Vermont Biking Middlebury Mt & Texas Falls

Below are pictures from my bike ride in the Rochester / Hancock area of central Vermont. The ride was up Middlebury Mt and then a trail in the Texas Falls area. Roughly 27 miles of road riding and 2 miles of trail. I'll let the pictures do the talking and just a few commentary in the hovertext of the images.

Vermont Home

Below are pictures taken from my family's house in Rochester Vermont.
Lower field



Mt Cushman


Barn


Upper Field

Speedy

Esmeralda ride

This Saturday, Ellen led a ride at Esmeralda. The weather was perfect, a bit overcast was nice because it kept us cool on the tough climbs. I really enjoyed riding with Ellen, Ethan, and Ken, everybody was in great spirits and having fun. Below are a few of my favorite shots from our ride on Saturday.

After the climb, we had lunch on the top, then descended some loose rocky switchbacks which were very fun. We then climbed up the jeep road from hell up to Gallagher lake. The thrill ride then began with a long fast descent back to the trailhead.

Ken M. on the switchbacks.


Ethan on the switchbacks


Ellen on the switchbacks


Ken M. at the creek crossing



Ethan tempting fate at the creek crossing


Ellen at the creek crossing.


More pictures posted by Ethan are at http://www.flickr.com/photos/-ethan-/sets/72157606659677193/

Thanks everybody for making it fun!

Mt St Helens - Friends of Forest Work Party

I worked on another trailwork party with the Mount Saint Helens Institute last weekend (Aug 2&3). Details for this event were posted at BBTC . This time I had posted it a couple weeks in advance, yet I was unable to get any takers.

Mount Saint Helens - Coldwater Trail work party

On Saturday (July 12), my sister Sandi and I joined 26 other volunteers for a trail work party at Mount Saint Helens (MSH). The plan was to work entirely on the Boundary Trail starting from Johnston Ridge Observatory (JRO), which is a hiker only trail. I was motivated to do trail work here in part because it was near the Coldwater Trail, which leads up to Mount Margaret. This trail was opened up to mountain bikers in 2004 on an experimental basis - on the condition that mountain bikers maintain the trail. The word from JRO was that Coldwater Trail was in serious disrepair, a situation I wish to be part of correcting, in partnership with Mount Saint Helens Institute or other organizations working on behalf of trails at MSH.

Once we finished morning registration / check-in at the JRO parking lot, we were lucky enough that so many people had registered for the work party that we needed to split the party in two, in part to be more manageable, so we were given the option to work on the Coldwater Trail or the Boundary Trail. Sandi and I jumped at the chance to work on Coldwater because we knew we would be hiking Boundary Trail the next day. Hailey and August led the work party at Boundary Trail for half the group, Bob and Adam led the work party for the other half at Coldwater.

In all, around 28 volunteers plus MSHI staff were working on the trails. It seemed a lot of people were from Portland, but quite a few people had travelled from the Seattle area as well. I thought Sandi would get the award for most effort to get there, as she is from Eugene, however one of the rangers, Hazel, had come from Southern England to get a tourist visa so she could volunteer for three months at MSHI. Also impressive, a family living in Portland borrowed a car so they could make the trip to the work party, and a couple moved from Florida just 6 weeks prior chose to donate their time.

At Coldwater, the first mile and a half were in great shape due to a recent work party whereby MSHI partnered with WTA. After hiking in, our group cleared a couple miles further from overgrowth. This is in preparation for the next MSHI work party at Coldwater Trail on August 2 and 3, which will work on the tread surface primarily. Most people operated loppers to clip brush up to an inch thick. I started with a bow saw for bigger stuff, later traded tools to use a pulaski. Due to the nature of the growth being fairly new (guess why?), the most efficient tool for overgrowth was loppers. For people intending to bike this trail, I suggest you bring a small handheld set of clippers for the trail past where we finished. A little bit of effort would really go a long way to influence continued access to this trail for mountain bikers.

At the Boundary Trail, they split the group, which was OK because they had two leaders. One group filled an eroded part of the trail that was reported to be extremely hazardous scramble. The rest worked on the trail tread.

At the end of the day, we had a barbeque pot luck at the camp site. This camp site was special because it was near Coldwater, which gave us a great view of the volcano. Nothing beats waking up having slept in a field overlooking Mount Saint Helens!

The next day, Pat Pringle gave us a guided hike at the Boundary Trail to a point overlooking Spirit Lake, Windy Ridge, Mt Adams, and of course Mt St Helens. Pat is a professor of geology, and an author of the geology at Mt St Helens. Pat had a great sense of humor and knowledge of the area, which made for a unique and fun experience.




















While having lunch overlooking Mt Adams, a forest fire broke out. Fortunately it was far away.

Special thanks to all the staff at MSHI.

Mt Adams Fire on July 12

I was hiking the Boundary Trail on Mt St Helens with my sister Sandi and the Mt St Helens Institute on July 12. We were having lunch while overlooking Spirit Lake and Windy Ridge and Mt Adams shortly before and during the beginning of a forest fire.

The first two pictures were during the hike, the last couple pictures were taken from Johnston Ridge Observatory after we returned from the hike.

11:11 AM before the fire


11:25 AM fire just starting


1:07 PM from Johnston Ridge Observatory


1:08 PM


1:19 PM

Rattlesnake mountain

The shortest route to the radio tower is this:

• Go past the gate at the fireroad which is on the east side of hwy 18 just south of I-90
  


• Climb, take obvious main roads, go thru any gate or road closed sign
  


• Cross a creek which should be the road (major washout)
  


• Continue climbing, till you see a 3 1/2 mile yellow sign marker on the left at an intersection. Going left is way fun, but will dead end before you get to the tower. Instead, keep going straight.
  


• Eventually, you hit another road, CB12. Take the high road on the left to continue climbing, not sure where the low road on the right goes to.



• Soon, you will see a white sign on the left that says "RS-100". Go thru the gate and start climbing. Soon, this will turn into CB15. Keep climbing for, guessing, 3 more miles.



• Note, I turned around when I hit snow on the road, but was so close to the towers that I should have been able to just push on. The snow was not that bad. That being said, I cannot confirm that this will end at the radio towers, but I saw them very near by.

This bike loves snow.

Commute Snoqualmie Ridge to Issaquah

I resolved this year to examine alternative commute options so as to be more friendly to the environment, and to get in better shape by changing habits. This blog posting will be updated and re-posted as I find and retune some of the commute options. Some of the options are obviously problematic, but posting them all so that I can compare. To make this generic to people on Snoqualmie Ridge, I am using the Starbucks as a relative starting point.

All directions are sketchy, be advised, because this page is currently in draft form.

Ideally, this should be a static page, but I don't know how to do that in a blog, suggestions welcome.

Bus and Shuttle
Call the SVT shuttle bus, 425-888-7001, and arrange for a pickup anytime after 6AM. This should take me to a bus stop for which my end goal is routes 200, 216, or 217.


Car - standard commute
Drive down the parkway, take I-90 East to Exit 17, go to Microsoft by Lake Sammamish.
Time: 18 minutes.
Cost: 22 miles round trip, roughly 1 gallon gas, $3/day
Alternatives: carpool with coworkers (names not given as this is public post).

Hike and Bus via Fall City
Follow Douglas, go left onto Carmichael Street by Azalea Park, go right onto Sorenson street. Go thru barricade (cars blocked), go down Lk Alice Road. At bottom of road, there is a bus stop for buses #209, 214 at the intersection of Lk Alice Road and Preston-Fall City Road. Take bus which will get you all the way to Microsoft.
Time: 1 hour hike to bus, 1 hr and 15 minutes hike from bus to home.
Departure Leave at 7:15 AM from home in order to catch the 8:33 AM 209 bus with 15 minutes to spare, which should dump me in Issaquah around 9 AM. Plan on possible walking time, extra half hour, from there to work. First time, leave at 5:45 AM to catch the 7:04 AM 214 bus.
Reference: Route 209. Route 214. The bus stop I mentioned is "SE 42nd Pl & 334th Pl SE" in the timetables.
Cost: Bus fare, which is free for me
Alternatives: Bike and lock up bike at trailhead of Preston-Snoqualmie Trail, then walk remaining 15 minutes from that trailhead to bus stop. Another alternative is to bike down Deep Creek, which is accessible just off of Azalea Park. Advantage of Deep Creek trail is that you skip Lk Alice Road which is dangerous due to winding road, traffic, and no shoulder. Disadvantage of Deep Creek is that it is muddy and possible cougars to make you feel unsafe especially if alone and/or dark.
Notes: Carry dry work clothes, but since it is mostly downhill to work, hiking clothes should be dry enough to use for the return. However, return may be a bit colder, so bring a little extra for the return. Bring LED light and blinky light because Lk Alice is scary to hike on, especially at night.

Bike via Preston
Follow Douglas to Azalea Park. Ride down Deep Creek. At Preston-Snoqualmie trail, go left towards Preston. Follow to High Point Way, which is just off of exit#20 on the North side. Take dirt road / trail towards Grand Ridge. Fun way is to go up the Grand Ridge trail, easy way is to keep following flat trail till Sunset way, take a right, and then follow E. Lk Sammamish Way to Microsoft
Time: 1 hr 15 minutes (estimate)
Cost: $0.
Alternatives: Skip Deep Creek and go down Lk Alice road to save time and if muddy or night time (not that busy road is any safer at night than a cougar infested trail). For great hill climbing and singletrack, head up Grand Ridge trail and down Issaquah Highlands. For extra distance yet fairly flat, follow powerline trail from Tiger trailhead to the high school soccer fields in Issaquah, then take Front Street thru town and go to Microsoft.
Notes: This is challenging at first, but should get easier if it becomes routine. Is very fun. Plan on lots of wet clothes for both directions, may need oversized pack or panniers to carry 1 extra set of work clothes and 1 extra set of bike clothes so as to be dry on the return. Required bike light on helmet and blinky light for traffic.

Bike via Fall City
Bike to the bus stop as described earlier. Head briefly towards Fall City, then navigate back roads to a road that takes you up to Issaquah Highlands. Better directions to be posted later.
Time: 1.5 hours each way, estimated 20 miles each way. Better estimates to be provided if I do this route.
Notes: This takes more effort than the earlier posted bike ride, and has a big hill and road riding with a lot of traffic on the Plateau. I may wait until May or so before I attempt this route.

Bike via Duthie Hill & Grand Ridge
Not sure about this, but have been hearing rumors there may be a connector. This will be a hard route to be used in May or later.

Bike via West Tiger Mountain
Um, am I insane? Ask yourself that before attempting, because it adds a lot of extra mileage and hazardous Highway 18. Only do this when in great shape and warm weather, and only for return trip so that highway 18 is downhill.
From Microsoft, head towards Sunset way, but continue South on Front street. In a few miles, take a left to go steeply up a hill for (?)4 miles. Around 258th (?), take an unmarked trail on the left to connect to PooPoo Point road. Follow this back to West Tiger Trailhead. Take highway 18 down the hill, and up Snoqualmie Parkway. This route is really just tacking on unnnecessary miles for an adventure that you likely will do once a summer, if that.

Transrockies Week 12 Training

Total 6 hours

Well, the ride with Doug was encouraging, because we pushed hard for 4 hours on a beautiful day, and got some great singletrack riding in. Unfortunately, my arches are aching. It could have started from the two days of telemark skiing (flexible leather boots, lot of pressure on the arches), and especially from spin classes where you are out of the saddle most of the time.

At any rate, despite having low hours of training recently, it is time to see a podiatrist and change my style of training to be less stress on the arches. One thing that is critical is stretching the calves, as that pulls on the arches. I bought a few massage toys to do that. A few days of rest and ibuprofen are in order for next week. I bought new arch supports as well. I may stop going to spin class for a bit, and do training on home trainer and outside, where focus is on pedalling while seated, maybe that will be less strain on the calves and arches.

Mon Feb 5 1 hr
Spin class. Moderate intensity. Metatarsals were aching, somewhat of a shift to the arches to alleviate the pain. This could be the cause of perceived plantar fascitis (see sunday)
Tue Feb 6
day off.
Wed Feb 7 1 hr
Spin class. Intense, pushed hard.
Th Feb 8
day off, visited with Miguel and Charla and Jenny in Renton.
F Feb 9
day off, visitied with Chad and Armando.
Sat Feb 10 4 hours
Rode with Doug from Snoqualmie Ridge down to
Sun Feb 11 Day off.
Arches ache! I've been ignoring the pain in my feet for a few weeks, but its come to a head. Some say it is plantar fascitis, so I am stretching the calves and massaging the feet. Hoping this is a temporary thing.

Week 11 training is omitted (Mon Jan 29 - Sun Feb 4). Due to 12 hr days at work and visitor from out of state I was unable to train that week.

Southwest vacation plans

Plans are not finalized yet. I am looking for one or two riders to join me on this adventure. Contact me via email, if you do not know my email just enter a comment. Thanks.

Update: I may reverse the order of the whole trip so that the high altitude riding is at the end, in case snow needs extra time to melt.

I've been to Moab twice, so the 5 days of riding there will be the classics, in whatever order we choose on a daily basis. Options such as Poison Spider, LaSalles, Porcupine Rim, etc.

Bryce Canyon / Flagstaff / Moab / Kokopelli / Fruita

10 days of vacation time

• Fri Apr 27. Leave Seattle (after work, 6 pm drive start)
  
• Sat Apr 28. Bryce Canyon (16 hrs drive, arrive 10 AM) Red Canyon unwind
  
• Sun Apr 29. Thunder Mountain
  
• M Apr 30. Gooseberry Mesa (St George UT, 2 hours drive from Bryce)
  
• T May 1. Flagstaff, AZ (5 hrs drive time, do it after Gooseberry ride). ??? for actual ride. Thinking maybe just a hike on North Rim of Grand Canyon.
  
• W May 2. Mount Elden Loop, Flagstaff. 3-5 hr ride, expert level.
  
• Th May 3. The Peaks Loop, Flagstaff. 46 miles, all day ride. high elevation. End of day or next morning, drive to Moab (5 hrs drive).
  
• F May 4. Moab, easy spin around Slickrock trail
  
• Sat-Mon May 5-7. 3 days of Kokopelli with Doug. 1.5 hours drive for return to Moab from Fruita CO
  
• T May 8. Moab
  
• W May 9. Moab
  
• Th May 10. Moab
  
• F May 11. Moab
  
• Sat May 12. Moab. Drive back to Seattle. Start 4 pm, 16 hrs drive, home at 8 AM Sunday.
  
• Sun May 13. Back in Seattle, sleep...
  

Drive planner maps:

Snoqualmie WA to Bryce Canyon UT

Its a lot of hard riding planned, a lot of time away from work, and a lot of time with kenobonn, so don't be surprised if I want to ride with you first before we agree that we are suitable travel buddies. All I want to do is drive, sleep, ride and maybe see the grand canyon by bike or foot, so no downtime for licking your wounds from the day before, although rides can change on a daily basis at our mutual discretion.

All rides posted are tentative, so I can be flexible as to what trails to hit. My criteria is I want to do some riding in the 8-10,000 ft elevation range (Bryce area and Flagstaff), and some riding in 90+ degree heat (Moab). Note that some days can be factored in for shorter rides for recovery if needed.

The one thing that is set in stone is the days of Kokopelli with Doug. We agreed it is just the two of us doing that 3 day part of the trip, so that is a good opportunity for you to hang in Moab and do your own thing. I sorta expect others to be in the area, so you may be able to hook up with other riders.

Transrockies Week 10 Training

Total 4 hours biking and 2 days of telemark skiing.

Mon Jan 22 1 hr
Spin class. Worked hard, but a little unfocussed today. Sleep deprivation and long hours of work, I found myself drifting a bit. At least I caught myself at it, so would refocus and get back on it. Overall moderate intensity because alternating between high intensity and drifting off. I wonder what the instructor thought, it must be unusual to see someone kickin a** in the front row and other times going thru the motions.
Tue Jan 23 Day off. Date with Kristi. Wonderful girl, but did not work out, I found myself wishing I were on the bike instead of at a bar.
Wed Jan 24 1 hr
Spin class. Extremely high intensity. Wow. Lots of sprints. Lots of level 10 heavy gears. This was a great workout today.
Thu Jan 25 2 hours
Thrilla! Finally doing some outside riding.
Fri Jan 26 0 hrs
Drive to Whistler
Sat Jan 27 0 hrs (6 hrs skiing)
Telemark Ski at Whistler. Very icy.
Sun Jan 28 0 hrs (4 hrs skiing)
Telemark skiing at Blackcomb. Very icy.

Transrockies Week 9 Training

Total 4 hours

Very low on hours of training. However, quality of the training is good. This week had zero benefit for endurance, as they were only 1 hour rides, but a good benefit was speed and intensity work.

Mon Jan 15 1 hr
Spin class, worked really hard, felt great.
Tue Jan 16 day off
Very stiff today, weightlifting of Sunday finally caught up with me.
Wed Jan 17 1 hr
Spin class. Moderate intensity. Worked hard, but without heart rate monitor to guide me I did not push as hard as other days.
Thu Jan 18 1 hr
Indoor trainer. Actually enjoyed it for the first time in a long time. Just gotta deal with the vibrations, and not so bad.
Fri Jan 19 day off, worked till midnite.
Sat Jan 20 day off, drove to Eugene
Sun Jan 21 1 hr
Road ride the hills of Eugene. Felt so strong it was as if someone were pushing my bike up the hills. It was funny to see a roadie going the other direction of the loop, and later on passing him again. He gave me the funniest look as if to say "how the hell did you get there so quickly". Hey, I may have a mountain bike with 6 inch suspension and a backpack so full I look like Quasimodo, but on a good day I can go fast. Unfortunately, had to cut ride short with just one loop as I was in Eugene to visit family.

Transrockies Week 8 Training

Total 7 hours 15 minutes

Sucky weather put me indoors mostly. Getting into the groove for spin class, still hating the rollers, this time cause I moved them indoors and they vibrate too much. Tried Spinervals for the first time, makes up for the boredom of rollers. Thankfully Ethan suggested we hit some trails so I got out one day.

Mon Jan 08 1 hr
Spin class
Tue Jan 09 1 hr
Spin class
Wed Jan 10 1 hr
Spin class
Thu Jan 11 45 min
Rollers (with Spinervals!)
Fri Jan 12 30 min
Rollers
Sat Jan 13 2 hrs
Lake Sawyer with Ethan. Fun times riding over crunchy snow and first twisty singletrack in a while. Really needed the outside time...
Sun Jan 14 1 hr
15 minutes on treadmill (does not really count as exercise...), then an hour of weightlifting focussing on legs only, then 35 minutes of high speed spinning on recumbent bike trainer. Did a lot of 1 minute sprints at 120-130 rpm, final sprint was over 150 and hit a high of 162 rpm. Fun to do such a high rpm, mostly impractical for real life. Since the weightlifting was focused on legs, I'll count that as half time.

Snow day very bad for driving

I've declared winter officially over, but evidently I seem to be overruled by forces larger than me. Below is a force of nature opposed to the snow, Speedy is saying something to the effect of "WTF, stop screwing around and let me in!".
You know the expression "you can curse the darkness or light a candle"? Figuratively, I will do both. Curses cause I don't do 4+ hour bike rides in this weather, but will enjoy the snow by doing an easy bike ride around the neighborhood, just a short hour or so. I'll definitely be stoked when I go skiing soon at Alpental, and then Whistler the weekend of the 27th!
I am working from home this week, but annoyingly I wanted to run an important errand in Issaquah today. I may have to bail on the errand based on the mess you see below. Anybody want to count the cars by the side of the road? I counted 31, but two of the counts are dubious lumps of snow. Normally I would be driving past this section on my way to work. Not today...
I like these pictures, I think I captured the snowstorm from Wednesday rather nicely here. What direction is the snow flying? The original full size pics actually capture the snow flying better, but this is good enough for a web posting.


Needless to say, training this week involves using my indoor trainer with Spinervals.