Whidbey Island Out(n)Back

25 Thursday Aug 2016

Tags

bicycle, bike, Chocomoose, cycling, Ebey's Landing, Fort Ebey, Greenbank Farm, harlequin wrap, Hunqapillar, rivendell, Whidbey Island

Not much action on the camping front this year, so I grabbed a chance to do a quick overnight (S24O) from my place in Freeland, WA up to Fort Ebey. It’s about 30 miles one way, and a great chance to try:

Hunqapillar on singletrack
New road exploring
Hammock camping

This also echoes the distance of a Lake Crescent trail I want to do later this year. That gig is mostly singletrack, but I would use the same equipment.

I got underway around 4:45pm on Monday. I figured it would take 2-3 hours, so I would likely have light to set up camp. John and I had explored Fort Ebey’s mtb trails a few days earlier, so I knew where the hike/bike campsites were.

The Gunnar Point – a family photo tradition going back 50 years

I packed light. There was a burn ban, so I didn’t bother bringing a stove. Just 2 water bottles, a toaster pastry for breakfast, and a can of salmon for dinner. Easy. I wore the clothes on my back and brought along a pair of wool long underwear for sleeping. No rain in the forecast. Other than that, just my hammock, fly, sleeping bag and roll. Oh yeah – I strapped some sandals on, in case the feet got sore, but that was just unused extra weight. I think the whole thing weighed in under 10 pounds.

Loaded at Greenbank Farm

The way up was stunning and uneventful. Heading north, I passed South Whidbey State Park, and Greenbank Farm. The stretch from Greenbank up to Coupville had some great hills and views, and the Navy Growlers were out practicing on the outlying field near Admirals Cove.

Growler Practice

Keystone Spits

The long stretch across Keystone to Fort Casey yielded a few seals and many sea birds, but I saw not much traffic on a Monday night.

Road to Keystone

I searched through Fort Casey for a back route, and thought I had it following a gravel trail by the lighthouse, but it ended in a private road. I left it to chance, and wasted a few minutes, but it was worth the views.

The road down to Ebey Beach is amazing – no shoulder, but equally no cars.

Sunbeam!

Looking South…

And North to Ebey’s Landing…

After a short hop up to the bluff, and across an amazing open farming area, it was a quick ride to the new pavement of Madrona Way past the mussel farms in Penn Cove.

Penn Cove Mussels come from here!

At this point, I was starting to worry about sunlight – it had taken me about 2 1/2 hrs to get this far. I hurried on into Fort Ebey State Park, and set up the hammock. There was one other person in the hike/bike spot – a Pacific Northwest Trail through hiker. After a dinner of canned salmon on the bluff overlooking the Straights of Juan de Fuca, and a great sunset, it was off to bed.

Good night!

The next morning was sunny, so I geared up and chatted with the hiker to learn about his journey. He was a 65 years old Granite Falls, WA resident, and 7 weeks into the trail that started in Glacier National Park. After 8 bears (one grizzly at about 10 yds), a pack of wolves, and countless coyotes, he was just heading to the ferry to Port Townsend to have a lunch reunion with his wife before finishing the last 150 miles to Cape Alava.

Ready for the trip home

After a nourishing breakfast at the same scenic overlook on the bluff and a water bottle refill, I was off to ride the Kettles trail on the loaded Hunq!

MTB Riv Style

Needless to say, the Hunq made short work of the trail, and I found myself heading back south and past the barley fields to Ebey Beach.

At the whisky source

I stopped at the old “Ferry Building” on the bluff to explore and take some pics, then it was back down to Keystone, Greenbank, and finally back to Freeland for some rest and a meal.

Route out and back are here:

http://cyclemeter.com/51cfa6724f84c700/Cycle-20160822-1639

http://cyclemeter.com/51cfa6724f84c700/Cycle-20160823-0934

Ebey trip out

Posted by Stonehog | Filed under Bikepacking, Cycling, Enduro Offroad, MTB, Northwest

≈ 3 Comments

Image

A. Homer Hilsen 7-year Review

04 Monday Jan 2016

Tags

a. homer hilsen, ahh, bike, commute, cycling, harlequin wrap, nitto, porteur, randonneur, rivendell, Seattle

My first real thoughtful bike purchase was the Rivendell A. Homer Hilsen. Color – metallic copper – one of the web frame specials in 2009 shortly after I moved back to Seattle from a brief 18-month foray to my childhood home of Minnesota. I had been commuting on a ’96 Kona AA that I was pretty much done with. The aluminum frame never felt right – too stiff. I was ready for a real road bike after spending much of the prior 20 years on a mountain bike.

2nd Build – still a favorite

I did a lot of research, but after I found the Rivendell site, started reading Sheldon Brown and Grant Petersen’s opinions, and did some test rides on a local friend’s vast collection of Riv bikes, I was smitten. I recall going to the Seattle Bike Show in 2008 and walking around forlorn, seeing nothing attractive. At all.

At that point, I knew a couple things about myself:

Steel felt right. I grew up riding this material. My Raleigh Reliant, and Stumpjumper Pro (’91) were my benchmark rides.
I wasn’t planning to pick up racing. I am a recreational and practical cyclist.
Damn those lugged frames were pretty! They really hit a “homer” in terms of where my aesthetic sensibilities were concerned.
I wanted to build this bike myself from the frame up.

I started watching the Riv site and decided the copper Hilsen was the one. It was a 59cm frame, and although I would probably fit up to a 61cm, this was as big as I wanted to commit to.

After a few months of collecting the parts and tools needed to put this together, I took it for the first ride and was amazed at the effortless speed compared to my mountain bikes. At about the same time, I had also stumbled on the RBW owners bunch online community, which helped me navigate a first bike build, as well as sharing lots of good technical advice.

Here was a large community of like-minded folks generally oohing and aahing all the builds folks were doing. This tight-knit community is one known for being a polite and caring group, and I’m happy to count many of the folks there as friends.

Favorite Bike in Current Config

The Hilsen took me on my first 100k brevet, and then my 200k. Then my 300k. It helped me learn that I like the Selle Anatomica Titanico saddle best on anything over 100 miles. It showed me that clipless pedals were not necessary anymore.

I briefly became caught up in the low-trail Jan Heine camp, and picked up another rando bike (the Toussaint), but after all these years, the one bike I still enjoy the most is the A. Homer Hilsen. It is still as lovely as ever, and gaining beausage every year. It still gets more comments on my daily commute, rain or shine. After riding other bikes for several months, and then coming back to this one, it still feels “just right”. The ride is smooth, predictable, natural. I never feel like it has quirks, defects, or limitations that I’ve noticed on lesser bikes.

It has done brevets, snowy singletrack(!), loaded commutes, and just riding trips. Handled ’em all with aplomb. ’nuff said…

Posted by Stonehog | Filed under Cycling, Northwest, Randonneuring

≈ 15 Comments

Entmoot

20 Sunday Jul 2014

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

20th Annual, basket, bicycle, brooks, cycling, entmoot, Grant Petersen, harlequin, harlequin wrap, Hunqapillar, rivendell, sackville, Seattle

Last week, I left Seattle for a 4-day trek down the coast to the Bay area for a special ride with folks from Rivendell and the RBW Owners Bunch .

I left on Thursday around 3:30pm, and after some initial slow traffic out of Seattle, hit Portland around 7:30pm to pick up some guys from last year’s Seattle/Portland Riv Rumble.

I also met the infamous Coconut Bill and Hugh Smitham from SoCal! Both were up in Portlandia scoping out a future. Hugh grabbed a ride with us on his return south, so we had a full truck of bikes and bike nerds!

Around 2:30am we ran out of steam just south of Shasta (northern California) and pulled into a rest stop to… well… rest?

We unrolled the bedrolls and slept under a tree until I felt some rain drops around 5am and sounded the alarm. A quick pack up in the cloudburst revived us enough to make it all the way down to Rivendell World Headquarters by around 10am. It was Aaron’s first time to HQ, so he rode every bike model they had (OK, Andy and I rode a few, as well). Vince was great in accommodating us making us some tasty espresso, and helping with the bike fitting.

This is where we parted ways with Hugh, who was going to meet up with some pals at Samuel P Taylor State Park on Friday night. Andy, Aaron, and I had other plans, however. We had to ditch the truck (Thanks Tommy!) in San Leandro, and BART back to Walnut Creek for a special ride with Tommy, Manny and friends up to Shell Ridge for a bit of guerilla camping under the stars. This was a serious blast, and actually an inaugural S24O for me and my Hunqapillar. I finally got to load ‘er up and ride up some hills!

Manny (Manuel Acosta) is an active list member who is known for his photography of the local Rivendell riding grounds around the bay area (Shell Ridge, Mt. Diablo, China Camp), and his amazing adventures on his summers off with pals (he is a teacher). He certainly lived up to his reputation – a natural ride leader with boundless energy and enthusiasm. He welcomed all of us like old friends, and took us on some amazing trails in Shell Ridge, an area a mile away from Rivendell HQ. His Sam Hillborne is an amazing testament to hard use and beausage (beautiful usage), as well. He’s done everything from camping/touring to mountain bike racing to 300k brevets on this thing. Talk about versatility!

We camped out on a flat hilltop in the wind-burned dry grass.

A few of us followed Manny and the locals for some mountain biking around the area, and I found out how much fun a fully rigid bike is on these trails. Even with a large basket on front, and a big back bag! Tire note – the Clement MSOs ripped it! No issues with traction or flats all weekend – and plenty of sharp objects and dusty washouts were traversed. The Albastache bars were spot on for this sort of riding, as well.

At this point, I was pretty popped, so sleep came quickly. We had a great breeze, and a few folks stayed up chatting into the night, but the SEA/PDX crew crashed hard.

The next morning we had some coffee and a few dry bits of food, and headed back down to the BART station to rendezvous with folks in San Francisco for ride up to China Camp, the official site of the Entmoot. Here we loaded up on some breaky and hardy bits to bring camping, and also met the next level of the list contingent. Lots of amazing people came together for this ride. All sizes and shapes! Manny (5’er) rode Amit’s (6’7″?) Bombadil, and there was much laughing.

After the full assembly and some photos, we headed off to cross the Golden Gate, and rode north through Sausalito, Larkspur, and San Rafael, before arriving at our destination. This was a fun ride – easy, low-key, and allowed us to really see the north bay area. Lots of bikes, and all were met with Manny ringing his bell, and Amit ringing and waving! This caught on to the whole group. We definitely looked a bit out of place from the lycra crowd, but everyone was friendly.

At China Camp, we found five folks from Rivendell, including Grant Petersen himself, as well as Rich Lesnik (wheelbuilder) joining us for the overnight. We got ourselves unpacked and situated, and just walked around talking and meeting all the great folks we had gotten to know only through their list posts. It’s really amazing how cool this group of folks is in person!

I was lined up to do a demo of harlequin bar wrapping with some bars that Joe Bunik brought along, but I had to try to catch Manny and his cohorts, who had taken off on another mountain biking trek in the hills surrounding China Camp. This riding really reminded me of the trails in Seattle, only much, much dryer! I never did catch them, but I passed a couple guys climbing the ridge in full gear on dual suspension bikes. I’m sure they were surprised by my helmetless, sandle-wearing, basket/bagged Hunqa thundering by them up the ridge. After dusting up my legs, I returned to camp and had some dinner, meeting more folks in the process, including Hugh who had returned from the other state park. I had some great chats with Grant P about his new HAR racks and bags, and Rich Lesnick who had started his career at Boeing in Seattle. Then it was time for the bar wrapping session with Joe.

This was interrupted (hope you got the bars done, Joe!) by an amazing raffle that the Riv folks held for the Entmooters. We all got a patch commemorating the event, and several of us were lucky enough to win some cool gear including soaps, bags, and even a hatchet! I came out of it with a reflective triangle for the Hunq.

We had to hit the trail early the next morning so as to make the 9am ferry out of Larkspur. I was up pretty early, so brewed up a few shots of coffee on the Trangia. Great stove, BTW. Roger checked out my Seattle beans and compared the roast to his home-roasted batches. Wow – coffee and bike geekery is a common thread here.

I got a couple of last goodbyes and photos with the folks that made this all happen.

After some rejuvenating beverages, we headed on out for a fine morning ride back to the ferry and civilization. S48O complete!

The ride back up to Portlandia and Seattle was fairly uneventful, although more could be written about this adventure as it involved cleanup and lunch bought by Tommy’s dad when we returned to the truck, a three-hour last stop at Bike, Book, and Hatchet, and a search for a good liquor store where I could find some nice Islays, and other strange drinks for Aaron (??). We had a beautiful sunset on the way past Shasta – it always seems to be a picturesque place when I go through this part of the country.

We made it to within 90 miles before I became bleary-eyed and had to stop at another rest stop for some shut-eye. Up to Andy’s early and a goodbye breakfast at Bertie-Lou’s (um, yum!). Great trip! I really can see this becoming an annual trek.

Photos from the Entmoot

Backdrop: in 1994, Grant Petersen left Bridgestone when they folded their US bicycle operation, and started a small mail-order bicycle business that he named after a backpack company and elf city of literary fame. The business slowly grew with like-minded cyclists who feel steel, leather, lugs, and Grant’s relaxed geometry exemplifies a quality ride. As the internet became popular around the same timeframe, a newsgroup was formed and dedicated to discussions of Rivendell bikes and ethics. This branched out of the original iBOB list (Bridgestone Owners Bunch) that had quite a following. RBW was born, and has blossomed into 2000+ users. It’s a real community of like-minded, friendly folks from around the world.

The Weapon of Weep

14 Monday Apr 2014

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Brooks Pro, canti, compass, CX70, diamond bar wrap, dirt drop, harlequin wrap, Miyata, RidgeRunner Team, scrambler, thumbie, u-brake, v-brake

I plan to become a stronger rider. That much is for sure. One way to do it is stop eating big fat lunches with the workmates, and go out on my bus/carpool/motorcycle days to ride intervals. I don’t really have a great bike for that, however. Wait… Maybe I do? The old Miyata RidgeRunner Team that was my Bosco’d lazy bike might fit? I’ve always sort of loved this mutt – it has a great fast, low feel to it. Awesome Compass tires that feel like 26″ Hetres!

But, there is that high bottom bracket which was made to fly over fallen logs and various obstacles on the ’88 downhill circuit. That’s the achilles heel for this bike, I fear. Then there is the obnoxious U-Brake. Hmmm – I guess this may still work for a 1-hour lunch ride slash torture session. Better than sitting barless and sad in the basement bike heap. OK – first things first. Put on an old dirt drop cockpit setup I have laying around. I hope the reach isn’t too short.

Nice! Even has the diamond tape! Not really a match, but I’ll add a little blue to the drops. There. Much better… Now about shifters. Hmmm – I could do the stem setup like I had on the clown bike?

Nope. Too much hand movement – can’t deal with that while I’m cranking up a hill at top speed, right? How about something more ergo – perhaps thumbie style?

Awww yeah – that’s more like it… Now is this a scramblin’ interval machine or what?

This sucker looks fast just standing there. Like it’s going to jump the start and kill the field. Those lugs! Those fenders! That raked cockpit! Damnnnnn. Better put some clipless pedals on this beast. Need maximum torque. Let’s put a Ti Brooks Pro on there, too. Keep the weight and comfort down – no sense getting complacent and sitting down on the ride…

Hmmm – that old V-Brake’s gotta go. No problem solver rig this time. This bike was built in the golden era of cantis. Hey – I just got a pair of CX70s for the rando bike that I didn’t need (had centerpulls). How about we try one out on the front? Crap – gotta put a cable hanger on there somewhere… Hmmm… I know I have one lying around somewhere. There we go. Got it. OK – now comes the fun part! Get it to work. It’s raining tomorrow – perfect day for a transport stage. There’s life in this old steed yet!

Bahn Mi Brevet

02 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

300k, acorn bags, brevet, Cycles Toussaint, cycling, harlequin wrap, nitto, noodles, rando, randonneur, Seattle, Selle Anatomica, SIR

190 miles in a day is a long way to ride your bike! I don’t know if I’ll ever get over that part of randonneuring. It’s a simple fact that most people will look at you funny when you talk about doing this sort of thing. I hate to say it, but I feel that way when folks talk to me about running 20+ miles. I think “why would you want to abuse your body like that?”. I am a serious hypocrite.

This guy doesn’t look particularly abused, right? He was in great spirits for the first 100k while I rode with him. He was chatting with me and several other riders. Jason really loves these rides for the social aspect, I’m sure, as do I. We were riding side-by-side for 10s of miles in the rain and wind when drafting would have been the prudent thing to do, just chatting about bikes, trips, rides, work, etc… We were having a great time even after we bombed down a brutal climb (500+ feet at 13%) only to realize we should have studied the queue sheet harder at the control up top. We had missed the turn and ended up climbing up Lorde Hill again with 3 bonus miles and an extra half hour on our day.

At the first control, an espresso stand, I realized I had forgotten my wallet. After a short moment of panic, I decided the prudent thing to do was continue. I had a lot of drinkable food (Perpetuem, Tailwind) and knew that I would be able to stock up on some goodies at the lunch stop. Calories were not going to be the problem. If I didn’t have a major bike issue, it was simply a matter of getting the ride done. It did feel a bit strange to not buy anything at the couple of controls where I had a cashier sign my brevet card. I’m sure this is really just my own issue, right?

This seat continues to rock. I had no saddle soreness. When you are pedaling for 15+ hours, that says something. There is no way any of my other seats would have been this comfy. As for the other contact points – no issues there either other than wetness. Even with “waterproof” gloves and booty covered shoes, both were soaked by mid ride. I am especially amazed that my hands were not numb with only a thin glove, and cotton tape wrapped bars. The diamonds really help with hand comfort! 😉 As for my knees, they ended up not tightening and bothering me on this ride. I would like to chalk it up to the 100k, 200k, and hip abductor exercises I’ve been doing, but I’m sure the Aleve helped.

Luckily we had sun on Camano Island at the apex of the route. Several hours of dry weather, even. That made things much more tolerable – I almost dried out, even…

Turkeys were out. Also, hawks, rabbits, lots of worms on the road, and a couple crazed barking rural road dogs that surprised the heck out of me and 3 others riding nearby. Luckily we were at enough speed to get past without incident. I would expect that Darwin will take care of those guys before we pass by that way again.

As I was pedaling out of Arlington and joining up on the Centennial trail for a really nice woods ride, it started pouring again, and didn’t really stop until I was back in Seattle. I’ve got to work out a better way to see the queue sheet at night. With this much moisture, it was wet (from having to change it in the rain), and was fogging up the plastic cover on my rando bag. The tiny light was OK, but my odometer was off enough at that point that the math I had to do in my head was becoming a chore for my weary brain. I ended up teaming up with Bill and Patrick for the ride back to Woodinville and the Burke Gilman. At that point I knew the way back, so it was auto pilot. At one point Bill came up behind me after a bit of a weave and asked if I was OK. That was a good wake up! Shortly thereafter we just about ran into this tree/bush that had blown down across the trail.

flic.kr/p/mB5uDF

That last encounter kept me awake for the last few miles home…