I rode around Mt Rainier today, and then spent the next several days riding around Seattle. Editing video and loading it takes a lot of time, time that I just don't have right now, but check back here for a full description with lots of photos and video from today's adventure.
7/15 update:
Haven't forgotten, just having trouble getting the mp4 video rotated 180.
man o man, this is going to take awhile..... here's the first of 6, only took a few hours! ;-O
and now I find that all the video clips I took are too big to post on youtube, vimeo, and blogger. Ack!
Okay, here I am nearly 2 years later and I note I never finished this up. :-(
This was the first year that I planned to ride RAMROD. It is a popular ride put on by the Redmond Cycling Club that circumnavigates Mt Rainier. The National Park Service highly regulates this ride, limiting it to 800 riders and mandating that it must be held on a weekday. As such, the organizers hold a lottery to be admitted. I was concerned that I wouldn't make the cut, so I floated the idea of riding the route self supported 10 days early. A facebook friend from the Seattle area nibbled. I had done some homework determining where we could access water and food. It wasn't going to be easy. We planned on carrying a good supply of high energy food, and water purification tablets
We met the night before and had dinner before getting a good night sleep.
We started off early in the morning and climbed the longest, but most gentle climb of the trip. Geoff was struggling a bit to keep up. We only had to finish the 150 mile course before dark, so I slowed a bit.
Part of our plan was to stop at Paradise Lodge for food and water. Geoff was a bit tired from the climb and we dallied there a bit longer than I was comfortable with.
We continued on around the mountain. There was a lot of snow yet. We came to what I thought was a roadside meadow covered in snow, only to find out later that it was a frozen snow covered lake.
There are three notable climbs when riding around Mt Rainier. At 100 miles into the ride we stood at the base of Cayuse Pass, our third climb. We both paused long enough to eat a few bars from our supplies. We started up the grade. The banks were covered with deep blankets of snow. I didn't think water was going to a problem but wanted to try the tablets. I caught some snow melt with my empty water bottle and dropped a tablet in. Geoff was running out of energy and was struggling. We had talked earlier that if he couldn't make it I'd ride on, get my vehicle and come back for him. I pedaled along toward the summit. When I got to the top I pulled off and waited. I figured I had about 30 minutes I could wait before I would have to pedal down the west side to arrive back at my vehicle before dark.
At 25 minutes a car pulled over and a driver got out smiling. I did not know him. I was about to ask if he had seen a bicyclist riding up the hill, and how far back he might be, when Geoff hopped out of the back passenger door. As it ended up, Geoff had flagged the car down and asked if he could get a ride to the top. We had a good laugh, thanked the kind driver, and pedaled off.
I have big gears on my bike and can make short work of long descents like this, but didn't want to leave Geoff. I was pedaling just about as fast as I dared ride, keeping my eye on Geoff in my mirror, and on the time display on my Garmin. It was going to be close.
Suddenly the bane of all cyclists....... a flat. Geoff's rear tire was flat. We stopped and between the two of us we got it repaired and were back on the road.
I was glad I had my lights along. We paused to attach front lights (the rear lights are always on the bike) with about 5 miles to go. It wasn't DARK yet, but dusk, and with heavier traffic in town we thought it best.
It was a good ride, beautiful scenery, good company.
As it ended up, I was selected in the lottery, so I'll be back in 10 days to ride this "officially". :-)
........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total Today.......153..............0..............0..........0...........153
Jan.........105.............34.............0..........0..........139 Feb.........428............108.............0.........24..........536 March.......809..............0.............0.........22............831 April.........1010..............0.............0..........0.........1010 May..........1000..............0.............20..........0.......1020 June..........1500...............0...............0............0.....1500
July............403...............0................0............0.......403
YTD........5246............142............20.........46.........5329
Those motorcycles were all over the ride. Those two weren't too bad, but they were going down hill so they weren't as loud as they could be.
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