northbend 

I am blessed to live right next to the Snoqualmie Valley Trail (SVT). Out my door and down the street a few blocks, cut thru a catch trail on a vacant lot and I am on the SVT. Turn right as I did the other day and you can ride all the way up n over Snoqualmie Pass into Eastern Washington - go as far as your legs will take you :-)

Today, I turned Left and rode the SVT North to the town of Carnation where I veered off the trail to follow some gravel roads up n over Tolt Highlands to Lake Joy, N.E. of the town of Duvall.
I rode into Duvall and got back on the SVT for the return home to North Bend. In all, about 60 miles, mostly gravel. Finding that cool route to Lake Joy was a real treat and a far safer and better way to access the Cherry Valley Road. One snapshot of the bike taken on the SVT near Carnation:

BGnorthonSVT by NBend, on Flickr

Slightspeed

Sunday in Pasadena.


Labor Day Vintage ride on the Super Course.


Labor Day show and swap at Bill's Bike Shop in Camarillo, CA.


Today's ride up the coast from Ventura.


Heading home on the Ventura bike path.

Busy weekend.
44 miles today, up the coast from Ventura. Nice cool day, my longest ride on the Peugeot since CL acquisition a couple of weeks ago. Also did the Pasadena Vintage ride Sunday, 28 miles. Labor Day, 27 miles on PCH by Magu Rock. Labor Day was the vintage ride, and swap meet from Bill's Bike Shop in Camarillo. Good times!

gugie 

Glad to hear about it! I just talked to Dave last night and was wondering if you'd make it or not.

edit: So looks like 11 are going, organized or not?

gugie 

Labor Day I got in 31 miles. Found a tricycle out on the ride, took a pic.


bicycle, meet tricycle

thinktubes 

Mr_Asifi 

Cl904

Ballenxj

Good one!

thinktubes 

Yeah - where's the damn "like" button?

Wildwood 

noglider 

I'd love to skip food and do something fun, but with my metabolism, I eat four meals a day, and I can't skip one.

Cl904

noglider 

@Cl904, I invite you to put your location in your profile.

Cl904

noglider 

Looks like a nice day, @Cl904.

It's hard to update your profile, even in the computer version of the site. [grumble]

I used to be a beach person. Now I'm a mountains person. I have tons of fond beach memories.

Cl904

Andy_K 

I got in some great rides in the Seattle area this week. I try to get up there whenever the Orioles are in town to see my team (such as it is). This year @Dfrost kindly offered to host my visit and organized some fun outings with other NW Washington C&Vers.

On Monday, Dfrost, @RiddleOfSteel, and I met @DrilliumDude and @tricky at the ferry for a cruise over to the Kitsap peninsula and an out-and-back ride to Port Orchard. The next day Dfrost, RiddleOfSteel, and I hopped the ferry to Bainbridge Island where we met @Lascauxcaveman for a ride to Poulsbo and back before a visit to Bike Works. Of course both evenings ended with a trip to Safeco Field.

I don't have any pictures from the ride, but here are a few bike pics from the Monday ferry ride.

David's Miyata


My Sequoia


Jeff's "naked" Casati


Dan's Paramount


Michael's Raleigh


David picked some good seats for the baseball games. This was Monday's view, and Tuesday's was actually a bit better in the front row of the upper deck near home plate.


Does Safeco Field always have a picture of Brooks Robinson or do they put that up just for me?

noglider 

I'm really envious of you folks in Oregon and Washington.

RiddleOfSteel

It was a really fun time biking and enjoying the tremendous quality of others! The totals after both days was 97 miles and 6500-6600 ft in elevation gain. The triples came in handy. Maybe it was fortuitous that I, in all my genius, realized halfway through Monday's ride that I had forgotten the key to my 3.5 lb Abus lock (strapped to the handlebars), which meant we couldn't wade through the masses on Alki Beach before the game (we had to go back to @Dfrost's home to pick up a different lock...and key).

Looks like the weather is not so fun in your area right now @noglider . Looking at the temperature spread (H/L) and it is tight! The lack of humidity helps us. Next week looks rainy, so it seems we are easing into autumn now. A few more nice days the rest of this week. Glad I just fendered up that very Paramount in the photo above!

noglider 

@RiddleOfSteel, the fact is we have a pretty lousy climate. It's very often too hot or cold or wet or humid. Our best weather is normally in September and the first half of October, and by then the days are fairly short.

And your terrain is spectacular. A lot of people enjoy riding in New York City, but I merely tolerate it. Lucky we have a weekend place upstate where the roads are gorgeous and drivers are gentle. But the climate...

I shouldn't complain. I have it so much better than many other people! First, in the city, cycling culture has grown a lot and is still growing very fast. Cyclists are not weirdos here any more. And as I mentioned, the riding upstate has some of the best scenery anywhere.

RiddleOfSteel

@noglider , I've heard that the "shoulder seasons" in places like the Midwest or east are often better than their summer and winter counterparts. October in Kansas City is a time with incredibly crisp air and nice temperatures. I have long thought that Seattle's location, surrounded by large bodies of water, is a mitigating factor in temperature extremes, and perhaps temperatures in general. Apart from one "immensely inconvenienced driver" on Monday (constant horn from his dark green late model crew cab Toyota Tacoma as he passed all five of us), the drivers and the space in the areas outside of Seattle were gracious. I am always quick and happy to wave in thanks and appreciation of their consideration.

When we went to Bike Works from the ferry docks on Tuesday (a five mile trip one way) there were a couple harmless clueless (annoying) drivers, but by and large it's just busy city riding with all the needed aggression to be aware, make confident moves, and do all this usually going uphill. We were well over 30 miles at this point, and I was lead, which is always stressful as I was responsible for the direction and general well-being of three other riders who aren't familiar with the ferry-to-Bike-Works route. The hills sucked, even if I had plenty of energy because we were now in an area that required razor sharp observation, reaction, and action (and I had finally recovered from a big lunch, and traffic had sufficiently annoyed me). Why do I have low gearing and high gearing on the same race bike with killer brakes and responsive handling, aided by light components and tires? Because of city commuting. The Paramount is very much set up for this. Perfectly fine at all speeds in the countryside, but turn up the heat and she's ready to tackle the cut-and-thrust of urban chaos. 28-32T low and a 53-11T high, vice-like Kool-Stop-equipped dual pivot brakes, good wheels and tires. Only ceding ground to my faster bikes as they are several pounds lighter with tighter geometry.

Glad that cycling in NYC is a lot better now than before. Calmer areas often breed calmer drivers, save for the ego-tripping ones that want to "really show a cyclist who's boss."

On Tuesday we stopped off at the Slippery Pig Brewery in Poulsbo. Fantastic IPA and Reuben sandwich! Many of their beers are not lightweight ABV affairs (think 7%+ on average or more), but I was up for it. I need to go there again!

Andy_K 

The Slippery Pig was definitely a highlight. Poulsbo seemed like a pretty neat town in general, but the lunch stop was nearly perfect -- worthy of being a destination in its own right.

RiddleOfSteel

I concur. I even told my manager about it (beer industry and all). He replied in the affirmative. I need to do some more "research" there, and see what their other beers are about....and maybe say hi to the woman my age there (who was with her parents it looked like), if she's there again...

Spaghetti Legs 

Today I tried to beat the heat and drove up to the Blue Ridge Parkway and rode north for 10 miles then riding back along the Parkway and few miles north along Skyline Drive / Shenandoah National Park. I cut the ride a little shorter than originally planned because I left all my carefully prepared Gatorade and water bottles sitting in the freezer at home and made do with a few bottles of water I picked up along the way. Despite being 10 degrees cooler up on the mountain, still pretty hot and muggy out.

Looks like a good time up in Seattle - love that place! Last time I saw a baseball game there was in the King Dome and Ken Griffey played for the Mariners.



Southern turnaround and Cima Coppi of today's ride.


Start and Finish at Rockfish Gap


Northern turnaround just past Beagle Gap

scratchpaddy

Beautiful view, Spaghetti Legs. Looks like an exciting ride. Is it a trick of the light, or are your tires actually blue?? That is one color-coordinated bike!