Friend Julie and I rode about 23 miles to the ride. It was a nice morning for a ride along the Burke-Gilman Trail. Here we are near Logboom Park.
We turned onto the Sammamish River Trail and continued our way around the north end of Lake Washington.
We arrived at Red Hook Brewery, the sponsor of Haul Ash, and the starting location with about 30 minutes to spare.
We were meeting several other friends.
Craig showed up on skates. He said he got up in the morning undecided as to whether to bike the 40 miles or skate it. The skates won! He said he had never skated more than 30 miles so wasn't sure he could do it.
Craig took off a few minutes before the throng of bikes, hoping to avoid the congestion.
Before too long our little group of 4 took off, along with hundreds of others, back along the Sammamish River Trail. Julie likes to ride her bike. She enjoys the social aspects of the ride as where I like the social aspects of the after ride party. Today we rode her pace.
She says "I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I AM the brightest bulb in the chandelier", and she was doing her best to live up to the last half of that statement today. Multi-colored dreadlocks, a necklace of "herbs", flowers all around her helmet, and topped off with a canary standing on the edge of a nest. On her posterior was a sign "I'm Riding My Ash Off".
Me? I just pedaled along and smiled at all the comments she got.
About 7 miles into the ride we reached a rest stop.
There was water and a nice assortment of rider kibble. After a bit of time there, we continued on. We reached the Burke-Gilman Trail and took it to Fremont where we exited the trail and rode the last 3 blocks to the LTD Brewery, our turnaround point today.
There wasn't much there, what action was going on was in the brewery and it was way too crowded to be enjoyable. We milled around in the parking lot, and soon ran into Craig. He had skated the full 20 miles, and now barring a phone call, would be skating the full 40 miles!
Our little entourage munched on snacks we were carrying and visited for a bit. We finally hopped on the bikes and started back toward Red Hook. We arrived back at the rest stop and scarfed down more goodies.
After leaving the rest stop I got hooked up with a faster group and hung with them for awhile. We pedaled along about 18-20 mph, not a bad pace considering the bike traffic on the trail.
After a bit I noticed a skater ahead of me, sure enough, it was Craig!
Looks like one has to pedal a bit to stay ahead of a guy on skates! He was skating along about 16 mph.
Craig and I rolled into Red Hook within minutes of each other, my other riding buddies were not too far behind. For most, this was the post ride party. Live music, two complimentary beers, barbecue, fun and games. For Julie and I, this was just an extended rest stop, for we had to ride back to Queen Ann yet, but not before enjoying the party for several hours.
It was time to continue pedaling and make our way back to Queen Ann. There was some discussion among our group on how Julie would do. She and I would end up with over 80 miles, and would end the day with a 500 ft in 3 mile climb. It was a far longer ride than she normally does. I guessed it about right, she did fine for the first 12 miles or so, then the fun drained away. She struggled the last few miles to Fremont, then really struggled riding the hill. ....but she finished.
It was a good day. While not sunny, we didn't get any rain while riding. There was one good rain shower while we were at the Red Hook party, but we were under cover so no biggy.
Today.................87...........0..............0..........0..............87 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...............694...............0...............0.........0.............694 Total...........2550.............0...............0..........0.............2550
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