(Mark H. photo)Two other members of our group came across on the ferry in the morning but weren't there yet when the photo was taken.
Chilly Hilly is the season opener for Cascade Bicycle Club.
It's a short but fun ride. It is a 33 mile route with 2675 ft of climbing. Since it's winter you get to see a few expensive bikes being walked up hills, and also more than a few more common bikes being walked too.
(Kay S photo)On my drive up on Saturday evening I saw sub freezing temperatures the whole way up with snow falling from Castle Rock to Bainbridge Island. The forecast called for freezing temperatures in the morning that would give way to 40 degrees and rain by noon.
With a forecast like that we figured we'd have a short window between icy roads and a cold rain. We were pleasantly surprised to see that clouds had come in over night and the temperature climbed a bit. It was 36 at 7AM. The wind had picked up out of the south at about 15-20 mph. A south wind in these parts often means rain.
Our little group decided to get on the course and get as many miles before that cold rain started to fall as was comfortable.
We weren't racing, it was after all supposed to be a fun and relaxed bike ride, but we didn't tarry too long either. I ran into a friend who lives up that way, is a member of West Sound Bicycle Club as well as a fellow member of Cascade Bicycle Club. Leo is quite a character!
(Mark H photo) We finished the ride up, milled around the finish line festivities for a very brief time, and then the rain started in. We decided to go for lunch rather than stand around the finish and get wet.
We left the finish area at noon, and rode back up the hill to our rooms.
By the time we changed clothes it was raining hard, and was 37 degrees. We had two of our group still on the road. I drove back to see if they wanted to get a ride back while Mark and Sandy went to the restaurant to get a table for us.
I did sag in one of our group, the other pedaled it on out. I can report that there were a lot of people still on the course at 1:30, and few if any had smiles on their faces.
It was nearly 3:30 by the time I began driving back toward home, and I can tell you that there weren't any smiles at that time either from the wet and cold people still on bikes.
Counting the commute to and from the ride from our room I got 35 miles today. Not many miles, but enough to put me over 500 for the month.
..........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total
Today........35..............0.............0..........0..........35
Jan.........474..............0............21..........7.........502
Feb.........530..............0.............0..........0.........530
YTD.......1014...............0............21..........7........1042
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