Mother's Day Ride/Out and About

well i'm a little slow on the blogging duties lately, here it is past Memorial Day and I'm writing about a ride from weeks ago. We took a little bike ride on Mother's Day - Debbie's triathlon training plan called for a nice easy 2 hour ride.  Me on my Vaya, Debbie took her blue Redline cross/commuter bike since she's uneasy on the tri bike with traffic.  I was happy with that - I try to hide my dislike of tri-bikes around her but am not too successful at that.  We left from home and headed up to Country Homes Drive to ride north on Wall St and thought we'd find our way to the Children of The Sun Trail. Looking for something flat.

Then Debbie said let's ride by the fish hatchery. Sure ok, so we headed up Waikiki Rd.  Then, well we can take Rutter Pkwy and then return on Indian Trail Rd. Ok.  I haven't been out on Rutter for awhile and forgot about the hills.  As Debbie said, it turned out to be more of a Father's Day ride since I have a knack for finding hills to ride up.

Took a little excursion while D went up ahead

It turned out to be a nice scenic ride. Stopped at JB's Food & Bottleworks on Alberta on the way back where I was startled to find a 6-pack of Blown Out Brown and 2 bottles of cider cost me 30 bucks.

hmmm, helmet liner looks a little ratty.

Now for the foto dump:

only one vehicle in the bike line across from North
Central High this day 

at TJ Meenach/NW Blvd, I often observe drivers on their
phones. Haven't got a decent pic yet.

in Seattle - Honda makes bikes

dog/bike combo bike rack

One of the things I like about Seattle - it's fairly easy to get
from one neighborhood to another  by bike

urban dog park 

the space pods have landed!

bike to work week breakfast

blue Redline/white Vaya at the Kendall Yards Wed. Night
Market 

Perry Street Market - my, ahem, favorite style bike rack
at the Shop

somedays it's just too hot for a helmet on the Centennial
Trail. 

and don't forget your snake gaiters

out of sequence Seattle pic from Kerry Park Viewpoint -
part of a mega-walking tour of Queen Anne

Just Another Bike Rack post - No-Li Brewhouse

I get a little obsessive, so sorry but it's another bike rack post. Don't worry, I think soon I'll be turning my attention to Trail 25, Belsby and Hole-In-the-Ground Roads, JWPT, different routes to work.  But I keep coming across bike racks I can't figure out. 

I met Debbie and some of her work friends at No-Li Brewhouse after work on Friday.  There's nowhere good to lock up out front, but there is this rack out back outside the outside seating area.  I was pretty sure it's a bike rack, and one of those where you're supposed to put a tire in the railings to hold the bike upright.  Yeah, my favorite.

Except if you lock up on the front side this way, your bike will stick out into the path. There's a drop-off on the other side, so that's not a good option either.  Of course, I just had a U-Lock with me, and also of course, I hadn't thought to bring a cable to use with it.  (Which if I did bring a cable I wouldn't have felt very safe anyway).  I didn't want to park it lengthwise and take the whole rack in case any other bicyclists arrived cuz I'm so considerate, so I u-locked it to the corner.

I was a little nervous inside because I couldn't see the bike and it was in a little used outside seating area.  I checked on it a few times and it was ok.  

Addendum:

After No-Li we ended up a Jack and Dan's where I locked the bike to a post on Sharp Ave.  I was really nervous. Like Barney Fife nervous.  We had driven there in our bike-rack equipped truck, but I didn't feel like trusting the thin cable lock on the rack.

Lots of people out and about, and couldn't see the bike from inside.  Eventually I checked with the waitress if I could bring the bike inside, and she said there was a closet in back they let people use.  It was a supply closet, but hey worked for me. Good people there.

a quick blurry pic because I was self-conscious about taking a pic of my
bike while people were watching. what. he's posting this on facebook?

Well, one of the guys there did asked me what you don't have a bike lock?, and I said well I do, but…. and left it at that.  I don't recommend bar hopping with a nice bike, it's difficult to party down when all you're thinking about is, is my bike still out there?

This should be the last post about bike parking, but I can't promise anything.

REI Spokane bike rack

the bike rack critic returns…

Don't know how many times I've locked my bike to this rack out front of the Spokane REI store.  I've watched the security video of a guy stealing my wife's bike from this rack, so I prefer to use a u-lock here.  Sure, it can still be cut through, but I'm hoping it'd take too long and a bike thief would go for easier prey than mine. 

But the rack, as you can see, is that despicable style that holds a bike upright by the rear or god forbid front tire, and is not meant for u-locks.  I usually park on the outside next to the end of the rack - the only place where I can pass a u-lock through the top tube or  chain or seat stays and the rack.  Sometimes I just lock it to that railing behind it instead.  

Then I finally noticed last week the end of the bike rack at the top is connected to the back top rail with… a bolt. I don't think anybody could loosen the bolt and slide my bike and u-lock off, but I was surprised to see it.

The advantage of this style of rack is they can hold lots of bikes.  I'm not sure what vintage this rack is, but it seems like an older style, much like the ones at Deaconess Medical Building I've mentioned.  Perhaps these were built before U-Locks were invented?  I don't expect Deaconess to replace their racks since I'm not sure how often they're used, but I did leave a suggestion for REI - they should have a decent bike rack.

Somebody's been busy

I was walking our dogs along the ridge in northwest Spokane.  There are trails that head down the hill, and a trail that follows the ridge-line.  We headed down and saw some fresh dirt - a new s-curve tacked onto one of the trails: 

Always have thought it'd be nice to have a trail halfway down the hill that parallels the top trail and have thought about bringing a hoe and shovel down there.  I haven't for various reasons - laziness, chance of getting caught, not sure if it's city land or private property, and probably illegal.  Looks like I'm not the only person who's thought of trail making in the area.

The Flat-Tire Spirits

No doubt you don't want to read about my inability to maintain, um, er... air pressure but here goes:

Apparently, I somehow really pissed off the tire god/goddess/spirits.  Been having a lot of trouble lately with flats. First, I'll just copy and paste from something I tacked onto the Vantage Day trip post:

Fat Flat update: I'd pulled a thorn out of my back tire after got home from the Up the Big Muddy Q. Patched the tire and the next morning it was flat. Pulled the tire off again, carefully checked for more thorns and found it was leaking from under the patch. Tore off the Skab patch and used a Park Tools patch.  Same thing the next day. Did it again.  Thought about replacing the tube, but I wasn't going to give up that easily. Was going to try one of the more permanent patch types, but the rubber cement tube was empty.  Put another patch overlapping the other one, since I thought part of the problem might be it was a larger hole in the tube than these patches were meant to fix. Found an old bottle of Slime in the basement and poured it in the tube, pumped it up and crossed my fingers.  That seemed to work, as no flats this trip!

Lately I've been thinking about the Freedom Ryder Tires I've had on the Vaya since the end of last September.  It's spring, prime season for sharp road debris in Spokane and I hadn't had any flats yet.  The Ryder has an "Urban Barrier" to protect against flats, but I don't really expect it to protect against the sharp screws, nails and staples found on Spokane's streets.

I know better than to verbalize any thoughts about flats, being a bit superstitious about this matter like many other bikers. There may not be any flat tire god/goddess/spirit and it may just be an indifferent universe out there, but I don't want to take chances.  A sort of Pascal's wager and all that.

So I didn't say anything out loud.  Turns out just thinking about it is enough.  We were out riding the Green Bluff area - which I don't like: windy, hills, pavement (and rough pavement at that), narrow roads - it seemed the back tire was getting bouncy.  I tried to ignore it,  but sure enough, a guy we were riding with said hey your back tire looks low.  I tried to make it in without stopping but finally had to stop and pump some air in it, enough to make it to the end.

Got home and pulled a thin sharp wire or staple out of the back tire, patched it and hoped for the best.  Next morning the tire still had air in it and I rode to work.  Riding home on the edge of Kendall Yards - BOOM!  Back tire exploded.  Is somebody trying to tell me something? A couple poked there heads over their fence, and asked if that was me.

Yep.  Asked if I needed help - said well I have some patches but we all agreed that wasn't going to help any.  Walked a mile or so up to REI - actually turned down a ride from a guy in a truck which I regretted - and bought two tubes,  one to replace and one to keep in the backpack from now on.  Replaced the tube out front of the store and noticed a little chunk missing next to the blow out:

The Freedom Ryders fit snugly on the rim, and I think I got a bit of the tube caught between the rim and tire when I put the tire back on.  Surprised it didn't blow during the morning commute heading down Alberta St at near 30 mph.

I've been considering setting the Vaya up tubeless and this has encouraged me to look into it more. Stan's has a rim tape kit recommended for my rims, but I don't know if the Ryders would work tubeless.  Maybe the Clements. Worth a try.  I'm tired of tiptoeing around the flat tire spirits.

Vantage, WA Daytrip: Rocky Coulee to Skookumchuck Creek

Well, Easter weekend was the Quilomene/Whiskey Dick trip, but a couple things conspired to make me rethink heading out: Easter Brunch in the Ephrata homestead, should probably go; and not sure if I can keep up with the others for 4 days.  And a few other things going on.  Thought about going along for two nights, or a solo two-nighter, but in the end I did a day trip on Friday to do some exploring for a future overnighter.  Brought along a sleeping bag in case I wanted to stay overnight.

Ward and Randy helped me with spots to park: Rocky Coulee boat launch just outside of Vantage; off Parke Creek like last time; up Beacon ridge Road past the North Gate of the Wind Farm; or the entrance to Whiskey Dick area off Vantage Hwy/Whiskey Dick Rd (~milepost 18).  There's also another entrance off Vantage Hwy around milepost 20 at Pumphouse Road.

Originally, I had a vague idea of heading up to Whiskey Dick Creek Rd from the main entrance off Vantage Hwy, but instead I headed over to Rocky Coulee and parked off the side of the road above the boat launch where two dirt roads branch off, one heading north, the other west. It's easier to show: down in the right hand corner in the Gingko Petrified Forest State Park, where the road with the hash marks heads north, and another heads west.

The road heading west was a bit overgrown and rough, and the road north was clear of brush but steep and rocky. I took it, thinking I could still connect with Whiskey Dick Creek Rd.  I didn't have the above map with me yet - it's a pic from a sign that came later - and was relying on google and memory.

Shoot - if you don't want to read all of this, I'll just give you the link to the garmin track now.

Maybe after a half hour of slow going, some walking, I got to the 1,400 foot elevation. This is guessing on my part.  I took a breather, and looked around.

 About an hour in, I came to a fork in the road where there were some remnants of a ranch or corral.  I went left, but that way turned out to just be a little spur off the main road - you can see this in the map above in the top of the square that the word "Gingko" is in.

I turned around and continued on and soon came to the Whiskey Dick Unit welcome board where I snapped the picture of the the map.  I have a general idea where this is, unfortunately the map didn't come with a "you are here" marker.

By this time you can tell the road is heading downhill.  I had wanted to turn left at some point and not go down towards the river yet, but I had missed that turn. So I kept on going, telling myself oh yeah it's not too steep to ride back up.

Anyway, it was fun to go downhill, but with that nagging feeling - gotta go back up.

Cayuse Creek, or Spring Cayuse Creek as it's labelled on google, looking west.  This leads up to Whiskey Dick Creek Rd.

Looking east at Cayuse Creek - I thought this was a little lean-to for shelter, but inside were two barrels, like the type you use for burning.  Think there were some berry plants growing in the area.

Before I knew it, I was almost down to river level.  Saw some guys down at the river, and thought for a second I came across the other guys, but knew they should be at Quilomene on Friday.  Turned out these guys arrived by boat, and they motored off. (Edit to add: I wasn't sure where the beer was stashed in the Whiskey Dick area, so I was hoping they didn't make off with it.)

Just after this, I rode through some water on the trail and the garmin map said - Whiskey Dick Creek. Made it a lot quicker than I thought, only took a couple hours.  That was part of the purpose of this trip, to see how long it took to get places.

I kept going and after a bit the garmin noted I was across from a spot down at the river called Scammon Landing.

I was above Skookumchuck Creek which leads down to Scammon Landing.  It's a long way down.

I mean it's a real long ways down.

I was tempted to ride down to check it out, but had no desire to climb back up that.  It was getting near noon, my self-appointed turnaround time.  I headed back, because I wasn't sure how long the return ride would take.

another Red Helmet Bikexpedition.

I rode back the same way, and it didn't take as long as I feared.  (Edit to add: Climbing seemed harder than it should be and I remembered I had lowered the saddle over winter.  Raised it up a bit, got some more leg extension and that seemed to help.  Amazing what a difference an inch can make.) Took some long rest stops to ruminate among the ungulates (ok didn't really see any), but most of the uphill was less steep than the ride up from Rocky Coulee.  And that was the best part - the last few miles were an easy downhill. Oh yeah and no mud!

I got back to the truck with plenty of time to check out another trail head, but instead headed home.  I felt like I had a better feel for the lay of the land and roads in the Whiskey Dick Wildlife Area and could find my way around now. I think.

Fat Flat update: I'd pulled a thorn out of my back tire after the last trip (Up the Big Muddy Q). Patched the tire and the next morning it was flat. Pulled the tire off again, carefully checked for more thorns and found it was leaking from under the patch. Torn off the Skab patch and used a Park Tools patch.  Same thing the next day. Did it again.  Thought about replacing the tube, but I wasn't going to give up that easily. Was going to try one of the more permanent patch types, but the rubber cement tube was empty.  Put another patch overlapping the other one, since I thought part of the problem might be it was a larger hole in the tube than these patches were meant to fix. Found an old bottle of Slime in the garage and poured it in the tube, pumped it up and crossed my fingers.  That seemed to work, as no flats this trip!

Up the Big Muddy Q

the world's slowest bike blogger returns...Let's see..where were we?

Oh yeah, at the bottom of Quilomene Canyon, finishing up some shrimp and cocktail sauce.

We set up camp and had some eats.  I checked the expiration date on my tuna salad and crackers that were left over from bike camping last year and whoa it said Mar2015! Just made it.

Not good.  I recommend eating them in the year bought.

We were getting ready to ride out to the river, and Randy or Ward spotted a car coming down the extremely rough dirt road.  A Subaru wagon!  We were impressed with anybody driving a Subaru down there.  We talked to the two guys who got out of it, but weren't sure what they were up to.  They seemed out of place, but were familiar with the area.  We had a few theories.  Gov't agents. Birders. UFO searchers.

We rode out to Quilomene Bay. The water is still low from last year's drawdown due to the crack in Wanapum Dam, and we kinda sorta skirted around over or near the warning signs to stay above the drawdown area.

We ditched our bikes behind a dune, and climbed up it.  We were directly across from the Gorge Amphitheater.  For years, we've gone to Dave Matthews Band and other shows there, and looked out at all the boats on the Columbia partying (I suppose) during show time, and wondered just where is this spot?  And how do you get there?  And now I know.  Well, I guess most people get there by boat.

Perched on our dune across from The Gorge, drinking
beer and Pat's Scotch.  A great way to end the day.

This dune was tempting - would be fun to ride the bikes down.  There are motorbike tracks down at the bottom so there had been some yahoos out there, but we wisely decided not to ride it. A sheriff's boat boat appeared and scoped us out, went into the bay where they could see our bikes behind the dune, and eventually left. 

We came back to camp and the Subaru was still there, which gave us a bit of an uneasy feeling as it was getting dark.  Eventually they came back, and Ward talked to them for a bit. Turned out they were Turkey hunters, scoping out the canyon for the upcoming season in April.  Did not envy them their drive back up in the dark.

Trying to make this short, but not succeeding.  Fast forward to 2 or 3am.  It's starting to rain.  Luckily, I had most of my stuff under the rain fly, but my garmin and frame bag were still on the bike.  I left them there, too lazy to get not out of my warm sleeping bag.

Morning.  It's wet, still raining off and on. We decide to forgo Ward's famous grilled cheese sandwiches and kielbasa and get the heck out of there as we were looking at 4-5 hours of climbing back up to the 3,000+ level.  We were also concerned once we made it back to the trucks, we might not be able to get safely out on Parke Creek Road without tow truck assistance.

We didn't get far before my back tire went flat again.  Turned out to be a valve core malfunction, and only had to swap out the valve core instead of changing the tube or fixing a flat.  (shoot - hope Pat doesn't need that core, meant to drop off my extra).  I crossed my fingers and we rode on.

After a bit the rain started falling more and we donned rain jackets.  I fell behind, but wasn't too concerned at first.  I don't have good legs for climbing, my front tire kept bouncing back and forth off the rocks.  This took more energy to stay upright, but I didn't want to stop and lower pressure in the front.  There was a certain speed had to keep going to keep upright but once the tire bounced too much I'd lose momentum and stop completely.  Think I might be carrying too much wait up too high, which didn't help the handling.

It became a real slog.  The tires and drive train got covered in mud (see Pat's pic), I couldn't get traction on or off the bike because I was wearing 5-10 flat bottomed shoes - good for gripping pedals, but not slippery muddy trail.  At least they are waterproof!

A few thoughts kept running through my mind:

- Glad I didn't bring my Fargo and BoB trailer.  The trailer would've had to be left behind.
- Why didn't I buy those waterproof ankle high hiking shoes I was looking at the day before the trip?
- When does hypothermia set in? I had gotten wet before I donned my rain jacket, my pants were covered in mud splatter.
- Maybe I should've signed up for the MedStar air ambulance service before the trip.
- A Spot satellite beacon is a good idea, too. And an extra battery pack for the phone.
- I can walk out with or without my bike if I have to.

At one point I finally pulled my phone out of my pocket. It had 10% battery charge left. The temp was below 40F, I was soaked.

Now I was a wee bit concerned if I had a problem - mechanical or physical - I'd be in a tough spot.

Sometimes I'd get momentum, only to have my crank and chain seize up from the mud, and come to a slippery sudden stop. In a particularly bad spot where I couldn't get traction on or off the bike, I tried pushing the bike off the side of the road in the grass and weeds.  I only picked up more crap, weeds and mud in the tires which made it harder to push. I still couldn't get any good footing.

Then out of the mist ahead a figure in yellow rain jacket appeared on foot.  It was Pat, ever the gentleman, coming back to check on me.  He figured it wasn't good the group had separated in these conditions. Ward was up ahead, and Randy was ahead of Pat.  He offered to push my bike for me and I said no it's ok, went a few more feet and said oh ok!

We got to his bike, had a bite to eat, and continued the slog on and off the bike.

My one pic of the day, and this isn't even the steepest or muddiest, dreariest part of the climb.

(Pat has a few pics of the day here - he took a total of 8)

Eventually, we made it to the top and met Randy and Ward under some trees.  Ward had some food laid out, crackers and cheese, sausage, good stuff, and we rested a bit.  Got chilled, and got on the bikes for the last mostly downhill leg to the trucks. At this point, the worst part was knowing the worst part was behind us, but knowing that we might get to our trucks and end up getting stuck and having to get back on our bikes which would then be the worst part.  Luckily, the trucks made it out on Parke Creeke Rd without getting mired down. A few hairy moments, but eventually we breathed a sigh of relief when we made it to a gravelled section.  Woo hoo no more mud!

Here's the Garmin of the ride/walk up Quilomene.  I thought we took a completely different road up than down, but it looks like we started out different and then connected with the same Army Rd we took down. I'm a little confused.

Flat Tire Postscript:  I washed the mud off the bike a couple days later.  The back tire had plenty of air in it.  Then last weekend I pulled the bike out and gave the chain and gears a good scrubbing.  The tire was completely flat.  Pumped some air in it and it wouldn't hold any air at all, lost it about as fast as I could pump it in.  Finally took the bike in the back yard today to fix the flat.  Found this with the thorn end completely stuck in the tire:

It's odd if I picked this up at Quilomene that the tire held air for so long.  I don't think I picked it up at home somewhere between the front and backyard. Maybe it was stuck in the tire just right.  I managed to get the tire off and back on in the comfort of my backyard, carefully checking for any other thorns. Sure glad I didn't have to fix it in the rain and mud.