Day 25 of #ridingeverydayinNovember

Today was the 25th day of the #ridingeverydayinNovember challenge, and what a beautiful day it was! My friend Julie has not been on a bike since mid October and has been indicating that she'd like to ride to Alki Beach for well over a week.  With the unexpected blue sky this morning, it was time for the rubber to meet the road.  She was a bit slow in getting going, but once out there she did surprisingly well.

We started from Pier 91, saving a few miles, and some elevation gain.  A few days ago I rode along Pier 91.

The weather was nicer today, and the water smoother.

Julie and I continued our way along Elliot Bay which meant navigating through the construction on Alaskan Way.  Julie is a trooper when it comes to vehicular cycling.  We took the center of the right lane, and when it narrowed to just one lane, we took the center of that lane as well.  There was no room to "share" the lane.  For us, share meant first come first served.  We were pedaling near the speed of traffic, and in this case, we were the traffic.  The few cars that followed were patient and understanding.

Having safely passed through those few blocks, we accessed the multi-use path.  We worked our way around the south end of Elliot Bay, finally stopping at the Duwamish River (aka Duwamish Waterway) to take a photo and watch some sea lions frolicking.

We continued over the West Seattle low bridge.  Julie was concerned about being able to pedal up the bridge's gradient, a "gnarly" 6%! ;-)  She made it just fine.   We continued along the water's edge, pulling into Jack Block Park to take in the best view of Seattle.

While there we were entertained by a half dozen sea lions catching fish.  We also noted a juvenile Harbor Seal hauled out on the rocks just below us.

After spending some time watching wildlife, we continued on around Alki Point.

We turned back northward and as we rode along Alki Ave we  could see that the recent rains had fallen as snow in the 7000-8000 ft Olympic Mountains.

As we rode through Myrtle Edwards Park we saw a pair of Bald Eagles sitting in a tree.

In addition to the wildlife, we found a woman's wallet and a 500 watt inverter.  We sleuthed down the wallet's owner with a Facebook search and a 15 mile drive.  The inverter had an easier disposition.

It was a nice day for a bike ride, and nice that Julie could join in, for what she called her "#ridingmyonlydayinNovember" ride.  ;-)

.........Road Bike.....Rollers.............MTB..........Lifecycle......Total
Today ........24................0..................0.......................0..........24
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............458..............0......................0......................0...........458
YTD...... 2625.............0...................83.......................0..........2758