Three County Ride in Reverse (Sort of)

Did not expect to wake up to sunshine this morning! Quickly decided a ride was in order. Headed out to do the previous Three County Ride that I did in February (or was it January?)except going the opposite direction. Although the sun was shining, the wind was also blowing, supposedly from the SW. It made for a pretty strong headwind at times. I just told myself it would be a tailwind on the way back. When I did the ride before, I did not take Summit Lake Rd. This time I did. It is a nice diversion from Hwy 8 and all the traffic. There can be some nasty traffic on Summit Lake Rd., but not on a Wed. in March. Got back onto 8 at the other end of Summit Lake Rd. Did Mox-Chehalis Rd. like before. Also a nice diversion from Hwy. 8. Rolled into McCleary in time for lunch at Subway, of course. After lunch, I headed out of town on Hwy 108. I was hoping to get to Hurley Waldrip Rd. with a minimum of log trucks passing me as there is limited shoulder on a good chunk of 108. Only saw 1 log truck, and it was going the other direction! Yea! Last time I came from Kamilche Point Rd. This time I turned onto Hurley Waldrip. So, instead of Oyster Bay and Kamilche (Old Pacific Hwy), I did Summit Lake and Hurley Waldrip Rds. Also, I came through downtown instead of Tumwater Hill. Nothing spectacular on today's ride, but a good one nonetheless. Total miles: 60.5

An Attempt at Uncharted Territory

The plan for today's ride was to ride to where Tono Rd. comes into Big Hanaford Rd. and go left on BH. As I rolled up to the intersection and looked to my left, what to my wondering eyes do I see? A DEAD END sign. Dang, I hate dead end roads! BUT, I decided to ride it to the end anyway. In a previous post (How a 45 mile ride became 65--or something like that), I mentioned that I came out onto Big Hanaford Rd. from the forest service road. Well, less than a mile beyond that point, the road ended at the TransAlta property. However, one cool thing I saw, as I was riding on this dead end road, was a herd of elk. They were running along in a pasture. I got a picture, but they are a ways off. Here it is anyway.

On the way back, before I reached Tono Rd., I was trying to decide whether to continue on Big Hanaford past the steam plant or go back up Tono (the very hilly option). I looked down at my front tire and noticed it looked low. When I got to a wide spot in the road, I stopped and felt the tire. Sure enough it was squishy. I had checked both tires before I left. The front was not squishy then. So, I changed the tube. Ironically (or luckily), when I left the house this morning, I got about 1/2 mile down the road and realized I didn't have my bike pump. Yesterday, I had put a new rear tire on Stella as the sidewall had blown out on the old one. I hadn't changed the front tire (I have now!)Anyway, I turned around and picked up the pump. Good thing! After I changed the flat, I decided it was Tono Rd. (hills and all). When I got to Tenino, I stopped at Subway for some lunch. It was only about 1:00 so I figured I could ride to Rainier on the trail and take the road back. When I got to Rainier, I calculated that it would be another 18 miles if I continued to Yelm on the trail and took the road back from there. I had plenty of time, so that's what I did. The ride ended up being 74 miles of which only 2 were uncharted territory! Still, a good day in the saddle (flat tire and all)!

Today's Tour--Mason County!

Fog burning off Oyster Bay
Today's ride was to Mason County. Hmmm...I think Gray's Harbor County is the only one left (that I can ride from home and back in one winter day--ie shorter daylight). I went on 3 roads I have not been on (well, 2 I had been on part of the road). I rode to Old Olympic Hwy and did the Bloomfield Rd./Kamilche Pt. loop back to 101. Then on out to Shelton at Wallace/Kneeland Blvd. I wanted to have lunch at Subway, but there isn't one on W/K Blvd. There is everything else, but no Subway! So, I had a lunch buffet at Godfather's Pizza. Actually, it was good. I ate too much, but that's no surprise. After lunch, I rode slowly (due to the side ache from eating too much--that dessert pizza was tasty AND there was butterscotch pudding!)along W/K to Brockdale Rd. Kyle and I had been on Brockdale the first day of our 17 day trip last summer. I had also been on it when I did the Rapsody ride. But, instead of turning off Brockdale to head to Mason Lake, I continued on and looped back to 101 and came out a few miles north of Shelton. From there it was back home for a total of 76 miles. I do believe that is my longest ever winter ride!

The view from Bloomfield Rd.

Yesterday Lewis County, Today Pierce County

What a fabulous day for a bike ride! Hard to believe it is February when the sun is shining and it is 58 degrees. Was even able to take the sleeves off my jacket!
Today I headed north to Pierce County and Anderson Island. I've never ridden on the island so it was a new road for me!
First I rode to Steilacoom. I thought I could catch the 11:00AM ferry, but I misjudged the time abit on that one. No worries though. When I got to the ferry terminal I bought my ticket ($4.70 and Stella rides free!) and went back up the hill abit for some lunch. Just a bagel and cream cheese (oh yeah, and a cookie too). The ferry loaded at 11:50 for a 12:00 departure. The ride over to the island took about 20 minutes. Nice little ferry, the Christine Anderson. Here is a picture of Stella in her parking spot.

As I was getting off the ferry a guy asked me if I had ridden the island before. I told him I hadn't. He gave me some advice as to where to go. I had brought a map of the island, but I'm always open to suggestions from those in the know. Anyway, I totally missed the road he told me about (so much for those suggestions), but I did find out the name of a crucial street, that wasn't labelled on the map, that I did find. So, off I went up a rather steep hill (strangely enough, most roads from ferry terminals are rather steep). The litle map I had was quite good and I managed to make it around the island with plenty of time to spare before the next ferry. Funny thing, as I was coming back toward the ferry terminal, I decided, because I had time to spare, I would go back to the store I had passed on my way around the island. When I got back to the road that the store was on, I turned in the direction I thought I should. It was the wrong way. At the bottom of the hill, I came to Larson Rd. This was the road I had missed at the beginning! At least I knew where I was, and where I would come out (at the ferry terminal). But, I still wanted to go to the store. That steep hill I climbed at the beginning? Yep, went up it again! Had an ice cream sandwich at the store then rode back to the ferry. I met the same guy on the ferry going back to Steilacoom. I told him what I had done. He laughed.
Here are a few more pictures.



All in all, a great day to be out on Stella!

Once again, it's all about the food!

Ahhhh...such a nice day for a ride but, where to go? I know, how about a ride to Berry Fields in Centralia? Yes, that will satisfy my desire for a long ride AND, the food can't be beat! To make it more interesting, I'll make it a loop ride. Go to Centralia via Tilley Rd. and Grand Mound on Old Hwy 99 (becomes Harrison Ave. and comes out at the Outlets). Berry Fields is just 1 block south of Main St. on Pearl. Perfect! Have a delicious lunch of grilled crab and provolone sandwich and a nice piece of German Chocolate Cream Pie for dessert! Then ride back up Hwy 507 to Tenino and take the trail home from there. Round trip: 60.9 miles. Didn't take any pictures as, scenery-wise, this is not all that beautiful of a ride. I guess I should have taken a picture of my lunch! Now that was beautiful!
Can't believe how many 50+ mile rides I've been able to do this winter! Still, wish it was summer and I was touring.

Three County Ride...In January!

Who would have thought there would be an opportunity to do a ride covering three counties (Thurston, Mason and Grays Harbor)in January! My original plan was to ride out to Oyster Bay and back. I knew it was a dead end (another one of those "No Outlet" roads where they really mean it), but still, I've never been out there. It was a nice ride about 6 miles round trip from 101 back to 101. Since it was such a nice day, I decided to continue north on 101 after the Oyster Bay part. First, I was just going to go to the next available crossing to head back on 101, then I decided I would wait for an actual exit where I wouldn't have to cross traffic on the hwy. Well, that meant the McCleary Rd. exit at Little Creek Casino. That was fine. I would go down McCleary Rd. and do the Hurley Waldrip Rd. loop back to 101. As I was riding along McCleary Rd., I wondered how far it was to McCleary. I saw a milepost that said mile 10. Hmmm...I bet that means McCleary is 10 miles. When I got to the turn for Hurley Waldrip, I stopped and pondered the possibility of riding all the way to McCleary. I figured I would have plenty of time so off I went. Also, I knew there was a Subway in McCleary and I could stop and have lunch.
After about 3/4 of a mile, I saw milepost 9 so I knew I was right about the distance to McCleary. There were a couple of long hills, and not always the best shoulder, but all in all, not a bad road (beware of the log trucks though). I did see an interesting road kill--a beaver. Possum, yes. Raccoon, most definately. Beaver? That's a first! Also saw a hawk take off BELOW me! That was pretty cool! Rolled into McCleary about 12:45. Had lunch at Subway then rode home via Hwy 8 to Hwy 410. Got rained on for most of the hwy part but the sun came out again as I came onto Mud Bay. Nice rainbow! 67 miles in 5 hours. Not too bad for a 3 county ride in January!

Dec. 31st--Last ride of the year--"Virtually"

Okay, so it's raining and I don't want to take Stella out in the rain needlessly, but I DO want to get in one last ride for '09. Solution? Ride my trainer in the garage. Ho hum, ANOTHER trainer ride. Wow, THAT'S SPECIAL! Actually, I decided to do a "Virtual Recap Ride" of my major tours from this past summer. Now, I'm not going to go into too much detail about what I was thinking about on this 3 hour and 10 minute ride because if you really want to see details, just read the previous posts. But, I do have great memories from the 17 day ride with Kyle, the STP in one day, the 13 day ride with Julie (such great scenery memories) and the Courage Classic. I was very lucky to have had all these experiances in one summer. Not to mention France, which was a whole 'nother experiance itself! Anyway, it was a great way to cap off the year (still, I would have preferred to take Stella out...).

One of the things this "virtual ride" did was remind me how much I like touring. I would like to do the whole coast route to the CA/Mexico border. Right now I am reading a fellow tourer, Karen Cook's, journal on Crazyguyonabike.com of her trip from Seattle to San Diego. She followed the route that Julie and I took through Oregon (I recognized many of her pictures)then continued on to San Diego. It sounds like a great trip and I can't wait to do it. But, my first priority is to try to get on with Bicycle Adventures, a local bike touring company. I think it would be great to get paid to do what I love! So, we'll see what this summer holds. Suffice to say, it will, one way or the other, involve bike touring!

So, until the next tour comes along, or I have a reason to post another blog, have a great beginning to 2010. I'll keep riding (Stella when it's nice, the trainer when not).