Seattle Christmas Ships

After biking to see the Christmas Ships in Portland the last few years, I got the chance to compare that experience to Seattle's version this year.

Folks were invited to decorate their bikes and ride to the Ballard Locks to view the decorated boats.

My camera again demonstrated what I consider a major short coming of USB devices. I've taken 25-30 photos since the last time I charged it. It took one photo tonight and died. My old AA battery camera would have had plenty of charge yet, and if all else failed, I could have picked up a new set of AA batteries on practically every street corner.

The only photo I got was very early in the evening, just as people started gathering for the ride.

About 20 of us took off from the alt-bike shop, Hub and Bespoke, in the Fremont neighborhood. The ride was a slow paced ride, as expected. It was a nice night for a ride, and with the decorated and brightly lit bikes, it would have made a nice photo.

We arrived at the locks, and as per regulations, dismounted and walked our bikes the last 150 yds.

Arsen S photo

I was a little disappointed in the ships. These were mostly commercial tour boats that were navigating the locks on their way from Lake Union to Golden Gardens. Rather than the brightly colored and often animated private boats on Portland, these all had simple white lights on the outline of the boats.

Hiram Chittenden Locks photo

One nice thing about them though is they had to pause just feet away from us as they waited for the lock to do it's thing. The largest boat in the flotilla had a choir onboard that serenaded us with holiday carols.

After spending some time there watching boats come and go through the locks, our group began to scatter. Julie had to work early in the morning, so we went with the group that was calling it a night. The rest seemed headed to some warm holiday cheer.

A dad and his small son on their tandem joined us on a slight detour through Ballard where we took in a short street corner concert by a 5 member brass group.

I had hauled our bikes to Hub and Bespoke because Julie wasn't enamored with riding back up Queen Ann in the dark, late at night, when she has to work early. We rode back to where I had parked.

We loaded the bikes, then noted an envelope under my windshield wiper. Drat, a $58 ticket for parking in the neighborhood after 8PM without a neighborhood permit. Neither of us had seen the sign, partially hidden by shrubbery, and in shadows.

It was a nice night for a ride, but the holiday ships probably weren't worth the $58 it cost me. :-(


Today...............6...........0................0............0..............6 Jan..................93..............0...............0.........0..............93 Feb................411..............0..............0..........0.............411 March.............653.............0..............0.........0................653 April..............696..............0...............0.........0................696 May...............900...............0...............0.........0...............900
June..............484...............0..............0............0..............484
July..............1300................0...............0..........0.............1300
Aug................638.............0.................0..........0.............638
Sept...............232..............0................0...........0............232
Oct...............307...............0................0...........0............307
Nov..............546...............0................0...........0............546
Dec..............112...............0................0..........0.............112
Total...........6128.............0...............0..........0.............6128

Dry

It was predicted to rain by late afternoon today in Seattle. It was much warmer than it is at home. I was lazy and didn't want to ride up Queen Ann, or for that matter, did not want to ride brakes all the way down Queen Ann either. I had a few items to pick up at Fred Meyer. That was all I needed for an excuse to load the bike and start from down on the water.

I loaded my bike and drove to Fred Meyer in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle. Fred Meyer is right next to the Burke-Gilman Trail so I started from there and rode to Marymoor Park and back, a nice 28 mile ride one way virtually all on a bike path.

Despite being a dry weekend, there was not a lot of bike traffic. I just pedaled along. I arrived at Marymoor, dilly dallied around for a few minutes, then pedaled back.

It was a nice ride. Not cold, not windy, not wet. That's about all one can hope for in December.

Today..............56...........0................0............0.............56 Jan..................93..............0...............0.........0..............93 Feb................411..............0..............0..........0.............411 March.............653.............0..............0.........0................653 April..............696..............0...............0.........0................696 May...............900...............0...............0.........0...............900
June..............484...............0..............0............0..............484
July..............1300................0...............0..........0.............1300
Aug................638.............0.................0..........0.............638
Sept...............232..............0................0...........0............232
Oct...............307...............0................0...........0............307
Nov..............546...............0................0...........0............546
Dec..............106...............0................0..........0.............106
Total...........6122.............0...............0..........0.............6122

Time to pop some corn?

It's movie night.

After walking to the store earlier today for a few groceries, I decided I had a perfectly operational bicycle and should use it. I rode to the nearest Red Box location and picked up tonight's feature.

Now I just have to make some popcorn!


...............road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle........total

Today...............2...........0................0............0..............2 Jan..................93..............0...............0.........0..............93 Feb................411..............0..............0..........0.............411 March.............653.............0..............0.........0................653 April..............696..............0...............0.........0................696 May...............900...............0...............0.........0...............900
June..............484...............0..............0............0..............484
July..............1300................0...............0..........0.............1300
Aug................638.............0.................0..........0.............638
Sept...............232..............0................0...........0............232
Oct...............307...............0................0...........0............307
Nov..............546...............0................0...........0............546
Dec...............50...............0................0..........0.............50

Total...........6066.............0...............0..........0.............6066

Another Sunny Day

......and even colder this time!

3 of us took off at 10am from Coulon Park in Renton WA for a lap of Lake Washington, it was 26 degrees. It was a beautiful clear day, not a cloud in the sky. I was bundled up against the cold too much to go to the effort to dig a camera out, so there are no photos.

There was no wind to speak of, and the route is pretty darn flat. One of our riders hadn't been on her bike in over two months. I guess Julie and I haven't been riding much more than that, but we did manage to have no problems today. We spent quite a bit of time waiting at intersections, but all was good.

We began to worry a bit about getting back before dark, as none of us had headlights along. Julie and I had tail lights.
We managed to finish up at 4PM, with the sun still up, barely.

It never got above freezing, but compared to other locations, there was nothing to complain about. Many of my friends pedaled out in single digits today.

...............road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle........total

Today..............48...........0................0............0.............48 Jan..................93..............0...............0.........0..............93 Feb................411..............0..............0..........0.............411 March.............653.............0..............0.........0................653 April..............696..............0...............0.........0................696 May...............900...............0...............0.........0...............900
June..............484...............0..............0............0..............484
July..............1300................0...............0..........0.............1300
Aug................638.............0.................0..........0.............638
Sept...............232..............0................0...........0............232
Oct...............307...............0................0...........0............307
Nov..............546...............0................0...........0............546
Dec...............48...............0................0..........0.............48

Total...........6064.............0...............0..........0.............6064

A sunny day

After 5 days of riding in sunny Southern California it was nice to come back to Seattle and also have a beautiful blue sky to ride under. Okay, so it was 45 degrees colder.

4 ladies and I took off from Tukwilla and rode to Alki. It was 35 degrees as we pedaled off. The gals rode a slower pace and I wasn't generating any heat. The windchill was enough to make me quite cold. The first half of the 16 mile ride to Alki was very cold, then it began to feel a bit warmer. We were in full sunshine, closer to the water, and it was later in the day. Any one of those things could make it warmer, whatever the reason it was welcome.

We arrived at Tully's Coffee in Alki. I had a slice of banana nut bread. The girls had warm coffee drinks and spent some time visiting.

Having warmed up and refueled, we mounted our bikes and pedaled back. It had warmed up even more and was an enjoyable ride back. We rode on the Duwamish Trail and Green River Trail for much of our ride. Here we were along the Duwamish River.

It was a good ride.

...............road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle........total

Today..............32...........0................0............0.............32 Jan..................93..............0...............0.........0..............93 Feb................411..............0..............0..........0.............411 March.............653.............0..............0.........0................653 April..............696..............0...............0.........0................696 May...............900...............0...............0.........0...............900

June..............484...............0..............0............0..............484

July..............1300................0...............0..........0.............1300

Aug................638.............0.................0..........0.............638

Sept...............232..............0................0...........0............232

Oct...............307...............0................0...........0............307

Nov..............546...............0................0...........0............546 Total...........6016.............0...............0..........0.............6016

Southern California, Day 5, Temecula to San Diego

Today is the last day of our bike adventure.  We will be riding through the scenic De Luz Canyon and on to the Pacific Ocean at Oceanside, then riding south to San Diego.  First we get to climb a good hill right out of the gate.

We first rode a few blocks through Old Town Temecula

 We then turned west and began climbing. We soon had a good view of just how big Temecula is!

After the nearly thousand foot climb we started down into the De Luz Canyon.  This section is noted for it's avocado orchards and overarching oak trees.

 There is more down than up in this section, and it's a bit twisty.  All of that plays into this old out of shape guy on a bike.  Dave and I were out in front of the others and I hadn't seen them in awhile.   I pulled off to allow them to regroup.  As Dave and I stood there visiting, I hear a tell tale hiss of a rear tire going flat.  As it ended up, a valved stem separated from the tube. As I was affecting a tube change, the others rode up.  As I pumped the tire up, as it neared 80 psi, it went flat again!  Doggone if it wasn't another valve stem failure!  I put my second spare tube in, and crossed my fingers.  I got it to 100 psi, and off we went.

We had some more climbing just prior to Fallbrook.  As I rounded a corner there was our support car along the road.  I stopped, topped off water, and used the floor pump to adjust the pressure, and grabbed two new spare tubes from my supplies.

We rode through Fallbrook and continued south to Bonsall.  I was leading the group on a downhill run....and knew there was a right turn coming up soon.  I still missed it!  Rather than turn around, I knew the way, if not the route!.  In prior years the official ride had continued on the way we were now riding.  Last year we had to make the turn to get on a parallel road and miss some construction.  I guessed correctly that the construction would be finished up by now.  We rolled on down the hill on nice new smooth pavement.

We had left the countryside behind and the remainder of our trip would be mostly urban.

 At about mile 32 we were about to enter the San Luis Rey River Trail.  The speed demons requested a lunch stop.  We pulled off at a Starbucks.  They did the coffee drink thing, I grabbed a bar from my pack.

After a short stop, we hopped on the bikes and entered the trail that would take us to Oceanside.  Julie would be waiting for us at the Oceanside Pier, the starting location for Race Across America.

We made quick work of the 15 miles of trail.  We arrived at Oceanside and stopped briefly for a few photos.

We then rode to the pier where we found Julie sitting on the sand soaking up the sun.

We spent some time at the pier, taking in the view and eating a seafood lunch. Mark had no time for such dalliances and pedaled off.  None of us had seen him go.  Pretty  soon he called and said he was waiting for us up the road near the military recruiter office.  Dave, Alan, and I finished up then started on our way.  We soon found Mark along the route.  He and Alan took off like rockets.  Dave and I just pedaled along in the mid to upper teens.  It was far too nice a day to just rush along through it.

It put a bit of a smile on our faces to have Mark and Alan take off from a traffic light like rockets, only to get stopped at the next red light and wait as we would catch back up.  This happened for several miles before Dave and I got snagged by a light as Mark and Alan pedaled away.

We climbed up Torrey Pines past all those famous institutions (Scripps, Mayo, etc) then over LaJolla and down onto the Rose Creek Bike Path.  Julie met us to provide resupply just before we entered the path. Mark and Alan missed this and traveled roads.

Rose Creek just before it enters Mission Bay

 

Riding along mission bay was beautiful as always. As we neared Fiesta Island a DeLorean passed by.  Dave asked if it was Adventure Corps chief officer Chris Kostman.  I didn't catch the license plate, but before we had too much time to discuss it, the car pulled over and the gull wing door opened.  There sits Chris Kostman!  He had recognized the Furnace Creek 508 finisher's jersey I was wearing! (despite that I had a small backpack on the hid most of the back of it!)  We visited for a bit then each proceeded on.

Riding along Mission Bay is always a treat!

We dutifully followed the route on my Garmin and navigated around the tangle of freeway interchange ramps.  Finally we were on a path that led us back to our starting point.  Alan and Mark had arrived 7 minutes before we did.  We easily frittered 7 minutes away taking photos of the heron on Rose Creek. Julie and I were the only folks staying in San Diego tonight.  We were in late enough that our room should have been ready, but it wasn't. We waited for about 30 minutes for our room to be ready.  Alan took a shower in our room and was gone.  Mark and Dave also took showers and Mark boxed his bike.  I then drove them to the airport and sent them on their way.

I returned, took a shower, then Julie and I wrapped up the bike portion of this adventure with dinner at a renowned Mexican restaurant in Old Town.

It was a good trip.  I was happy that my pre event predictions held true.  I had said that I thought we'd be able to do this ride for $65/day (double occupancy) including lodging, support car costs, breakfast and dinner each day.  I am happy to report that we indeed stayed on that budget.  That put us at $200 less than the official ride.  We had better lodging, better meals, and better on road support (pretty easy to do considering the official ride has no on road support).  Of course, we didn't get an event T-shirt, but we can live with that!  :-)

...............road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle........total

Today..............86...........0................0............0.............86 Jan..................93..............0...............0.........0..............93 Feb................411..............0..............0..........0.............411 March.............653.............0..............0.........0................653 April..............696..............0...............0.........0................696 May...............900...............0...............0.........0...............900

June..............484...............0..............0............0..............484

July..............1300................0...............0..........0.............1300

Aug................638.............0.................0..........0.............638

Sept...............232..............0................0...........0............232

Oct...............307...............0................0...........0............307

Nov..............514...............0................0...........0............514 Total...........5984.............0...............0..........0.............5984

Southern California, Day 4, Palm Springs to Temecula

We've been mostly following the HI USA Christmas Bike Ride route the last few days.  Day 1 was exactly the route, except that we started across Interstate 8 from the official start at University of San Diego.  We just started from our hotel, and had no need to ride to USD. We overnighted in Pine Valley because it was about the only place within range for us.  On day 2 we bypassed Warner Springs because of better lodging options in Borrego Springs, and riding the additional miles to Borrego Springs (and eliminating the out and back to Warner Springs) would only add a few miles and was mostly downhill.  Yesterday we rode a bit farther than the official ride since we stayed in Palm Springs, rather than Palm Desert.  Starting today we'd be putting some distance on the official overnight stops, since we planned to ride the route in 5 days rather than 6.  Whereas the official ride stays in Hemet and Fallbrook, we were only planning to overnight in Temecula.  All of us were capable of covering the distance easily.

Today we pedaled from Palm Springs to Temecula.  There was one long gentle climb to Banning, about the same as a rails to trails effort, and a harder climb up Sage Rd just prior to Temecula.  Rather than climbing, today's challenge was expected to be prevailing headwinds near Cabazon.

We pedaled out of Palm Springs, continuing to shake our heads over the conspicuous consumption.  Lush green grass was everywhere, Palm trees, flowering plants, and the ever present sprinklers spreading Colorado River water over everything to keep it green.  We wondered aloud about how much of the sprinkled water makes it to the roots of lawn before it evaporated in the heat. Just off the top of our heads we estimated less than 50%.

Palm Springs and it's suburbs spread across the desert for miles, but we finally got to the edge.  Mark and Alan continued their speedy ways, but Dave and I were riding together and performing lanterne rouge duty.We looked out at the power generating windmills, and noticed that at least the closer groupings were stationary. 

 We pedaled along Hwy 111 with just a whisper of tailwind.  After about 10 miles we reached Interstate 10 and would be paralleling it for the next 20 miles to Beaumont before turning south.  Our first planned stop today was in Cabazon, about 15 miles into the ride.

Dave and I were just a few miles short of Cabazon when we came across Mark and Alan along the side of the road.  Alan had a flat tire.  We stopped and commiserated with them as Alan made repairs.

Getting back on the road, it wasn't long before Alan and Mark were off the front again. Maybe it was more that I was off the back, but at any rate, they reached Cabazon before I did.  Cabazon is not much more that a truck stop along I-10.  There is a truck stop, Burger King, and some really large dinosaurs! The family restaurant familiar to  AYH  San Diego Christmas Bike Ride  participants is now closed.  The dinosaurs are evidently owned by the same folks who ran the restaurant, so their future is clouded right now.  The dinosaurs are still there, but entrances to them was locked up.

I was refilling water bottles as I saw the others pedal off......... down the wrong road!  I hopped on my bike and pedaled to catch them.  They had gone down the ramp to I-10 and were standing in the shade of the overpass waiting.  As I approached within 150 yds they pedaled off.

Be darned if I was going to chase them down to tell them of their error.  I circled around and rode on the parallel access road. I would eventually have to get on the shoulder of I-10, but not for about 5 miles, and then for less than 1 mile before exiting again. The feared headwinds never materialized and we were now beyond the area normally impacted.

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, but I think this casino I rode by in the middle of the desert has got to be one of the biggest eyesores around.

One can see it for miles around, but maybe that is the desired effect.

It was a warm day, and felt humid.  I stopped a few miles short of Beaumont at a McDonalds for an ice cream sundae. Our support driver called me to see where I was and I ended up only being about 2 miles away.  She came back and joined me for a frozen treat.

The planned pit stop today was in Hemet, and I knew there was a big descent from Beaumont to Hemet, and that my riding partners were probably nearing the planned stop.  We scurried along and Julie got on her way to the meeting point, and I pedaled out.

As I rolled down the hill into Hemet at 45 mph, I noted that I hadn't seen any of my riding partners in nearly 30 miles.  I've biked the route many times, I didn't have a overriding need to pedal it again.  I weighed my options.  I could continue to pedal solo into Temecula, or....  Julie had wanted to visit one of the wineries in the area.........  I figured it would be more fun to have lunch with her at a winery than to ride yet another 30 miles by myself.

When I reached our meeting point in Hemet, she was surprised to here me say that I should just load my bike up and have her drive us both to a winery for lunch.   But that is exactly what we did!  We drove to Wilson Creek Winery, which was located at mile 66 of our route today.

We had spent some time walking around the gift shop, and looking around a bit, then went to the cafe for lunch.  We were well into our cheese plate and wine when the three speedsters called to say that they were going to go off course for awhile.........at Wilson Creek Winery!  We had a good laugh, and told them to come back to the cafe.  Our reunited group spent the next hour there.

 Rejuvenated by red wine and cheese, and knowing that the final run to Temecula was downhill, I said I'd bike the final 8 miles into town. We arrived at our lodging just after 3 PM, it was the first time we had arrived after check-in time and not had to wait for our rooms. We showered then Mark, Julie, and I went for a walk around town.  I had always just biked through Temecula before, and it was nice to be able to look around a bit.

The feeling of higher humidity today panned out to a few clouds this evening just as the sun was setting.

We all walked a short distance to a nice Mexican restaurant for dinner, then called it a night.

...............road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle........total

Today..............54...........0................0............0.............54 Jan..................93..............0...............0.........0..............93 Feb................411..............0..............0..........0.............411 March.............653.............0..............0.........0................653 April..............696..............0...............0.........0................696 May...............900...............0...............0.........0...............900

June..............484...............0..............0............0..............484

July..............1300................0...............0..........0.............1300

Aug................638.............0.................0..........0.............638

Sept...............232..............0................0...........0............232

Oct...............307...............0................0...........0............307

Nov..............428...............0................0...........0............428 Total...........5898.............0...............0..........0.............5898

Southern Callifornia, Day 3, Borrego Springs to Palm Springs

Today we would ride about 90 miles from Borrego Springs, across Anza-Borrego State Park in the Colorado Desert, along the Salton Sea, and on to Palm Springs. The desert scenery and geologic record would be notable. The night before while discussing start times some of my riding partners were throwing out suggestions for 7AM. Huh? I could see no reason to start in the dark. Doing so would put us in Palm Springs before noon! We finally agreed on pedals turning by 8 AM.

I knew of a good location for a scenic overlook. Our support car would be waiting for us there. It was a beautiful morning to ride through the desert.

Unlike when I ride through here in late December, today the Ocotillo was not blooming. It made for a slightly less colorful ride, but still quite scenic. We arrived at the scenic overlook where Julie was waiting. Dave and I stopped, the others waved and rode on.

After taking a few photos and topping off water we pedaled on. Our next planned stop was a convenience store nearly 200 ft below sea level near the Salton Sea.

Before we would reach the Salton Sea we had a few more miles of desert to ride through. Dave and I both noted the colorful surroundings.

This was also the location of calcite mines during World War 2.

Before reaching the Salton Sea we also had to travel over a couple of miles of rough surfaced road.

Remarkably, this is a county maintained road. They had to put a sign up on a sandy cross "street" to differentiate it.

There is a sign advising of a "rough road" that comes at the end of the rough section. In fairness, cars don't feel the rough surface that we just rode over, but the dips coming up make motorhomes and vehicles pulling trailers bounce around violently. We bikes just roll over those whoop-di-dos.

Dave and I arrived at the Salton Sea. The others were still there topping off supplies.

Here we turned north and followed Hwy 111 near the shores of the Salton Sea, our next stop was planned for a small convenience store just under 20 miles out. As we crossed into Riverside County we began to see a lot of agriculture, in this case it was date palms and citrus. Our 6 week earlier ride was again notable, as the oranges weren't ripe.

We left the Salton Sea and arrived at our stop and resupplied from the store's shelves, as our support driver had continued on to civilization to procure some items.

At our next stop we planned to have a date shake in Indio. Off we went!

Our route followed the HI USA San Diego Christmas Bike Ride route with a few exceptions. Other than yesterday when we bypassed Warner Springs, all our other variations from the official route we in towns where we would route to our overnight lodging, and a detour to go to Shield's Date Garden. The little trip to Indio put us on some less scenic roads in some "industrial" sections. The roads were low traffic and safe, just not as pretty.

By the time I got my date shake, the others had already finished theirs and were anxious to get on the road. Dave decided he wasn't up to the speed fest anymore and opted to ride with me.

From here on into Palm Springs we were in an urban setting.

 Part of our route took us on a multi-use path to avoid a busy section of Hwy 111. Though streetview showed we could access the path, when Dave and I arrived we were blocked by a locked chainlink fence. Luckily I knew the area a bit and was able to navigate around the blockage. We had been riding for quite some time and I was leading since I knew the way. I was pedaling along about 18 mph when our riding partners came up from behind. It seems that they too had found the locked gate, and weren't so lucky in finding a way around it.

The hares, and the tortoise, rode into our Palm Springs lodging together, just as check-in time opened. We checked in, showered, made a beer run, and spent some time lounging around the pool. We walked across the street for dinner then called it a night.

It was raining and cold at home.  So far, we have had daily highs in the 80's and have not seen a single cloud. Life is good!

...............road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle........total

Today..............91...........0................0............0.............91 Jan..................93..............0...............0.........0..............93 Feb................411..............0..............0..........0.............411 March.............653.............0..............0.........0................653 April..............696..............0...............0.........0................696 May...............900...............0...............0.........0...............900

June..............484...............0..............0............0..............484

July..............1300................0...............0..........0.............1300

Aug................638.............0.................0..........0.............638

Sept...............232..............0................0...........0............232

Oct...............307...............0................0...........0............307

Nov..............374...............0................0...........0............374 Total...........5844.............0...............0..........0.............5844