Good thing I have a few "spare" bikes. My carbon bike is having the cranks replaced under warranty. My 'cross rain bike was just trashed yesterday on Tour de Blast and I haven't had a chance to clean it up yet. The Mtn Bike was out last night on that goofy World Naked Bike Ride and deserved a rest. ;-) Actually I just didn't feel I was up to pedaling it the ~120 miles planned today. That left the Marin. I've got it for sale, and as such have taken off most of my "goodies". No aerobar, no custom gears, no speedometers, no gps mount, handlebars returned to more standard position, a less desirable saddle, oh and flat pedals too.
I hopped on the bike this morning and pedaled out to Hillsboro to lead 11 riders on a 55 mile trip out and around Hagg Lake and back.
I was zoning out a bit on my commute out there and missed a turn. I realized it about a half mile into it. I figured rather than back track I ought to be able to work my way back to my intended route. Bad choice. Long story short, I ended up shouldering the bike and walking nearly a mile on the railroad tracks before reaching a connector road. .....then proceeded to take a wrong turn. I was riding all over the countryside and burning valuable time. I was to meet Ken about half way to Hillsboro where he'd join me for the rest of the commute. I was still about 5 miles out when he called wondering where I was.
By the time I reached him we had about 17 miles to ride, and 50 minutes to do it. Ken is a strong rider and I'm not too proud to suck a wheel when I can. We made it to Hillsboro with 5 minutes to spare. :-)
From there the rest of the group joined us.
Two friends called as I was riding and wanted to join up with us en-route today. That didn't work so good. Our little group killed some time because we were going to be too early to the meeting spot. Our chosen waiting spot seemed better than just standing along the side of the road.
It was finally time to make our way to the meeting spot and we saddled up and pedaled. Before we made it there I got a call saying our two "meeter uppers" had a flat and would be delayed. We arrived at our meeting location and milled around a bit before a rider decided to ride on slowly, saying we could catch up. One by one all of them except Ken joined in and rode off.
After an hour of waiting I called our lost riders and found out that they had made a wrong turn and were a bit off course.
We eventually connected with them and pedaled a brisk pace to try to rejoin the rest of the group. When we got to Hagg Lake our two late arrivals decided they did not have time for the lake and turned around and rode home. ?? Ken and I rode up to the dam and began to ride around in the opposite direction that our group had intended, with the plan to connect up with them as we met them. We didn't get more than half way across the dam before meeting our first riders.
We regrouped and started back toward Hillsboro. Ken has spent many years in the area, but has never ridden around Hagg Lake, he still didn't make it around! :-(
We made it back to our starting/ending point, a couple of riders unintentionally taking a bit of an alternate route.
Most loaded bikes and drove back home. Ken and I still had about 30 miles to go. We picked up the pace a bit and made our way southward.
It was a nice day, no rain, temperature just about right.
I managed to ride flat pedals and a cheap seat all day without too much trouble...or at least not enough trouble to scrap the ride!
The day certainly gave me an appreciation for all the gadgets I have on my other bikes.
.........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total
Today.......117..............0.............0..........0.........117
Jan.........474..............0............21..........7.........502
Feb.........530..............0.............0..........0.........530
March.......502..............0.............0..........0.........502
April.......524..............0.............0..........0.........524
May........1003..............0.............0..........0........1003
June........684..............0............10..........0.........694
YTD........3721..............0............37..........7.........3774
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