Daffodil Classic

Dave, Laura, and I made our way to Orting Washington late yesterday in preparation for today's Daffodil Classic put on by the Tacoma Wheelmen's Bicycle Club. We couldn't resist beginning our stay up there by having dinner at "Famous Dave's BBQ" where our server's name was Ryan.... the same name as Dave's son.


The TWBC puts on a real good ride. The course was well marked, the "Dan Henry's" even showed us where the goodies were at the end of the ride! (click on the photo for a larger version)


Support was excellent throughout.

As with most of the rides in the state of Washington that I participate in, there seemed to be a LOT of chipseal. Nothing like 50+ miles of chipseal to drain you!
The scenery was nice. We had many views of Mt Rainier, and we were close. We traveled along the shores of several lakes too.


After having seen the power of mudflows from the Mt St Helen's eruption it doesn't take much imagination to see the risk to the folks in the communities we rode through today. A clear shot to Mt Rainier only 30 miles away and situated in valleys that will funnel the lahars right to their front doors...and on through to the back doors.
This picture should have been gorgeous, but alas, in my hurry I didn't take into account the shutter delay.


Here's a few photos of the Eatonville rest stop:

Here's a little video as we rode away from the rest stop.



Here we three musketeers take our chances stopping for a photo op in the gunsights of a lahar.



With a bit of a late start, the jarring ride of chipseal, and a bloated feeling it didn't take much for the bike pansy to escape from my bike bag. It crawled up on my shoulder and began the litany....... "This is far enough.", "You don't want to make Dave and Laura wait while you ride another 40 miles.", "You rode a hard ride on Friday.", "You're too old to do this!". I listened and obeyed.

We followed the last Dan Henry to the strawberry shortcake desert. :-)


The soils in the area seemed to be very rocky, there was very little traditional agriculture. The farms we did pass appeared to be cow and pasture operations that had seen better days. There were a lot of rock and gravel pits. Some were still active while others had been converted to industrial land and housing. There seemed to be a lot of growth in the housing market in the area with many subdivisions being under construction or recently built.

Dave commented that one of the things nice about going on these rides is getting to see areas that you wouldn't normally see in travels up I-5.
Sounds like a good subject for a bumper sticker........
"See the country--Ride your bike!"

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...............Road Bike.....LifeCycle.....Total Miles
Today...........64...............0
Jan total.......98.....+........402....=..........500
Feb total.....385.....+.......220....=...........605
Mar total.....659.....+........41.....=...........700
YTD...........1344....+.......720....=.........2064

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