Day 23 of #ridingeverydayinNovember

Today was the 23rd day of the #ridingeverydayinNovember challenge.  The forecast for today called for rain.  It might rain yet today, in fact, it probably will, but the challenge for me today was the cold and wind. It was in the low 40's as pedaled out.  In the first mile I came to a viewpoint overlooking downtown Seattle.

Just a short distance away I got this look across to the Duwamish River.

I couldn't see any impending rain showers so I zig zagged my way down the west side of Queen Ann.  It was a challenging descent on the fixed gear bike, gradient to 21% and cobble stone streets. I survived but resorted to using the brakes.  Once at the bottom of the hill, I crossed over the numerous Interbay railroad tracks via the Dravus St overpass.  I continued along the waterfront at Pier 91.  The wind was making work of this in this exposed section.

I went through Centenial Park and continued through the construction mess along Alaskan Way.  I kept looking at the steep streets to my left (water to my right!) and when the hills relented a bit, I turned eastward on Washington St.  I rode uphill on the Second Ave Cycletrack of Death.  It wasn't so bad as I rode slowly on the fixed gear bike up hill, but I did notice that most coming down the hill were playing it smart, and riding vehicularly in the lane, rather than in this crazy piece of bicycling infrastructure. The cycletrack was full of construction incursions, debris, pedestrians, mis-parked vehicles, and wandering homeless.  I used the slow pace to take in the sights of a big city.

I managed to go right by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Mr Gates was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom yesterday.

                                

I made a few course corrections and rode back up Queen Ann via Taylor St.  The long 7-8% climb was pretty much my maximum sustained effort today.

It was a good ride (I stayed dry!)

.........Road Bike.....Rollers.............MTB..........Lifecycle......Total
Today ........12................0..................0.......................0..........12
Jan...............0................0...................0.......................0............0
Feb..........124...............0...................0.......................0...........124
March......277................0..................0........................0..........277
April......559................0..................0........................0..........559
May.........414...............0..................0.......................0...........414
June........337...............0..................0.......................0...........337
July........310...............0..................0.......................0...........310
August.......40.............0....................0......................0............40
Sept..........100..............0...................83......................0...........100
Oct.............29...............0....................0......................0............29
Nov............422..............0......................0......................0...........422
YTD...... 2589.............0...................83.......................0..........2722