Chilly Hilly

I rode Chilly Hilly today. It was predicted to be a bit wet and cold. What we got was gorgeous biking weather. There was frost in the morning as I pedaled off, but I was dressed for the weather and with the hills making some work out of it, along with a quick pace, I was plenty warm.

I dallied around the start trying to meet up with "the mayor of Kitsap" Leo S but didn't see him during his expected 7:30-8 window. There was a steady stream of local riders starting on the course already. Not wanting to get tied up in the mass of riders coming in on the ferry I pedaled off.

The weather was beautiful. There was no ice on the roads as they were dry. The sky above was mostly blue, and there was no noticeable wind. Can't complain about any of that.


I was pedaling a reasonably quick pace. I managed to arrive at the official rest stop, the Cider Stop, located 19 miles into the route, as rider #6. I was a bit surprised. I had a hot cider and banana. I talked with a few girl scouts, and updated my facebook page from my phone. ;-)

By the time I returned to my bike I noticed a steady stream of cyclists going by. So much for being rider #6 at the finish!

It was a beautiful day, whenever an opportunity to take a photo presented itself I'd stop, take off my gloves, take the camera out of my pack, take the picture, put everything back together, and pedal off.



I managed to take a few photos, but the best ones seemed to involve water.



The clouds became a bit more numerous as the morning progressed, but we still had far more blue than grey above us. Email updates told me that it was snowing in Seattle however. Looking across the water I could see that Seattle was under a different sky than the Chilly Hilly route on Bainbridge Island.



Others got photos of the hills and riders, I was ahead of the masses so missed photos like this one.



I finished the 33 mile route in 2.5 hours, not bad considering the hills, the photo stops, and the extended Cider Stop. All tolled, it appears that I was stopped for a total of 27 minutes (according to my Garmin)

I had planned to ride the route twice, but my Seattle friends sent a text that they were at the half way point and expected to be to the finish in about 60-90 minutes. I figured I should wait around so as not to miss them.

I milled around the finish festivities for a bit. I was visiting with a Cascade Bicycle Club booth person. I eventually found out she was the famous Cascade user boards maven, M.J. Kelly. :-)

A few tiny dry flakes of snow began swirling around. It was magical.

Finally after several more text message volleys it was determined I should make my way over to the mainland and just meet everyone at a pizza place. Most of the rest of the folks were already there.

I boarded the ferry. There is always something good about seeing a ferry fill up with bikes.


I took a lot of video with my GoPro camera, but I won't even try to do any better than this fellow Chilly Hilly rider put together.



It was a good ride, and the "debriefing" at the pizza place was good too. It was nice to see a lot of the folks that I only knew by name from the Cascade user boards and facebook page.


.........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total
Today........35..............0.............0..........0...........35
Jan.........105.............34.............0..........0..........139
Feb.........428............108.............0.........24..........536
YTD.........533............142.............0.........24..........689