Early Does It

Early bird gets the cold toes, originally uploaded by Wooly Biker.

Well it wasn't super early, but early enough for this time of year. "6 A" is what you would say the night before when finalizing the plans, as in, "See ya at 6 A". So we set off on a nice early morning ramble up the Wenatchee Valley to Leavenworth and back, taking every side road, loop, hill and extension we could think of. A beautiful morning featuring a stop for coffee and toe warming at the half way point, and great views the whole way.

Two years ago this would have been a 4 am. ride. I guess we were a bit younger, and maybe a bit tougher back then, because 4 am. sounds kind of ridiculous right now. Maybe it was just plain stupid. Why did we do that, and what could possibly be fun about riding at that time of the morning? Well, just the fact that nobody else is doing it is one reason. Men in particular like to tell people about what they did, especially if it might elicit a reaction like "wow, you're, uh, stupid".

What other reasons could possibly exist to heed the beep..beep..beep of the alarm at 2:59 am. instead of hitting the snooze button? How about just life? Work, kids, chores, deadlines, work, family, work, housework, yardwork, work work work and then more kids. The reality of a 4 am. ride is that you have this big block of time to yourself that you cannot have any other time of day, at least if you have a family and a job. But this still doesn't explain why 4 am., why outside on a bike when it's cold, why 6 hours or a 100 miles?

I think that above anything else, it's the sense of adventure that comes with an effort like this. When you climb a big mountain, you do an 'alpine start'. That means you start at 0-dark-thirty

in order to get up the glacier on firm snow before the sun comes out. That makes alpine climbing a huge adventure...breakfast at midnight, headlamps, stars and moon, hidden crevasses. Doing anything at night is vastly different than doing it during the day. We don't have enough adventure in our day to day lives, and this is a simple way to get some. How many people can be home by 10 am. on a Saturday and say they have had an epic day already?

This coming Saturday marks the return of the 4 am. ride. The temps should be in the low 30's to start, and the tentative route is a mix of pavement and dirt roads that will take us through sagebrush country, farm country, rugged dirt roads through basalt cliffs, and eventually back home. There is no water on route, no stores, no coffee. No nice little warm cafe to snuggle up with a triple Americano, room for cream please. Nothing but frost, cold pockets of thick early morning air, and beautiful views. No cars either. Nice. Better pack a few peanut butter and honey sandwiches on toast, wrapped in a paper lunch sack. Sounds like an adventure.

Sunrise at last

Sunrise at last, originally uploaded by Wooly Biker.

This is my buddy Craig who wears even more wool than me, if that is possible. I think it is, because he has wool knickers and I don't. Oh well, I'm going to score some wool boxers pretty soon. Sunrise after an hour and a half is a welcome sight. Did you know that it gets colder right before the sun comes up? I didn't believe this at first, but it's true. Check out the hour by hour temps in a cold region and you can see the drop right before sunrise.

Upper Wenatchee Valley

Upper Wenatchee Valley, originally uploaded by Wooly Biker.

I love the Wenatchee Valley. Sure it has changed from when I was a kid: less orchards, more traffic, less waving, more honking. But overall, it's a grand place to raise a family if you cherish the outdoors.

The Dirty Route

The Dirty Route, originally uploaded by Wooly Biker.

The return form Leavenworth includes what we call the 'dirty route'. It's just a dirt road that is road bike friendly and has great views. In fact, the Yeti Ride from my 1-1-08 post went through here. But we also have a ride called the 'dirty secret', and I can't tell you where it's at because it's a secret. Not because we don't want to share, but because it's not really open for public use. Not that it's officially closed, at least I don't think it is. I'll have to check on that. Or maybe not. In any case, I don't want you to go there, get in trouble, an blame it on me. It's for your own safety. Really.

Spring is Springing

Spring is Springing, originally uploaded by Wooly Biker.

There is a debate raging in town about a paved multi-use trail that will pass beside an orchard. The orchardist leases the ground from the State, and doesn't want to give any of it back for the trail because he will loose some revenue. But that argument won't go very far, so he tries to tell us that bikers and walkers are incompatible with farming. Hogwash. We ride next to orchards on virtually every ride we do in this area. Housing developments all over the valley nestle up to orchards. Kids walk through orchards to get to school. The argument is so baloney that it's not even worth debating. Hopefully the county commissioners will push this through and take this opportunity to secure a real asset for the community while we can.

The photo above is a typical scene in our area. The tractor driver has a spotter on the road who is looking out for cars, bikes, endangered spotted owls, whatever. If he sees one of these, he signals to the driver to shut down the sprayer while the biker, owl or car passes through. They are very courteous in every case, and usually wave as we go by. This feller was even nice enough to pose for me. Hoo Hoo. No compatibility issues here.

A few inches of snow

A few inches of snow, originally uploaded by Wooly Biker.

The winter of 07-08 was pretty huge. This picture doesn't do it justice because the snow has already warmed, settled and melted quite a bit. The whitewater rafting in the Wenatchee should be on the extreme end of the fun factor scale for at least 8-10 weeks, if not more.

No kidding

No kidding, originally uploaded by Wooly Biker.

If you've never taken an avalanche safety course, you owe it to yourself to do so if you spend any time skiing, backcountry skiing, snowmobiling, snowshoeing, Christmas tree cutting or snowshoe hare chasing. You will learn to recognize the signs of avalanche danger, including the most obvious ones like this. Educate yourself about the sandbox that you play in and stay alive to play another day.

Winter 07-08 destruction

Winter 07-08 destruction, originally uploaded by Wooly Biker.

Can you spot the avalanche path? This slide covered the highway probably 10 feet deep, which is nothing compared to some of the big slides of this winter.

Rust

Rust, originally uploaded by Wooly Biker.

OK, I would love to be taking Kodak Moment shots of my family on a palm studded Hawaiian beach, but I'm not in Hawaii. And I probably won't be going soon. I've got to save money for a tandem with a nice brass bell and a basket on it.

So, instead of Hawaii, I'm 1/2 mile from my house where there is this big, big power pole, and it's made of steel. Steel rusts, and then the concrete holding up the steel rusts, or gets a rust bath I guess. I take a picture of the rust-bathed concrete.

Now if I could photoshop my family into this photo, it would be just as good as a Hawaiian sunset, only better, because I didn't have to pay to get there. I walked. With my son and my dogs.

What more do we really need? Maybe a shaved ice would be nice, but that's about it. Oh, and some crashing waves. Well, and then there's those palm trees I see in the Outside Magazine articles that tell me where I should go next.

Big Nuts

Big Nuts, originally uploaded by Wooly Biker.

I remember as a kid, while learning photography, that I didn't like to be bound to traditional subjects like people, flowers or pets, at least not in the traditional ways. So I cut off the bottom of a beer bottle with a hacksaw, stuck my macro lens inside it, and took a picture of my dog peaking in the top.

Another time I waxed my white car up real nice and shiny, then hosed it down to make a half-billion water droplets. Next I placed chocolate chips in rows amoungst the water drops, and out came the macro again for some pretty weird shots. Then there was time I made a lemon meringue pie soley for the purpose of taking close up of the "waves" on top.

I guess the thing is, macro photography is always there to explore, and it's just the ticket when you need a kick in the creative hind end.

A kids best friends

A kids best friends, originally uploaded by Wooly Biker.

My perpetual adventure buddy these days is my 4 year old son Torin. My wife is too busy being a mom, and my teenagers are too busy being teenagers. So Torin and I hike, bike and ski together. This summer, he'll be big enough to go on the outrigger canoe with me, and for sure he'll be paddling a double kayak.

This picture is from what Torin calls "our mountain" because it's practically right in our backyard. You can't throw a baseball and hit it, it's not that close, but maybe three throws would do it, or two if you were a pro.

There's a badger hole up here that we like to go look at, hoping that someday it might be re-occupied. On the other hand, I suppose it's a good thing that it's vacant, as I think badgers are pretty shady characters. We did spy some coyote tracks in the mud, and I wondered how many poodles were missing in the neighborhood.

Fortunately, our neighboorhod isn't rich enough to support a poodle population, only Golden Retreivers, Labrador Retreivers, maybe a Husky or a Brittany Spaniel. The good dogs. The ones that bark, not yap. The ones that chase balls and lay in your lap and swim a lot in the summer. Good dogs sure make really great friends.

Trailer Life

Trailer Life, originally uploaded by Wooly Biker.

It seems like a great idea in theory; get the whole family together out on a beautiful winter afternoon bike ride, smell a few flowers along the way, maybe play on the kids toys and act like a kid. Bond a little. Do something a little different than the normal routine, which is usually nothing for most folks around this time of year.

So what happened? Why am I riding by myself with my two youngsters? 40% Off at Old Navy. Yep. My wife and teenage daughter high tailed it to go shopping, conveniently leaving 30 minutes before the youngsters were due up from their happy nappy and the scheduled ride time. Oh well. I got a bit of extra riding in today, and my kids had a blast as always.

I think my son (on the trail-a-bike) will be doing some bike touring with me someday. He seems to be able to ride for quite awhile already for a 4 year old. The only problem is he likes to sleep-ride after about 10 miles.

Triple Americano

Triple Americano, originally uploaded by Wooly Biker.

Mmmmm! Americano and cream!

A nice ride yesterday in mid forty degree weather, no snow, no slush, no rain, and no problems. No hurry and no worry. After about a 3 week hiatus, Craig was able to join me for a short ramble up the valley to the world famous Anjou Bakery. We devoured a cup of hot tomato soup before returning home to watch the Tour of California.

This was just what I needed after a leg-smoking ride yesterday that tested every bit of my early season form, or lack thereof. All I need to do is get in good enough shape to ride two-a-days in Moab in another 5 weeks. I think I'll be good to go.

Ice Age

Ice Age, originally uploaded by Wooly Biker.

Now this was some fun paddling! I felt like I was playing the old video game "Asteroids" as I wove in and out of ice chunks in the Columbia River, The source of all the ice was the Wenatchee River, just upstream, which had been frozen solid at the mouth for several weeks. Then all of a sudden, whamo, it's 40 degrees for several days in a row and the ice started to quickly break up.

I drive or bicycle commute over the Columbia River to work every day, so I noticed the ice sheets starting to come down a few days ago. I almost waited a day too long to go paddle amoungst the icebergs. On the day these photos were taken, I was able to navigate up one side of the Wenatchee River, but about 1/2 of the river was still chock-a-block full of ice, up to 3 feet thick. The next day I rode my bike over a footbridge on the Wenatchee in the same place I had paddled, and the river was empty of ice altogether. It's really amazing how quickly warm temperatures can affect an ice sheet that is so seemingly permanent. It's like I just witnessed my own mini global warming experiment. Kind of makes you think about it a bit more.

Bigger is Better

Bigger is Better, originally uploaded by Wooly Biker.

Tools of the trade.

Wind Slab

Wind Slab, originally uploaded by Wooly Biker.

Another avy control day.18-20" of new snow sounds great, but when the 100 MPH winds come, all bets are off for a good day of skiing. This is what Denali must look like after a good windstorm. 48 hours of super duper high winds created some great formations in the snow, like this one at Mission Ridge, but ruined the powder skiing. I think all of our new snow ended up in Quincy or Ephrata, about 30 miles to the East. Surprisingly, we had very few results today. The best part of the day was the snowcat ride up in the dark which always provides some entertainment. Oh, and my brothers yardsale at the bottom of Shot 6 near the microwave ;-)

High Voltage

High Voltage, originally uploaded by Wooly Biker.

Nice work brother Mike. Good form, perfect placement. What more could you ask for besides some powder?

Bad weather where?

Bad weather where?, originally uploaded by Wooly Biker.

The mountain passes are getting absolutely hammered with snow right now, and even our local ski area just 15 miles away is getting positively terrorized by wind (see photo below). So it seemed impossible to pass up the opportunity to go for a sunny but slightly breezy ride, just because the weather is so contradictory.

I put on my front and rear bags to remember what it feels like to ride with a light load on, and I didn't like it too well. The brevets coming up in less than a month near Seattle are self supported, so you do need some kind of baggage system to carry enough clothes, tools, and food to complete the ride. However, last year I dumped the front bag because it makes my bike handle weird. The Steelman I ride is a cyclocross bike, not a touring or brevet specific design, so it's not really designed to carry a bunch of stuff. That said, it is a capable bike, and is super comfortable.

My brevet partner is trying to convince me to use my carbon Trek road bike this year, but it has even more limitations: No fender eyelets means I have to resort to Raceblades, which are o.k. to an extent, but not up to Seattle Randonneuring standards. And let me tell you, the folks in Seattle will let you know if your fenders are not up to spec. Also, the Trek won't hold a frame pump well, which means bringing a mini-pump. And then there is the problem with spoke breakage on a fancy wheeled machine like the Trek. A roadside repair just isn't going to happen, and so my ride would be over. Plus, do I really want to subject my Dura-Ace equipped wonder bike to all that rain and road grime? The Trek is far more energy efficient than the Steelman, but so what. After 8 hours of riding, I'm going to be wiped out no matter what bike I'm on.

100 MPH

100 MPH, originally uploaded by Wooly Biker.

This is a view down the mighty Columbia River, just a few miles North of Wenatchee. In the distance, up there in the clouds, is Mission Ridge. For the past 2 days, Mission has had sustained winds of over 70 mph with maximum gusts reaching 116 mph. During one 9 hour period, the wind gusted over 100 for 8 of those hours. With a combination of the wind with new snowfall, avalanche duty is certainly in my near future.

Lunchbreak in Sage Hills

Hunkering down, originally uploaded by Wooly Biker.

One of my Winter workouts is a quick trip up to Sage Hills at lunchtime for a quick snowshoe. This one was a bit cold, windy and snowy, but still fun. The deer were pretty well snuggled in out of the wind, and not too interested in me. I've seen cougar tracks up on the ridge top twice now, and I keep thinking I might run into one someday. Those big cats are pretty abundant around here, but I have yet to see one in the wild, which is pretty weird.

I made a Survivor Man type video at the top that I thought was pretty funny. I was having a bad morning at home with some pretty difficult teenager issues, so this hike/ Survivor Man parody definately lifted my spirits. Happiness tends to be where you make it I suppose. The problem is, this kind of happiness is just a temporary band-aid to cover the sadness that I feel. Not that a band-aid isn't a great thing, just that when you take it off, the reason for the sadness is still there.

The hike was still a worthy endeavor in it's own right however: excercise, fresh air, beautiful views, wildlife, etc., and it also gave me time to reflect on the events of the day. Not a great day, but tomorrow will be better, and the next day will be beter yet.

Winter Ride

Winter Ride, originally uploaded by Wooly Biker.

The Seattle International Randonneurs are piling on the miles over in the relative comfort of 40 degree rainy Seattle weather. Over here in Wenatchee, it's a bit chillier, so the miles are barely adding up. The first brevet of the season is quickly approaching however, so the snow is no excuse to show up empty handed at the innagural 100K Populaire on March 2nd. 2 weeks later is the 200k, and then a trip to Moab with my buddies, so the training must go on. I actually really enjoyed this 3 hour ride, mainly because I brought along a change of base layers (wool of course), and had a nice 20 minute stop at the Anjou Bakery for a triple Americano and a pumpkin seed muffin. The tailwind on the way home helped too.

Snow Cat

Snow Cat, originally uploaded by Wooly Biker.

We ride up in the basket on the front of this cat, unless you get lucky and yell "shotgun" soon enough.

Patrol Shack

Patrol Shack, originally uploaded by Wooly Biker.

Avalanche control at Mission Ridge usually consists of getting up at 4 a.m., riding in or on a snow cat or wind blown chairlift in the dark, and arriving at the top frozen stiff. Fortunately, we are blessed to have a new patrol shack which was built with money raised from the annual Steve Burchett Memorial golf tournament. Steve was a patroller who died in an avalanche while doing his job. I never knew Steve, but his memory lives on. I think of him every time I go out to do my job, and sometimes my route takes me next to a cross placed on a rock near where he died. It's a sobbering experience every time. The shack is warm and roomy, and has a tremendous view, except at 6 a.m in the winter. We assemble our packs and charges, discuss the weather conditions leading up to the current morning, and then go do our job. Some days the wind is blowing 30, 40, 50 miles per hour with temps in the low teens. Some mornings are clear and calm. Either way, I love it. We can see the lights of Wenatchee twinkling throught the cold clear air almost 600 feet below us, and I think of my wife and kids still sleeping soundly while I prepare my fist charge. Sometimes it seems almost surreal. The sunrise, the view, the beauty of where I am and what I am doing. It seems even wierder when I get back to my day job at the office and mix in with the rest of the normal world. I usually grin all day long. Not too many people get to start the day like this.

New Years Day Yeti Ride

Yeti Ride, originally uploaded by Wooly Biker.

Well it's almost February, and I'm just now getting around to creating this blog. So the first few posts will be catching up on some adventures I've had in January, starting with the Yeti Ride.

2008 was the First Annual of this ride, and it was quite a success, at least by my modest standards. In about 2 weeks time, myself and a couple of friends were able to create the riide concept, get Yeti t-shirts made, and convince 28 riders to show up for a snow and ice filled mini-adventure. The ride was about 20 miles through mixed terrain. One off-road section held a good amount of cold dry snow and included a fairly steep descent, at least for a winter ride. Most folks had cross bikes or mountain bikes, many sprouting carbide studs. A couple of fixies rounded out the group.

The key to the success of this ride was the promise of hot-buttered rum at he half way point, and we delivered. In fact, we even had a Yeti Girl handing out the styrofoam cups of cold busting brew. The shape of the ride was a lollipop, with the Yeti Girl stationed right at the top of the "stick", so we were actually able to indulge twice. Garlinis Ristorante Italiano hosted us after the ride for homemade chili and cornbread, along with a tasty mug of Pike Brewing Tandem Ale. Craig, the proprietor of this bicyclists haven, was also one of the ride creators and participants.

A fun time was had by all, and the Second Annual is already in the works. What a great way to kick off any Winter blues that might be sneaking up on you.