We had absolutely beautiful weather on Sunday -- low 70s, breezy.
My husband and I took the tandem out first to Coulon Park. Then the question
was, how to get on the Cedar River Trail. I know there's a better way to do
it than the way I've done it before, and David allowed me to direct him
(without recriminations) to the trail. We only had to do one turn around,
and that one was because there was 4 lanes of one way traffic, and by the
time I figured we needed to take a left, there was no way to scootle across
all those lanes and make it.
The trail was lushy beautiful. I did this ride two months ago, before
everything had leafed out, and it felt a little bleak. Yesterday it was
gorgeous.
We rode down the trail almost to Maple Valley, then dismounted and hopped
through a gravel-and-cement barrier and got on a quiet country road. We
climbed up to the Lake Francis area, and did some rollers at the top. While
the immediate area of the road is not all that pretty -- there's a mining
operation which is fairly scarifying of the landscape -- if you look above
that, the views of the foothills is actually rather nice.
After riding through Hobart, David declined taking the hilly Tiger Mountain
Road, so we just bombed down the Issaquah-Hobart Road. IHR is not
necessarily your first cycling choice: motor vehicles mostly at high speeds,
limited shoulder, very curvy. But it is mostly downhill, and even with a
headwind, we were zipping along at ~35 mph. It turned out OK. The only part
that made me a bit nervous was at Poo-Poo Point. Hang gliders push off of
Poo-Poo Point and land on the grassy field below. There were several dozen
cars parked on the shoulder. I encouraged David to take the lane for this
section because the last thing I wanted was for us to get doored by someone
eager to get out of their car and look for their hang-gliding friend.
In Issaquah we rode on the strip-mall hell of Gilman Blvd, looking for
lunch. It's not a pretty picture, but the #2 lane at least is paved a little
on the wide side so the zillions of cars passing us could do so with ease.
We found a Subway. I find these dull but reliable for a cycling lunch. We
called the girls and found that they claimed to have done their chores.
We then rode the remain 10 miles home. Usually I would have taken the I-90
trail, but with the tandem, the more gradual if overall steeper climb of
Newport Way seemed to make more sense. We were on the ped overpass, over the
freeway, when I requested that my captain take it nice and slow. Maybe it's
just my fear of heights -- it isn't like you could fall off of the overpass.
His response was immediately to waggle the bike back and forth, causing me
to scream. Such a Boy thing to do.
We got home, and I did a couple of hours gardening to finish off the
afternoon. A decent Mother's Day.
--
Warm Regards,
Claire Petersky
http://www.bicyclemeditations.org/
See the books I've set free at: http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky