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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.

BH-1.jpg

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.

BH-4.jpg

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?

BH-6.jpg

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…

BH-9.jpg

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.

BH-10.jpg

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…

 

2014 – Escape from Seattle Brevet

16 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

200k, bicycle, bike, brevet, Cycles Toussaint, cycling, harlequin wrap, low-trail, nitto, noodles, rando, randonneur, Seattle, Selle Anatomica, SIR


BH-1.jpg

Yesterday was iffy.  I wasn’t going to do this ride if it was going to be starting out raining.  Luckily, most of the day stayed dry, so I went out and enjoyed it.  There were  99 folks signed up in the pre-registration, and I saw several folks there who hadn’t been on the list.  A 100+ turnout is huge (for me).  I started out slowly as my knees were sensitive after last week’s 100k.  This time I had a bit of soreness at the halfway point – nothing a bit of ibuprofen didn’t take care of.

BH-3.jpg

The bike functioned flawlessly, and I was comfortable to the end.  Great frame, saddle, pedals, tires, and fit.  I can’t wait to test this on a longer ride.

BH-23.jpg

The amazing thing about a brevet – it seems like 10 miles out, you hardly see anyone anymore.  Folks spread out quickly at these distances.  There is a lot of time to catch up with old and new acquaintances, and meditate (as I did on the beautiful mossy green forested road along Lake Roesiger between Granite Falls and Monroe).

BH-10.jpg

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At the finish, there was chili and beer, and then a short 1 mile hop back to my home.

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Great day to be outdoors!

Full set of photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stonehog/sets/72157642413443174/

Ride map: http://cyclemeter.com/51cfa6724f84c700/Cycle-20140315-0657?r=e

Camping With Bikes

06 Saturday Jul 2013

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

a. homer hilsen, acorn bags, active volcanoes, ahh, albatross, B17, bicycle, bike, Bike Camping, cycling, cypres, drop bars, dureme, Gran Bois, hilsen, homer, Hunqapillar, LHT, Manny Principle, mountain rides, mt adams, rando, randonneur, rivendell, sam hillborne, schwalbe, Seattle, snow, Snow Bike, Snow Cycling, Surly, underbiking, volcano


Seattle vs. Portland Riv Rumblers

Last month, I met up with some fellow north-westerners for a couple mountain rides between Seattle and Portland.  The goal was a nice weekend with a potential shot at going over Babyshoe Pass early in the season.  If nothing else, we would see some snow and avoid the bugs that start swarming a bit later in the summer.  The 2-hour drive south reminded me why I live here.  Lots of wilderness very close to home.  I was driving to a rendezvous between 3 active volcanoes in the Cascades mountain range.  We would be closest to Mt. Adams with possible views from the ride, but Rainier and St. Helens were nearby, as well.  As I got close to Randle, WA, I lost all cell service – this was a signal that vacation time was ON!

North Fork Campground - Randle, WA

North Fork Campground – Randle, WA

We had reserved a group site at the North Fork Campground 12 miles out of Randle.  I arrived around the same time as Charlie (from Eatonville), and we started setting up in the reserved spot, but when the rest of the group showed up (Andy, Chris, and Aaron from Portland), we explored a few other sites, and chose one that was right next to the river.

Campin’ by the River

Not too many people were camping the weekend after Memorial Day.  With 4 tents and 1 hammock, we were spread out nicely.  Our camp could normally accommodate 20 tents!

Chris and Aaron’s Tents

The setting was beautiful Northwest – lush, green, and budding with spring.  Ferns, moss, and huge evergreens all around us.  It had rained quite a bit before the trip, but we were into a short spell of dry weather.

Full Camp?

After we set up camp, we set off on the first ride.  We chose FS 22 heading east, and it was a good immediate climb on gravel.

Day 1 Ride

We rode up leisurely as we all got to know each other.  A fair amount of time was spent off the bike taking in the scenery, and just geeking out on our setups. All but one bike was by Rivendell.  There were 2 A. Homer Hilsens ridden by Andy and Chris, a Hillborne ridden by Aaron, and Charlie’s lone Surly Long Haul Trucker.

Bikes of Day 1

I took the Hunqapillar on this ride.  Since it was an unofficial “Rivendell ride”, I had both my A. Homer Hilsen, and the Hunqa packed.  I wanted to see how they both fared on the rougher mountain gravel roads.  I had changed out the Nomad tires for my 50mm Duremes with their more aggressive tread and larger volume.  We didn’t get into much nasty trail, but the couple areas of “rough stuff” we hit made me appreciate the mammoth bike’s capacity as a real mountain bike.  It rode nicely over everything I threw at it, and it brought back memories of my early ’90s rigid Stumpjumper Pro.  The Albatross bars and front V-Brakes proved to be great on the rough trail.

First Day’s Apex

We took a side trail up an overgrown trail to a nice meadow with a great view back down the valley we had just climbed.  We rested for a bit, and had a snack before making the quick descent down to camp.  On the way down, we took another side trail down to the river.  This one was an older, overgrown jeep track and made for some fun riding over roots and blow-down.

Trail Riding on Day 1

Singletrackin’

After the nice descent back to camp, the Portland crew set about making a superb dinner of pasta and white sauce with morels and a great salad, while I walked around soaking up the camping atmosphere and helping Andy get a fire started.  His chopping knife was a trip!  We used that and a hatchet to make up the kindling.  Some of the wood was a bit wet, so it was a smokey end to the day.

Woodsman

Portland Crew Dinner

After a late night around the fire, and a great sleep by the roaring river, I felt refreshed as ever.  I set about making breakfast and coffee for the campers, and got most of my stuff packed up for a quick getaway after our day-2 ride.

Chilaquiles, anyone?

Another healthy meal

Charlie had to get home, so we bid him well, and took our group photos.  Ready for the next adventure, we set off on FS 23 with a destination of getting close to Babyshoe Pass and some scenic views of Mt. Adams.  Today, it was the Hilsen’s turn at gravel.  This bike was set up with standard rando gear – trod with Gran Bois Cypres tires, and carrying 2 cameras, rain coat and food in a Boxy Rando bag.  We hit the mountains on 3 AHHs and a Sam Hilborne.

Joy Riding!

Today’s ride was a bit more ambitious.  If all went according to plan, we would double the distance and elevation of the prior day with around 40 miles and 5000 ft of climbing.

Wing formation

With a bit more shade, the day was perfection for a long ride.  Amazing views around every corner helped to keep everyone jazzed.  Destination snow or Babyshoe.  Most likely snow, but who could tell?

Destination? Who cares…

After a while the road turned to gravel, and we started climbing in earnest.  We finally hit snow within a mile of our destination at around 4300′ elevation.

End of the dry road

Andy noticed that there should be a fork within a quarter mile, and after a short committee decision where we invoked the “Manny Principle”*, we forged ahead to the adventure that awaited us all!  It ended up looking something like this:

Pushin’ on…

And this:

More pushin’…

Until we found a meadow, the fork, and paved road again.

Meadow

Fork

It was a short respite as we turned around heading NW on the north slope that didn’t seem to want to start declining too soon.  We ended up pushing/straddling our new snow bikes for a mile or so before we ended up back in the mostly snow-free but still very wet next phase of our ride.  During the snow phase, it was great fun to see how far you could bike in the tire tracks that had been lain some unknown time prior to our arrival.  Most of the time, you could sit on the saddle and paddle along with your feet on the raised snow, but if you pedaled, your feet sunk into the banks.  I had a successful ride through one of the snow fields, and my confidence was raised enough to try to ride the next one (larger and deeper unbeknown to me), so I got some speed up for the attempt.  As I started across it, things went sideways – my front tire started out riding up on the old tire tracks, but quickly sunk in.  Once that started, it was only a few seconds before it swallowed the wheel enough to catapult me over the bars in a spectacular (to the watching jays) endo, spilling me and my entire bag’s worth of food and camera gear into the snow.  Nothing hurt in a snow landing, and the bike checked out.  After a hasty re-packing and snow dusting, I was back on my way.

Snow cowboys!

After Andy’s toes had thoroughly gone numb in his sandals, the road finally turned back to gravel, but it was not much of a road at that.  This was definitely less-traveled with snow melt ruts, random sharp fist-sized stones, and lots of overgrowth to keep you busy.

Descending

Recalling the joys of descending on a mountain bike, I quickly rode far past my current bike tire’s capacity hitting speeds around 30mph, and suddenly felt my rear tire go limp.  Yes – a pinch flat will kill a descent faster than a broken regulator.

Testing the kit in the wild

After the break, we got back to the art of the fast mountain ride, and had a great time with over 5 miles of glorious downhill under-biking.  I had no idea a rando bike with skinny 31mm tires could handle terrain I usually ride on a front suspension MTB.  Still, the Hunqapillar may have been a better choice for day 2.  I had pushed, and perhaps found the limits of the AHH.  With no real harm done, at that.

It’s like skiing in the summer!

Back on the pavement, I appreciated the final minutes of the ride with new friends.  When we got back to camp, we all congratulated each other on an excellent adventure, and vowed to come back in years to come.  I am hoping that this was the first of many trips to the volcanoes.  With the beauty of the rides, and the amazing lack of population and drivers, it’s a treasure close to home.

Snow tires!

The path on Day 2

The path on Day 2

* Manny Principle – according to Smitty:

“Mere uncertainty and tardy-ness are not sufficient reasons to abandon an adventure. Unless danger is imminent, the adventure must move forward.”

Spring 200k

11 Monday Mar 2013

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

a. homer hilsen, Biologic, cyclemeter, Escape from Seattle 200k, garmin, Hahn Rossman, iphone, jan heine, rando, rivendell, Seattle Randonneurs, Selle Anatomica, SIR, son 28, SON Delux, Titanico X, Wool


Randos!

I started my rando season yesterday with a 200k that conveniently began and ended within a mile of my house.  There were probably 100 folks that started this ride.  It was a great day with temperatures ranging from 38-65 F resulting in little need for more than a couple wool jerseys and a vest.  No rain – just a bit of fog for the first few hours with sun breaks at the tops of any hill over 300 ft.

Jan and Friends

Jan Heine was at the start with his lovely chrome rando bike, and was the first one out of the gate with his friends and riding partners including Hahn Rossman who was test riding a Mad Fiber bike.  I rode the whole ride with my new pal Bruce, and was grouped up for a while with Asta and a friend who had ridden up from Portland the day before.  Wow – 200 miles up, and 200k for the ride.  Solid!

Cockpit

This was a test for me in a couple of ways.  The most mileage I have put into a ride in the past 8 months was a 38 mile training ride.  I have been commuting over 200 miles a month for the past few years with 3-4 days per week the norm.  I also end up doing a lot of climbing on my commute, so this definitely helped.  I also benefited from a few longer rides last year, as well as a bike fit.  I found a few things that didn’t work once the mileage got over 50 (plain B17, lack of consistent nutrition and water).  On this ride, I started eating and drinking right away, and never really stopped.  My riding app (cyclemeter) said I burned 7500 calories on the ride, and I’ll bet I only had a slight deficit by the end, although 2 bowls of chili and a beer definitely went down with no problems!

Pit Stop

I also got to put some miles on a Selle Anatomica Titanico X which I’ll write up later.  Verdict?  No saddle soreness with my Ibex wool knicker/tights.  The iPhone Biologic rig worked, but it took finessing to keep it charged.  I ended up having to turn off the display and lights to keep a charge going to the battery.  Verdict?  Use the SON28 (more output) on these rides, and leave the Delux on the other bike for now.  That or look into a smaller battery powered GPS, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to jump back to the Garmin without giving the larger SON a try first.

Beautiful Day!

Overall, at the end of the ride, I felt tired, but great.  My right knee was a bit sore, but the pain was gone by Sunday night.  I think a 300k is actually in my sights.  It was a great start to the season!

Extra pics from the ride on Flickr

My First 200k

20 Tuesday Mar 2012

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

200k, ahh, bellingham, brevet, etrex, garmin, hazelnut, rando, randonneur, rivendell, SIR


After working up some distance with a couple Populaire’s and a 32 miler over the past few months, I signed up for, and rode my first full 200k (126 mile) brevet.  I had planned to head to Portland with my wife and daughter for a “brewpub” 100k, but when travel plans fell through, I saw that SIR was doing the Bellingham 200k the same weekend. Perfect intro to the longer distance!  It was a relatively flat ride for the area with 3-4k feet of elevation gain, so it seemed pretty reasonable for me to test my fitness.

The night before was packing and prepping.  I knew there was a chance of rain, and it would be in the upper 30’s to lower 4o’s most of the day, so I put an extra wool jersey and tights in my saddlebag, as well as spare socks and a hat.  I brought my rain gear thinking I would just pack it if necessary.  In the front rando bag, I put a couple packets of Perpetuem drink mix, some Nuun tablets for electrolytes, and various snacks like dark chocolate, a roll of Thin Mints (my daughter is a Girl Scout), and some snack mix.  I also threw in a couple small cans of V8.  Locked and loaded, I checked the bike and got my new Garmin eTrex set up and ready.  I did a dog walk, and then tried to follow the same 1 mile track on my bike.  After experimenting, I found a fairly good dashboard for biking that allowed me to navigate like I do in a car GPS in following a marked line.  I had downloaded the route earlier, so I had that ready to go.

Other incidentals in the bag were spare batteries, 2 tubes, and the usual tool kit for flats and such.

After listening to increasing rain all night, I had go get up at 4:30am to get up to Bellingham by 6:30 for check-in.  Driving up, I noted that the 1.5 hour drive at 60mph was less distance than I would be riding for the day, at only about 76 miles.  Intimidating, but I felt ready.  I stopped for a coffee at Starbucks, and the barista said there were a number of folks passing through that were on their way to a run, climb, or bike ride.  I was definitely not going to be alone on this wet day.

As I neared Bellingham, it started to snow.  Now I was getting excited!  The snow wouldn’t stick – it was too warm.  It would certainly be invigorating.

The machine

We left the coffee shop at 7:32am, and I told myself to take it easy and try not to burn out of the gate.  I had a long ride ahead.  There was a secret control not too far down the road at a lookout on Chuckanut Drive (normally a panoramic beauty of a road).

Chuckanut Drive

As it was snowing and cold, I commented that it probably couldn’t get any worse, and of course that sealed our fate for more of the same for the next few hours.  As we rode along Lake Whatcom, it started snowing harder, and seemed to be sticking everywhere but the road.  As we exited the lake’s northern end, I happened to run into a road race that was just getting started.  I pulled to the side for a cookie when the pace/support cars and about 30 riders came by climbing a long hill.  I thought to snap this pic a bit too late, but it shows the nasty conditions pretty well:

Road Racing

After this point, things started to look up.  I continued to ride solo as I had from the start.  I was trying to keep an easy pace, but also realized that the headwinds I was starting to run into would not help.  Luckily, I had tailwinds going north.

Definitely Sticking

Getting up to Sumas was a trip – lots of semi-flooded farmland that seemed to be growing hazelnuts.  I snapped a lot of pictures as the clouds were starting to clear and the sun was starting to break through occasionally.

Hazelnut Farms

Once I got to the border, I realized I had come a long way.  It felt like I was days away from Bellingham, but I still felt pretty good.  I had been keeping up with regular eating and taking water, and still had plenty of go.

Still Smiling at 100K

Now it was time to start heading back towards the water.  After riding along the invisible Cascade foothills, I started to get into a headwind.  This wasn’t too bad, but it definitely slowed me down, especially in the relatively few hilly sections.  It was a bit of a bummer saying goodbye to the mountains.

Goodbye Mountains

Riding on the border was a trip.  This section is populated and mainly farmland.  There was a road on the US side, a small ditch, and a road on the Canadian side.  It was like riding down a split highway.

Don't Jump That Ditch!

I saw quite a few border patrol cars, but it’s interesting seeing the big border crossings built up, and riding roughly 20 miles where one just has to jump across an open ditch to be in another country!  Along the boundary roads, I came upon another rando rider who blew a sidewall and needed a spare tire (not tube).  I told him that I hadn’t brought one, but may start packing one on future rides.  He told me it was the first time it happened to him in 20 years.  After wishing him good luck (and making sure he had a phone), I continued on.

Nice Border, Canada!

When I arrived in Blaine and saw the water again, I really knew I could do it.  It seemed so close now.

Puget Sound At Last!

At one of the controls, I met up with a couple riders who were fueling up, so I rode with them on an off for the next 20 mile or so.  It was getting windy now, and the forecast northwesterly winds turned out to be southwesterlies.  The paceline helped us get through the headwinds down to the Lummi ferry.  Riding in the Lummi nation was pretty cool.  I waved to a lot of folks on the way, and they waved back.  This was definitely friendly country, and not the hostile city environment I’m used to.

Ferry to Lummi Island

Lummi Land

At this point, there was all of 15 miles left – my typical commute.  I felt like I was in ok shape, but I definitely wanted to get back.  I started out faster, and quickly lost sight of my drafting friends.  There was a nice tail wind heading back north up the peninsula.  Lots of great views across the water of the final destination.  This was great motivation.  I was down to my last bit of water, and still had plenty of food, so things were looking really good.

Final Destination Just Over There...

Not Much Farther

Wild Tidal Patterns

The last 10 miles went by quickly, and I soon found myself in the final control with a group of happy Randonneurs congratulating me on finishing my first 200k!  Wow – it turned out really well, and I have to thank all the folks that encouraged me on the way.  This was a fast crowd.  I came in at 11 hrs 4 minutes, but the majority of the riders were in under 10 hours.  There were only 5 DNFs, and one that didn’t make the cutoff, but I was surprised that so many folks kept going with all the snow from the first half of the ride.

Back at Last

Consequently, my spare summer gloves came in handy.  I changed out my soaked winter gloves halfway through, thinking that the new ones would quickly freeze my fingers, but my hands and feet remained toasty after the rain stopped.

Now that I’ve done this distance, I can see doing a 300k, but 400 and up looks mighty challenging.  I definitely have no illusion that folks that pull off a 600k or 1200k are truly tough individuals!

Made it Without a Mechanical

Happy 200k'er

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