apparel.

I haven't heard much about specific results, but it must have been a hard year for racers. It was cold and rainy most of the day, especially on the mountain highway. Snow conditions weren't very good this year, but the folks at the ski area managed to pile up enough snow for the two events. However, due to lack of snow melt, water levels in the river were low, the current was slow and there was more debris in the river, which would make paddling harder and more dangerous.

Cars head up the highway toward the ski slopes

Probably the hardiest and most heroic are the zero-carbon teams. The day before the race, they load up bicycles and trailers with ski and camping gear, or tow canoes and kayaks to their starting points. They camp out over night in the rain and cold and wake early to get to their starting point on foot or by bike. Then they haul all their gear home on bicycles.

The hand-off area, just before the DOT gas pumps

One of the reasons I bought a car was so that I could load it with my bike and some camping gear and drive to trail starts or event rides farther away from home without wearing myself out just getting to the starting point. I have made a few trips each year, like the Willapa Hills ride, or an annual tulip tour. With gas prices close to $5/gallon, though, I still avoid long drives. 

The foolish part of the experience is that it was a 50+ mile drive to the DOT station. For this weekend I drove at least 220 miles in two days. It was interesting to see another leg of the race, and be a peripheral part of it. Besides, I can't remember the last time I've been so far up the Mount Baker Highway and I'd kind of like to come back and make some stops to view the falls and the river. Maybe even ride my bike up the highway ... I could make it a three or four day camping trip ...

They're Baaaaack

Ick

The summer of 2014, when I was training to ride the Red-Bell 100, was a bad year for tent caterpillars. These fuzzy critters hatch out from nests in alder, willow or fruit trees then swarm all over. In some places they were so thick on the pavement that I couldn't avoid running over them, which is nasty because they splattered all over the underside of my bike, and even worse, on my shins and knees.

Out of curiosity I did a little research on Google and Wikipedia, and learned that tent caterpillars have a roughly seven-year boom and bust life cycle, where their population builds up to a peak, then dies down. Lucky me: 2014 was a peak summer.

The buggers died back after that, and I never saw more than a few caterpillars here and there, and no nests near the roads or trails where I ride or walk. By 2021 I was waiting to see the population building again, but the awful swarms haven't come back yet. I suppose because of unusual weather patterns, and a few summers of wild fires farther back in the hills, which might have prevented nests from spreading. I can't exactly call it a bright side to climate change, but .... 

Any how, it looks like they're coming back now. At least we don't have cicadas in the Pacific Northwest.

My Annual Tulip Tour

What more can I say about the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival?

I went early this year, on a Wednesday morning so there was very little car traffic and no crowds. The weather was brisk but sunny. Because I am a "Budget Traveler" I just bicycled past the fields to get the free view. The more elaborate gardens, where you have to pay for admission, aren't visible from the road but I don't mind that.

Paper maps are getting hard to find, though I still like them to get the big picture. The most recent ones I have are pre-pandemic and not very accurate any more. With Map My Ride I can keep track of where I've been and how far I've gone, but it's not very helpful for navigating. So I took a sort of random and unusual route this year, following the very badly maintained Bradshaw Road until it t-boned with the Rexville Grange Road, or Best Road. I'm not sure which because the signage was a little bent and didn't match my maps. Anyhow, I turned right to a vigorous but not difficult uphill, and got a panoramic view.

The daffodils were fading, the tulips just coming in to bloom. 

Usually I stop for espresso & pastry or brunch somewhere, but I skipped that this year, I'm not sure why. When I got back to my car, an apparently homeless woman was having a bit of a mental health crisis at the Park & Ride. She was dragging clothes and possessions out of her car, throwing things around, screaming and crying, and pouring bottled water over her head. I watched her as I loaded my bike into my car, wondering if I should approach her and try to help. After she smashed a glass bottle on the pavement, then got in the front seat of the car and started blasting the horn, I decided she was too out of control for me to handle. I called 911 and described the situation as calmly and compassionately as I could, then waited until a brigade of Skagit medics, police and fire trucks arrived. I hope they could get her to detox, or a shelter, or some sort of help.

So the ride ended on a down note. Still, it was a lovely break from my sometimes dull and dreary routine here in Ferndale. Hope for a brighter spring.

Here Comes the Sun - 2024

I haven't been out for a bike ride since Christmas week, but today was sunny and warm. Finally, this morning I got motivated to go for an easy 15-mile round-trip to Bellewood Acres. Hot Dutch apple pie and an americano was my incentive.

I've been walking a lot, especially while there was snow on the ground, so I'm not in the worst shape I'd feared. It felt so good to ride fast enough to get out of breath and clear out my lungs and sinuses. And I had a tailwind on the way home, which helped me finish on a high note.

The home fires are still burning by the outdoor seating, and the Sunday brunch crowd was just beginning to arrive at 11am.

The online weather forecasts I see always seem to be wrong, even on the same day. This winter has actually been fairly mild so far, just a few days of snow and a lot of drenching rain. The usual. But I'm seeing predictions for a return of the atmospheric river, so winter's not over yet. The sun sets after 5:20pm now, though.

The Distillery is putting out some suggestions for Valentine's Day treats.

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.