Headwaters Century

I got up EARLY this morning and made my way to Enumclaw Washington for the Tacoma Wheelmen's "Headwaters Century". I had decided to ride this ride in part because it's $16 registration competed very well with Cascade Bicycle Club's "High Pass Challenge" which had 114 miles, and an $80 registration. The High Pass Challenge was well within my capabililities this year, but the $80 fee, plus the start was at a private park that charged $5 to park, and $15 to put a tent in the grass made me think I could have just as much fun on the Headwaters Century, and keep the +/- $90 in my pocket!

I picked up my packet then proceeded to get my bike ready to go. Somewhere since yesterday my Garmin GPS must have got bumped "on" because the battery was dead. I had just picked up a little solar panel with a USB connector, so it was time to put it to the test. I rigged up a system so the solar panel would ride on top of my rear pack with the USB cable running along my top tube to the Garmin. I soon found that there wasn't enough clearance to attach the USB cable to the back of the Garmin in the location I've got the unit mounted. I took the Garmin off and put it in a side pocket of the rear bag. My hope was that it could still "see" satellites from in the pocket, and that the solar panel would charge it as I rode.

The charging part worked pretty well, the seeing part not so much. The Garmin did manage to log about 80 miles of the 100 I rode, a little spotty and hit or miss.


Anyway, back to the ride........ the shorter routes started with their backs to the rising sun, we 100 milers started straight into it. As I approached a traffic signal I couldn't see what color the lights were so I stopped, slid my yellow glasses down a bit to get rid of the glare and shielded my eyes with my hand to see the light. It as green so I rode on.

At .83 miles into the ride I hear a metalic "clang". I looked around trying to see what had made the sound but didn't see anything. Ahead I see I guy sitting on the ground next to his bike. I figured he had a flat tire. I stopped to see if he needed anything then found out what the noise had been.

The road at that point goes from 1 lane each way with a wide paved shoulder/bike lane to just 1 lane each way and a gravel shoulder. As the paved shoulder evaporates the highway folks have put those little white rounded buttons on the pavement in diagonal lines directing you into the lane. At the very end of the bike lane there is a metal post with a yellow rectangle with black chevrons on it.

The rider rode right into the sign and had sliced his hand open pretty deeply. I took out my Cascade Bicycle Club supplied "ouch pouch" and fixed him up as well as I could, but it was obvious his 100 mile quest was over at 0.83 miles.

He said the sun was in his eyes so he was just riding with his head down and didn't see the post.

What's good for the goose is good for the gander. About a year or so ago an auto driver had hit a cyclist and the defense was "I couldn't see, the sun was in my eyes". If I remember correctly, the driver was not cited. My comment at the time was "if you can't see, don't go!" The same goes whether you are driving or cycling, if you can't see adequately for any reason stop! The life you safe may be your own.

After getting SAG to take him back to the start I proceeded on the course. We climbed up toward White Pass. After some climbing we turned and looped back around to Enumclaw via Mud Mountain.

We soon were back to Enumclaw with the first 20 miles under our belts. From here we picked up a few more riders as we now shared the route with the 80 and 65 mile riders. I think they even had a ~40 mile "family ride" option.

The first rest stop came at Flaming Geyser State Park. I had been there years ago in my previous life as a white water rafting enthusiast. This time I took the time to find the geyser!
Here it is:

It's about 1 foot tall now. In the 60's the flame was 6-8 ft tall according to the information posted there. Some trouble makers had messed around and with the help of some dynamite had altered the flow of gas so now it's a small flame. The area has coal mines and the gas is methane that has made it's way to the surface from the coal seam far below. (I never knew there were coal mines on the west coast until I started riding bike!) In this case, the methane found it's way to the surface via an exploratory hole drilled about 100 years ago to look for coal.

As we left Flaming Geyser State Park we climbed the biggest hill of the day. I was told it was 8% and that it went for 2 miles. I had my 12-27 cogset in today so I didn't have any fears. I just pedaled up. I wasn't even in the lowest gear! I maintained about an 8mph pace. I passed quite a few folks, even some who were WALKING their triple crank equipped bikes!

The route had a lot of climbing, but generally not hard hills. A lot of short climbs followed by short descents. I did manage to attain a new speed record on my road bike today, 48.8 mph, before clamping on the brakes to get stopped for the stop sign that appeared!

In many places the ride brought us through country that looked a lot like Tillamook. We were in working dairy country. A few scattered quarries around. When Dave, Laura and I rode the Daffodil Classic in April we were near here but at that ride we saw small cow operations, most no longer active. There were quarries all over the place. The views of Mt Rainier were not as impressive along this route, we were a bit farther away, and in many cases hills blocked the view this time. It was a very scenic ride however, even without the Mt Rainier views!

The roads were good, no rough chipseal. Low traffic and in some cases a good paved shoulder. The rest stops were spaced about every 30 miles. With the climbing I wouldn't want them spaced much farther apart than that!

The ride had about 300 participants, less than I anticipated. I had ridden the Tacoma Wheelmen's Daffodil Ride earlier and it had 1500 riders, so I was thinking perhaps I'd see 1000+. Organizers told me that the Daffodil is their most popular ride and 300 for Headwaters was about what they expected.

The rest stops were well stocked and staffed by friendly volunteers. It was a good ride!

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...............Road Bike.....LifeCycle.....Total Miles
Today...........100...............0................100
Jan total.......98.....+........402....=..........500
Feb total.....385.....+.......220....=...........605
Mar total.....659.....+........41.....=...........700
April total...629.....+........57.....=...........676
May total.....642.....+........23.....=...........665
June total....804.....+.........0.....=...........804
July total....933.....+.........0.....=...........933
August total..732.....+........23.....=...........755
YTD...........5056....+.......766....=.........5826

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