Ride Report Flying Wheels 2006
Summary:
Bike: our Erickson tandem
Weather: mid to upper 60s; light winds from the SSW; overcast in the
morning, partial clearing in the afternoon;
Total miles: 70.3; includes the ride to the ride and also home again
Average speed: on-bike, 15 mph; total trip time, 6.5 hours.
Unofficial map of the route: http://www.wayfaring.com/maps/show/17392; we
did not do the loop up to Snohomish and Monroe
Elevation profile: for entire event, here:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/invitation/accept.mb?senderPk.pkValue=-2&unitSystemPkValue=2&episodePk.pkValue=166207;
again, we did the 70 mile loop, so there's a section between mile 36 and 66
that we did not do in the above profile.
Event info here: http://www.cascade.org/EandR/flying/index.cfm
Ride details:
Flying Wheels is often touted as a Seattle-to-Portland (STP) warm-up ride.
But unlike STP, you don't have to wake up before the crack of dawn. We live
four downhill miles to the start line for Flying Wheels, so we don't even
have to drive (and thus cope with parking and unloading bikes), making it
even easier. We tootled to the start, picked up a map and cue sheet. Then we
made a brief stop at a nearby Subway, picking up sandwiches for the road,
and finally felt like we were really on our way.
The first major hill is up Inglewood, which has a 12% grade for about half a
mile. David had not quite anticipated it, and we didn't get it into the
granny gear in time. We had to pull over the tandem, dismount, manually
shift gears by pulling up the chain and dropping it on the granny by hand.
Once accomplished, we were able to grind it up the hill, past other slower
cyclists, and those walking their bikes up the steep slope. Coming off the
plateau on the other side, it's an 18% grade for a half mile, and I was
muttering "feather...feather...feather..." to my captain, as it is very
curvy and you can't see what's coming up ahead. It's good that David was
taking it easy, because there was an accident around one bend, with at least
cyclist down and her head bleeding profusely. It would have compounded the
injuries if we had struck one of the bikes that were down or those who had
gathered to render aid.
After an easier, steady climb up Ames Lake Road, we had a really fun descent
into the Snoqualmie River valley. We passed many other cyclists as we took
the center of the road. It's really nice to have traffic watching duties
split into two, with David paying attention to what's ahead, and me looking
behind. We took a brief snack stop at the first rest stop at the Vincent
Community Center, and continued on.
Up the next major hill, at Stillwater, David got into the granny in time. It
was work, but not painful. Because of construction, we were diverted from
the usual Cherry Valley Road to Big Rock Road, which was supposed to also
shave about 5 miles off of the route.
Big Rock had a long descent into the town of Duvall. We just got on the main
Duvall road, when we were diverted back up the hill for another accident,
this one involving only motor vehicles: a logging truck, a camper, and
spilled gasoline. We initially tried to ride up this side street, but it was
simply too steep for the tandem. We finally dismounted, walked the bike for
a bit, and when it leveled out, got back on again. At this point, there were
no Dan Henrys or ride personnel to point the way, so we forged our own
route, and finally ended up on Cherry Valley road past the construction
point. I thought that we'd eat lunch in town, originally, but rather than do
extra miles and confront whatever traffic was messed up from the accident, I
suggested that we just move on to the water stop. We took a break there,
mainly to use the honey buckets. Then, we whipped across the valley floor
back to the Vincent Food Stop, where we ate our Subway sandwiches and
supplimented with the food provided.
While riding through the town of Carnation, I had someone grab our wheel and
started making wise cracks. Only after he started to pass us, did I realize
the cyclist was my co-worker Steve. He was pulling an enormous train of
bikes. I can see why -- Steve is a very strong rider. I know he was doing
the 100 mile route. He probably got a motley assemblage of folks on his
wheel along the way.
Before the final major climb of the day, David and I stopped for gus and
water. Thus fortified, we made it up the Issaquah-Fall City Road. This road
has some steep sections, especially for as late in the ride that it comes.
But it also is a series of stair steps, with a false summit near the top,
and then a final climb to the top. After this climb, we made a brief stop at
the final food stop. Then David took us down the big hill back down to Lake
Sammamish. At this point, we diverted from the official course, and instead
of heading north, up the east side of the lake, we went a bit south, around
the bottom, and then headed north up the west side of the lake.
Our final climb was from the lake up to our home. David always likes to pour
it on in during the last miles of a ride; I told him to cut it out a few
blocks from the house so I could have a little bit of a cool-down before
hitting our driveway.
--
Warm Regards,
Claire Petersky
http://www.bicyclemeditations.org/
See the books I've set free at: http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky