Timber Land

On Monday I couldn't take it any longer — I needed to get out on my bike and ride! One big question: could I actually get to work on my bike or not?

See back in the middle of January we got a big snow storm.

Snow!

It looked real pretty at first. By the time it was done we had around 14" of snow on the ground. Then the storm turned into an ice storm that coated everything with a quarter of an inch of ice. Trees bent, bent and snapped! The sound of branches and trees breaking was constant. Some of those trees in that picture are now broken in half, most have tons of branches stripped off. Lots of damage.

So back to the biking, the roads are mostly clear by now although the branches and tree trunks still clog many of the shoulders. And I didn't know if the Parks folks had been out to clear the trail system yet. Even if they were working on it, I figured they might not have gotten finished yet.

I decided to go for it anyway and ride to work!

I left early, around 6:30 AM to give myself plenty of time in case I encountered any obstacles. It felt great to get back on the bike, riding off into the dark morning before the sun rise. My helmet headlight illuminated the road ahead. Debris from the storm littered the side of the road but since there wasn't a shoulder it was mostly off the road and didn't interfere. That lasted until I reached the Yelm-Tenino trail. As soon as I got there I encountered my first tree across my path, necessitating a stop to make my way around it.

It wasn't the first. That first stretch of trail had me questioning the wisdom of continuing. It wasn't only trees, but branches ranging from twigs to big branches several inches thick. We're talking piles and piles of branches under any tree overhanging the path. And then, of course, whole trees across the path. Some I could ride around going off the trail but others meant stopping to find a path around, over, or under!

I went down the Chehalis-Western trail and finally stopped counting trees down at two dozen. I didn't count all the rest of the debris. I could see signs that conditions had been even worse, but other trail users had dragged some material off the trail. The 29er tires helped rolling through piles of branches, or going off the trail at times.

Trees down

In some cases my only option was to carry the bike up and over trees in the path because of growth on each side of the trail.

All of this made for an interesting commute but despite the obstacle course I made fairly good time. The storm caused so much destruction, it's really too bad.

Tree Split

Whole trees that are just split apart. Some look like they got stomped on by a giant. You can look at groups of trees and see where they all got their tops broken off. It's going to be a massive effort to clean all of this up. There's already been a lot of work to get the roads somewhat clear, but it's not done yet.

Riding down Old Hwy 99 I was pleased that the shoulder was pretty much clear, giving me a good path for the last stretch to work. I felt tired after ~18 miles, but also energized by the ride.

That evening, when I headed home I just felt tired. I also discovered that the other side of Old Hwy 99 wasn't nearly as clear on my way back. Several times I encountered stretches were I had to dismount and navigate trees and massive debris piles that extended across the shoulder almost into traffic. I don't feel safe riding out in traffic at dusk and night fall when I'm dealing with lots of commuters doing 50+ MPH. The shoulder is usually fine, but in this case it made it very difficult.

Eventually I made it up to Waldrick which lacks shoulders but the speed limit is lower and the lack of shoulders meant that the road at least was clear of debris. I did get chased by dogs at one house which has been a problem before, but otherwise the cars gave me plenty of room. Unfortunately a few other things made the ride home less enjoyable.

For one thing, my batteries were getting lower and the headlight automatically switched to a lower setting that made it a harder to see. Add to that it was getting darker, it was cloudy and raining. Not the best of conditions. Plus by that point I felt pretty worn out. I haven't been riding to work enough. The stationary bike helps, but in the past couple weeks I hadn't done that much either, and even when I have ridden it I've only been doing a half-hour to forty-five minutes. It took me an hour and twenty-seven minutes to get to work. Given conditions, the trees, my fatigue and the fact that the ride home is more uphill (a little) I had figured that the ride home might take two hours.

That was pretty accurate.

So not a fast ride at all. Even as I slogged home, however, I couldn't help but enjoy parts of the ride. Riding along the trail at night is fun. I stopped at one point and listened to coyotes howling, crying, and yipping off in the darkness, a whole chorus of canine celebration. What the fallen trees added in slowing my pace, they also broke up my pace and added interest to the ride. Especially riding home when I had to stay very alert to potential obstacles.

The big question in my mind remains, how do people get in shape to do things like the Tour Divide where they're riding 150 miles each day? I was tired after my commute and it was only ~35 miles. I guess you just need to ride longer and longer, but it's hard. Hard to fit that into everything else. Riding today took over three hours. That's hard to fit in with everything else.

Exercise Bike Miles

The other day I started off to work bundled up against the cold. The sun hadn't come up yet. Everything was frosty and dark as I pedaled down the road with my light illuminating the road ahead. I felt excited about the ride but I couldn't decide which way to go. Should I head down the trail and take the old highway in to work, for 20 miles total? Or risk going the shortest route (~16 miles) which put me on a busy, narrow stretch of road with no shoulders and grumpy morning commuters?

As it turned out I didn't have to decide. Not quite three miles down the road all of a sudden I was riding on a flat back tire. It happened fast. I got off, moved off into the frozen weeds and turned over the bike to look at the wheel. After rotating the wheel a little I discovered the culprit — a nail stuck in the tire. Small, but completely embedded. I had to use my multi-tool screw driver to pry that sucker out.

Then I set about working to get the tire off so I could change the tube and continue on my way to work. I managed to get in one plastic tire lever but couldn't slide it along the wheel. I broke another trying to pry up another section of the tire. All I could think was that if this had happened out on the Tour Divide I'd be in a fix if I couldn't do something as simple as fix a flat.

In this case I took the easy out. I put the rear tire back onto the bike and walked home. I made it back in enough time to change and drive to work without really being late.

I still haven't fixed the flat! I ordered some alloy tire levers that shouldn't bend when I try to get off the tire.

In the meantime, this is what I'm riding:

Star Trac E-UBi 

It's an expensive bike machine at my gym. Lately I've been putting in more miles on it than on my bike. It has its good points. I can go to the gym and ride when time or weather considerations make riding my bike less desirable. With its hill programs it also gives me a chance to build my hill-climbing muscles. I wish it was more like riding a real bike, but it does provide a good work out at least. I'm also using the gym to build core and upper body strength.

Last year I rode and ran ~1076 miles. I feel pretty good about that total but I plan to do much more than that this year. I still have 2013 in mind for a possible Tour Divide attempt, if things come together to make it possible. There's so much that has to happen for that to work out, and my fitness is only one piece. But that's a piece that I do have control over so I'm going to train and see where I end up by the end of the year! From flats to gym miles to whatever comes next, I'll keep learning and improving!

Hilly Route

View Hilly Route in a larger map

Today I pulled out my bike and went riding under a gray flat sky. No wind, except the wind created by rolling down the road on two 29" tires. 49°F degrees. It rained yesterday, on Christmas, so the road still had a few small puddles, but the road was almost dry. I had the day off because of the holiday so it gave me the rare opportunity this time of year to ride during daylight hours!

After a short distance I got on the Yelm-Tenino trail to ride into town. My only destination on the ride was the post office, to check my box there. After recycling the ad circular I got back on the bike and headed out down the street. I took the steep road out of town. It's not a big hill, but it's a hill. There aren't a lot of options around here to find hills.

From there I pedaled down Rainier road to Military, then followed a series of roads to loop around Rainier. While I rode along I saw cows, dogs, alpacas, horses and even pigs. The back roads were sparsely traveled today so I mostly had the road to myself. One benefit with taking this route were more hills, a couple good ones but ultimately hardly more than bumps in the road compared with climbing passes for the continental divide. As my training progresses I'm going to have to ride farther afield to find some significant mountains to ride!

But for today it was fine. A nice short loop as I start getting in better shape. Bike and rider both functioned fine. I'm planning to start riding more at the gym before work, so I can get in some morning time. Hopefully by the time the days get longer and I start riding to work again I'll be in good shape for the rides. I have some new routes mapped out that I'd like to try.

Timberland Regional Library: Tumwater

Tumwater Timberland Library

Yesterday I checked another library off my list of Timberland Regional Libraries to visit on my bicycle, when I went by the Tumwater library.

In a couple weeks I'm starting a new position with the library system and will be based at the administrative service center just a short distance away from the Tumwater library. Yesterday I was working out there for training so I decided it'd be a good day to practice the commute with the added detour by the library.

It was 39°F when I left the house at sunrise. Beautiful morning with only a few clouds but cold! I'd bundled up, though, so I wasn't actually all that cold. I'm gradually getting my gear together so that I can handle any temperature. If it was colder I might want a pair of lobster claw gloves, maybe a baklava and another layer on my legs if it got really cold. I don't want to get too warm though so it's a balancing act. On this ride it worked out just about right.

I also got to test out a new app that I installed on my Optimus V phone, called MyTracks from Google. It's a GPS app that tracks your route, live speed/distance/elevation numbers (although the elevation isn't accurate). After you're done recording your route you can share it to various Google services or with friends. It worked very well at tracking my route.


View 2011-10-19 07:31 Timberland SC in a larger map

Since it exports to Google Docs you can build a spreadsheet of your rides, which will be nice as I add mileage and track my progress.

After work I headed home without the added detour. It was much warmer on the way home so I was down to my shorts once again. I started the day riding at sunrise and finished the day riding at sunset. Not too bad!

Only one Thurston county library remains: Olympia!

Tenino Old Oregon Trail Marker

Old Oregon Trail Marker

On Friday I decided to take the long way to work, which brought me into town via the main highway / Sussex where I stopped to take a picture of this marker. I've known about it and I've even ridden by it but hadn't stopped to take a picture until now.

I found an article about this marker in an article about the Seattle to Portland ride, which points out that this was the first marker laid by Ezra Meeker. That's the cool thing about taking a minute to look at markers like this, they remind us of history. Most of the time when I've gone past this marker I didn't stop, didn't really think about it much. It becomes an invisible piece of the landscape. But on the bike you have more of an opportunity to just stop and think about what is around you. In this case, a chance to stop and look at the marker, and then think about it and read a little about the history of it, coming away feeling a bit more connected to the history of this place.

It prompted me to download The Ox Team by Ezra Meeker, which looks very interesting to read, from Google Books.

I didn't set out on the ride with the goal of riding past the marker, but I did think about it before I left. My main objective for taking the long way was to get in more mileage and hills. My route took me down the Chehalis-Western trail to Waldrick, on over to old highway 99 and then up over "Chain Hill".

Coming up on Chain Hill

Chain Hill isn't a big hill. It's about 300' of climbing over a fairly short distance, but it isn't too bad. It's just one of the bigger hills around this fairly flat area. There are bigger hills, but I'll have to go off the paved roads to find them. This route is pretty much my new commute, except with the new route I'll turn right off Waldrick instead of left. Either way ends up being about 17 miles, a little farther for the new commute. And of course with the new commute I've  got ~17.5 miles to ride to get home. On this ride I took the Yelm-Tenino trail home, so my final distance was about 7 or 8 miles less. Still, it was good practice and fun!

Fall is Here

Fall Trail

The rain let up today, the temperature wasn't that cold, so it turned out to be a nice morning for a commute. With all the rain and storms we've had recently there's a lot of Douglas fir needles, branches and leaves down on the trail. It felt great getting out and riding to work.

Tree Down

Near the lake there was a tree down across the trail (sorry for the blurry picture). I'd was able to go around the tree without any problem. It looked like the Parks folks had been cleaning up this portion of the trail and I think the tree fell when other brush was removed. By the time I came back in the afternoon the tree was already cleaned up and gone.

I'm trying to get out more, build up more mileage but I feel like I'm making slow progress. I need to get out riding more days than I've been doing and I want to build up more distance. This weekend I'm thinking of doing another library ride and head down to Olympia, but we'll see.

Timberland Regional Library: Lacey

Lacey Timberland Library

Today I got to check another library off my list of libraries to visit on my bike. I had a meeting nearby so I left with enough time to pay a visit to the library where I worked for fifteen years! It's funny the things you notice when you've been away from a place. The tree behind the sign has grown much taller, and the sign itself, something that I'd pushed to get added, has recently been repainted and touched up. It looks good!

I gave myself plenty of time to get there so I didn't have to push too hard before the meeting. It's dark this time of the year, but the sun was just starting to come up as I climbed the hill to leave Rainier.

The picture doesn't do it justice, but Mt. Rainier looked awesome

Since I had a meeting I had my clothes in the handlebar bag, I just changed when I got there. The ride to the library I took Rainier road down to where the Chehalis-Western trail joins it just at the border of Lacey. I got on the trail at that point and took it on into Lacey.

The small section of the trail that's unpaved

I turned at the junction with the Woodland trail. The last time I was here the Woodland trail wasn't complete, this section was nothing but gravel.

New, Improved Woodland Trail

After a very good day of training for all staff working in the libraries I changed back into my bike clothes and headed right back out, crossing the street to rejoin the Woodland Trail and head home.

Woodland Trail, Along Pacific

It's great that we have such fantastic trails around here, but as I mentioned in my last post, there are reasons to take to the roads too. I rode the trails through the main part of Lacey, but then took Rainier road back home. It does mean riding next to traffic doing 50 MPH, but there's a generous shoulder. There are more hills, but the main reason that I went that way today was because sticking to the Chehalis-Western trail would have added several miles each way to my ride. I ended up with ~32.5 miles round-trip as it was, and that's enough for today. All things considered I feel pretty good, but I can also feel that I worked my legs today! I might take tomorrow as a rest day.