A Rainy, Cold Spring

May 29, 2024

Hi everyone! It’s been a while since I posted, but I think I can be forgiven since I’ve been very busy doing bike rides, planting a garden, making travel plans, and work. There sometimes just isn’t enough hours in a day!

Tour de Lopez

The weekend after Ride For Major Taylor, I drove up to Anacortes so I could ride Tour de Lopez and spend the weekend camping on the island. After parking my car and meeting up with Lee Lambert (Cascade’s executive director), we rode our bikes onto the ferry bound for Lopez Island.

The ride from the ferry to our camping location was only a few miles, so it didn’t take long to reach Lopez Farm and Cottages. Lee was “glamping” with a real bed in a walled tent. I, however, had to set up my tent. After we were situated, we rode into town to buy some things for dinner. Back at the camp, we enjoyed cheese, crackers, meats and red wine while sitting in front of the fireplace in the common outdoor kitchen. It was a lovely evening.

As I was trying to sleep that night, I couldn’t get warm and layered up, but my teeth still chattered. Then I remember…I had gotten my Covid booster earlier that day and I think I had a bit of a fever from it. I also got a massive headache that stay with me all night, having nothing to take for it.

The morning of the event ride I woke to a light rain. I had some wet weather gear with me for riding, so I wasn’t too worried. I think I still had a bit of a fever and the headache was getting worse, but I hoped I would start feeling better after some breakfast.

By the time we left to ride to the start, the rain was getting heavier. Over the next 10 miles, the rain didn’t let up and got even heavier. In spite of wearing waterproof socks, I still managed to get really wet feet. My tights weren’t waterproof, so my legs were cold. Rain was running down my visor and onto my cheeks. I was so miserable and decided to bail on the 30-mile route. I had had enough!

I rode back to the campsite and packed up my wet tent, then rode to the ferry. The next one back to the mainland wasn’t for another one and a half hours, so I found a dry spot to wait. Driving home, I cranked the heat up in my car and sent a text to Lee apologizing for bailing (and not joining him that evening at a party).

I was sad I didn’t get to spend the weekend riding the island, but I had ridden it many times, so it’s not like I missed much. I’m just too much of a fair-weather rider to punish myself more than what I did in that rain!

Tour de Cure

On May 4th, I rode Tour de Cure for the third year in a row. It’s run by the American Diabetes Association and I’m happy to raise money for it since I have type II diabetes. This year I managed to raise $1,000 and made champion status. the ADA gives away so much swag when you reach different donation levels. For starters, I got an “in training” t-shirt after I registered. Once I raised the minimum $250, I got a “red rider” jersey. Red riders are those who participate and are living with diabetes. At the $500 level, I earned a Tour de Cure jersey (yet to be shipped to me). I also received another t-shirt at the start of the event. Since I got champion status, I’ll also be shipped a cycling jacket.

To help raise money, I added bits of costume pieces every time I reached a new level. At the $250 level, I put all donors’ names on a red cape. At the $500 level, I added a red tutu. When I reached $750, I added a red tiara to my helmet. At the event, I found some red heart-shaped sunglasses and added them to my ensemble. I made quite a sight and the photographer loved taking photos of me.

Before taking off on the ride, I was asked to give a quick speech about why I was riding. I didn’t prepare anything, but said that my family has a history of diabetes and that I raise money to help with research to one day end this terrible disease.

I was going to only ride the shorter 30-mile route due to the drizzle, but at the decision point I remembered I had hand warmers in my pannier. I stuck them in my shoes and it really helped with the chill, so I pressed on for the longer route. I’m glad I did since it covered some areas where I had never ridden near Paradise Lake.

While riding the metric century route, I had people giving me a thumbs up, honking their horns (in a nice way) and one other cyclist yelled “hell yes!”

Emerald City Ride

The Emerald City Ride hadn’t been held since 2019, before covid. I was excited to get a chance to finally ride it. Plus, I had talked William into riding it…his first ever event ride!

The ride this year had the West Seattle bridge closed for two hours and we got to ride over it for the first time. I was an outrider during the ride, stopping to help fix flats and encourage other riders (there were many novice riders on this event).

William took off and didn’t tell me, so I hope he enjoyed himself. I rode with my friend, Heather.

Midway through the ride, the wind and rain picked up. Not my cup of tea, as stated before. When I finished and found William, I was so chilled that I didn’t think to stop at the various vendors for freebies…I just wanted to get home and soak in a hot tub!.

Skagit Spring Classic

The second weekend in May had me camping at Bayview State Park near Burlington. I like to arrive the night before a big event when the location is more than an hour away. My friend, Donna Hill, was also driving up and camping overnight with me. We would be riding the Skagit Spring Classic the next day.

After setting up camp and waiting for Donna to arrive, I went on a short ride to explore some of the area. I discovered the Padilla Bay Shore Trail, which is all gravel. The tide was out as I rode along it. I was the only bike, but I did see a lot of walkers. At the end of the trail, I looped back to camp by a road.

Donna didn’t have a tent, so she shared mine. It’s the first time sharing my small tent and I was surprised to be quite comfortable (this would have never happened before I lost all my weight). As I was falling asleep, I heard people in the next campsite exclaiming over the colors of the norther lights, which rarely make an appearance this far south. I didn’t want to get back up and figured I would see them when I got up to use the toilet in a couple of hours. Big mistake! They only lasted until around 11pm, so I totally missed seeing them for the first time!

The next morning, we rode from the campsite to the start of the event. It started off chilly but soon warmed to a comfortable temperature. I also met some people who knew who I was and followed me on Instagram (that’s still a surreal feeling).

About halfway through the route, Donna crashed and got bad scrapes on her right leg, hip and shoulder. Even her helmet had a dent in it! I ended up playing nurse and patched her up at the next rest stop.

At the end of the route, the club had a spaghetti feed for us. So good! Did I mention they also had homemade cookies at the rest stops?

After riding back to camp, Donna packed up to leave. I rested a couple of hours, then did another ride that included a section from the century route, bringing my total up to 90 miles for the day.

Back at camp, I thought about staying to see if the northern lights would be back, be decided I wanted my own bed. I’m glad I made that decision since the lights didn’t return.

Walla Walla Tour

A few short days later had me on the rode for a 5-hour drive to easter WA where I would be riding the 3-day Walla Walla Tour. This event is usually held in the fall, but Cascade switched it up a bit this year and I finally had a chance to participate in it.

To keep my costs down, I had arranged a stay with a host through Warm Showers. This is a group that is primarily for bike touring over multiple days (with no car), but they made an exception for me since I would be parking and riding everywhere while there.

On day one of the tour, I rode a total of 64 miles in very windy, cold weather. Some gusts of wind felt like the bike would be blown out from under me! It also had me riding into strong headwinds most of the ride. Thank goodness is wasn’t raining, too!

Our lunch stop was at a farm who made their own cheese and we were each given a large pack of it. So yummy! Better than the cold, dry sandwiches we were given…Cascade always forgets to get condiments for the sandwiches.

My host made vegan chili and homemade sourdough bread for dinner and it really hit the spot after a day of riding!

Day two had a much better ride over the first half. I had a tailwind the whole way into Waitsburg, riding with Paul Tolme and sometimes Lee and his wife.

In Waitsburg we had to wait around two hours for a parade and to get lunch at a pizza place.

The return route back to Walla Walla was brutal! We had 25mph headwinds going up a very long, steep climb!

About three miles from the finish I got a flat on my back tired, which quite the pain the ass on an ebike! Luckily it happened on a residential street so I was out of traffic. I was just putting on my handlebar jacks when Lee and his wife arrived and offered to help. My bad luck was that the spare tube was a dude and it exploded when Lee was pumping it up….scared the beejeesuz out of me! I ended up patching my original tube then riding back to a bike shop to get it replaced. Once that was done, I rode to the start, then to my host location. That’s when her husband noticed that the tire wasn’t seated properly and it was bulging. I loaded up the bike and headed back to the bike shop to make them do it right.

I only rode 53 miles that day, but was so exhausted I fell asleep by 9:30pm and didn’t even wake for the toilet!

The next morning I decided to skip the ride…I didn’t want to risk another flat with no spare tube. Instead, I took a detour home and visited Palouse Falls State Park.

Laying on my belly in the grass, several yellow-bellied marmots came really close to check me out.